Failed Virgin Experiences...

[munitalP]

As there is just so much bubbly great stories coming from a few regarding how great Virgin has become, I thought it appropriate that there is a reality check on the Virgin fails as well. We have read recent events such as PAX not feeling the love from VA anymore, and PAX (including myself) annoyed at the lack of control of the Y+ product not to mention a few other issues.

So not wanting to make this a VA bagging thread, I would like to start the ball rolling so VA can get an idea of some of the holes that need plugging - and there's a few I am seeing. Maybe they can use this to help them improve.

To place a caveat on my statements, I am basing them on being a long standing Qantas Platinum frequent flyer, and previous to that, an Air NZ Gold E flyer - in other words, I think I am suitably qualified to make these remarks.

Being an open forum, there's no way on placing rules on the thread, but I would like to state that it would be great to keep on topic, and try offer a solution with any moan!

Here goes:

VA - you need to....

Recognise status PAX when selecting seating. No Gold or Platinum (or Silver) wants to be seated in a middle seat! Today I experienced being admittedly row 4 an E seat assigned to me for a MEL / SYD flight. As Anat0l pointed out on another social media means, it was remarkable all asile or windows were taken by status PAX. Solution to this problem - sort your software out and follow QF lead on forward seat selection!

Flex Tickets should not automatically allow for any seating assignment. An easy way to get your status PAX nose out of joint is to have another PAX who has purchased a ticket that is a top fare bucket*, and by default it trumps seating requests of status PAX. It defeats the purpose of having priority seating available (if it actually works). Solution - stop this horrible process.

Rants over for the time being

munitalP



* excluding Y+ or J

 

[Noob]

I think this is a good idea for a thread, especially with such a good presence of VA representatives on this forum it will make it easy for them to identify and fix problems.

Probably the biggest thing at the moment I would love to see fixed is lounge food. It's not bad, but adequate - pretty much on par with the QP. Most people want to see more substantial hot options (see lounge food thread).

I would also love to see a new 'saver plus' economy fare which is a already complete package of food/drink and baggage to actively compete with Red-e-deal fares. The lowest fare, saver, would compete for the discount/family leisure market.

Saver - Lowest economy fare with complimentary water/coffee/tea and IFE.
Saver Plus - economy fare with food, beverage, IFE and luggage included
Flexi - flexible economy fare with food, beverage, IFE and luggage included
Premium - Business class fare with all the extras

As there is just so much bubbly great stories coming from a few regarding how great Virgin has become.....

Just to note as well, in one thread alone ("Your great Virgin Australia experiences") I counted 30 different members posting about their great VA experiences - To say good, bubbly reports about the new Virgin Australia only comes from "a few" is simply not true.

The same of course goes for QF, for every negative post there are five positive ones - don't take it out of context just because the negative reports 'kick and scream' so everyone hears.

 

[markis10]

I agree with the idea for a thread like this, balance is important!

From my perspective the seating could be improved, it took QF 20 years to get it right, lets hope VA are quicker. I would also like to see hot food for dinner and breakfast available on the shorter flights as well as priority baggage, why VS Gold get it and VA dont I will never know!

 

[N860CR]

I've noticed the VA checkin agents are getting very cough about cabin baggage. Good thing, in general, I know... but I had my bag refused even though it was within the size limits (didn't argue as I wasn't in any rush) and I noticed at the Sydney check-in desk yesterday that a Gold member was throwing her underwear and other such things around to try and get her small cabin bag below 7kg. Fair enough, if it's heavy, but when she put it back onto the scales and the agent said "it's still 7.4kg, take out some shoes and put them into your handbag" it seemed a bit of an overkill for a status passenger. I've seen the same a few times over the last few weeks which is very frustrating when you see non-status pax who have checked in online walk down the aisle with large and heavy bags.

My general feeling is that the ground crews aren't used to the discresion that can often be extended to high status passengers. They're probably still stuck in the day where everyone was the same and a target for more revenue. I can't recall a time when QF have weighed my cabin bag.

 

[Noob]

Technically they should weight it, just to make sure it doesn't weigh an excessive amount for safety.

However, If this is not just a one off incident they should give status pax/J class some more leeway in the weight of their carry on - 0.5KG is not worth upsetting a guest.

 

[markis10]

E170s would be an answer that meets the thread question

 

[Noob]

E170s would be an answer that meets the thread question

It's a shame, they were a lovely little jet

 

[777]

Recognise status PAX when selecting seating. No Gold or Platinum (or Silver) wants to be seated in a middle seat!

Did you ask about this? I am actually pretty fanatical about getting an aisle seat (nervous flyer, long story) BUT i have never been refused my request for an aisle since i've been gold if i explicitly talk to someone to request one. Occasionally that involves getting bumped back (quite) a few rows but they always get me one.

Obviously, if it's a full fllght there's a finite number of aisle seats up the front but they always accomodate my preference if i ask.

.. however, don't take this as gratuitous defence of DJ, i do have a small but growing list of DJ things that i p' me off - not least of which is the withdrawl of advertised taste test upgrades ... WHILE STILL ADVERTISING THEM. there's plenty more. Will get back to you as the thread grows

 

[LiamR]

Hmmm, what would I like to see improved?

As discussed in other threads, food in lounges.

Defiantly the IT system. Would be nice to be able select a seat before -24 (or at least, a preference) with the ability to change after you've checked in.

On that note, I want to be able to go to a kiosk and print a boarding pass after I've checked in. Since I have to checkin early (can't select a seat before -24) I checkin on whatever device I'm using, usually it won't have a printer. Currently I have to annoy a ground crew member. Would be nice to grab it from a kiosk as I enter the airport.

On that note... the checkin kiosks.

Compared to QF... they are.....soooo.....slow.

*Swipe Velocity Card*

Retrieving your booking, please wait.

30 second Gap

You are in seat (insert any seat but the one you want here)

*Change Seat*

30 second gap

Seat menu loads.

*Select a better seat*

30 second gap.

Got any explosives or other dangerous goods?

No

*30 second gap*

You are now checked in!

Liam: Finally!

Would be nice to make these much faster. OOL is particularly bad, SYD and MEL is a little faster, but not much. The QF ones are pretty much instant. Am I the only one that finds them slow?

 

[notzac]

DJ's check in / seat selection / related systems are complete pants. I generally get reasonable seats .. but it's far less predictable than with QF. My main gripe is the lack of interconnectivity with outside systems - for example, DJ in MEL cannot issue my boarding pass for a VA flight departing from SYD. And when departing from an EY station, I'm able to get my VA boarding pass but not my DJ boarding pass.

I'm also just a little bit over having to do manual points claims for flights.

This sort of stuff shouldn't be happening in 2011, IMHO.

 

[VMAN]

VA - you need to....

Recognise status PAX when selecting seating. No Gold or Platinum (or Silver) wants to be seated in a middle seat! Today I experienced being admittedly row 4 an E seat assigned to me for a MEL / SYD flight. As Anat0l pointed out on another social media means, it was remarkable all asile or windows were taken by status PAX. Solution to this problem - sort your software out and follow QF lead on forward seat selection!

Flex Tickets should not automatically allow for any seating assignment. An easy way to get your status PAX nose out of joint is to have another PAX who has purchased a ticket that is a top fare bucket*, and by default it trumps seating requests of status PAX. It defeats the purpose of having priority seating available (if it actually works). Solution - stop this horrible process.

Rants over for the time being

munitalP



* excluding Y+ or J

Status recognition, that deserves an amen and a hallelujah!

I recall being behind 2 girls who were bumped to PE seats, this is not the drama, what was annoying was them talking about how this was their first flight "ever". pretty annoying being a person who does 80+ domestic flights PA + 1 return business BNE - LAX flights per year.

I am not saying this to have a whinge (does feel good to vent though) I'm just saying that VA really needs to pay attention to the customers who underpin the airline with very frequent travel

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I recall being behind 2 girls who were bumped to PE seats,

I'll post this experience on this thread, but I don't actually class it as being a "Failed DJ Experience", in fact quite the opposite, the lounge angels in BNE were fantastic, as was the call centre lady, but here goes anyway......

Last week, I had BNE-CNS booked for Sat. morning and as the accom booked in Cairns at the Hilton was for two (with included full buffet breakfast) I asked my wife if she wanted to accompany me. She agreed so I booked her and changed both to PE fares.....full, not tasters, primarily so I could gain gold . Ok no problems, DJ kindly did this change without financial penalty (although I did get reminded saver fares cannot be changed without the fee and I was bordering on being a serial offender ).

As it turned out, my changing to PE was fortuitous as Friday morning my client advised me of alterations to my job which meant I had to travel on the Friday evening rather than Sat morning, rung DJ who happily changed our booking to Fri evening. As I only did this as I was running out the door to another job, I didn't have time to check the booking confirmation but believed it was 6.40pm departure (as my steel trap like memory is never wrong....just a little rusted at times). Fri was busy and hectic but managed to get work done, kids farmed out to relos, Hilton booked for second night, carpark booking changed and off to the airport with a few hours to spare.

Uh, problem......bloody traffic. There we were, in heavy traffic and my biggest concern being I would loose valuable new BNE Lounge time so I asked my wife to grab out the booking confirmation and see if my memory was right, that it was 6.40 (twenty to seven) or could it possibly have been twenty past seven (more lounge time, I hoped). Well, as a huge dent to my ego, my wife declares it's neither, it's departing BNE @ 16.40 :shock:........16.40? A quick glance at the clock shows current time as 16.40 . DJ was quickly phoned and the lady pulled us rapidly off the departing flight (yes we had done OLCI and sorry to all if we held up that flight at all) and then mentioned that there was a later flight, but.....only one seat remainded. As I had to be in CNS for the job, I was booked and we decided my wife would come to the airport regardless as surely someone would bail and there'd be a seat for her.

The great BNE lounge angels placed her on stand-by and we all felt confident that a seat would magically appear! Not to be, I'm afraid. Everyone checked-in and turned up......full house! To cut an even longer story short, we were able to book my wife on JQ so she still came up for a weekend away but my question is with the DJ proceedures. This is NOT a complaint about them, just a clarification in my own mind. As PE, I was seated in 1A. Beside me was a lady who obviously was not PE (she wasn't offered a digi-player, nor did she know what was in the little zipped case (the ear-phones) and when she ordered off the trolley, I overheard the FA tell her it was complimentary for that flight but she also didn't get a flexi-meal, which leads me to believe she was on an upgrade to PE seating on a saver fare..........likely a status upgrade on a chockers flight, which I don't have an issue with, to be honest. So back to my question, would I be correct in assuming booked passengers (even saver, no status) have priority over changing PE passengers however had even one seat been available, my wife (on a PE fare) would have had the PE seat and the upgrade lady beside me have been relegated to the back of the bus?

Overall, it was definitely a failed flying experience, but failure was due to me I'm afraid, not DJ (but can I yell and rant regardless to make me feel less stupid )

 

[munitalP]

Didn't take long did it...

 

[Saab34]

On my most recent flight, I did dummy booking just over 1hr prior to departure in the lounge (when the cutoff is), put in 7 pax and PE was still showing as myself being the only pax in there. So come boarding I find all 138 seats sold out with the Premium cabin full of "upgrades", none of which were flexi either.

I dont know if you attempted to do this before the flight but it should have displayed availability considering it was over 2hrs before dep.

PE cabin should be for PE paying pax only. Golds for Row 3.

 

[medhead]

Must say I was slightly annoyed on Monday morning to be stuck in row 3 on an almost full aircraft (1A,C empty) to see 2C randomly swapped with someone from row 4+ and 1D and F being sold food.

Anyway, I quickly got over it and went back to sleep.

 

[notzac]

Didn't take long did it...

For what, exactly..?

 

[UP4014]

For what, exactly..?

For someone to post what a great job DJ did and how the problems where all his fault not DJ's. He obviously didn't understand the purpose of thread.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Didn't take long did it...

Sorry chief, in real life conversations take different turns, why not on a forum?

 

[notzac]

For someone to post what a great job DJ did and how the problems where all his fault not DJ's. He obviously didn't understand the purpose of thread.

Fair call.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

For someone to post what a great job DJ did and how the problems where all his fault not DJ's. He obviously didn't understand the purpose of thread.

By "he" I assume you mean me. If so, may I say I did deliberate before posting, but my decision revolved around two of what I classed as primary thread parameters.

Those being:
1. the thread title "Failed Virgin Experiences"; and
2. The OP stating it wasn't to be used for "bagging" Virgin as such

My experience ticked both boxes, it was a failed Virgin experience (at no point did the OP state the failed experience had to be Virgins fault) and I took care not to bag them.

Where did I misunderstand?