Different Treatment as an Upgrade Customer

[Ausbt]

I still look back in wonder at the service provided to my flying Y on EY last year - preferential meal service before any other pax, extra drinks offered. Had a similar situation on Air NZ as well. It seems VA's partners are up to the task.

 

[Sojourner]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I can confirm that I did not fly ahead on an earlier flight, and at no time was I informed that catering was not assured (neither when I confirmed the upgrade over the phone more than 24 hours prior to the flight or in the lounge).

As a platinum flyer, I did feel somewhat embarrassed when told I would need to wait for all passengers to order their meal before I could find out if I could have mine This also meant I was one of the last to be served my meal despite being the second person to order their meal.

On reflection, I was just disappointed with the whole experience.

I'm reluctant to bother complaining since I did end up getting the meal I wanted, and suspect the GCC will simply resort to that response

If it were me, I'd make a complaint. It's not just about whether you got your meal choice or not, it's how you were treated in front of other passengers and how they made you feel.

It's also the issue of not having transparency in knowing the lesser quality of service you would be offered so you could make a fully informed decision.

I have no qualms when it is a late upgrade and have been told 'meals not assured' - because at that point you can choose not to take the flight if you don't like it. But if you've upgraded well in advance then they should not be treating you differently to other business passengers but still act as though you're all getting the same product. They should instead promote upgrades as something like "low priority business class" - I'm sure there will be some that when the difference in service is explained to them - will either choose to just pay the full fare and get a proper service, or take their business elsewhere.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I haven't read all the responses, but I think the OP is correct in the assumption.

In the last 2 months I've flown 6 J VA sectors with a mix of paid outright (3) plus upgradeMe (1), points (1) and comp (1) upgrades. On the paid outright, I've noticed I get served first in 2F even once when I had a guy in 2D beside me and others in row 1. On the point and comp upgrades, I haven't been served first. I honestly can't remember when I was served on the upgradeMe sector. FWIW, I don't have an issue with that.....someone has to go last and I don't mind it being me when I'm on an upgrade.

EDIT......actually, I don't mind it being me at any time. I honestly don't find the J meals that exciting that'd I'd feel hard done by if I missed out on choice 1. Last flight, I had an egg wrap (not even egg and lettuce, the lettuce must have been too expensive). On another thread I mused about where the flexi wrap had disappeared to.........well I found it.....it must have used a comp upgrade and moved up to J! :mrgreen:

 

[Milefest]

I haven't read all the responses, but I think the OP is correct in the assumption.

In the last 2 months I've flown 6 J VA sectors with a mix of paid outright (3) plus upgradeMe (1), points (1) and comp (1) upgrades. On the paid outright, I've noticed I get served first in 2F even once when I had a guy in 2D beside me and others in row 1. On the point and comp upgrades, I haven't been served first. I honestly can't remember when I was served on the upgradeMe sector. FWIW, I don't have an issue with that.....someone has to go last and I don't mind it being me when I'm on an upgrade.

EDIT......actually, I don't mind it being me at any time. I honestly don't find the J meals that exciting that'd I'd feel hard done by if I missed out on choice 1. Last flight, I had an egg wrap (not even egg and lettuce, the lettuce must have been too expensive). On another thread I mused about where the flexi wrap had disappeared to.........well I found it.....it must have used a comp upgrade and moved up to J! :mrgreen:

I'm curious, I rarely fly revenue J and when I do I've found the service the same as when I upgrade with points/upgradme, obviously YMMV.

Do the FAs actually know which pax are revenue J pax and which aren't?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I'm curious, I rarely fly revenue J and when I do I've found the service the same as when I upgrade with points/upgradme, obviously YMMV.

Do the FAs actually know which pax are revenue pax and which aren't?

I believe they do have a printout which details fare class. Just to clarify, my "paid outright" J were not full revenue, but sale fares ($319 BNE-CNS when I was paying $250-$260 or thereabouts flexi Y........mad not to). I have no idea what the fare class for that was......I have a BP in the office, I'll go and have a look! BTW, there is nothing overly scientific about my comment and it may be entirely coincidental......I have no idea, but I did notice it before I read this thread.

EDIT: Fare class for sale fare J is "D". I think fare class for upgrade is "Z"

 

[serfty]

..

EDIT: Fare class for sale fare J is "D". I think fare class for upgrade is "Z"

VA used J C D I & Z ...

D & I are discount/sales fare buckets.

 

[drron]

QF is not immune from service failures.A month ago was flying paid J,all be it D fare,when I was told I couldn't order 2 "small"plates but if the second order was left over at the end of service I could then have it.I didn't get it yet saw none of that selection go out and a FA eating said dish in galley when I went to the loo.
I am only PS and LQP but had my WP wife next to me.And I got the WP type greeting not her-happens nearly every time on QF.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Perhaps he was crew or staff.

Unless something has changed, Virgin Australia do not allow crew or staff to travel in domestic J at ALL. Not even if you are a Captain. They travel in Y class. Staff travel in J is allowed on international long haul though. So the problem Qantas sometimes has when sometimes half or more of the J cabin are on staff travel does not exist on Virgin (domestically).

 

[NZflygirl]

On reflection, I was just disappointed with the whole experience.

I'm reluctant to bother complaining since I did end up getting the meal I wanted, and suspect the GCC will simply resort to that response

why don't you mask your response as constructive criticism?? Just stick to facts and say, this is what happened, and make your suggestion for improvement.

Despite cash being king, there should be a way around this whole upgrade treatment thing.

 

[medhead]

Fortunately for me, being a gay man means that I have never purchased or been handbag shopping with my partner so that was a ballpark estimate.

Unfortunately, SWMBO has trained me to be able to walk into various upmarket handbag places around the world, ask the price for a model (that I can name) to make a comparison of value vs buying in Australia.

And I am never critical of Qantas? The business class downgrade threads are just one example. The call centre wait times are another huge issue that need to be addressed.

But what you are saying is that I have no credibility and my poor customer service experiences on Virgin mean nothing?

I'm not saying that at all.

 

[clipped_wings]

How is a dumbass Red Member like me ever going to become a full-fare-paying disciple of J class with Virgin, if the few times I get to experience it (with points upgrade) are only a glimmer of the full soft product? Upgrading with points/status and then feeling like you are unworthy to be there is not a great scenario.

I guess I must pay full fare the first time to ascertain if I want to pay next time. Saving everything for full fare PAX is probably the modus operandi, but isn't it shutting out those potential customers.

I own my own business and I'd like to think that I treat the $50 customer exactly the same as the $150,000 customer. That's because my $150,000 customer started out as a $50 customer...........

 

[clipped_wings]

PS - in no way am I inferring that I've not been treated wonderfully as an upgraded passenger. My comments were more hypothetical.

 

[Lemon_Party]

Just because I didn't pay the $2400 J class fare, doesn't mean I didn't already spend $10,000 earning the points on my Virgin credit card or flying the thousands of paid miles on Virgin PE flights for my points in the first place. I think anyone who has secured a J fare is a J passenger.

+1

To get to WP and obtain the 4 free J upgrades can take a concerted effort to push work and personal travel the way of VA and partners and normally will involve a lot of revenue spend on VA. I expect when I use my upgrades I am treated exactly the same as a full fare J pax. I've also had to purchase a flexi to get this seat - which on a coast to coast service may be $300-$400 more than a saver on the day (admittedly not an $1800 fare, but...).

That said, I've never personally had an issue not getting my meal of choice with a VA J upgrade, even with an at gate OP-UP due to overbooked flight.

If I was the OP I'd be sending feedback to VA on this.

 

[TomVexille]

No but you already knew that anyway.

VA does not know how to do customer service. You don't have to agree with me and you don't have to try and correct any of my posts on the matter. Understood?

Merely seeking clarification as there are plenty of examples in this thread already of QF having the same service failures.

 

[24601]

I own my own business and I'd like to think that I treat the $50 customer exactly the same as the $150,000 customer. That's because my $150,000 customer started out as a $50 customer...........

You're not a loan shark, are you?

I once got a "checked bags not assured" stamp on my Rex boarding pass. Never had an issue on comp upgrade on VA, but do recall meals running out on full paid J on at least one occasion.

 

[OzEire]

Here is a twist on the issue. I was in a full fare paying QF J flight MEL-PER (or reverse), in row 2. FA taking my order asked what I wanted and my only possible reply could be "what is available ?" The FA asked me if I had looked at the menu, my reply "I have no menu". FA says, "oh, you must have dropped it" and asked me to look while she moved to other pax.

Returning about 5 mins later we both clarified that, indeed, I had no menu. Lucky for me the only choice leftover was my least favourite "oh well" says the FA, I'm sure it will be nice. Thanks for that.

Not surprised, and I'm not fussed by the fairly average meals anyway, I'm just bemused by the cabin staff thinking this level of service is perfectly fine.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I flew PER-SYD flexi recently and used one of my complimentary upgrades to J more than 24 hours prior to departure. During the meal service, I asked what dish I would like, when I responded, I was told that I would have to wait for everyone else to give their selection as only certain amount of the dish was loaded on board. I understand that an on departure upgrade immediately before the flight in the lounge may be not be catering guaranteed, but this upgrade request was confirmed more than 24 hours before the flight. It worked out that they did have one dish left that I wanted (which didn't taste that great in the end anyway).

Has anyone else noticed this now, or have been treated any differently by cabin crew from a upgraded ticket or award flight? I presume the manifest shows the fare class of all passengers? Does anyone know if QF adopt the same policies?

Cheers

I've been flying Trans-cons with Flexi upgrades for nearly 5 years on VA, most recently last weekend and I have never experienced this kind of meal service.
I'd say that something was wrong on the manifest or the FA got confused and thought you were a late upgrade at the Lounge.

Same experiences on QF, no difference whether paid J or upgrades. QF do seem to do some sort of ordering by status at times in the J cabin on the A330s IME.

 

[bullerdude]

You should never be treated differently in J based on whether your fare is paid or points... as that does nothing to promote the airline or its service levels.

In terms of who gets served first - There certainly seems to be huge inconsistency and crew making up there own rules on whether to service paying, status or other passengers first.

I think they should do it based on direction of the flight so that all flights are consistent, e.g. Row 1 first for North or East flights and Last row first for South or West flights.

But regardless of what method they are using, you should never feel like you are being treated separately.

From my own J class flights, I've had all the variations of being service first, middle and last on a mix of paid, upgrade and points flights.

 

[drron]

You're not a loan shark, are you?

I once got a "checked bags not assured" stamp on my Rex boarding pass. Never had an issue on comp upgrade on VA, but do recall meals running out on full paid J on at least one occasion.

And Rex really mean it.On my last BWT-MEL flight several pax had their bags offloaded.Caused great consternation and a late departure.Basically those bags over 15Kg didn't make the flight.

 

[clipped_wings]

You're not a loan shark, are you?

I once got a "checked bags not assured" stamp on my Rex boarding pass. Never had an issue on comp upgrade on VA, but do recall meals running out on full paid J on at least one occasion.

Ha! I wish......merely a sign writer.