Booked Virgin....ended up on Qantas

[andrewh3]

After 6 recent domestic flights with Qantas, of which only 2 allowed me to fly in the class I had paid for and vaguely on time, I though I would try the competition for the first time today.
Booked a J class fare BNE-SYD, just outside school holidays and peak times. Was looking forward to trying their lounge and product, which might have been a pretty attractive long term option given the significant cost difference in fares ($299 verses $850).
On the morning of the flight was in the taxi to the airport when I noticed an email from Virgin cancelling my flight and rebooking me a day later for a flight leaving at 06:00. No call, no text, no apology.
Called Virgin - agent with a very heavy accent that was very hard to understand stated no flights on VA to SYD that day with any seats available that she could see, so hard luck. Did apologies but was clearly reading from a script and could not actually do anything.
Arrived at airport: Premium entry closed and only one service counter with one person open for the entire Virgin section of the terminal with along queue of clearly frustrated customers. After 40 minutes reached from of queue and was advised no seats and to come back at 04:00 tomorrow to check in for my 06:00. I declined this generous offer and demanded a refund. This took another 20 minutes of frantic keyboard tapping before a sheet of paper was produced indicating that this might happen in the next week...
Whilst waiting I had been checking Qantas and Rex airlines pages, with nothing available on either until mid afternoon unless I took a chance with a BNE-CBR-SYD routing which might get me in at 13:00 to Sydney. Walked down to Qantas Premium and found (again) only one person at the service counter. She could see earlier availability but could not sell me a ticket which I also could not buy online as I could not see it. Called Qantas premium - long wait - no joy. Then, salvation, another Qantas staff member appeared and offered to actually help! Long story short, made the 09:10 flight (which was full), sweaty, harassed and stressed out.
So, overall rating for VA - a big, fat zero.

 

[jakeseven7]

Virgin cancellation rate is more than double Qantas at the moment, so you are far from being alone in being cancelled on by Virgin.

Sorry - sounds like a tough experience.

 

[33kft]

Isn't it an insane turn of events that routes like BNE-SYD or even MEL-SYD (I had a shocker recently with 3 cancellations followed by a downgrade for a single flight outside of sch hols/busy times) are a gamble.

These are relatively high volume routes and you might not even get there same day...

I hope things pick up soon across the board.

 

[Mattg]

Sorry you had this experience as VA J is usually pretty good! I guess the last few weeks haven't exactly been VA (or any airline) at its finest...

I hope you'll give VA J another go in a few months once things are back to normal.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Hope you do at the least get a credit or refund from VAd.

 

[odysseus]

That's terrible. Both major airlines are underperforming at the moment.

 

[Guvner]

Cancellations happen. Annoying but understandable. The farce here is that you can’t buy a domestic airline ticket at the airport unless the right employee happens to show up.

 

[ethernet]

Time for fed.gov to tell the airlines to get their acts together, or a European missed flight compensation scheme may appear on the books. This is overdue anyway. Refunds in less than 30 days or else backdated interest at 18-22% just like credit cards.

 

[odysseus]

Sure, I don't see anyone complaining about the cancellation itself.

However on a key triangle route of SYD-BNE, when the flight was morning or lunch, that they have so many cancellations that they have no capacity until the next day is 'underperforming.' They should have been able to rebook on something sooner.

 

[Saab34]

Next schooo holidays I hope the airlines are not as ambitious what it comes to schedule. Still is a week to two of ‘wash up’ after the holidays.

I would prefer next September they pull the schedule back, charge more, and have more crews in standby. Cancellations will drop.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We had a VA cancellation, last flight of the night and the next available was 24 hours later. Flights were absolutely packed.

Constant checking, and I mean constant, showed the odd seat opening up on earlier flights… they’d show for a minute or two until someone snapped them up. This would happen while on hold for VA to answer to make the change! Luckily VA was answering within about 5 mins and eventually the call answer lined up with a spare seat and we got it.

Pax plans change, it can pay to sit hitting ‘refresh’ to get a better flight option.

 

[simmomelb]

Both Qantas and Virgin have lots of cancellations right now (and many international carriers).
Unfortunately, this is part of travelling in 2022 due to the factors all of us know about.

 

[knagelli]

Both Qantas and Virgin have lots of cancellations right now (and many international carriers).

I completely agree. In the last quarter I have been VA flights changing schedule or cancelling multiple routes on the not so busy routes. Also the future dated schedules are also being changed or updated to itineraries with one stop when the actual flight booked was for non-stop. We have no choice than to suck it up or ask for a refund and book else where.

 

[simmomelb]

The issue is that it could also happen with any airline.

It's so annoying, but it's also hard to blame an airline for the following reasons (in my view).

- They had to lay off staff to try and cut costs during border closures.
- They are struggling to get staff back or find new staff
- Fuel prices are through the roof

I just don't see this improving until 2023 :/

My only advice, speaking from a cancellation experience, get travel insurance for domestic flights, which I know many of us aren't used to doing (including me).