Virgin to open exclusive lounge for high yield VIPs

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Fruitcake

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Actually, based on a couple of news stories from today it looks like they might be initially leapfrogging the business lounge and heading straight for a CL competitor:
Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

Virgin targets corporate, premium flyers | News | Business Spectator

Presumably, this lures the decision makers to DJ with promises of access to the genteel Borghetti Lounge, whilst those who fly DJ as a result of those decisions are required to shuffle dirty plates around the lounge between 5:30pm and 6:15pm on weekdays to find a seat ;)
 
Will be interesting to see whether it does consist of a "Business/ Platinum lounge" or an invitation only Chairmans lounge idea. I presume (and I hope for my own personal sake) it could be both.
 
Not surprised at all. John B (and Team V) have been a very busy of late.

I was going to ask the VA Rep when VA were going to go after the QF CL market and open CL type Lounges for the top end of town.

VA has some nice, updated lounges and more are on the way, even talk of J/Plat Lounges (Syd/Bne example)
J has been rolled out (mostly)
Fleet/company has changed from DJ to VA and planes have also been repainted/upgraded/updated to reflect this
Wide-body planes with more on the way
New VA website
New Staff uniforms
Decent range of VA Credit Cards to choose from (for points earning)
Alliance has grown and now includes SQ and Delta
Velocity also got a make over and a Platinum level launched

AVOD still needs to get updated.

John B was definitely the right man for the job.
 
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The full text of the article in The Australian notes that "[CL members] also received personalised service in the lounge, including provision of boarding passes." Pretty much every boarding pass I've received from either QF or DJ has been personalised with my seat number and even my name, so the CL provided boarding passes must be pretty fancy! :rolleyes:
 
*From peoples testimony on AFF*, when you enter a QF CL, you hand over you BP to the lounge dragon and they hand it back to you when your flight is ready for boarding. I think that the BP's are the regular ones. Much of muchness IMO.
 
That makes sense. Just a case of the journalist's attempt at word economy interfering with the clarity of the message. Come to think of it, until recently, most DJ Lounges provided you with shopping dockets rather than cardstock BPs, so I guess the CL did have a one-up of sorts!

Agreeing with 777, I hope they're doing both J/Plat lounges (ie "true frequent flyer") as well as VIP invite lounges. The article in The Australian implies the two are not mutually exclusive - "It is also working on a new two level lounge at Sydney" (my emphasis). But of course DJ has never officially said (to my knowledge) upstairs in SYD would be J/Plat, nor did they confirm or deny the "understandings" that today's news is based on.
 
Where are QF Chairmans lounges located? and will this match locations / encourage the target group to use Virgin?, it seems as though they are cloning QF in every way
 
MarkD said:
Where are QF Chairmans lounges located? and will this match locations / encourage the target group to use Virgin?, it seems as though they are cloning QF in every way
Click to expand...

hmmm....off the top of my head. Syd-Mel-Bne-Cbr...?

:rolleyes:Seriously? A boarding pass cloak closet? Is that overkill or what. It's not as if it's really heavy or oversized. But I guess there's no end to the things people want pandering to. I'll have someone remove my shoes at entry, polish them up and swap them out for a pair of fluffy slippers thanks so I don't wake up the tiles by walking on them. Oh! And I'd like a pair of well trained greyhounds to curl up next to my feet while I sip a hot toddy in the evening. :rolleyes: Someone gift me a Phillipe Patek now!
 
Complimentary cigars, proper whisky, and a smoking jacket please.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly
 
It is understood Virgin is planning to launch small super-premium lounges at several major airports across the country in coming months.
Click to expand...
How has the journalist authoring the report come to this understanding? Reading tea leaves? Fortune teller? Dumpster diving at DJ's paper shredding company painfully reconstructing documents?

All I see here is a puff piece talking about how QF treat their top end of town flyers, and the lounge upgrade works by DJ. There's nothing of substance proffered in the article to support the core thesis.

In short, I'll believe it when I see it.
 
They already have a chairmans club, makes sense to expand to airport locations!
 
thewinchester said:
How has the journalist authoring the report come to this understanding? Reading tea leaves? Fortune teller? Dumpster diving at DJ's paper shredding company painfully reconstructing documents?

All I see here is a puff piece talking about how QF treat their top end of town flyers, and the lounge upgrade works by DJ. There's nothing of substance proffered in the article to support the core thesis.

In short, I'll believe it when I see it.
Click to expand...

Leaks? Targeted or otherwise.

I have no idea whether it's true - and you are right that the author may well have put two and two (lounge upgrades and JB talking of upmarket plans) together and got 5. Still, leaks to journos of a forthcoming plan is a pretty widespread practice as are media outlets talking out of their coughs.
 
MarkD said:
Where are QF Chairmans lounges located? and will this match locations / encourage the target group to use Virgin?, it seems as though they are cloning QF in every way
Click to expand...

No MarkD, it's innovation. It's only copying when Qantas does it. Duh!
 
If true, I look forward to the day when I can reach for the lofty heights of the Virgin Parlour :p

Is there anything similar to Chairmans lounges with other carriers, or is this a Qantas / Australian thing?
 
Other than exclusivity, what does the QF CL have to offer over and above the standard lounge ?
 
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