Failed Virgin Experiences...

[renew]

Speaking as a Qantas stalwart right back to the days of Trans Australian Airlines I tried VA for the first on PER SYD and vv flights a few weeks back, here is my take.

Plane itself (A330) = to QF except older ( ex Emirates) audio vis system hard to operate and very limited choice even if one paid. QF, very extensive and free.

Travel in cattle class. Seat pitch the same as QF, newly upholstered but hard.

Food mediocre and slow. "Flexies" got their food soonest and if they paid a flexi fare for "free" food they were robbed.

Check in either at PER or SYD was very poor. Space limited at both airports. QF gate lounges at PER much larger.

Velocity membership? Points only. No special treatment with checked in luggage.

Take home? I'll stick to QF and a pay little more, choosing A330 over 767 wherever possible. You'll have to work a lot harder VA.

 

[Kylie36]

Hi, Im new so bear with me.

My gripe with Virgin Blue is the continuity of service/assistance given to special needs travellers.
I myself have a vision impairment and the steps, reading the seat numbers are a bit of a problem for me.
and on my last two SYD-BNE- SYD flights it was a bit slap hazard.

On my first flight a night flight on the Thursday before Easter 2009. I was asked at check in if I needed assistance getting to the gate. I said No, I was fine I know the airport well enought etc. I was not paged at preboarding or offered any assistance and then was directed to the wrong seat nor was I offered any assistance disembarking at BNE.

On my first return to Sydney, I cannot fault the staff at BNE - I was paged for preboarding, assisted onto the plane and helped with the seat belt, offered a large print copy of the safety card and was looked after through out the flight by the same steward who assisted me board and also disembark.

I wrote to DJ customer service as well as the DJ rep (I was a corporate travel consultant and the corporates had a big accout with DJ) about both of those experience and was told thank you and it would be passed on etc.

I flew to Brisbane again back in May this year and SYD had approved a little. This time I was paged for preboarding
and thats about it (At least it gave me time to find my seat without holding up the other PAX ) no help with disembarking and had to use the stairs as I couldnt get to the front plus I had the aisle seat and two pax waiting to get off also.

On my flight back to Sydney I was asked at check in if I needed help to the gate and as I had my friend with me she
said she'll take me, but I need help embarking and disembarking. Also because I was early I was moved to an earlier flight (bonus, but my original flight ened up cancelled anyway). The flight was chockers, there was no preboarding pages or announcements for anyone and when boarding started everyone made a mad dash to get on, someone was in my seat and no assist was offered at all once in SYD.

I didnt send any feedback this time and somewhat wished I did. Anyway Im flying SYD-HVB//BNE-SYD in September and havent requested special assistance as I never get it, but I know I can add it later and maybe I should hopefully it may will be third times a charm. Other than that they are very accommodating at my request for an seatbelt extension.

 

[QFMEL]

W or J on the E170/190s.

Great aircraft, but an absurdly ad hoc product, redolent of the worst faux business offerings (LH and SK spring to mind) on regional jets or other short haul equipment.

 

[Noob]

The new menu = EPIC FAIL.

 

[medhead]

The new menu = EPIC FAIL.

What do you work for qantas?

Will get to see the new menu next week.

 

[Friends of None]

The new menu = EPIC FAIL.

Couldn't resist, sorry ;p

Not everything is epic, you coughheads.

#epicburn


(and yes, that is meant to be ironic!)

 

[markis10]

Will get to see the new menu next week.

Its not worth waiting for, take the current one and put a line through the most popular items and you pretty much have it, although the pie has been saved.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Couldn't resist, sorry ;p

Not everything is epic, you ****heads.
#epicburn
(and yes, that is meant to be ironic!)

Some people have epic time on their hands to read so much drivel

(and yes, that is meant to be ironic, too!)

 

[notzac]

From the past 24 hrs:
- Asking the scruffy CS with his shirt half untucked - "We're Premium, could I have some wa.." only to be cut off "I won't know if you're Premium until I see the manifest"
- Having scruffy CS say a few minutes later "Oh you are Premium" then disappear. Had to ask for water again.
- Passenger upgrade by scruff, then given full service from cute but ditsy FA.

I sure hope you wrote in some feedback about said CS. Sounds like a pretty poor service experience to me.

I also had a rogue aircraft Tuesday night when travelling PE Taster. I am going to call the GAD and ask for a credit as I don't see why I shuld pay for a service I did not receive.

Maybe I'm just over-reacting, but .. GAD? Sounds like a venereal disease. Can we just call it the Gold desk?

I read this thread differently, what I think he was saying in the initial thread, is theplat and gold guys in their preferences have asked for an aisle or window andhave been given a middle seat. Poor baby!! The flight was obviously fulland because in their preferences they also ask for forward seating and end upin the middle .... so what, they can ask at the desk to change the seat, sodon’t they check their seating allocation after booking in??

The thing you spend the most time doing in a plane is sitting in your allocated seat. I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to be cranky about rubbish seating allocations (especially when people with zero status get given better seats or worse, put in to PE seats). This is something that QF have down pat; if DJ are trying to get the business of frequent travellers, they're going to have to fix this up.

Also .. disappointing to hear about the menu changes / reduction, though I've not seen it for myself yet.

 

[EmilyHoward]

I haven't been on Virgin for a number of years and now having read this thread have no current plans to try it out anytime soon. So what was all that stuff I was reading in other threads about JB being the next incarnation of Christ or something LOL ... DUH !

EH

 

[777]

I haven't been on Virgin for a number of years and now having read this thread have no current plans to try it out anytime soon. So what was all that stuff I was reading in other threads about JB being the next incarnation of Christ or something LOL ... DUH !

This thread was set up, in part, to counter the genuine amount of enthusiasm that has been gushing towards VA in other threads here. Clearly it asks people to single out the negatives after so much positivity in other threads here and it's healthy that it does that.

But...

I strongly suggest you read the other threads (particularly the "great VA experiences" one) and then compare it to a cross section of the threads in the QF section. Yes, there are criticisms but i would think if you sample both sections fairly VA flyers are on the whole much happier and more enthusiastic than QF ones just now.

 

[Noob]

I haven't been on Virgin for a number of years and now having read this thread have no current plans to try it out anytime soon. So what was all that stuff I was reading in other threads about JB being the next incarnation of Christ or something LOL ... DUH !

EH

LOL WUT? Here is just one thread where I counted over 30 different members praising Virgin Australia.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....great-virgin-australia-experiences-30670.html

This thread was started to offer a place for people to share poor VA experiences, past and present, because the majority of this forum is positive 'lovie dovie' praises for virgin. It offers a great resource for VA representatives who can quickly identify points of weakness/issues to report.

 

[Bob]

I have flown for 45 years and been consistently top tier level with one or more of Ansett, Qantas, AA and Air Canada since 1995. I have now flown approx 10 sectors with Virgin, mostly in Premium Economy. I don't get too excited about variety/quality of food in the Lounge - I just want a quality space to sit and a good coffee. In flight, I just want to be left alone to rest or work. What is important to me is speed through airports, good seating allocations and no annoyance on the flight. From that basis, the items that would improve my experience are: 1. priority baggage off the plane, 2. seats that are not so hard and uncomfortable (6 hours BNE to PER flights are really trying), and 3. seating allocation that provides an empty middle seat in Y if loads permit.

 

[Jack Melon]

I have flown for 45 years and been consistently top tier level with one or more of Ansett, Qantas, AA and Air Canada since 1995. I have now flown approx 10 sectors with Virgin, mostly in Premium Economy. I don't get too excited about variety/quality of food in the Lounge - I just want a quality space to sit and a good coffee. In flight, I just want to be left alone to rest or work. What is important to me is speed through airports, good seating allocations and no annoyance on the flight. From that basis, the items that would improve my experience are: 1. priority baggage off the plane, 2. seats that are not so hard and uncomfortable (6 hours BNE to PER flights are really trying), and 3. seating allocation that provides an empty middle seat in Y if loads permit.

Hey Bob, well i have some exciting news for you! With your 3 points i will answer, if i get them wrong can someone please fix it- cheers.

1. With Virgin's new Business class coast to coast they have priority baggage to make sure your's is first off the plane and collected first, i think they are doing this with the new business class across the fleet as well not just with coast to coast a330 service. I also think you get priority baggage if your velocity gold (please fix this guys if i am incorrect).

2. The seats, now if you have been listening Virgin will be getting rid of the epic failing premium economy and be replacing it with the new sexy ultra new 2x2 config business class seats. Economy has also received a major re-vamp with brand new leather seats and headrests (purple, red and sliver). Some have already said the new business class seats on the 737's are better then QF 737's with the space, the seat itself etc, but that is some of them, the Boeing sky interior (BSI) has a really nice touch too with the mood lighting and space. IFE has yet to be installed as they are yet to reveal a very exciting new system, live2air was a major fail, but i liked watching air crash investigations at 40,000 feet :mrgreen:.

3. There has been a thread recently added that now if you are with velocity you can choose your preferred seat, window, middle or isle. Some of use are speculating, that by the end of they year there will be seat allocation as now they show when you book what aircraft will be operating the flight.

I hope this helps.

Jack

 

[loobloke]

<Redacted --- Off Topic>



Seems most people share my gripes with VA, so hopefully they can see where they need to improve.

1. Seating: I ended up with 27F on a flexi ticket on a completely full plane with no chance to move...
2. Flexi Food: 3 Morning flights in a couple of days, and I ate the same muffin, drank the same juice, munched on the same bar/apple. Some variety would be nice.
3. Lounge Food: Used a few single entry passes, I love my alcohol but IMO food is more important to me. Soup and bread ... meh.
4. FA: I sat in row 2 on a delayed flight. And had to endure the quite personal conversations between the two FA's for an hour whilst waiting to depart. I know we all get bored, but please not right in front of us.

But regardless I'm still quite satisfied with the product. Have had a few outstanding flights, and the rest were quite acceptable.

 

[haydensydney]

I had a bad flight on VA once... it was a overnight HKT-MEL journey in Row 5 / J. Dinner service took too long and the seat was hard = #firstworldproblems

Other than that, VA have been great Good to see that we have both VA resisters (munitalP) and VA adopters (noob and that new guy?) on AFF - it's imperative to have a good balance. I'm firmly in the pro-VA camp, but understand that they aren't perfect either.

Oh, and there was this time, at band camp, when it took forever to get my EY points credited to Velocity (that is all)

 

[VRC]

Inadequate Catering.
Flew DJ705 HBA-BNE 05/08/11.
A flight duration of 3 hours leaving at 1205pm.
Sitting in Row 4 with OH and only 3 people in front of us. Was looking forward to some lunch and the most substantial item left on the trolley was cheese and biscuits! Had run out of sandwiches, wraps and even the salad.
FA most embarrassed and this wasn't a great start to her shift given there were plenty of others left to serve.
Not only did VA miss out on revneue but dented the goodwill of many. This sort of issue should not happen on an airline aspiring to high levels of customer service.

 

[QF WP]

After some discussion between Moderators and admin, we are going to take this topic offline for a while to review the deleted posts and any action.

What I would like to remind everybody is the comments from munitalP (the original poster):

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!

So we love seeing issues being brought to the thread (so VA can take on board), then discussed and solutions offered - of course, these are personal solutions here and may not reflect VA's opinions (unless posted by the VA reps on the board). We must remember to respect everybody's opinions and comments, even if they are in contrast to our own. But when things go off topic and get to being personal, we take a dim view.

 

[admin]

I am now going to re-open this thread.

I urge you to follow the advice our moderator Lindsay Wilson

We must remember to respect everybody's opinions and comments, even if they are in contrast to our own. But when things go off topic and get to being personal, we take a dim view.

As Lindsay says we do indeed take a "dim view" of disruptive behaviour. Those members who insist in being disruptive (and you know exactly when you are crossing that line) WILL have their AFF privileges revoked and possibly receive a permanent ban.

 

[Noob]

Current cattering inconsitencies