Decision is now made!

[777]

Sorry, but the QF and DJ product are not that similar. For me, DJ is similar to jetstar on all levels. QF is superior in almost all area. Now IF DJ could get their cough together, that would be a different story

Priority boarding, free seat selection, automatically allocating front rows to status passengers, automatic selecting of preferred seats, business class, reasonably good odds of an upgrade to J, on board recognition of status, free coffee tea etc, generous FF program that earns points and SCs on all flight, etc. Yep, that's why i fly Jetstar.

[having said all that, i will be boarding a JQ flight in a couple of hours - sometimes they are the best option]

 

[DC3]

Sorry, but the QF and DJ product are not that similar. For me, DJ is similar to jetstar on all levels. QF is superior in almost all area. Now IF DJ could get their cough together, that would be a different story

Yes of course. It's subjective. I understand that we all have different expectations and experiences with this. For example, unlike you, I've been fortunate to find nothing about DJ (or QF) that reminds me of JQ.

I was thinking more of the the general comparison of flying QF/DJ v LCC. I have never flown TT, but view QF and DJ as each offering a comparable domestic product (the same, but different ). I've been pretty happy (but have had some disappointments) with aspects of both.




Now if I fly JQ, my expectations are adjusted acordingly.

 

[yohy?!]

Thinking in terms of safety issues, JQ and TT really belong in the same category - ie TT being grounded, JQ multiple landing and take off incidents, JQ Low Hour Cadets etc etc

 

[777]

Thinking in terms of safety issues, JQ and TT really belong in the same category - ie TT being grounded, JQ multiple landing and take off incidents, JQ Low Hour Cadets etc etc

I will be boarding my JQ flight in an hour. Can you not mention that til I arrive?

Thx!

 

[lovestotravel]

Thinking in terms of safety issues, JQ and TT really belong in the same category - ie TT being grounded, JQ multiple landing and take off incidents, JQ Low Hour Cadets etc etc

Correct!

Two airlines I never fly and for good reason

 

[MarkD]

Thinking in terms of safety issues, JQ and TT really belong in the same category - ie TT being grounded, JQ multiple landing and take off incidents, JQ Low Hour Cadets etc etc

Some of those young guys, guided by the right people, trained properly. An be as good/ better than some of the older blokes. Don't believe in knocking the cadets, they wouldn't be in the right hand seat had they not passed the flight tests and exams required to complete the job safely


Excuse the typos, this was sent from my iPhone using Fat fingers

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Yes, but isn't the decision really between either QF and DJ, or between either JQ and TT?

For some, yes. For me, no. DJ has me roped in a bit with status, but I'm essentially an LCC flyer. DJ was a LCC so all was good. Now DJ have upped their prices on the back of a push to match QF but are yet to fully get there......stuck somewhere in between, but really, that's just trivia for me. The reality is their fares are no longer viable for LCC flyers (well me anyway). The comparison is very much between DJ, JQ and TT, but DJ themselves don't want to be there. The commitment to stay competitive on the recreational level (LCC I think they mean) is indeed hollow. They aren't there any more. Sometimes they are and that's fine, I'll fly with them, but mostly they aren't. I'm now not bitter as I've made the decision and feel happy about it, but I was getting bitter and I realised that fact and realised the answer was cut them loose. For DJ to succeed, they too have to realise what they are. They've failed at staying competitive with LCC so they need to cast it off entirely. Ditch the pay for food and stop using that cough about staying competitive for LCC as a reason to continue to fleece Y after charging full service fares. Good while it lasted, but it's finished now. My status will wain over the next couple of years but hey, I can actually live with that.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

serfty was going to fly there in November 2010 I think when a sale presented flights for $49, and I’ve seen them at $59 too, but the standard price is $183…

When I had to go, it was over $500 each way......hence the drive (I also enjoy driving, especially west).

 

[777]

For DJ to succeed, they too have to realise what they are.

While it may not apply to your personal priorities the reality is that DJs current set of moves ARE successful. FF members are up, yield (i.e. fare per bum per seat) are up, their share of the corporate market is up (nearly doubled), their profits are up and by just about any measure they are more successful now than they were when they started the shift. For them to succeed that's what they need to do. They have decided (and i think rightly) that they cant simply undercut Tiger and Jetstar on price and they are trying to position themselves accordingly.

While it might not be working for you (whose main criteria is simply price) it is clearly working for a whole stack of people who measure price/ value along with a range of other factors. I'm not arguing you're wrong for your own needs but DJs definition of success and your definition of their success clearly are starting to diverge.

 

[oz_mark]

. I'm now not bitter as I've made the decision and feel happy about it, but I was getting bitter and I realised that fact and realised the answer was cut them loose. For DJ to succeed, they too have to realise what they are.

Good on you. Sometimes a great sense of relief comes from making a decision to cut the ties, and realise that something is not for you anymore.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

the reality is that DJs current set of moves ARE successful. FF members are up, yield (i.e. fare per bum per seat) are up, their share of the corporate market is up (nearly doubled), their profits are up and by just about any measure they are more successful now

Well that's true and I'm happy for that too. Let's see how they're traveling a couple of years down the track. I suspect they will sort out their current issues and still be going well, but if they don't manage that, it may well be a different story and hence my comment about DJ needing to realise what they are (it is a part of them sorting out their current issues).. BTW, my main criteria is not simply price. It's value for money. The base price is however a big factor in that. Some people see value in flexis....I don't. Some people see value in J......unfortunately, I don't (as much as I'd love to). My travel is akin to jumping on a bus to go to work and given the wait for the plane is as long as the flight time (for the vast majority of my flying) the lounge respresents value, fly ahead represents value and a plane that doesn't drop out of the sky represents value. I really do wish there was more to my commute than that, but there is not.

 

[ff-jr]

I'm quite the opposite in terms of my flying patterns (entirely self-funded, mostly leisure and I should only just scrape through for Gold this year) however I also share a different view of the airlines.

From my experiences, Qantas seat in you ramshackle cabins with stuffy, insufferable staff who have zero concept for customer service. Some years ago I made the decision to never fly them again and that's something I will forever stick (with the shameful exception of a sponsored trip to France last year, and believe me I clawed for alternate transportation. "A tug boat! Anything!") Sure, their reach is wider, but that doesn't define my experience.

And on that note, an experience is just what Virgin provide for me. Even as Blue I preferred their product. There were no illusions or pretenses or superior attitudes and they've managed to roll that in an even better standard of product and delivery. It works for me and I'm a happy, loyal customer. To be honest, I don't even look at other airlines to compare prices but I don't feel the price rises have been steep and I certainly feel they're justified.

Good on you for making a decision though. I feel we'll see a lot more people drawing their line in the sand once the status matching begins to dry up, and everybody is perfectly entitled to their preferences. It's the nature of good competition!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

It's the nature of good competition!

Agree totally....and that (IMHO) is the greatest thing DJ have done for the Australian air travel market, including days of "Blue". Without them, we'd all be paying premium prices (I can still now fly BNE-PER cheaper than I could fly MEL-PER in 1983.....in fact considerably cheaper).

 

[greenfish]

Agree totally....and that (IMHO) is the greatest thing DJ have done for the Australian air travel market, including days of "Blue". Without them, we'd all be paying premium prices (I can still now fly BNE-PER cheaper than I could fly MEL-PER in 1983.....in fact considerably cheaper).

Hear, hear. Pre-DJ, there is no way I could have afforded to commute BNE CBR at my own expense.

 

[loobloke]

BFOD usually means QF wins if you have time/date constraints.

I'm just booking my flights for next few months - between ADL/MEL, DJ has like 30% flights on the cheaper sale, QF has about 90% on the slightly more expensive but still cheap sale fare. They have lower fares - but the allocations to that fare bucket are dismal compared to QF.

 

[JohnK]

Huh? Aren't you commuting both ways John? If you have to commute SYD-BNE then you are coming back BNE-SYD. Or are you implying that you only use the one airline for both sectors rather than mix it up?

Yes I am commuting both ways but there is a difference.

If you are commuting SYD-BNE then most likely up to BNE on a Sunday and back to SYD on Friday.

If commuting BNE-SYD then most likely down to SYD on a Sunday and back to BNE on a Friday.

If commuting SYD-BNE, like me, and travelling up Sunday evening and back on Friday evening then Qantas wins hands down most times except for school holidays where it may be even or Virgin slightly ahead.

I hope that is clearer.

 

[munitalP]

Yes I am commuting both ways but there is a difference.

If you are commuting SYD-BNE then most likely up to BNE on a Sunday and back to SYD on Friday.

If commuting BNE-SYD then most likely down to SYD on a Sunday and back to BNE on a Friday.

If commuting SYD-BNE, like me, and travelling up Sunday evening and back on Friday evening then Qantas wins hands down most times except for school holidays where it may be even or Virgin slightly ahead.

I hope that is clearer.

And as someone who has commuted weekly for 12 months SYD (Friday) MEL & return SUN or MON (6am) I agree with JK that QF beat DJ on pricing at least 90% of the time.

When the commute is self funded, looking at cost and timing is very important as is purchasing flights months in advance for best deals.

My job frequently screws up my programming with interstate travel ending on Fridays or starting Mondays. Fortunately for me, this can start or end in MEL. The ability to easily change a pre booked fare for $30 over the net with no phone calls or human interaction required is a hands down winner, this alone is a stand out reason why QF again get the mark of approval with me.

A couple of posts back (on iPhone so can't see poster while replying), you make a lot of statements regarding shabby AC and sour FAs yet you have not flown QF for many years, in fact you don't even compare prices. I am sure I am not of your learned level with flying experiences, however I must comment that I have had equally good and bad service on QF and DJ/VA, and the level of bad has been so tolerable that I still happily fly both airlines any day of the week.

 

[nlagalle]

Some of those young guys, guided by the right people, trained properly. An be as good/ better than some of the older blokes. Don't believe in knocking the cadets, they wouldn't be in the right hand seat had they not passed the flight tests and exams required to complete the job safely

Sorry but as someone who does fly with a PPL I don't agree with your comment above. The cadets lack one thing the "older blokes" have - hours in the air. No accelerated course is going to replace that. A just because they pass the flight tests doesn't mean they know how to deal with all situations.

 

[greenfish]

"there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots"

 

[nlagalle]

Priority boarding, free seat selection, automatically allocating front rows to status passengers, automatic selecting of preferred seats, business class, reasonably good odds of an upgrade to J, on board recognition of status, free coffee tea etc, generous FF program that earns points and SCs on all flight, etc. Yep, that's why i fly Jetstar.

[having said all that, i will be boarding a JQ flight in a couple of hours - sometimes they are the best option]

On that, QF seat selection is much better than VA's mainly as you don't have to wait til T-14 days to select a seat. Yes you still need to wait til T-80 but then CL is their "top Tier" as such but if VA introduce a tier like CL then the same will happen to Row 3. To me Priority boarding is the same on both now (had one fail on each so far). Never had an upgrade. I like the lounge, but they need spirits!!!

I'll still fly VA when it suits, but QF will still remain by primary choice. Part of this is the pricing and the fare structure.