A Sign of Things to Come ?

[Reggie]

On topic, any chance the standards-slip is somehow related to the catering change?

The catering change was to the lounge service and meals. The contractor serves the food (what, when, how, how much etc) to Virgins stipulation.

Do the caterers organise the cleaning too?

The caterers only clean the buffet, bar, and collect and clean the dishes. The toilets and lounge cleaning / maintenance is performed by another ocntractor.

I've been surprised by how little impact the SM has made to the BNE lounge early on a Monday morning.

Not sure what you mean, so can't make comment.

 

[medhead]

CBR-BNE QF dinners have been surprisingly good - much better than I'd expected.

My first thought is to say I've also found them to be surprisingly good, for slop. But if I was to be serious, they are not so good as to be better than the food on DJ. That's if you fly in the 90 minute* window when they serve meals. Oh and before anyone says but you gotta buy on DJ. I save an average of $20 a flight, I can buy food if I wish and still be $10 in front.



* this is an exaggeration, I know it's wrong and I don't care what the real time is.


Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app so please excuse the lack of links.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Wow what a thread. Status matched people who don't fly virgin are crowding the lounge as are those abusing ATA. As for the abusing ATA, there is a whole thread over in the qantas section full of those misguided opinions. Instead of type whole posts why not just link to the post in the other thread that expresses your view?

Yes, I must admit there was a degree of poetic license in my posting!

.......but, logic has it having a least some merit. Take OOL from March next year when the new DJ Lounge opens. QF diehards presumably fly JQ out of OOL, yet the WPs and SGs don't get access to the JQ lounge without forking out extra bucks. Now tell me when the DJ lounge with ATA is available, all the SMed WPs and SGs won't waltz in there instead of paying for the JQ lounge!!

As for the QF thread......come on, how much time do you think I've got to waste on a forum? I struggle to keep up with the DJ discussion board....and that matters to me. QF abandoned my ports years ago, so why would I waste my time reading QF threads??

 

[nlagalle]

Yes, I must admit there was a degree of poetic license in my posting!

.......but, logic has it having a least some merit. Take OOL from March next year when the new DJ Lounge opens. QF diehards presumably fly JQ out of OOL, yet the WPs and SGs don't get access to the JQ lounge without forking out extra bucks. Now tell me when the DJ lounge with ATA is available, all the SMed WPs and SGs won't waltz in there instead of paying for the JQ lounge!!

As for the QF thread......come on, how much time do you think I've got to waste on a forum? I struggle to keep up with the DJ discussion board....and that matters to me. QF abandoned my ports years ago, so why would I waste my time reading QF threads??

Actually WP's do have access to the JQ lounge without paying..

 

[MarkD]

Actually WP's do have access to the JQ lounge without paying..

Well there you go, I believed they didn't get access either. Then again I am not, nor will I ever be a WP with QF si I really wouldn't know, but thought I had read about it on here that it was pay or PO, no exceptions

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Actually WP's do have access to the JQ lounge without paying..

Thanks for the correction. SG's??

 

[Oneworldplus2]

CL's and WP's (And all levels above WP) get in for free while flying JQ.
JQ J Class also get in (Is there JQ J servicing OOL, or Int OOL only? I'm not very familiar with OOL)
The rest is paid entry (or so l think, there was some ramblings on lounge entry some time ago, might have changed)

QF did abandon OOL and made it a JQ Hub/leisure market.

 

[serfty]

... so why would I waste my time reading QF threads??

Actually WP's do have access to the JQ lounge without paying..

Thanks for the correction. SG's??

CL's and WP's (And all levels above WP) get in for free while flying JQ.
...

There's one answer, so posts don't get devalued by proporting incorrectly.

To be fair, initially WP did not get access, but I think this started costing the Qantas group revenue; so they decided to permit their perceived HVC's in.

Actually this is a micro reflection on JQ relationship with QF.

When Qantas purchased control of Impulse and re-branded them JQ, QP access was not available for SG/PS/QP before JQ flights. I guess they lost more revenue than they expected as this was changed some months later.

 

[Noob]

There's one answer, so posts don't get devalued by proporting incorrectly.

The same could be said about many other members not knowing what they are talking about regarding Virgin!

 

[serfty]

The same could be said about many other members not knowing what they are talking about regarding Virgin!

Moreover it's a general posting etiquette.

 

[Justchecking]

The only thing missing from this thread is a post from Jack Melon

He's on holiday but let me oblige....


DJ is the neatest airline ever! Who cares about cereal when you've got banana bread with real butter!

Sorry jack, couldn't resist. I do respect your staunch love for an airline though.

To be honest, neither airline is best or better for me. They are both airlines... I don't make my choice based on what's on the cart, a brand or FF program. I have special dietary requirements so the chances of being able to eat whatever is offered by either is pretty low anyway. Something you can't eat, included or not is still something you can't eat. Likewise I don't fly enough to make a FF program work for me, or posh enough to ever make a decision about lounges. I'm like many flyers and I make my choice based on price and schedule on the day. Everything else I just cope with.

 

[Virgin Australia]

Do we have to have the Virgin fan club in action again?
Virgin were blind to being pro active to the consquences that now seem to be occurring.

Sorry but what are we being blind to? If you are referring to Lounge numbers then it would be unfair to view them during what has been an extremely busy period because of extreme circumstances.

Apparently Virgin have signed up a further 30000 Platinum / Gold / Lounge Members in the past month.

Really? :shock:

I recently used the Lounge in SYD.

Some of the furniture is already starting to show it's age.

If you look at the bar head-on, turn left. The furniture looks nice, but to actually use it is a pain in the back-side. The chairs you either have to sit at the very front or all the way in. Hard to get comfortable in.

The PC's are ancient (old HP's) and running Windows XP shock

The Lounge in Sydney has yet to be fully renovated.
What would you want from supplied hardware? Are you trying to run programs that aren't able to be supported?

But DJ down the back cheapie economy hasn't changed for the better and doesn't come close to QF economy. No food, no nothing (unless you pay through the nose). And no decent FF points either.
For economy flyers it's still an LCC.

Will beg to differ.
The complete redesign of the airline flies in the face of what a LCC is meant to be.
While we are not a full service airline, the amount of choice that we offer dictates that we are not a LCC.

Our strategy has been well documented this year, that we will target both the business and leisure traveller. Giving the Guest the options is where it is key, and a point of difference.

Take of the rose coloured glasses please

Who cares about the advertising, the fact is that DJ in Y is still an "average" experience and below that of Qantas. Usually for the same or higher price than Qantas!

So food from the cart...

Okay I'd like breakfast please on Virgin... Oh wait there is no breakfast items available for purchase.... Banana bread ?? No I'd like some cereal or museli please
Lunch - The menu is OK but how many pie's can you eat
Dinner - Pie again ?

VA still have ALOT to learn if they want to really take on Qantas

Status matches and double Status credits are nice, but the product still needs more work and fast, or you will lose those customers back to Qantas..

We do actually listen to our Guests, both on board, and after the flight, and will continue to do so to work on making our product the best it can be.

Yes there are many planes still to refurbish and repaint in the new livery, yes there are fine tuning to be made with both on board food and in the Lounge, yes we are yet to announce our IFE. But for a community who only six months ago were saying "I wish they would just hurry up and get on with it", surely you must be thinking that we have done a lot in a fairly short amount of time? :?:

As for higher prices, the cost of a fare is in part, dictated by the demand and of course supply, so through the busy summer months we have just announced today that we've added over 16,000 seats for sale to travel between December 12th and January 31st 2012. These are for flights between the cities of Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Launceston, Hobart and Melbourne.
Once again doing our part to for the Australian leisure travellers.

For an airline that started in May, we've come along way!

 

[lovestotravel]

Thanks for the reply!

IFE - I am not holding my breath for anything good or it would be in the seats now!

Food - Get some breakfast options on the plane and a few more dinner options, the Air NZ system works alot nicer than VA's I say!

Oh and trying to tell us that VA is "Once again doing our part to for the Australian leisure travellers" over the xmas period with sale fares.. Thanks for the marketing spin, but the simple fact is that you don't have many people traveling and want to get some more people on the plane! There is no other reason to discount

 

[The Rok]

Sorry but what are we being blind to? If you are referring to Lounge numbers then it would be unfair to view them during what has been an extremely busy period because of extreme circumstances.



Really? :shock:



The Lounge in Sydney has yet to be fully renovated.
What would you want from supplied hardware? Are you trying to run programs that aren't able to be supported?



Will beg to differ.
The complete redesign of the airline flies in the face of what a LCC is meant to be.
While we are not a full service airline, the amount of choice that we offer dictates that we are not a LCC.

Our strategy has been well documented this year, that we will target both the business and leisure traveller. Giving the Guest the options is where it is key, and a point of difference.



We do actually listen to our Guests, both on board, and after the flight, and will continue to do so to work on making our product the best it can be.

Yes there are many planes still to refurbish and repaint in the new livery, yes there are fine tuning to be made with both on board food and in the Lounge, yes we are yet to announce our IFE. But for a community who only six months ago were saying "I wish they would just hurry up and get on with it", surely you must be thinking that we have done a lot in a fairly short amount of time? :?:

As for higher prices, the cost of a fare is in part, dictated by the demand and of course supply, so through the busy summer months we have just announced today that we've added over 16,000 seats for sale to travel between December 12th and January 31st 2012. These are for flights between the cities of Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Launceston, Hobart and Melbourne.
Once again doing our part to for the Australian leisure travellers.

For an airline that started in May, we've come along way!

I would not get too upset about some of the comments on here mate, there appear to be a few posters recently who despise Virgin just for the sake of despising Virgin and who love to cause deliberate arguments. There also appear to be a few QF WP's who were status matched for the sake of being status matched and having another shiny Platinum card to show their mates down the pub and they have never, nor will ever fly Virgin.

Fact is those who do fly Virgin appreciate the work that has been done and look forward to the future enhancements with bated breath.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

 

[clifford]

The complete redesign of the airline flies in the face of what a LCC is meant to be.
While we are not a full service airline, the amount of choice that we offer dictates that we are not a LCC.

Well, that may be so, but while DJ charges el-cheapo Y class pax (such as me) for even a glass of tap water, they will be a LCC in my book.

 

[lovestotravel]

Well, that may be so, but while DJ charges el-cheapo Y class pax (such as me) for even a glass of tap water, they will be a LCC in my book.

Indeed - As I said the Air NZ model works really well, and to expand on that on the basic fare you get tea/coffee/water!

Want baggage, a full meal and TV/Movies you pay approx $50 more.. Works well and no dishing out cash/credit cards on the flight. On a recent flight MEL-CHC about 70% of the cabin had pre-ordered meals!!!!!!

As NZ own a large chunk of DJ it would be nice to be the same and have a consistent feel between the products.

 

[pshepvic]

Well, that may be so, but while DJ charges el-cheapo Y class pax (such as me) for even a glass of tap water, they will be a LCC in my book.

Did you not see the recent announcement that from next year tea, coffee and water will be included for all passengers?

 

[lovestotravel]

Did you not see the recent announcement that from next year tea, coffee and water will be included for all passengers?

I missed this too, where was this ?

 

[Noob]

Well, that may be so, but while DJ charges el-cheapo Y class pax (such as me) for even a glass of tap water, they will be a LCC in my book.

Did you not see the recent announcement that from next year tea, coffee and water will be included for all passengers?

SERFTY SERFTY! QUICK! Someone's said a statement which is untrue! Oh wait they're having a go at Virgin so It doesn't matter....

 

[pshepvic]

In the same press release as announcing Business across the network from January 18: http://www.virginaustralia.com/AboutUs/Media/NewsandPressReleases/P_019119.html