Things Virgin Australia Does & Doesn’t Do Well

[simmomelb]

hahaha yes that is annoying and they really could stay down right up until the wheel actually hit the tarmac [couldn't they?].

No, because the flight crew need to ensure all blinds are up before they need to be seated.

 

[Happy Dude]

No, because the flight crew need to ensure all blinds are up before they need to be seated.

Yes that's the procedure, and it's unrealistic to do it any other way, but if you think about the reason the blinds need to be up, it's about risks associated with landing. So, technically......

 

[Saab34]

The website is trash. Is it just me or have others had issues lately. Velocity app is on/off if it works. Was trying to select a destination this morning on a safari browser but it kept just remaining blank.

 

[Secco]

The website is trash. Is it just me or have others had issues lately. Velocity app is on/off if it works. Was trying to select a destination this morning on a safari browser but it kept just remaining blank.

It's been happening for a while, both desktop and app

 

[Saab34]

Perhaps they should use that $93m and put it back into the website. I’d say that’s money well spent!

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

The website is trash. Is it just me or have others had issues lately. Velocity app is on/off if it works. Was trying to select a destination this morning on a safari browser but it kept just remaining blank.

I've also noticed that many airport combinations are randomly not possible when searching for Velocity rewards -- situations where each airport exists in the system and populates if you put it in the "origin" field, but the other then won't show up in "destination." I've had success forcing the airport codes into the URL and being able to search and book those city pairs, but it's yet another illogical glitch.

But imo, the most irritating things about VA's website are: 1) how often it's impossible to change a booking online; and 2) the total inability to book one-way international flights into Australia.

 

[Harrison_133]

I couldn't search for flights on my phone (both app and safari) for a few weeks recently. It would get to the choose your flights page but get stuck on loading before timing out with a 'problem has repeatedly occurred.' Desktop worked just fine during that same period.

Seems to have rectified for me now. No issues currently.

 

[ramboflyer]

Don't remember seeing this before. A couple of weeks ago our Virgin 06.25 HBA - MEL flight (1st of 3 legs to TSV) was cancelled forcing us to fly out the day before - no other options. Looking at the days before and after that day (16/8) the 06.25 flight is available. What got my attention was the Velocity points needed for the next flight on 16/8. Less points for J than Y.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Don't remember seeing this before. A couple of weeks ago our Virgin 06.25 HBA - MEL flight (1st of 3 legs to TSV) was cancelled forcing us to fly out the day before - no other options. Looking at the days before and after that day (16/8) the 06.25 flight is available. What got my attention was the Velocity points needed for the next flight on 16/8. Less points for J than Y.

View attachment 515671

One of those funny times where the terrible dynamic pricing is outdone by a "classic" reward. You see this on QF sometimes where a Classic Business rewards is available but Y only has Classic Plus.

No-brainer!

 

[ChrisFlyer]

2) the total inability to book one-way international flights into Australia.

Are you trying to redeem flights, or purchase airfares, and on which route? Virgin doesn't fly to too many places overseas using their own aircraft (just tried from Queenstown, no issue), and they may not be able to sell tickets on their codeshare flights originating outside of Australia. Often the passenger needs to be flying from Australia - happens a lot with Qantas codeshares, too.

 

[Secco]

Are you trying to redeem flights, or purchase airfares, and on which route? Virgin doesn't fly to too many places overseas using their own aircraft (just tried from Queenstown, no issue), and they may not be able to sell tickets on their codeshare flights originating outside of Australia. Often the passenger needs to be flying from Australia - happens a lot with Qantas codeshares, too.

I was wanting to fly Melb - Christchurch and then Auckland to Melbourne with VA flight numbers but I could not book the Auckland to Melbourne flight on Virgin website.

I did get a work around and that was to book a multi city flight on webjet and was able to get VA flights on both legs.

 

[trisreed]

One of those funny times where the terrible dynamic pricing is outdone by a "classic" reward. You see this on QF sometimes where a Classic Business rewards is available but Y only has Classic Plus.

No-brainer!

Had the same happen but with "cash" fares - approx $650 for Economy on VA for DRW to PER vv compared to approx $600 for Business. Suffice to say the entire cabin was full and by the sounds of it, by people with similar thinking! I guess that is one thing they do well - on occasion.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Are you trying to redeem flights, or purchase airfares, and on which route? Virgin doesn't fly to too many places overseas using their own aircraft (just tried from Queenstown, no issue), and they may not be able to sell tickets on their codeshare flights originating outside of Australia. Often the passenger needs to be flying from Australia - happens a lot with Qantas codeshares, too.

The limitation I believe is only to purchase flights. And yes, that's right - VA doesn't fly many places, yet they insist you book VA flight numbers for status, but if you're trying to get back to Australia from somewhere and you need to do it as a one-way, VA's not interested. For clarity, you can't even book VA's "own" flights from Doha back to Australia as a one-way.

VA is a domestic airline pretending not to be.

 

[pauly7]

Gosh I really wish the old virgin insiders were still on this forum and could tell management to fix their priority boarding. Shambles again today out of Melbourne

 

[piec]

I did get a work around and that was to book a multi city flight on webjet and was able to get VA flights on both legs.

I booked an open-jaw to Europe on Expedia, 4 VA flights operated by Qatar.
Before doing this I called the call centre, they told me they could book it for me as well, but it was much more expensive.

 

[simmomelb]

VA doesn't fly many places, yet they insist you book VA flight numbers for status,

If you are referring to the 50% requirement on a VA "marketed" flight, it is relatively easy to get flights with VA flight numbers. You can book with any of their partners on the partner's website (or VA website), generally speaking (some caveats), as long as it's a flight also sold on the VA website, and you enter your Velocity number, most of the time you'll be fine. In other words, a flight sold as a cash fare on the VA site usually also has a VA flight number; it doesn't need to be VA metal (that's mostly irrelevant). E.g., I booked Air Canada, Sydney to Vancouver return on the Air Canada website in Economy, entered my Velocity number, and this counts as a VA marketed flight (as long as it's a fare class VA sells - e.g., don't book a cash premium economy fare - needs to be economy or business).
Note, if booking with Air New Zealand, make sure you book via the VA website only (slightly different arrangement), and it's not on a competing route with VA (Queenstown - ACCC requirement), and departing and returning to Australia flights only.
If you booked on the Qatar website to say London, all flights Australia - DOH have a VA flight number (not just wet-leased), then the second leg would still earn status but count towards the other 50%, which is still important. Not sure about others, but the 50% marketed flights requirement hasn't impacted me at all. What have others found? Genuinely interested.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

If you are referring to the 50% requirement on a VA "marketed" flight, it is relatively easy to get flights with VA flight numbers. You can book with any of their partners on the partner's website (or VA website), generally speaking (some caveats), as long as it's a flight also sold on the VA website, and you enter your Velocity number, most of the time you'll be fine. In other words, a flight sold as a cash fare on the VA site usually also has a VA flight number; it doesn't need to be VA metal (that's mostly irrelevant). E.g., I booked Air Canada, Sydney to Vancouver return on the Air Canada website in Economy, entered my Velocity number, and this counts as a VA flight (as long as it's a fare class VA sells - e.g., don't book a cash premium economy fare - needs to be economy or business).
Note, if booking with Air New Zealand, make sure you book via the VA website only (slightly different arrangement), and it's not on a competing route with VA (Queenstown - ACCC requirement), and departing and returning to Australia flights only.
If you booked on the Qatar website to say London, all flights out of Australia to DOH have a VA flight number (not just wet-leased), then the second leg would still earn status but count towards the other 50%, which is still important. Not sure about others, but the 50% marketed flights requirement hasn't impacted me at all. What have others found? Genuinely interested.

The issue I highlighted was the inability to book international inbound cash fares via VA’s website, or even multi-city tickets returning to Australia from a different city. Amateur stuff.

 

[dajop]

For clarity, you can't even book VA's "own" flights from Doha back to Australia as a one-way.

VA is a domestic airline pretending not to be.

You can book ex-DPS one way on VA’s flights. But they could easily lose business if they didn’t allow that one. I am sure people mix and match fares to/from Bali.

 

[simmomelb]

The issue I highlighted was the inability to book international inbound cash fares via VA’s website, or even multi-city tickets returning to Australia from a different city. Amateur stuff.

They do offer these originating from Bali, as they sell them in Rupiah, or Fiji, sold in Fijian Dollar, Queenstown, sold in NZD (down to tax implications in each country/complying with each country's regulations to sell fares). But yes, I agree 100%. They need to start selling flights originating in other countries via their partners on the VA site.
This hasn't personally impacted me, as I always book a return or book the return with points and pay cash on the outbound. But I can see they would lose some business operating this way (and it's annoying).

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

As a reference point: we booked VA to/from Paris earlier this year. We were lucky enough to see upgrade availability to J on the return DOH-SYD sector and I was still Plat at the time and able to upgrade from a Choice fare. However, we had to book direct to do this which meant I had to book to/from Paris instead of to Paris and back from Lyon as I had preferred. We figured it was a sacrifice worth making to get the J flight on the final sector and so took an unnecessary train trip back to CDG, but it was frustrating that we had to make that choice. In the end, the whole trip got scrapped anyway and moved to EK thanks to the war. That’s when we were introduced to VA’s policy not to refund credit card surcharges, or perhaps I’d just never paid attention as I’d never spend that much on VA in one go to rack up a fairly hefty fee.