New to Virgin

[eastwest101]

If you have bookings with mixed Airlines, then it is clearly booked through a travel agent. This basically means you probably won't be able to do seat selection or online check-in with these bookings.

Edit: Opps, I misread the flight numbers on that booking... they're both VA. I thought one was QF. I just tried a pure VA booking (booked via VA website) and it can't be read by QF MMB.

Jarydd - kevrosmith is correct - when you have corporate travel agents construct an itinerary with VA mixed up with QF/JQ or even Rex (ZL) flights you usually lose all ability to do OLCI on the VA web site. If you have a pure VA itinerary with a corporate travel agent then you can't do seat selection or OLCI about 80% of the time, I have the exact same issues as you. The funny thing is before the transition to Sabre and the new VA web site in 2012/2013 my corporate travel agent bookings could access OLCI through the old Virgin Blue web site, reliably and without fail. See if your corporate travel agent uses Tripcase or Virtuallythere and you should be able to see your VA PNRs and experiment with the un-cooperative VA web site and see whether the full web site OLCI or the Mobile OLCI work. Even if your travel agent correctly enters your Velocity Frequent Flyer number you will generally find the VA web site won't let you look at or alter your existing bookings, this is a known problem with the VA web site, see below - Temporary Error 00193 - which has been a "temporary error" for seat selection or OLCI on the VA web site since 2013, yes - that's not a typo - since 2013. That tells you all you need to know about the VA web site.



Seat selection is also very hit and miss. I always ring them about a day or two before flying and make the Guest contact centre select me a seat - there is usually a conversation along the lines of "You know you can do this online right?" but just keep persisting, its impossible for corporate travel agent bookings so I will happily call them and waste their resources until they get the message and fix their web site. Just between you and me - they seem a little slow on the uptake!

On the plus side - moving you over from QF to VA with the amount of flying that you presumably do will mean that you will get to Velocity Gold pretty quickly, certainly VA gold is more achievable than QF Gold and VA Plat way easier to achieve than QF Plat. Another plus is that once you have the VA status - you will usually expect and will get priority boarding executed properly, unlike QF, if priority boarding is your thing.

I support the others comments here about BYOD laptops/phones/tablets/dvd players - I would never go back to relying on what the airline offers for serious amounts of flying like you do (eg DRW-SYD etc).

Look at Velocity family pooling if you have family/spouse that fly sometimes, its a quick way to get more VA status credits to get you to VFF Gold or Plat a bit faster.

 

[Boof1]

Jarydd - kevrosmith is correct - when you have corporate travel agents construct an itinerary with VA mixed up with QF/JQ or even Rex (ZL) flights you usually lose all ability to do OLCI on the VA web site. If you have a pure VA itinerary with a corporate travel agent then you can't do seat selection or OLCI about 80% of the time, I have the exact same issues as you. The funny thing is before the transition to Sabre and the new VA web site in 2012/2013 my corporate travel agent bookings could access OLCI through the old Virgin Blue web site, reliably and without fail. See if your corporate travel agent uses Tripcase or Virtuallythere and you should be able to see your VA PNRs and experiment with the un-cooperative VA web site and see whether the full web site OLCI or the Mobile OLCI work. Even if your travel agent correctly enters your Velocity Frequent Flyer number you will generally find the VA web site won't let you look at or alter your existing bookings, this is a known problem with the VA web site, see below - Temporary Error 00193 - which has been a "temporary error" for seat selection or OLCI on the VA web site since 2013, yes - that's not

I used to have all the problems that you mention above, but in the past 18 months I haven't had any of them and we have mixed bookings quite often. The PNR is the trick, the fact that Jarydd can view the VA flights on the QF website would suggest the travel provider uses Amadeus to book them. Just get the VA PNR off the itinerary and you should be able to check in as Sabre only needs its own PNR for this function.

As for seat selection for a period of time my Velocity details were not passing through to VA from the TA and I couldn't do the seat selection so would call up. Now the TA puts my details in so it works and I can preselect seats for every flight. I've found the only way to really get it to work 100% is to have my Velocity number in the booking and accessing the booking through the Velocity website rather than through the VA "manage my booking" tab on the website. Don't ask me why this works, it drives me nuts but it does!

The VA and Velocity websites can be tricky as they are full of bugs, but once you work out the workarounds it becomes quite easy to use. The fact you have to use work arounds, well that is another story.... Good luck!

 

[eastwest101]

I used to have all the problems that you mention above, but in the past 18 months I haven't had any of them and we have mixed bookings quite often. The PNR is the trick, the fact that Jarydd can view the VA flights on the QF website would suggest the travel provider uses Amadeus to book them. Just get the VA PNR off the itinerary and you should be able to check in as Sabre only needs its own PNR for this function.

OK - I understand your point about the VA PNR - my travel agent provides me with the separate VA, QF and ZL PNR's, the QF JQ and ZL PNR's all work fine on their respective web sites for seat selection and checkin. Our corporate travel agent uses Sabre (I think) - I can see existing bookings on Virtuallythere and Tripcase. Like jaryd I can also see VA flights on the QF website if I have a mixed itinerary but obviously can't do seat selection or OLCI (fair enough).

My issue is that regardless of whether you are on the VA or the Velocity website - I can recover and see valid VA PNR's and bookings such as this:



So we know the booking exists in the Sabre and the VA world. But when it comes to the customer selecting the booking we see this:



Again - doesn't matter if its the VA or the Velocity web site - the result is still Eroor # 00193. About 2 years ago I complained to the VA rep on site about this and didn't receive much follow up about when/if this will be fixed. For me it has never been fixed.

They tried to blame our corporate travel agent but the bookings are always honoured, the PNRs are valid and my Velocity status points always credit correctly to my Velocity account, so given the choice between incompetence of our travel agent whom have been doing this for me for 5+ years or incompetence within the VA web team I know which one I'd put my money on. I have double checked with our corporate travel agent recently and she still has all my details correctly stored and they haven't changed in years anyway.

As for seat selection for a period of time my Velocity details were not passing through to VA from the TA and I couldn't do the seat selection so would call up. Now the TA puts my details in so it works and I can preselect seats for every flight. I've found the only way to really get it to work 100% is to have my Velocity number in the booking and accessing the booking through the Velocity website rather than through the VA "manage my booking" tab on the website. Don't ask me why this works, it drives me nuts but it does!

That's interesting that you have been able to get seat selection working through VFF login. I did think I might have the same issue years ago and tried your approach and so I tried recovering bookings on the Velocity web site with my VFF number - with the same result as above.

The VA and Velocity websites can be tricky as they are full of bugs, but once you work out the workarounds it becomes quite easy to use. The fact you have to use work arounds, well that is another story.... Good luck!

Understatement of the day! The bugs and permutations of inconsistencies are endless, thus so is the list of "workarounds" that people need to try. I did notice the endless loop of multiple login through Velocity also hasn't been fixed yet either, I have set a personal best today of being challenged 6 times for my Velocity Number and password in one web session whilst trying to select seats or look at bookings . Oh and I run a very up to date generic clean Windows 8.1 & IE explorer vanilla PC setup in case any people suggest its a personal computer/device problem. Cheers.

 

[pauly7]

Understatement of the day! The bugs and permutations of inconsistencies are endless, thus so is the list of "workarounds" that people need to try. I did notice the endless loop of multiple login through Velocity also hasn't been fixed yet either, I have set a personal best today of being challenged 6 times for my Velocity Number and password in one web session whilst trying to select seats or look at bookings . Oh and I run a very up to date generic clean Windows 8.1 & IE explorer vanilla PC setup in case any people suggest its a personal computer/device problem. Cheers.

Don't worry no one will suggest that it is very widely known the website is a huge mess!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

It's a pity VA isn't comping QF WPs and SGs at present

Lots here compare to QF whenever VA failures are pointed out so I might do the same . Are QF offering VA Plat SM's?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

At least I can select my seats through QF or I would be in the tail!

But as a VA "nobody red", that's where many of us would argue you belong! I hear your pain as I'm currently switching over to QF status as a VA plat and flying in the tail is to be expected IMHO. It seems to me your issue is more with your boss than with VA. It was your boss who changed carriers without doing a deal for his/her employees and it is your boss who doesn't allow Silverlight to be downloaded. When you do get to status, the check-in is not an issue. I always check-in at the lounge in case of last minute changes (like traffic jams). If you're checked in and miss a flight, you lose it. I find the VA inflight entertainment to be "ordinary", at best.

 

[medhead]

To be pedantic, VA do have IFE. you just need your own device. If not your computer then can you use your phone, or bring a separate tablet?
Getting a tablet from VA is going to be very hit and miss in Y. https://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/experience/on-board-the-flight/in-flight-entertainment/

Tablets provided by Virgin Australia

Virgin Australia has a limited number of In-flight Entertainment Tablets available on selected flights for complimentary use by Business Class guests. On some flights you can use the Tablet to access Wireless In-flight Entertainment; on others, the Tablet offers a pre-loaded selection of movies, TV shows and music.

WRT getting different PNR, another mention of the My Flights app, it will should me on the associated PNRs for a mixed booking.

With rear stair loading, down the back can be quicker to deplane than the front of Y.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

With rear stair loading, down the back can be quicker to deplane than the front of Y.

Last flight of mine the rear Y pax beat me out and I was in J! I recall someone once wrote (correctly or incorrectly) that they have to allow rear pax out first for weight distribution. I can't say I believe that, simply because not every flight deplanes with a set of rear stairs and I've never yet seen a plane wheel stand at the aerobridge!

 

[OzEire]

Last flight of mine the rear Y pax beat me out and I was in J! I recall someone once wrote (correctly or incorrectly) that they have to allow rear pax out first for weight distribution. I can't say I believe that, simply because not every flight deplanes with a set of rear stairs and I've never yet seen a plane wheel stand at the aerobridge!

I wrote that (about rear stairs deboarding and weight distribution) in 'Ask the Pilot' recently; but didn't get any views on whether it was a legit reason, or something the FA made up to appease the WPs in row 3 (B738).

 

[KCMil]

I can confirm that the reason is completely valid. I had confirmation from a VA engineer (over a drink or two) that it is a "perceived" risk only, but one that Boeing have warned about. VA operates two procedures. If front and rear are used then a number of pax are required to dissembark prior to the front. If they only use the front then the guys on the tarmac are advised and they do not unload bags and freight in the front cargo area until majority of pax have disembarked.

I then asked the supervisor on my last va flight and he confirmed this and further explained that their procedure is to allow J class to disembark regardless as it is only a maximum of 8 people.

I now fly with QF mostly as I have found the VA product doesn't suit my needs any more (read what you wish into that.) I spoke to the manager on my latest QF flight, they run a similar procedure on the flights where they have started using the rear doors.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I can confirm that.......

I then asked the supervisor on my last va flight and he confirmed this and further explained that their procedure is to allow J class to disembark regardless as it is only a maximum of 8 people.

Thanks for the reply. Very interesting (sort of). Obviously the CS on my flight went to the school of absolute indifference. In fact, I did notice that after serving and then collecting the dishes for the meals in J (there were only 2 of us on that flight....738), he buggered off down the back and we didn't see him again until just prior to landing (2 hour flight give or take). It didn't bother me as I didn't want anything anyway, but I thought that was very much VA old school in attitude....especially for a CS.

 

[KCMil]

Well, as I said, VA no longer meets my needs ;-)

I must admit that the male CS I had was very attentive, he did go to economy to help out, but before doing so spoke to the 3 of us and asked if we would mind him helping out in the rest of the cabin. He came back several times and topped up drinks and checked the toilet at the front. But I found that this was the 'exception' not the rule of late.

 

[Teal747]

Is check in at the lounge the same as checking in at the checkin cointer ie can you still request a seat there?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Agree poor form indeed and very much LCC style

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Is check in at the lounge the same as checking in at the checkin cointer ie can you still request a seat there?

The lounge angels can do more than the check-in counters, with the sole exception of checking luggage. Anything needed is better to be done in the lounge rather than at the counters. I guess it's logistics.....the check in counters have to deal with everyone (except pre-checked HLO pax), the lounge does not.

 

[kevrosmith]

The lounge angels can do more than the check-in counters, with the sole exception of checking luggage...

Except if you're a Club member, then they can (well, to clarify, I mean at the SYD Premium entry, which I guess isn't technically in the lounge).

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Except if you're a Club member, then they can (well, to clarify, I mean at the SYD Premium entry, which I guess isn't technically in the lounge).

How could I forget! I check the letterbox every day looking for my Club invitation! :mrgreen: