Having only flown them sporadically beforehand I must say they have really dropped the ball and I feel that staff morale has followed suit.
This issue has not had isolated appearances of late. It is rather amazing to hear about this, and at the same time rather concerning.
The planes are often dirty with rubbish still on the floors and seat pockets.
Speaking of which, I flown VA J 3 times in the last fortnight and each time there was rubbish on the floor. I'm not sure of the implication, but it is not a good look.
I find this rather amazing. My experience of VA last time was that the plane was relatively clean. I didn't find rubbish on the floor or in my seat pocket. If I were VA I'd be cracking the whip on their cleaning company, unless of course VA are failing to set the schedule for cleaning correctly themselves.
The 'refreshments' are an absolute joke, a half cup of water and a fun size carmans muesli bar V a Qantas offering at same time of day of a tomato salsa dip, crackers, soy crisps, chocolate and a full bottle of water. The staff are robotic, throw the refreshments down then disappear for the rest of the flight.
When VA started offering complimentary refreshments, they set the bar rather low and haven't really raised it. They were always small servings and only tea, coffee or water was free. Mind, one might argue that the Qantas difference is nearly immaterial, reflective of the usual slightly higher fares (or not so slight). That is, the difference between a half-sized muesli bar and crisps+dip and a thumb-sized chocolate is nearly nil, particularly if your absolute judgement scale regards both offerings as a joke anyway.
J food is average and the service not much better.
When was the last time you flew VA J, particularly coast to coast? There seem to be many good reviews on this, including the food and commonly on the service.
I'm not sure what they can do. Borgetti tried to raise the bar but it got jammed on the way up, but the fares have continued unhindered in an upward direction. I think the only thing they can do is to spend more, create the product they originally intended and wear the losses until they do actually become accepted as a genuine alternative. People will buy if they see value and they won't if they see a rip off. VA have lost sight of that. In my opinion, they've gone the hard yards, now all they have to do is offer decent food in the air and in the lounge, offer spirits in the lounge and introduce life time status and they'd be ahead of QF. Surely that can't be too much of a burden.
See this is interesting. We have heard that Borghetti implemented the game change plan (maybe it's still being implemented) and it has been a roaring success. It has lifted the old DJ into a new competitive level and it was generally accepted across AFF at least for some years now that VA was a true alternative to QF, especially on the domestic front as well as in the loyalty programme space. They were seen to offer novel service that seemed to be better than QF (had a better gloss, better quality, etc.) and yet at cheaper prices. They
had decent food in the air (still do?) and many people seemed content with what they offered in the lounge (especially if compared to a QP rather than a J Lounge).
It wasn't as if VA wasn't trampling all over QF, and the latter has attempted to "catch up" and "straighten up", but then again, as we have heard many times, JB prefers a cautious, stolid and flexible approach, and he isn't out to conquer the world. Where did it seem to go wrong? Or rather, is it going wrong, or is this just a speed bump? (Don't forget how bitterly many of us eulogised "prematurely" about the bleeding death of the red roo not too long ago)
Last September. I didn't notice anything really amiss, though, except that the coast to coast menu looked a lot, lot thinner than I remembered it.
