When Flying Ahead Backfires

Fly Ahead is a great benefit of Virgin Australia Velocity status. If you have Velocity Gold, Platinum or Platinum Plus status, and you’re flying with Virgin Australia, you can change to an earlier flight on the same day for free – as long as a seat is available. (Platinum Plus members can even switch to a later flight at no cost.)

There are a few restrictions. For example, if you have Velocity Gold status, this is not available if you’re booked on an Economy Lite or Choice fare. And if you’re Platinum, Economy Lite tickets are ineligible. There are also some limitations on how much earlier you can fly. But if you have the right ticket and there’s an eligible earlier flight with a seat available, you can change to it for free.

Used well, Fly Ahead can get you to your destination sooner. That’s great, for example, if you’ve finished your meetings early and just want to get home.

Sometimes, though, attempting to “fly ahead” can actually backfire. As I learned last week…

My attempt to Fly Ahead from Canberra to Melbourne

Virgin Australia has two flights from Canberra to Melbourne on Saturday afternoons: VA268 at 14:25 and VA274 departing 15:35. I have Velocity Platinum status and had booked a (rather expensive) Economy Choice fare on the 15:35 departure.

My flight was slightly delayed, and I wanted to get to Melbourne a bit earlier. So I called Virgin just before heading to the airport, and the call centre switched me to the 14:25 departure. So far, so good.

I checked in at the airport and headed to the Virgin Australia Lounge, where I could see my aircraft out the window. It had arrived on time from its previous flight. But the departure time came and went, and there was still no boarding call. Meanwhile, several people wearing high vis appeared to be inspecting the aircraft. I approached the lounge reception to ask if VA268 was boarding soon, and was told that the inbound aircraft had been struck by lightning.

Now, fair enough. These things happen, and I have no issue with Virgin checking the aircraft to make sure it’s safe to fly!

But at this point it became obvious that VA274 would leave earlier than VA268, so my plan to Fly Ahead had now backfired. My focus turned to getting back onto the flight I’d originally booked.

Reversing Fly Ahead is easier said than done

There were still seats available for sale on VA274, so I returned to the lounge reception and asked to be moved back onto my original flight. The lounge receptionist had absolutely no interest in helping or even talking to me. He simply said “no”, and made it obvious that he wanted me to go away. It was very much a “computer says no” moment, except that he didn’t even bother to check my boarding pass or his computer before refusing to help me.

I recently wrote about the things Virgin Australia does well, and the helpful and enthusiastic staff was the first thing on my list. So, I was frankly quite shocked and appalled by the attitude of the gentleman working in the lounge that afternoon.

I understand that there was an issue with the aircraft, and if there was a legitimate reason that he couldn’t move passengers, that’s OK. I also realise that airport staff are human beings and have to deal with a lot of unhappy passengers. But this employee (who admittedly, probably works for Swissport) wasn’t even pretending to care.

How I got back onto my original flight

Realising that was a lost cause, I went back to my seat in the lounge and considered my options. Virgin was still selling seats on VA274, so I rang the call centre and asked them to rebook me back onto that flight. Initially the call centre had trouble doing this because VA274 was also showing a “schedule change” (which at this point was only a 10-minute delay). They originally offered me a new routing via Sydney, but after about 20 minutes on the phone they were able to put me back on VA274.

Thankfully, I didn’t have any checked luggage. If I would have, the rebooking would not have been possible at this point.

Instead of my carefully-selected window seat in Economy X, I was now stuck in a middle seat. But I was grateful to be getting to Melbourne that afternoon, especially when the crew originally supposed to operate VA268 boarded VA274 with me – as passengers! VA268 ended up copping a six-hour delay as Virgin had to source a completely new plane and crew to operate it.

So, lesson learned! Once you fly ahead, Virgin completely removes you from the passenger list on the later flight. If you decide later that you actually want to move back to your original flight, Virgin treats this as a complete rebooking of your ticket. If it wasn’t for the fact there had been a “schedule change” (as the call centre put it) on VA268, I probably would have had to pay a change fee to move back.

What’s your experience with Fly Ahead?

If you have Velocity Gold or higher status, have you used Fly Ahead? How do you make it work for you, and have you ever had an experience where it backfired? Let us know on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum!