Tiger Airwars

[brucek]

Four of us travelled Melbourne-Darwin-Singapore-Darwin-Melbourne in January 2008 using a Virgin Blue / Tiger Airways coughtail. FFs may be interested in the following:

• DJ was fantastic. I emailed them with our flight itinerary and even though we weren’t flying with them to Singapore they ensured that we got row 5 seating as we had only 70 minutes between our scheduled arrival in Darwin and the 45 minute closure time prior to our flight to Singapore. It appended my email to our booking so that all concerned could see it. As a result we got seating up front in the first 10 rows that cannot be seen by others when checking in on-line and we got rows 1 and 2 seating back to Melbourne. Full marks VB!
• TR are a very basic no frill carrier much like Jetstar. Don’t expect anything more than a seat.
• TR’s cabin service was OK and the meals and drinks reasonably priced.
• We payed extra and booked row 1 seating. Unless you are <5’4” tall I would recommend this. From row 2 rearwards is akin to a tin of sardines. Only 30” seat pitch!!
• We have made a decision that we would not book a flight of much more than two or so hours on a LCC unless the price differential was at least 30% as anything less than this does not, in our view, make cattle class discomfort and the cost add-ons worthwhile.
• TR’s pre take off safety briefing was a bad joke on the Singapore-Darwin leg. The Asian accent was very thick and many appeared to have difficulty understanding it. It was also very mono tone and unanimated. This is not acceptable in the 21st century. Given the seat pitch and pax density, if an emergency did occur, the safety briefing and pax comprehension of same would be vital to survival and egress from the A/C.
• Communicating with TR is difficult. It tries to stream all comms through its WWW site. This may be OK for making bookings but not if one encounters problems. The other problem is that all WWW comms seem to be handled by its Singapore based staff. This is one of my pet hates. I want to talk to someone locally who understands where I’m coming from and what I’m talking about. In TR’s case this problem appears to be being exacerbated by the Singapore Government’s long held policy to ‘speak more Mandarin’. Younger Singaporeans appear not to grasp the English language quite as well as previous generations. Before someone accuses me of being racial, I have been visiting Singapore regularly since 1975 and have Chinese God parents living there. I know the country very well and like it very much. I would very much like the chance to live and work there for a while. It’s just that I have observed the above in latter years and it appears to make communicating with organisations like TR more difficult. This phenomenon appears less so with Singaporeans older than say mid thirties.
• Through industry sources I have gained the following contact number for TR’s Darwin operations. International queries: +61 (0)8 8945 7100; and Duty Manager: +61 (0)413 888 449. I’m certain TR don’t want you to know these numbers! I got them in case our DJ flight from Melbourne was going to be late departing and I needed to call TR in Darwin and seek clemency. I’m not certain it would have done any good but I was determined to stack the odds in my favour!
• Singapore’s Changi Airport budget terminal is like TR. I.e. basic.
• TR enforces its flight closure time and excess baggage policy mercilessly. Beware: You can only purchase extra baggage capacity on-line or by telephone up to or greater than 72 hours prior to departure. This means that if you pack your bags and weigh them on the day of departure and discover you are over weight, you can either shed weight and repack or purchase extra weight at the airport at grossly inflated prices above those available on-line prior to 36 hours before your flight. This policy appears to encourage pax to take excess cabin baggage on-board. Not good passenger safety policy with all of those heavy objects in over head lockers just waiting to become projectiles in turbulence or a forced landing.
• Tr’s seat width appeared to be slightly wider that DJ’s.

 

[straitman]

Thanks brucek,

Some good information about both Virgin Blue and Tiger.

 

[Arthur Hodgson]

Communicating with TR is difficult. It tries to stream all comms through its WWW site. This may be OK for making bookings but not if one encounters problems. The other problem is that all WWW comms seem to be handled by its Singapore based staff. This is one of my pet hates. I want to talk to someone locally who understands where I’m coming from and what I’m talking about. In TR’s case this problem appears to be being exacerbated by the Singapore Government’s long held policy to ‘speak more Mandarin’. Younger Singaporeans appear not to grasp the English language quite as well as previous generations. Before someone accuses me of being racial, I have been visiting Singapore regularly since 1975 and have Chinese God parents living there. I know the country very well and like it very much. I would very much like the chance to live and work there for a while. It’s just that I have observed the above in latter years and it appears to make communicating with organisations like TR more difficult. This phenomenon appears less so with Singaporeans older than say mid thirties.

Hi Bruce,

Interesting report. I visit Singapore a dozen times a year or more and haven't observed that younger Singaporeans are less able in English. Quite to the contrary actually, as the high schools and colleges are pouring out fluent English speakers. Pretty well every educated young person in Singapore wants to work for an English-speaking multi-national company.

Perhaps you are being influenced by Tiger's flight attendants, many of whom are Indonesian or from the backwoods of Malaysia. And with your Singapore connections, you would know where most of the criminals in Singapore come from...

 

[brucek]

Hi Arthur and tnx for the response.

My view on this was influenced by my God father's sister in-law. She is a local and a senior primary school teacher in Singapore. She made the comment to me not in the context that I have used it, but in realtion to another matter we were discussing during my visit.

On the whole I agre with you. I suspect it may be less about their ability to speak English and more to do with the interpretation of the nuances of the English language. This is problem that many people have when learning a foreign langauge. Speaking it text-book fashion is one thing, using it in conversation and understanding the interpretation and coloquial meaning behind words and phrases is another.

In my God parents case they studied engineering and medicine in Australia and are very well travelled. As such they, and many others in that country, have an excellent command of conversational as well as text book English.

The point that was made to me was that since the Singapore Government enacted it's 'speak more Mandarin' policy quite some time ago, Generation Y'ers can speak English but not necesaraly have the conversational command of it that earlier generations had.

I don't want others to take what I have writen in the derogatory sense as this is not what I mean. It was purely an observation influenced by the input of a Singaporean educator and resident. Pse don't get me wrong, I love the place. Where else can you go walking at 0300 in the morning and not feel woried about being attacked from behind a bush?

 

[JohnK]

Nice report with useful information on Tiger.

DJ was fantastic. I emailed them with our flight itinerary and even though we weren’t flying with them to Singapore they ensured that we got row 5 seating as we had only 70 minutes between our scheduled arrival in Darwin and the 45 minute closure time prior to our flight to Singapore.

I don't understand why you would only leave 70 minutes for the connection in DRW from DJ to TR. Was that DJ flight your only choice? I don't think TR would have been very compassionate if the DJ flight was late arriving into DRW.

 

[imapringle]

i have just flown tger from MEL-OOL, and i dont care what all the comotion is with tiger, it was the best flight i have ever been on in my life, best crew, new plane, new seats, only 70% full, whole row to myself!, nice and quietm better than any old jetstar or virgin flight, i wont be posting my trip report on here but email your email address to

[email protected] and i will send you the trip report sometime on thursday (i still the the way back trip to go, currently in OOL!)

 

[v8Statesman]

May I enquire as to why you won't post it in a public forum?

 

[imapringle]

Lets just say that i have had some issues regarding my trip report in some previous experiences, but i am not going to bring that story up again

 

[N860CR]

It's good you had a pleasant experience on TT, however if a LCC short-haul OOL-MEL was the best flight of your life, then I'd have to guess your flying experience is fairly limited.

 

[straitman]

Lets just say that i have had some issues regarding my trip report in some previous experiences, but i am not going to bring that story up again

imapringle,

Like many others here I would happily read your trip report if posted, however I will not resort to private emailing of said report.

 

[simongr]

Lets just say that i have had some issues regarding my trip report in some previous experiences, but i am not going to bring that story up again

Umm you only have 7 posts (including 1 duplicate) and none of them were trip reports. In your first post there was a hint of trip reports to come but nothing eventuated.

Were your problems on a different board or did you post here using a different user name at some point in the past?

Given the lack of info on TT here I think a lot of people would love to see some of the reports.

 

[serfty]

... Were your problems on a different board or did you post here using a different user name at some point in the past? ...

I believe this is the situation. And not so past ...

 

[oz_mark]

I believe this is the situation. And not so past ...

Hmm,who could it be?

 

[imapringle]

Why who knows, i could be an ex-kicked out member looking out for a fresh start, anyway apart from all that, i will post my trip report for Tiger (both legs) on thursd ay

 

[JohnK]

Hmm,who could it be?

Refresh my memory! Could it possibly be a school kid who purchased cheap fares for schoolies week and TT were having issues with their air operators certificate and had something like 100 posts in a week and was then banned?

 

[simongr]

You may think that - I couldn't possibly comment.

Well I hope that this new sense of optimism infects your trip reports and perhaps some of the suggestions have been taken on board in terms of style/presentation. Life is a learning experience and everyone is entitled to a second chance as long as that chance is not wasted...

 

[brucek]

Hi JohnK

Fair question, and the short answer to a very long storey is that we couldn't get MEL-SIN-MEL (direct) seats on the dates, and for the prices, we wanted. The day we booked on-line we were observing the cheap seats vannishing before our eyes, litteraly. We were travelling with another couple, which complicated matters as well. We could get a DJ/TR combo that suited however. We earnt DJ points on the MEL-DWN-MEL legs as well.

You're probably correct in your view of how TR may have veiwed our dilema had one eventuated. In the event the DJ flight was late arriving we had several contigency plans in place such as getting our spouses to front up at the TR check-in to plead our case whilst my mate and I retrieved our baggage from the carousel, in adition to obtaining TR's Darwin contact details (which its SIN based customer service dept steadfastly refused to give us), through to asking the DJ aircrew if they would radio ahead on their company frequency to pass on a message to TR that the DJ flight was delayed in the event that it was running late.

We needed none of the above but I took the view that I would try and stack the odds in our favour as best I could by what ever means were available to us. If I had to execute any of the contingency plans we had there is a good chance that none of them may have worked. I freely acknowledge this.

This Easter we are travelling to Hawaii for a wedding. We investigated all available airfares. There was a A$200 difference between the full service QF (in a QF aircraft, not a code shared JQ plane) and the no service JQ return fares. Given that the flight time is some 11 hours each way I figured that paying an extra A$100 each way was worth it for the full service. We got the best fares through Flight Centre interestingly enough.

Despite Imapringle's enthusiasm for TR and possibly LCCs generally, I feel it's a case of you get what you pay for. LCCs have there place as do full service carriers. Having said this, I feel that if TR does not get its act together and stop leaving passengers stranded and out of pocket as a result of it cancelling flights, then it is likely to become an extinct species in this country at least. Australia has been well served by good quality airlines (Ansett, QANTAS/Australian Airlines/TAA, Jetstar (?) and Virgin Blue) for so long now that many (but not everyone) in the market will not tollerate a second class carier regardless of the price.

Nice report with useful information on Tiger.

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I don't understand why you would only leave 70 minutes for the connection in DRW from DJ to TR. Was that DJ flight your only choice? I don't think TR would have been very compassionate if the DJ flight was late arriving into DRW.

 

[JohnK]

You're probably correct in your view of how TR may have veiwed our dilema had one eventuated. In the event the DJ flight was late arriving we had several contigency plans in place such as getting our spouses to front up at the TR check-in to plead our case whilst my mate and I retrieved our baggage from the carousel, in adition to obtaining TR's Darwin contact details (which its SIN based customer service dept steadfastly refused to give us), through to asking the DJ aircrew if they would radio ahead on their company frequency to pass on a message to TR that the DJ flight was delayed in the event that it was running late.

I understand you took some risks but with a 70 minute connection DJ to TR if the DJ flight was only 30 minutes late you are well past the point of negotiating especially with checked luggage. Boarding would have commenced, if not completed, and I am almost certain that they would not have held up the flight. Think arriving late, waiting for bags on carousel, check in bags late, board late would mean that the flight would not be on time.

It is a well known fact that QF will hold up a flight knowing that there are connecting passengers arriving late from other Oneworld connections. But a LCC! I would not expect it.

Anyway glad it all worked out in the end.

 

[brucek]

Hi John

I agree with your points. It was a calculated risk that worked for us, but in reality our contingency plans may not have worked. As I have said previously, you get what you pay for.

I susspect TR will do OK in Australia (providing it does not continue its demonstrated current practice of cancelling flight adnausium and leaving pax stranded and/or out of pocket due to loss of connecting flights or accomodation).

I would prefer to pay a premium to fly QF, if most other things being equal. I think good service is worth paying for.

Cheers

 

[tigerblue]

Hey guys,

Find attached some pics I took of the Tiger terminal in Melbourne. Sorry about the quality, I took it on my mobile phone. Enjoy!