Virgin Australia flights to Doha

[jase05]

My main trouble with QR has been them trying to make my wife and I sit next to each other by changing our pre-selected sears.!

Same
I always choose A/K and Mrs Jase B/J but they often try to put us in the middle pairings

 

[Darkpulsar]

Flew wet lease VA2 in Y Flex for the first time, points upgrade unsuccessful. I was surprised to have personal greeting and meal reorder from an FA and CSM as VA Silver. Reading online seems like it's relatively common from QR Silver, though didn't get a greeting on any of the other QR operated flights but got fast track security, priority bags, and contract lounge access at ARN.

Journey should have got me to VA Gold but I sadly missed that had 25 SCs expire a week ago so will need a status run to hit Gold...

 

[AIRwin]

Journey should have got me to VA Gold but I sadly missed that had 25 SCs expire a week ago so will need a status run to hit Gold...

VA has a sale on now

 

[MooTime]

VA has a sale on now

A VA sale only rewards you with less SC's than otherwise.

If had xx amount to spend on a 'status run' you'd just get to travel to a further destination, spending less to get to point A only provides less SCs.

 

[Rebus]

I've just boarded VA8 from DOH to MEL. The CSM has just started his spiel by welcoming Qatar Airways Privilege Club members and those of our One World Partners. Not even a mention of VA or Velocity so far. I'm VA WP and zero recognition of status. In fact my boarding pass from DUB to DOH showed my VA FF# as xx_x PT but the boarding pass for this flight merely showed the FF#.

 

[jase05]

The CSM has just started his spiel by welcoming Qatar Airways Privilege Club members and those of our One World Partners. Not even a mention of VA or Velocity so far. I'm

Have found this to be very inconsistent with QR, don’t know if it’s poor training or not but on my last 6 flights I’ve had varied greetings.

SIN-DOH, QRPC, VA, OW in that order
DOH-SHJ, QRPC, OW, VA in that order
KUL-DOH, QRPC only
DOH-CAI, QRPC and VA only
BOS-DOH, QRPC, OW, VA in that order
DOH-ADL, QROC and OW only

 

[justinbrett]

Have found this to be very inconsistent with QR, don’t know if it’s poor training or not but on my last 6 flights I’ve had varied greetings.

SIN-DOH, QRPC, VA, OW in that order
DOH-SHJ, QRPC, OW, VA in that order
KUL-DOH, QRPC only
DOH-CAI, QRPC and VA only
BOS-DOH, QRPC, OW, VA in that order
DOH-ADL, QROC and OW only

Inconsistency on QR operated flights is one thing, but welcoming oneworld pax to a VA “operated” flight is quite another!

 

[Aussie_flyer]

How are the loads on these VA flights in peoples recent experiences? In Y in particular. I know my parents flew on a very empty flight in October and they all seemed pretty empty out of BNE

 

[jase05]

Inconsistency on QR operated flights is one thing, but welcoming oneworld pax to a VA “operated” flight is quite another!

Agree it’s bizarre.
Just catering for the majority of the passengers

 

[SeaWolf]

How are the loads on these VA flights in peoples recent experiences? In Y in particular. I know my parents flew on a very empty flight in October and they all seemed pretty empty out of BNE

The most recent stats from BITRE are from September.
It's not broken down by individual city in Australia, but they show that during September Virgin had 90 flights in each direction from Australia to Qatar and the average load factor was 84.2% inbound and 80.6% outbound. (See page 14).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Any way we can view menus for the VA flights? The QR ones leave at substantially different times so may not be of much use? Unless it’s the same meals on each, just served at different times? (ie QR starts with denier then breakfast, VA is breakfast then dinner)

 

[Rebus]

Any way we can view menus for the VA flights? The QR ones leave at substantially different times so may not be of much use? Unless it’s the same meals on each, just served at different times? (ie QR starts with denier then breakfast, VA is breakfast then dinner)

VA8 is a scheduled 0150 departure from DOH. Y pax were served a typical QR dinner around 1 hour from take-off. The only noticeable difference is that the veggie option was replaced by an apple crumble. FWIW i had seafood noodles and was perfectly happy with the quality

 

[Rebus]

On the topic of food we did not receive the kids meals that we requested via the VA call centre at the time of booking and which were confirmed via MMB two days prior to travel. My wife queried this with a crew member. They told her that the kids meal issue happens a lot on these wet lease flights and that "neither systems or people talk to each other which causes a lot of problems".

On the leg from DUB - DOH we received child meals having requested them using the QR PNR on the QR website.

So far I've not seen a lot of upside of choosing this service as a VA Plat.

 

[MooTime]

On the topic of food we did not receive the kids meals that we requested via the VA call centre at the time of booking and which were confirmed via MMB two days prior to travel. My wife queried this with a crew member. They told her that the kids meal issue happens a lot on these wet lease flights and that "neither systems or people talk to each other which causes a lot of problems".

On the leg from DUB - DOH we received child meals having requested them using the QR PNR on the QR website.

So far I've not seen a lot of upside of choosing this service as a VA Plat.

I guess it's mainly the lounge access being the ace.

 

[Rebus]

I guess it's mainly the lounge access being the ace.

Yes, I suppose that's a consideration. However we had a 2 hour layover and by the time we got to the central concourse area it was only 30 minutes until we had to board VA8, so not a lot of time to enjoy it.

 

[rurounimaikeru]

Have been doing some searches into potential MEL-DOH-ATH flights for 2 x J.

A few observations/data points for others looking:
* QR flights MEL-DOH get released at T-331 (rarely J awards, only Y)
* VA wet lease gets released a day later at T-330 (often with 2 x J) (and often with other combinations via other Aus cities, or even DPS)
* MEL-ATH on one booking often not available even if individual sectors are (sometimes Y available, but not J)
* VA multi-city hack returns the J reward but priced at two sectors combined.

Hoping can call VA and get ticketed on one reward booking.

On a related point, does anyone know if J x reward bookings on wet lease or QR reg flights get free seat selection?

And any advice/tips for securing the double bed pair?

 

[Milemuncher]

On a related point, does anyone know if J x reward bookings on wet lease or QR reg flights get free seat selection?

I've got a reward J coming up CDG- DOH-PER, QR and then VA wet lease.

Seat selection for VA is in the VA MMB, QR leg in the QR MMB, free and all seats available.

 

[Omgwtfitsbbqsauce]

Anyone had recent experiences on upgrades from Y to J? Is it even possible to do it as a VA WP on a QR coded ticket (but on the "VA" wet leases?)

I've had some changes in my employment flying activities (from VA to QF), so am contemplating paying for a Y ticket and trying to upgrade instead of trying to redeem J award seats so that I can get the SC to retain VA Platinum.

 

[henrus]

Is it even possible to do it as a VA WP on a QR coded ticket (but on the "VA" wet leases?)

Nope, must be VA wet lease on a VA code and ticket.

Flight Upgrades

Avail flight experience benefits with priority service with upgrades. Use upgrademe to enjoy virgin Australia domestic or Internationale flights. Platinum member can use velocity point to get complimentary upgrade credits.

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

International long haul flights must be flights between Australia and Doha, operated by Qatar Airways with a flight number VA1-29, and issued by Virgin Australia with a ticket number beginning with "795".

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The VA/QR partnership is not exactly seamless, although it’s not entirely ‘bad’.

We had a ticket TK->VA. While TK could tag out bags all the way to AU, they couldn’t issue boarding passes.

I was a bit concerned we’d be stuck at transfer until a VA rep arrived closer to departure time, but thankfully QR was able to assist.

Except… they couldn’t find the booking. Nothing when searching with our passports or the TK PNR. They wanted the VA PNR, which I’d taken a screenshot of months ago and couldn’t find (as this was a partner award the VA booking ref was pretty useless as you couldn’t access any services on the VA website or app).

Anyway they eventually found it, then said the bags wouldn’t be auto transferred so had to send an email to baggage to find our bags and retag them.

As it turns out none of that happened… the bags went through without any intervention (we checked at the gate). And QR didnt add priority labels so the bags were out pretty late in AU.

The family next to us at the transfer counter were upset because their connection to BKK was delayed 4 hours and they wanted assistance because their layover was now 6 or something hours. The agent behind the desk gave them a blanket each and a bottle of water! And then said, but you can’t take those bottles of water through security (which was the i’m existent next step after the transit counter).

Couldn’t add my Velocity number to the QR/VA booking. Not sure that made much difference although it might have meant first crack at meal choice.

BTW… even though it’s a signature caviar service, they only load 40%. So if you want it, you have to ask early!