DJ J trip Report

[markis10]

Currently sitting on a 738 in J and hopefully can give a review of the changed service levels, off to a good start with a LM mock tail with Ginseng, Lime and raspberry, very refreshing!

 

[markis10]

Lunch was the choice of sheppards pie or Asian salad with tofu, with Dukkah/Olive Oil and a very nice tart, however traveling with a nut allergy sufferer, both the Dukkah and Tart were not edible, with no alternatives available. There was a choice of three wines which were very good, however having chosen the pie I found it very bland and disappointing.

In hindsight I found the meal to be slightly below in quality to similar lunch servings in J with QF, but a sample of 1 is after all not a big sample statistically, so I will have to do some more flights to confirm .

 

[elbarto]

..........

 

[haydensydney]

Thanks for the report

 

[markis10]

The pics are coming, the camera stayed on the plane

 

[airtraveladdict]

lol can't wait for the pics.

 

[muppet]

OP-Up this morning. CBR-MEL absolutely chockas on the flight.
Breakfast was a fruit salad, croisant and choice of ricotta pancakes or bacon and mushroom filo wrap with lots of cheese on top. I had the wrap and it was quite good. Higher standard of food than QF I feel, but the foil was taken off once it was my table.

It seems there's not much space for them to arrange anything on the cart as it's really small. I think the galley is heaps smaller than QF, so they do all the arranging back there unlike QF who do it on the cart.

Coffee was offerred, smelled ok but I didn't have any.

No pre-takeoff juice or newspapers.

I'll try to take pics on the return Sunday night on a paid J ticket, but a bit embarassed.

m

 

[airtraveladdict]

OP-Up this morning. CBR-MEL absolutely chockas on the flight.
Breakfast was a fruit salad, croisant and choice of ricotta pancakes or bacon and mushroom filo wrap with lots of cheese on top. I had the wrap and it was quite good. Higher standard of food than QF I feel, but the foil was taken off once it was my table.

It seems there's not much space for them to arrange anything on the cart as it's really small. I think the galley is heaps smaller than QF, so they do all the arranging back there unlike QF who do it on the cart.

Coffee was offerred, smelled ok but I didn't have any.

No pre-takeoff juice or newspapers.

I'll try to take pics on the return Sunday night on a paid J ticket, but a bit embarassed.

m

Nah don't feel embarrased, i used to feel that way too when i was taking pictures for trip reports but not anymore.

You just have to have more front than a david jones store.

Dont worry what people think. I mean, you're in J class, lol so who cares what others think.

 

[dk4]

Pending the return of his camera... Here's a little link to one I posted on here previously.

shepherd's pie on virgin

 

[DSFlyer]

Pending the return of his camera... Here's a little link to one I posted on here previously.

shepherd's pie on virgin

It would be better without those mashed peas in the middle! Hate having to dodge them!

 

[Moopere]

Lunch was the choice of sheppards pie or Asian salad with tofu, with Dukkah/Olive Oil and a very nice tart, however traveling with a nut allergy sufferer, both the Dukkah and Tart were not edible, with no alternatives available. There was a choice of three wines which were very good, however having chosen the pie I found it very bland and disappointing.

Sounds like the same menu I had before Christmas. I had done a little bit of flying in Y in the weeks prior, on both QF and DJ, and the DJ J experience seemed like heaven in comparison.

In hindsight I found the meal to be slightly below in quality to similar lunch servings in J with QF, but a sample of 1 is after all not a big sample statistically, so I will have to do some more flights to confirm

Yes, I'd agree with that. With the reasonable P+P deals going I'm not complaining, its excellent value, but I have reservations about paying essentially a QF cash price for the DJ 737 product in J.

DJ on these aircraft at least are, I think, not going for a full frontal assault with QF. Seems more like a PE++ type thing going on. I guess there are limitations because of the nature of the aircraft.

Having said all this though, QF is simply laughing at us with PER-MEL J pricing at $3K return on the rattly old 767's

 

[Noob]

Yes, I'd agree with that. With the reasonable P+P deals going I'm not complaining, its excellent value, but I have reservations about paying essentially a QF cash price for the DJ 737 product in J.

DJ on these aircraft at least are, I think, not going for a full frontal assault with QF. Seems more like a PE++ type thing going on. I guess there are limitations because of the nature of the aircraft.

Having said all this though, QF is simply laughing at us with PER-MEL J pricing at $3K return on the rattly old 767's

Is this deduction made from comparing narrow body product with wide body product? I'm not going to strike up a QF vs. DJ debate, however, from my experience the two airlines offer a very similar product on their narrow body fleets in J. Qantas 737 J and Virgin 737 J have only small differences, hence I find it odd that you would see the DJ product as intentionally inferior to target a separate "just slightly below" J market?

 

[Moopere]

Is this deduction made from comparing narrow body product with wide body product?

Thats fair. I hadn't finished my morning coffee when I wrote that and combined two thought processes into one blurb.

I'm not going to strike up a QF vs. DJ debate, however, from my experience the two airlines offer a very similar product on their narrow body fleets in J. Qantas 737 J and Virgin 737 J have only small differences, hence I find it odd that you would see the DJ product as intentionally inferior to target a separate "just slightly below" J market?

Yes, I'll cop that, fair criticism.

 

[Noob]

Thats fair. I hadn't finished my morning coffee when I wrote that and combined two thought processes into one blurb.

Yes, I'll cop that, fair criticism.

I didn't mean it as criticism sorry , I was more interested in your thinking. I see you had your patriotic sleep in as well?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

The pics are coming, the camera stayed on the plane

Does your camera often fly unaccompanied in J?

 

[Ansettaddict123]

Is this deduction made from comparing narrow body product with wide body product? I'm not going to strike up a QF vs. DJ debate, however, from my experience the two airlines offer a very similar product on their narrow body fleets in J. Qantas 737 J and Virgin 737 J have only small differences, hence I find it odd that you would see the DJ product as intentionally inferior to target a separate "just slightly below" J market?

Fair call to make Noob, but if a superior QF product is available on larger aircraft on the same route, to me DJ has the inferior product, EVEN if we're comparing aircraft without regard to class (narrow/widebody etc)I completely agree about the 737 V 737 comparison, however if you have the option of QF J in an A332 V DJ J in a 737 on MEL-PER, which would most people prefer? (and yes, i say this knowing that DJ J is not far from being introduced on the A332 MEL-PER and VV) And for the record, and I'd still prefer Virgins J #fanboyism

 

[maninblack]

I have now done 3 flights on the new true J product on the Virgin 738. Unfortunately pretty unimpressed with most aspects so far but I will give it a bit (I stress a bit) more time to come up to scratch. Ultimately you cannot win customers on smiles alone and the food service and IFE situation really is a total balls-up.

 

[lovestotravel]

I have now done 3 flights on the new true J product on the Virgin 738. Unfortunately pretty unimpressed with most aspects so far but I will give it a bit (I stress a bit) more time to come up to scratch. Ultimately you cannot win customers on smiles alone and the food service and IFE situation really is a total balls-up.

I'll report back late tonight or tomororw, after my 2 flights....

No IFE is a big FAIL to me, but I have a tablet
Food - Can be easily fixed and I should get 1 x dinner and 1 x supper service.

I have flown QF Domestic J about 8 times in the past few years, and have always been impressed.

We'll see

 

[Noob]

I have now done 3 flights on the new true J product on the Virgin 738. Unfortunately pretty unimpressed with most aspects so far but I will give it a bit (I stress a bit) more time to come up to scratch. Ultimately you cannot win customers on smiles alone and the food service and IFE situation really is a total balls-up.

In the interest of productive discussion, could you elaborate on what made the flights unimpressive?

Fair call to make Noob, but if a superior QF product is available on larger aircraft on the same route, to me DJ has the inferior product, EVEN if we're comparing aircraft without regard to class (narrow/widebody etc)I completely agree about the 737 V 737 comparison, however if you have the option of QF J in an A332 V DJ J in a 737 on MEL-PER, which would most people prefer? (and yes, i say this knowing that DJ J is not far from being introduced on the A332 MEL-PER and VV) And for the record, and I'd still prefer Virgins J #fanboyism

QF operates A330-200, 767-300, 737-800 and sometimes A330-300 aircraft on the MEL-PER route. The majority of flights i.e. 85% of flights every day are domestically configured aircraft which have a seat pitch in J of roughly 37-38 inches - identical to what Virgin currently offers on their 737-800 aircraft.

Therefore sure QF product is going to be better on the same route if you book a flight with an internationally configured aircraft.

No IFE is a big FAIL to me, but I have a tablet

There is IFE, a Dig-e-player is offered.

Please elaborate on the difference between being offered a Dig-e-player with a choice of entertainment options as an interim solution and having an overhead tv every few rows on the majority of QF domestic aircraft?



Source: http://www.theqantassource.com/ & http://www.qantas.com.au/

 

[maninblack]

In the interest of productive discussion, could you elaborate on what made the flights unimpressive?

Actually I don't really feel like engaging in lengthy elaboration.
There is nothing exciting or interesting about the service, the F&B, the cabin, the seat or the IFE. In fact they are all very ordinary.
Having flown hundreds of J flights on over 20 airlines (and I am referring to short - medium haul J ), this is not a particularly impressive product.