J-class limo offer extended

[Comoman]

Heard today on my flight (Syd-Per) that the free J class limo offer has been extended. Checking the website shows it's been extended until the 25th December.

I cannot post the link because I don't have 10 posts but it is there!

 

[DJPlatinum_Al]

Great News.
I have had the opportunity to use this service twice now and believe it to be a great value add.
The booking process is a little strange though. Last time, the poor lady that answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about, or for that matter how to organise the booking. After numerous apologies and polite requests for me to hold a moment, she managed to determine the correct process and transferred me to the limo company to finalise the booking.

Have to say though, the rockstar feeling of arriving at the airport in a BMW 7 series more than made up for the few extra minutes on the phone and will always beat the alternative of a smelly old melbourne cab.

 

[AdMEL]

Link:
http://www.velocityrewards.com.au/content/Specials/Airlines/index.htm

Great News.
I have had the opportunity to use this service twice now and believe it to be a great value add.
The booking process is a little strange though. Last time, the poor lady that answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about, or for that matter how to organise the booking. After numerous apologies and polite requests for me to hold a moment, she managed to determine the correct process and transferred me to the limo company to finalise the booking.

Have to say though, the rockstar feeling of arriving at the airport in a BMW 7 series more than made up for the few extra minutes on the phone and will always beat the alternative of a smelly old melbourne cab.

Were you travelling on paid flights or points/points plus pay?

BMW 7 series - excellent!

 

[DJPlatinum_Al]

Paid Flight. I think the T&C's exclude point bookings and upgrades.

 

[elemist]

Brilliant service - and really saves quite a bit of money, let alone the hassle of getting people to drop you and pick you up from the airport.

Interestingly i had the same issue today trying to book the limo transfers, spent ages on the call, about 25-30 minutes before i was transferred through to the limo company.

Also i am flying points + pay.

 

[Moopere]

BMW 7 series eh? Mmm. Who is running the Limo's? Can you remember the company name?

 

[elemist]

This is the bunch running it. Looks like they have quite a variety of cars, all of which look very nice!

Brunel Worldwide Chauffeur Drive

For transfers after the free period runs out - you earn 5 points per dollar spent. Not sure what their pricing is like but!


http://www.brunelchauffeurdrive.com.au/index.html*Edit*

Does anyone wonder about the logistics of this. With the amount of flights and business class seats being sold, how do they manage to have so many vehicles available to transfer people? Plus it must be costing them a small fortune!

Thinking about it, my return flights for two people cost 27k in points plus $700 cash, as it turns out we are departing on seperate days, which means an additional 2 transfers. Assuming transfers would cost between $100-$150 (lets call it $100 to be on the cheapest side), thats 6 trips between the two of us, so $600 all up in transfers.

Its worse if you break it down per person, 1 person has 4 transfers at $100, so $400 all up. The cash component for just myself is only $350 plus 13000k points. Or 6000k points each way, thats such a bargain it's not funny! (well for Virgin at least! )

 

[Moopere]

Brunel Worldwide Chauffeur Drive

For transfers after the free period runs out - you earn 5 points per dollar spent. Not sure what their pricing is like but!

Thanks for that. I have a feeling I have enquired with these fellows before. If my memory serves correctly the quote for one way to PER airport from my place came in at nearly $400 (!!)

Does anyone wonder about the logistics of this. With the amount of flights and business class seats being sold, how do they manage to have so many vehicles available to transfer people? Plus it must be costing them a small fortune!

I'm pretty sure Limo and Town Car services have agreements with each other as well as independent guys who they call in at short (no) notice when times are busy.

Thinking about it, my return flights for two people cost 27k in points plus $700 cash, as it turns out we are departing on seperate days, which means an additional 2 transfers. Assuming transfers would cost between $100-$150 (lets call it $100 to be on the cheapest side), thats 6 trips between the two of us, so $600 all up in transfers.

Its worse if you break it down per person, 1 person has 4 transfers at $100, so $400 all up. The cash component for just myself is only $350 plus 13000k points. Or 6000k points each way, thats such a bargain it's not funny! (well for Virgin at least!)

They must have struck an agreement whereby the cost is reduced to almost nothing ... its a mutual advertising / business building thing for both DJ and the Limo service so I'd be pretty surprised if DJ were copping the full retail rate.

 

[Blackswan]

Thanks for the heads up. I have booked a Business Reward (points plus pay) seat for next week - called Virgin and they couldn't have been more helpful.

Being a little slow this morning, I didn't realise it was offered for both departure and arrival. Guess it will save me some money on cabs.

Thanks Virgin - very, very impressed!

 

[markis10]

Its a wonder a limo meets thread has not been started :shock:

 

[aurora]

Interestingly i had the same issue today trying to book the limo transfers, spent ages on the call, about 25-30 minutes before i was transferred through to the limo company.

Also i am flying points + pay.

what number did you call? the website says 136767, which isn't the normal number for Virgin or Velocity...

 

[Comoman]

Limo company is 1300 855 955. However, Virgin must contact them initially to confirm your Bona Fide's and to authorise payment (I assume). Subsequently you can contact Brunel direct if you change flights/pick up address etc like I did yesterday.

Edit to add: to make the initial booking I dialled normal Virgin number and selected make change to business class booking.

 

[elemist]

I just rang the normal number 136789 and went through to the other options until I got a person

 

[aurora]

I just rang the normal number 136789 and went through to the other options until I got a person

I just tried dialling 136767 and the recorded message ("press one now" etc) asked me if i want to book my bus class limo, then the guy i spoke to knew what i was talking about - seems like this is a dedicated number that gets you through to a specially trained team...

 

[Moopere]

I had an opportunity to book this service today. The offer runs out on the 25th of this month and I'm only just scraping in. I posted above that I remembered getting a quote from Brunel a while ago, well I looked that up today, $350, one way, from Perth southern suburbs to the Domestic airport. So, suburbs to PER Dom = $350, presumably MEL Dom to CBD would be similarly priced.

So, the thought occurs that under the normal system, without the special offer, that this service would have cost me close to $700 ... that can't be right surely? People able to pay this sort of coin are probably in line for a secure service, which I don't think Brunel is, they are just lovely cars with clean interiors right? A few posts above I assume that Brunel are giving significant discounts to Velocity as part of the current deal, but given the standard cost, you'd have to imagine the discount is very deep indeed!

I'll quiz the driver about standard costing I think, the thought occurs that the original quote I received was wrong, or they didn't understand what I was asking.

 

[elemist]

Enjoy! I certainly did..

Interesting about your quote - i unfortunately didn't ask the driver here in Perth what the normal transfer cost would have been. However i got talking to the driver in Sydney who picked me up from the airport and drove me too St Leonards and he mentioned that the normal cost of that transfer wouldn't have been much more than a taxi. He said roughly $120 for the transfer in that vehicle.

Now the service levels and vehicles were reasonably different. In Perth i was collected in a 3-4 year old Statesman which whilst clean was showing its age a bit. I'm in mixed minds about the service - the driver wasn't very talkative but i'm not sure whether he was just professional or rude. I'm leaning to the professional side, though i guess its a personal thing whether you want someone friendly or talkative, or just someone to drive! He was on time and assisted putting my baggage in the boot.

That said my driver that met me in Sydney was brilliant, he wheeled my bags out to the car and put them in. Opened the rear door for me and was very polite yet friendly. In addition the car was a brand new Mercedes S Class Saloon which was amazing. Complimentary bottle of water, refresher towel and mints in the back as well.


Google Maps tells me it was 18k's and would have taken approx 21 mins for the Sydney transfer. It was peak hour so i would estimate about 35 minutes.

 

[lovestotravel]

$350, one way, from Perth southern suburbs to the Domestic airport. So, suburbs to PER Dom = $350, presumably MEL Dom to CBD would be similarly priced.

So, the thought occurs that under the normal system, without the special offer, that this service would have cost me close to $700 ... that can't be right surely? People able to pay this sort of coin are probably in line for a secure service, which I don't think Brunel is, they are just lovely cars with clean interiors right? A few posts above I assume that Brunel are giving significant discounts to Velocity as part of the current deal, but given the standard cost, you'd have to imagine the discount is very deep indeed!

I'll quiz the driver about standard costing I think, the thought occurs that the original quote I received was wrong, or they didn't understand what I was asking.

Melbourne CBD to the airport is anywhere between $80 and $200 one way - Depending on the type of car you require and who you book with

 

[Comoman]

Perth suburbs to Perth Domestic is A$88 one way. Met my driver when doing a DJ J class and now use him for Y as well.

 

[AdMEL]

Melbourne CBD to the airport is anywhere between $80 and $200 one way - Depending on the type of car you require and who you book with

Interestingly, Virgin offer it for $59, which is about the price of a taxi and significantly cheaper than most, as you pointed out. See:

Airport Transfers Information | Virgin Australia

OT, Virgin really need to fix up the links on their website - many of them still don't work! One Airport Transfers link came with Page Not Found and a number of others come up with only some of the options, but not the above correct one!

 

[Moopere]

Perth suburbs to Perth Domestic is A$88 one way. Met my driver when doing a DJ J class and now use him for Y as well.

Mmm. I spoke with my driver today, he estimated the usual cost for me, 45 mins from the Dom airport in PER to be about $160 as they charge from the moment of leaving their depot in West Perth.

Sounds like there is a lot of variation possible. Perhaps firm up front quotes are the way to go. I'm happy to pay a bit of a premium for this type of service, but would be a bit annoyed to get a surprise bill closing on 200$