I flew Qantas

[pauly7]

Well - the major disadvantage is the long lines!

I've never had my bag weighed on QF, so if it was a frequent occurrence on VA that could swing my choice of carrier

I agree, the antiquated and slow VA check in especially at major ports when you have to fly peak times is really annoying. I wish they would just invest in next gen check in, I mean even Jetstar and Tiger have it at Melbourne which makes them look even worse (yes I know T4 provides it).

VA have weighed cabin bags a couple times last month, I first posted this a few weeks ago I think - caught me by surprise but doesn't seem to be systematic yet. Jetstar are very big on it with their mobile weighing cash registers - its (almost) fun to watch people get stung when they think they have managed to smuggle the kitchen sink onboard

 

[TheInsider]

its (almost) fun to watch people get stung when they think they have managed to smuggle the kitchen sink onboard

Schadenfreude - a term not used enough!

 

[Pushka]

Schadenfreude - a term not used enough!

Karma for me. I use it a lot. As it denotes a personal cause for the 'misery' rather than just someone else's unlucky event.

 

[ap_spd]

My take on both..

Qantas
Food is generally better, a proper meal if you ask me
Slightly better frequency
More lounges (hba, glt etc) and proper business / first lounges
better ff experience (one world vs va's alliance model)
some planes have ife
faster checkin
better mobile app
better food at QC also..

Virgin
Fly ahead
Premium lounge entry (syd)
quicker deboarding (back door exit)
better priority lane management
family pooling
SC earn on partner flights

I suggest a combination of va and qf status...

 

[Lemon_Party]

VA have 'next gen' checkin at Perth (if it's considered a major port) but it's slow and brutal IME.

I can't recall ever having a hand luggage item weighed with VA.

VA Y food is in a pretty bad place at the moment, I've started dabbling with QF on coast-coast even though I'm QF red. It's a lot better. But Economy X seating has been good addition so I'm on the fence.

Ap_spd above sums it nicely - but add YX seating for plat under VA.

Please don't buy XY seating though - it's supposed to be for WPs and we need room to spread out

 

[ap_spd]

thanks lemon_party.. I suggest ring up qantas for a gold challenge if u fly often.. i ended up doing that and have now moved my travel between both parties...already requalified for platinum with va. with some international travel coming up will be able to gift gold to wifey..qantas gold is useful. have some travel coming up on cathay and qantas.. lounge access woudnt hurt

 

[Lemon_Party]

thanks lemon_party.. I suggest ring up qantas for a gold challenge if u fly often.. i ended up doing that and have now moved my travel between both parties...already requalified for platinum with va. with some international travel coming up will be able to gift gold to wifey..qantas gold is useful. have some travel coming up on cathay and qantas.. lounge access woudnt hurt

I got air berlin gold a couple of years back with a status match and I have to say the oneworld benefit was great when I flew CX & BA. I actually emailed QF a couple of months back about a match or challenge and got no reply. I may try calling them, this year is looking like having a reasonable amount of flying and having both VA plat and QF gold would be great.

 

[ap_spd]

here is my suggestion if I may.. send them an email with the details of the travel undertaken in the last one year, your current FF card image and if possible the coming bookings in Qantas, also include any coming travel that you might have. Once you do this use the chat feature of the qantas website and ask for a status match you will be given a case number, resend the email and include the case number.
cheers, have fun flying

 

[anat0l]

VA have 'next gen' checkin at Perth (if it's considered a major port) but it's slow and brutal IME.

Why is it so slow? Was it because you used it in the early days when people were getting used to it? Or it genuinely has teething problems?

I can't recall ever having a hand luggage item weighed with VA.

Been weighed a couple of times by VA before, though I was over the 7 kg mark but not by a huge amount, so they let it slide (especially after I told them I had a laptop in there).

Been weighed a handful of times by QF, but again never really stopped as I wasn't, say, double the weight allowable. Only exceptions have been once or twice when I was flying in a turboprop, so my bag was tagged as premium hand luggage.

In general, I think it's more a case of if it doesn't look heavy, it probably isn't. But I always try to have a backup plan in case any given airline or flight team decides to enforce the rules to the letter.

VA Y food is in a pretty bad place at the moment, I've started dabbling with QF on coast-coast even though I'm QF red. It's a lot better.

Last time I flew VA Y coast to coast the meal was your standard Y metal tray box with a bread roll and off-the-shelf pudding. I think I had some sort of butter chicken with rice.

I think that's about the same as QF except QF is supposed to have those big (or bigger) cardboard lunch box things... I think.

Has things changed a lot since then?

 

[Bagpuss]

I flew Qantas on the weekend in business class. When they asked what I wanted as my meal I was informed my choice was unavailable. The alternative was fish in which I don't eat seafood. I was then informed "OK, you wont be getting anything then".

Needless to say I've flown Virgin Business a number of times with "catering not assured" and always got my first selection.

Previous to this the only time my meal choice wasn't available (many years ago) was Qantas.

 

[samh004]

When they asked what I wanted as my meal I was informed my choice was unavailable. The alternative was fish in which I don't eat seafood. I was then informed "OK, you wont be getting anything then".

Were you in row 3?

This is why seat selection is so important. I always end up in row 1.

 

[Bagpuss]

Were you in row 3?

This is why seat selection is so important. I always end up in row 1.

Row 2, row 1 was not available during time of purchase or checkin.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

I flew Qantas on the weekend in business class. When they asked what I wanted as my meal I was informed my choice was unavailable. The alternative was fish in which I don't eat seafood. I was then informed "OK, you wont be getting anything then".

A few years ago on a QF east coast hop I didn't want the only option that was available, so the crew checked and then offered me the pilot's hot meal. Apparently the pilots usually don't eat their meal on those short sectors.

 

[OzEire]

Row 2, row 1 was not available during time of purchase or checkin.

Really, an option gone by row 2. That is poor form. Catering exactly to expected pax numbers, with 50% / 50% for 2 options, is bound to create disappointment.

I missed out on my first option flying QF transcon J, and I was in row 1! Imagine my surprise later in the flight when I see two FAs eating what had been my preferred option in the galley.

 

[Pleb Status]

I missed out on my first option flying QF transcon J, and I was in row 1! Imagine my surprise later in the flight when I see two FAs eating what had been my preferred option in the galley.

I also missed out on a possible J meal choice on a QF flight BNE-MEL and I was the first pax served!

I hope the FA enjoyed it.

 

[bulkhead]

Really, an option gone by row 2. That is poor form. Catering exactly to expected pax numbers, with 50% / 50% for 2 options, is bound to create disappointment.

I missed out on my first option flying QF transcon J, and I was in row 1! Imagine my surprise later in the flight when I see two FAs eating what had been my preferred option in the galley.

I know on QF the crew on supplied with a business class meal as their crew meal for the sector. A lot of the time this is the same as the business class meals provided. I do hope in your situation it was a crew meal that they were eating, and not a pax meal saved aside for them, but this may explain why you may have seen them eating a meal that was not available to you.

A part of the crew allocation is to have a choice of meals, as per their agreement, so it's not possible to use some of their options to supplement the J class passenger meals, unless a crew member is willing to forgo their meal. Crew should really use their discretion if one of their crew meal options happens to be a choice that a passenger missed out on. Also, crew meals are often not cooked at the same time as the rest, so unable to supplement most of the time either.

Also, a lot of the time, the crew will take orders from top tier frequent fliers first, which potentially means a passenger could miss out, even in row 1. Given routes such as CBR are very premium heavy, the whole cabin may be platinum or above, which can certainly create some disappointment if meal choices aren't available.

On QF J class flights, there will always be a stock standard ratio of hot meals to salads to soups to other options etc, etc... most of the time it'll work out, however sometimes choice is unavailable. Changing ratios from flight to flight creates a lot of trouble for the catering department, so as much cosistency as posssible in terms of ratios from one flight to another is kept to ensure minimal mistakes are made.

Sorry to take over the VA thread

 

[Pleb Status]

I know on QF the crew on supplied with a business class meal as their crew meal for the sector. A lot of the time this is the same as the business class meals provided. I do hope in your situation it was a crew meal that they were eating, and not a pax meal saved aside for them, but this may explain why you may have seen them eating a meal that was not available to you.

A part of the crew allocation is to have a choice of meals, as per their agreement, so it's not possible to use some of their options to supplement the J class passenger meals, unless a crew member is willing to forgo their meal. Crew should really use their discretion if one of their crew meal options happens to be a choice that a passenger missed out on. Also, crew meals are often not cooked at the same time as the rest, so unable to supplement most of the time either.

Also, a lot of the time, the crew will take orders from top tier frequent fliers first, which potentially means a passenger could miss out, even in row 1. Given routes such as CBR are very premium heavy, the whole cabin may be platinum or above, which can certainly create some disappointment if meal choices aren't available.

On QF J class flights, there will always be a stock standard ratio of hot meals to salads to soups to other options etc, etc... most of the time it'll work out, however sometimes choice is unavailable. Changing ratios from flight to flight creates a lot of trouble for the catering department, so as much cosistency as posssible in terms of ratios from one flight to another is kept to ensure minimal mistakes are made.

Sorry to take over the VA thread

If this is really the way that QF operates, it is a system designed for failure from a customer service point of view.

If the QF FA are not discrete about screwing over their pax, as is in the case I noted a couple of posts above (and I was a QF P1 sitting in 1A), then all you end up with is possibly unhappy customers who could be paying almost $2500 ow for a transcon flight in J.

 

[bulkhead]

If this is really the way that QF operates, it is a system designed for failure from a customer service point of view.

If the QF FA are not discrete about screwing over their pax, as is in the case I noted a couple of posts above (and I was a QF P1 sitting in 1A), then all you end up with is possibly unhappy customers who could be paying almost $2500 ow for a transcon flight in J.

That really is a shame then, you should have gotten your meal choice given P1 status.

 

[Lemon_Party]

here is my suggestion if I may.. send them an email with the details of the travel undertaken in the last one year, your current FF card image and if possible the coming bookings in Qantas, also include any coming travel that you might have. Once you do this use the chat feature of the qantas website and ask for a status match you will be given a case number, resend the email and include the case number.
cheers, have fun flying

Sadly they have rejected my request - can only assume that I don't do enough flying to interest them.

Why is it so slow? Was it because you used it in the early days when people were getting used to it? Or it genuinely has teething problems?

There is normally a much bigger queue than at QF - seem to be less machines - and the loading of bags onto the conveyor belt is painful. VA seem to have a barcode scanner that QF don't use. It picks up the small barcode stickers that you remove from the main luggage tag and stick on the cases. It will read old tags and reject your bag - if you have done a lot of flying and have old stickers fused all over your case it can be a real pain...

Last time I flew VA Y coast to coast the meal was your standard Y metal tray box with a bread roll and off-the-shelf pudding. I think I had some sort of butter chicken with rice.

I think that's about the same as QF except QF is supposed to have those big (or bigger) cardboard lunch box things... I think.

Has things changed a lot since then?

Gradually over last 3 years standards have really dropped. Its a small cardboard box now. The size is a bit smaller than QF, but the quality difference is more noticeable. I really don't care about a meal/snack service on a 2 hour BNE-MEL hop - but the coast-coast is a long flight and a proper meal should be served. I'm a small guy and don't eat much, but I'm buying cheese and crackers and/or something else after the meal as I'm still hungry. The couple of times I've flown QF there is a meal and cheese&crackers and then an hour later a round of ice cream.

That said, without QF status, and with the inclusion of economy X I'm probably sticking with VA. I could always take my own food or make lounge sandwiches if I was that upset...

 

[Pleb Status]

Gradually over last 3 years standards have really dropped. Its a small cardboard box now. The size is a bit smaller than QF, but the quality difference is more noticeable.

I have noticed that the VA Y Coast to Coast box meal has been slightly improved over the past few months.

Previously, it was say rice, a bit of meat and sauce. They have now tried to add some vegetables as well (baby corn and others were present last Friday).