Virgin Australia Middle Seat Lottery

AustraliaPoochie said:
Today is the 23/10/22.
Middle seat lottery?
Meaning we can't too easily buy comfort seat bookings anymore (?), as a lot of people who are VFF would put their interest into getting that middle seat for themselves, and VA would not allow too many comfort seat bookings.
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I don't think it would make a difference with comfort seat bookings as we are effectively paying the fare for two seats with those bookings (and in those cases, taking the comfort seat away would be equivalent to offloading a passenger). Pure speculation but it's probably more along the lines of the Qantas Neighbour Free seating, where one can pay a token amount to sort of guarantee an empty adjacent seat (with caveats of course). However, unlike a comfort seat booking, the adjacent seat CAN be sold or occupied and if it is, you'll get a refund of the Neighbour Free seating amount.
 
No new (airline) partners/ships.
Its all about them making more money, which I guess in a way, takes money away from the others.
Middle Seat Competition, heh, hah, thought it was a competition for that seat next to you to be empty.
 
jakeseven7 said:
"Wonderful" lol
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What would really be wonderful is if all the covid cuts we accepted like premium entry, wifi etc were actually reactivated (and not just partially) instead of hearing coming soon or we are evaluating it's return.

Get that right and add in some on time performance back to pre covid numbers and guess what.....Flying will naturally be a wonderful experience again.
 
Under their idea of them saving money, I think that some things might not return.
Ie does BNE airport int terminal still has that space for the made do VAi "lounge".
Will there ever be a fixed built for purpose VAi lounge there.
What happens when VA flies to NZ again, no lounge if dep BNE?
SYD and MEL VAi "lounges" now are outsourced.
ADL does not have an SQ lounge, flying a partner airline entails us having to use dom VAd lounge, despite us paying a premium to sit in SQ's J cabin via VA years of credit card spendings for VA upgrades.
 
AustraliaPoochie said:
Ie does BNE airport int terminal still has that space for the made do VAi "lounge".
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Yes, but it was never VA's instead operated by No1 Lounges who during covid sold them off to the Aspire group. It still hasn't reopened.

AustraliaPoochie said:
What happens when VA flies to NZ again, no lounge if dep BNE?
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VA is actually flying international now from BNE. They have flights to Fiji (which also depart from MEL and SYD as well) and DPS

AustraliaPoochie said:
SYD and MEL VAi "lounges" now are outsourced.
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There were never such things as VAi Lounges in MEL or SYD, they were No1 Lounges that had limited VA branding. As noted above VA already has international flights again. Currently they operate from MEL/SYD/BNE to NAN/DPS. Starting within the month will be flights from MEL/SYD/BNE to ZQN marking the return of NZ followed by VLI and APW next year.

Those currently on flights to NAN and DPS simply don't get lounge access.

AustraliaPoochie said:
ADL does not have an SQ lounge, flying a partner airline entails us having to use dom VAd lounge, despite us paying a premium to sit in SQ's J cabin
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The ADL SQ lounge was permanently closed, later in the year a Plaza Premium lounge will open in the same space (through in the international departures lounge). It's highly likely that SQ J pax + Star Alliance Gold will get access to this lounge instead however as per existing arrangements VA Gold/Plat don't get access to 3rd party lounges so they won't have access to this lounge unless flying J.
 
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I assume this wasn't the hanger event that was rescheduled twice due to "Covid"?
I saw their new TVC on last night though (on freeview) and it is quite impressive.
 
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PaulllM said:
What would really be wonderful is if all the covid cuts we accepted like premium entry, wifi etc were actually reactivated (and not just partially) instead of hearing coming soon or we are evaluating it's return.
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Whilst I see your point (and feel the same way) we have to remember Virgin was in very dire financial straits before we even knew covid was a thing and more than likely would have collapsed, been restructured heavily even without the pandemic.

Their business model just wasn't working, so expecting the same product post the collapse and after the company has been stripped of staff and aircraft and features is probably just setting yourself up for disappointment.....!

The 'wonderful' campaign feels hollow because clearly the inner Sydney advertising agency staff who charged VA2 a million or so for it haven't flown out of MEL T3/4 recently or braved the feral SYD T2 ;)
 
simmomelb said:
I assume this wasn't the hanger event that was rescheduled twice due to "Covid"?
I saw their new TVC on last night though (on freeview) and it is quite impressive.
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I think it is. They used the ‘wonderful’ wording for the original hanger event so I assume this is it.

We can close the thread now lol.
 
I guess in some ways this is a fairly typical thing to do, being innovative and outside the box, but will it worl?

I certainly wouldn't consider giving up my aisle seat for a free lottery entry. As I see it, offering a discounted fare might work, but little else.

I'd be interested to hear what others think.
 
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ferntree said:
I think that fear of winning a place on a cruise would be enough to put me off risking sitting in a middle seat for life.
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Have you ever been on a quality cruise line?
Saab34 said:
Geez lucky folks on board this one :)

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Winners Are Grinners On Virgin Australia Flight 219 - Airline Ratings

Winners and grinners on Virgin Australia Flt 219 from Melbourne to Adelaide on Monday, October 24 with winners all round.
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They looked very happy in Adelaide.
 

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