Virgin Blue Delay

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turbo

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Mar 5, 2007
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Last Sunday I was on a Virgin Blue flight MEL-CBR (DJ725) scheduled to leave at 8.20pm. I had spent a couple of hours in the QP (as guest of colleague) doing some work on the laptop before going back across to T1 to board at around 7.50pm. i checked the screen for my gate and the flight had been delayed with revised ETD of 10.10pm.

I asked at the service desk what the issue was and apparently a aircraft was unserviceable and another had to be brought in. (i assume from elsewhere). The CSA apologised and said her mgr would be up shortly with some delay vouchers for dinner etc if we waited. I asked if I could just go back across to the QP to continue working until the scheduled departure but no I had to wait in the terminal in case there were 'announcements' to be made. I waited on nearby seats when about 15 mins later the same CSA came across and curtly informed me that they had decided not to bother issuing vouchers as the delay was under the 2 hour threshold which apparently exists. (scheduled delay was 1 hr 50 mins) which I thought was just plain rude. After this I asked again if I could go back to the QP to do my work as I needed wireless. Same answer, No. So I asked if i could be let into the DJ equivalent to give me a desk to work at with wireless and she refused again (i asked when i first spoke with her as well).

I understand delays happen sometimes and I made it clear that I wasn't annoyed* at her or because of the delay but the fact that she provided no remedy whatsoever after having initially promised to and after I provided alternatives, neither which would have been too difficult, she still did nothing to help.

This year in 5 DJ flights i have done i would have been delayed for easily 6hrs in total whereas the 17 QF flights i've done i would have not lost anymore than 1.5 hrs.

Are there any suggestions out there? Am I being unreasonable in expecting some sort of simple help when I am being messed around with a delay like this or not? From the experiences of others is it likely to do any good if i follow it up?

[* edited by NM to remove profanity-filter workaround]
 
turbo said:
Are there any suggestions out there?
Don't fly Virgin?:D

On a serious note though, my on time performance with DJ over the past 12 months is pretty similar. The stats are DJ 8.4 hrs delayed versus QF 1.5 hrs with 18 flts completed (DJ 35%/QF 65%).
 
turbo said:
Am I being unreasonable in expecting some sort of simple help when I am being messed around with a delay like this or not?

Turbo, IMHO I do not think you are being unreasonable. I would be most upset if I was offered some form of compensation, only to have it rudely taken back. I agree that delays happen, but good customer service really shouldn't!

turbo said:
From the experiences of others is it likely to do any good if i follow it up?

I can't comment on whether it is likely to do any good, but, if it were me, I would write a polite but firm letter to DJ Guest Relations expressing my dissapointment - I would make most of the points you made in your post. You might also want to copy to Andrew Lillyman, General Manager Ground Operations and Heather Jeffery, General Manager Public Affairs. I would avoid using the feedback form on the website (but others with more experience might disagree). The postal address is: VIRGIN BLUE GUEST RELATIONS, PO Box 1034, Spring Hill QLD 4004, Australia.
 
bravoecho1 said:
Don't fly Virgin?:D

On a serious note though, my on time performance with DJ over the past 12 months is pretty similar. The stats are DJ 8.4 hrs delayed versus QF 1.5 hrs with 18 flts completed (DJ 35%/QF 65%).

Yea... QF have had a good turnaround and are the leading on time airline now, QF Link is second and Virgin is now third... as their network has expanded they seem to have lost this advantage...

But every airline does have its good and bad days, but if you are looking for an on time performer, QF is the best.
 
pauly7 said:
But every airline does have its good and bad days,

Only problem is J*'s bad days seem to be any day ending in the letter "y"

Sorry for taking it OT, but I couldn't resist, and I'm sure JohnK would agree.:D
 
Reggie said:
Only problem is J*'s bad days seem to be any day ending in the letter "y"

Sorry for taking it OT, but I couldn't resist, and I'm sure JohnK would agree.:D

Is that because all they offer is 'why' am I here seats.
 
Reggie said:
Sorry for taking it OT, but I couldn't resist, and I'm sure JohnK would agree.:D
I agree but I would not have posted to take a thread off topic. ;)
 
Reggie said:
Only problem is J*'s bad days seem to be any day ending in the letter "y"

Sorry for taking it OT, but I couldn't resist, and I'm sure JohnK would agree.:D

No I agree, I don't know why DJ and JQ have such ontime issues, one would think with their draconian approaches to time cut offs they would do better...
 
pauly7 said:
No I agree, I don't know why DJ and JQ have such ontime issues, one would think with their draconian approaches to time cut offs they would do better...

Pretty simple, fleet utilisation issues, QF have the ability to find aircraft that JQ and VB dont have, an example being the recent QFlink grounding of the Q400's, a 737 and a 717 came from nowhere to helpw ith the schedule.
 
I read some time ago an article from an airline analyst about differences between LCCs and Legacy carriers that give the LCCs their cost advantage.
One of the things they do apparently relates to the way they schedule flights.They maximise the utilzation of the aircraft and crew.
This done by pairing up the crew with an aircraft for their entire shift that tries to start and end in their home port. This apparently maximises the useage of their monthly rostered hours (They get paid for a certain number of hours irrespective if they are actually flying) and minimises overnight expenses thus keeping crew and flight attendant costs lower.
The down side is when things stuff up the impacts are harder to minimise or recover from because aircraft and available crew are working flat chat
QF on the other hand have a much larger fleet with varying degrees of utilization of planes and crews across their INT/DOM and regional businesses which must give some greater flexibility to recover from problems and also take advantage of major events like footy finals where 747s seem to appear from nowhere....I believe some 744s are even doing ADL-MEL this weekend.
 
Standby said:
I believe some 744s are even doing ADL-MEL this weekend.

I hope they count the crockery, pillows and blankets before allowing the pax to deboard.
 
While the OP has had a poor run on DJ, it's not typical in my experience.

My travel this year has been all domestic and mostly between SYD & MEL. I've flown mostly on DJ and from more than 25 flights they've been on-time on all but a few flights. The late ones were due to fog in SYD a few months back. I've yet to have a delay due to an aircraft going unserviceable.

Contrast with my flights on QF this year. Granted not nearly as many but almost all of them have run late. For some reason it is usually the homeward leg MEL-SYD. I've sat a number of times up in the QP looking down at an empty gate waiting for the aircraft to arrive long after we were meant to depart and watching subsequent (full) flights departing. :(

pauly7 said:
Yea... QF have had a good turnaround and are the leading on time airline now, QF Link is second and Virgin is now third... as their network has expanded they seem to have lost this advantage...

But every airline does have its good and bad days, but if you are looking for an on time performer, QF is the best.
I don't think you can say that. At best it's about even at present. Some months one is 1-2% in front of the other and other months it is the reverse. While the graphs below only go back to March, if you go back further you'll see that it's quite even this year. Go back a bit further and VB is consistently better. QF has definitely improved its game this year, and I'd say that's thanks to VB.

VB-Sep07.png


QF-Sep07.png


pauly7 said:
No I agree, I don't know why DJ and JQ have such ontime issues, one would think with their draconian approaches to time cut offs they would do better...
:confused: I disagree. Virgin Blue does not have a draconian cut-off policy. Jetstar does, not Virgin Blue. I've checked in at the desk within 15 mins of my flight and been allowed to board. I ususally check in on-line and which means I only have to be there about 15 mins before departure. :-|
 
Yada Yada said:
I disagree. Virgin Blue does not have a draconian cut-off policy. Jetstar does, not Virgin Blue. I've checked in at the desk within 15 mins of my flight and been allowed to board. I ususally check in on-line and which means I only have to be there about 15 mins before departure. :-|

With that much reasearch and supporting data, I'm not going to argue.:shock:
 
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Standby said:
I read some time ago an article from an airline analyst about differences between LCCs and Legacy carriers that give the LCCs their cost advantage.
One of the things they do apparently relates to the way they schedule flights.They maximise the utilzation of the aircraft and crew.
This done by pairing up the crew with an aircraft for their entire shift that tries to start and end in their home port. This apparently maximises the useage of their monthly rostered hours (They get paid for a certain number of hours irrespective if they are actually flying) and minimises overnight expenses thus keeping crew and flight attendant costs lower.
The down side is when things stuff up the impacts are harder to minimise or recover from because aircraft and available crew are working flat chat
QF on the other hand have a much larger fleet with varying degrees of utilization of planes and crews across their INT/DOM and regional businesses which must give some greater flexibility to recover from problems and also take advantage of major events like footy finals where 747s seem to appear from nowhere....I believe some 744s are even doing ADL-MEL this weekend.

Thats quite interesting thanks...

Perhaps explains JQ, but not why DJ has taken a slide in OT performance this year, used to win easily now is average at best. Maybe they are utilising their aircraft differently in an effort to break out of the cheap and cheerful LCC mould??
 
Reggie said:
I hope they count the crockery, pillows and blankets before allowing the pax to deboard.

:p

I hope QF check they still have a 747 at all after operating that flight :D
 
As some know here I am a fan of DJ. However, last night, flight number 51 for the year I turned up to Sydney for DJ888.

Having already checked in online I arrived nice and early, around 6pm, to sit in the lounge, have a drink etc etc.

However, after strolling down the priority line, then sent to the guest service desk, then sent over to line #3 I was told that the flight was cancelled!!

Engineering issue was why.

So, around 40 of us sitting off to the side waiting for instruction. We ended up being put into the hotel for the night, booked onto the first available flight the next morning, and given a credit for the amount paid for my initial flight.

Did not get dinner provided.

Things happen, I am a fan of DJ, but as others have said in this thread, when something goes wrong they simply don't have the aircraft to support a problem such as this. As we know the MEL SYD route is one of the busiest in the world, so this one plane being down would have cost DJ a lot in lost revenue, hotel expenses etc.

I was very surprised though that I did not get a call. They have my details a simple call may have saved them the cost of accommodation, and saved me from trekking to the airport when I could have used the 3 hours waiting around (got to airport at 6, bus took us to hotel at 9) more productively.
 
wallacej said:
So, around 40 of us sitting off to the side waiting for instruction. We ended up being put into the hotel for the night, booked onto the first available flight the next morning, and given a credit for the amount paid for my initial flight.

I'm no fan of Virgin, but that is pretty good service, and I think if ever I had to choose between errrrrr I shiver to even say it, J* and Virgin, I may have to give the big red planes a go.
 
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