Is there an issue with today’s (3rd January) virgin Sydney/Melbourne flights?

[Dae]

We have been moved from our 4pm Sydney to Melbourne flight today to 6am tomorrow morning. I can’t find any information yet. There appears to be no flight availability today.
Has anyone else been affected?

 

[pauly7]

We have been moved from our 4pm Sydney to Melbourne flight today to 6am tomorrow morning. I can’t find any information yet. There appears to be no flight availability today.
Has anyone else been affected?

What status do you hold? That seems like a crazy reschedule…

 

[Dae]

What status do you hold? That seems like a crazy reschedule…

Platinum

 

[pauly7]

Platinum

Personally I would not be accepting that treatment from Virgin and would be on the phone…

(Can’t answer the ‘why’ part though of your original question!)

 

[Harrison_133]

We have been moved from our 4pm Sydney to Melbourne flight today to 6am tomorrow morning. I can’t find any information yet. There appears to be no flight availability today.
Has anyone else been affected?

It might be worth keeping an eye on availability throughout the day on Rapid Rebook, or the ‘explore other options’ link sent to you. Sometimes a few seats on other flights become available during the day as other passengers cancel / change their bookings, and you can try and move onto those.

But indeed, there is no availability for today (except for very limited seats left in business). It wouldn’t help that the flights would be very full to begin with, and frequency on SYD-MEL is slightly reduced at this time of year.

As to why, the flight status page says VA858 was cancelled because of ‘Adverse Weather on the Network.’ Melbourne has possible showers and storms, so flow rate for arrivals and departures at MEL has been reduced.

 

[jase05]

MEL got smashed by storms yesterday arvo and quite a few cancellations and lengthy delays so I’m guessing a heap were put on to todays flights and it’s just flowed on from there

 

[TheInsider]

Yet Qantas still has plenty of seats available. And Virgin do have the ability in one way or another to rebook on to QF (as does QF to VA).

 

[serfty]

Yet Qantas still has plenty of seats available.

No, not "seats", "bundles" ...

Qantas reveals five amazing facts you didn't know about your flight!

You think it's our fault that we sold many thousands of flights we never intended to operate? Actually it's yours. And our workers'.

www.crikey.com.au

 

[bcworld]

I was on the 10AM SYD-MEL yesterday which was cancelled overnight. Had already set my alarm to get up early and check as with VA these days...and lo and behold!

We were moved to 9AM...but essentially every other option was the via LST thing that seems to be popular when they reroute. But, if you didn't look carefully you might not notice that some of them were SYD-LST-MEL arriving in MEL 3 days later!

Edit: once onboard the 9AM I also received an SMS from VA saying that due to Air Services Australia staff shortages there may be issues throughout the day. Then of course MEL was pounded by storms in the afternoon...so just one of those days!

 

[Must...Fly!]

Yet Qantas still has plenty of seats available. And Virgin do have the ability in one way or another to rebook on to QF (as does QF to VA).

View attachment 363362

Also could opt for Rex

 

[TheInsider]

Also could opt for Rex

Absolutely. But was more a dig at VA saying they can't rebook onto QF (from another thread), when they do a lot of the time anyway.

 

[Saab34]

Do they offer refunds on in such situations? Do are they still hard ball on credits?

 

[dk4]

But was more a dig at VA saying they can't rebook onto QF (from another thread), when they do a lot of the time anyway.

VA have proactively called and offered to re-book me onto QF (in the past) without me requesting it.

 

[Gold Member]

No, not "seats", "bundles" ...

Qantas reveals five amazing facts you didn't know about your flight!

You think it's our fault that we sold many thousands of flights we never intended to operate? Actually it's yours. And our workers'.

www.crikey.com.au

Oh Serfty, you’ve just made my day! It’s great to see someone other than Joe Aston bring some honesty and facts to the Qantas PR machine. That article needs its own pinned thread on the Qantas forum.

I especially love the freshly minted Qantas slogan - “Don’t like it? *** you and fly with someone else.” And to think, we all thought “Simpler & Fairer” was a resounding success.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

VA have proactively called and offered to re-book me onto QF (in the past) without me requesting it.

Not so much anymore these days Even face to face in the lounge with a 4.5 hour delay, no mention of a rebook, even when I was buying my ticket on Rex at the same time VA staff were cancelling my ticket.

And this was for a reason within VA’s control, crew shortage.

Weather would be less likely I would have thought

 

[twinaisle]

Weather would be less likely I would have thought

Weather, ATC staff shortages and closing airspace which would be pushing crew hours resulting in no crew

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Weather, ATC staff shortages and closing airspace which would be pushing crew hours resulting in no crew

Yes, agree all those can have knock on effects. I was only referring to whether or not VA would be likely to book on another carrier. If they can’t do it for a matter within their control, it might be a push to get it when the matter is clearly outside their control.

 

[Saab34]

My frustration with airlines here is they dictate the level of help in relation to ‘matters within our control’.

If it’s ATC or weather they have been less willing in the past. I had a weather issue with Jetstar a while back, they cancelled and said we can help you in about 24 hours now go away.

As far as I’m concerned, I don’t really care who is responsible for whatever the reason is, the level of treatment should not change. I buy the ticket, now I don’t expect to be even 5c out of pocket trying to get there in a prompt manner.

Bonza are a disgrace. Cancel a few days prior, refund in a few weeks, and goodbye. No, I buy a new airfare, Bonza gets the bill, and Bonza is accountable for every cost getting to me there.

Bring on decent consumer protections.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My frustration with airlines here is they dictate the level of help in relation to ‘matters within our control’.

If it’s ATC or weather they have been less willing in the past. I had a weather issue with Jetstar a while back, they cancelled and said we can help you in about 24 hours now go away.

As far as I’m concerned, I don’t really care who is responsible for whatever the reason is, the level of treatment should not change. I buy the ticket, now I don’t expect to be even 5c out of pocket trying to get there in a prompt manner.

Bonza are a disgrace. Cancel a few days prior, refund in a few weeks, and goodbye. No, I buy a new airfare, Bonza gets the bill, and Bonza is accountable for every cost getting to me there.

Bring on decent consumer protections.

Yes, but I think ATC is still exempt from EU protections. And Canada’s is even worse… they allow last minute safety-related maintenance to be carved out. Could drive a truck through the gap in those protections

On the ATC side, if they can’t get their act together, not sure why I’m paying hefty fees to cover their services!

 

[Saab34]

On the ATC side, if they can’t get their act together, not sure why I’m paying hefty fees to cover their services!

And they are wanting a 19% increase in charges from April. Probably something to do with the overtime bill which is sending the place broke.