New VA Fare Structure

[TheInsider]

What's the chances that the same people flying VA will still fly VA with out any hesitation? I honestly don't think many people are going to change their habits or work travel policies.

 

[minodude]

What's the chances that the same people flying VA will still fly VA with out any hesitation? I honestly don't think many people are going to change their habits or work travel policies.

I'm a self-funded flyer about 35 weeks a year; so call it around 70 domestic legs (formerly) in Saver. On top of that, there's probably 15-20 long-haul international legs, almost all in business, which I do with VA purely because of the domestic status benefits. I contacted QFF today asking if they'll do a status match; if they come to the party, I should be able to get the 200SC you usually need to meet their match target on the outbound leg of my next OS trip, and I'll probably be mostly VA-free after that. Honestly their fares aren't really that much cheaper than QF for what I fly (MEL-SYD return Mon-Fri), and in fact QF are often cheaper; certainly Elevate isn't appreciably cheaper. Flyahead was a vast advantage for me; QF don't officially offer it, but by all accounts the strike rate on heavily-trafficked routes like MEL-SYD is very good anyway if you're nice to the lounge crew. Unless VA do the same (offer it 'unoficially' at the discretion of the lounge wizards), QF are probably a better bet.

I'm under no illusions that this will actually matter a rat's to Virgin, but I'd say at this stage I'm >50% likely to move 90 legs and $60K-ish per year of travel off them to QF.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

What's the chances that the same people flying VA will still fly VA with out any hesitation? I honestly don't think many people are going to change their habits or work travel policies.

Already have!

 

[djfuzz]

I contacted QFF today asking if they'll do a status match; if they come to the party, I should be able to get the 200SC you usually need to meet their match target on the outbound leg of my next OS trip, and I'll probably be mostly VA-free after that.

I've been out of the game for a while but this announcement has made me question my loyalty to VA again, which they've had ever since the great status match of 2011 - however I had thought QFF was not amenable to status matching. Has something changed or are you just trying your luck?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

they've had ever since the great status match of 2011

Hmmmm, I liken that to the Great Fire of London. A disaster in every respect.


QF will give a challange without too much ado. Just watch them, as them reneg on their hallow words. Ask for everything in writing.

 

[Moopere]

Maybe I'm just tired and bored, but I don't understand the adding of even -more- slices of the economy cake. The differences between them are very case specific. Surely we could just have one, baseline,cheap discount economy and utilise add-ons for flexibility and other perks? Its what Jetstar does essentially, and as someone else has already said, this all smells very 'max bundle' to me.

Had a look at the description of the fare differences on the virgin site, pretty hard to spot much without a proper matrix of benefits, probably the closest I found for that was in the actual booking screen where it high level details some difference between the fares ... pretty much revolves around changes either pre or post 30 days, cancellations and whether you can, can't or need to pay for those things. Given a Getaway fare seems to almost always be less than half the price of a Freedom fare, you'd have to be thinking you'll do a lot of changes before you'd willing pay the Freedom price I'd have thought. And as for Elevate, minor variation around flight changes again, but pretty corner case - seems this fare only really exists as the 'max bundle' (ala Jetstar) fare.

Having said all that, they're hardly alone in fine slicing economy for some hard to really understand reasons. SQ has been doing it for ages with their "Economy Saver", "Economy Flexi Saver" and "Economy Flexi". Even now, after years, I barely know the difference. Less SC's on the cheaper fares which I always choose until they're sold out, then choose the next cheapest and so on.

I don't care much about the FF earn changes on the entry ticket - I earn very few points actually flying when compared to the hauls brought in via other means, mostly CC's. I'll never pay more for a ticket just to get a few thousand extra FF's. SC's are a different proposition though. Having a snoop, the difference in price PER-MEL or PER-SYD, my most often travelled routes, the getaway versus elevate price difference seems to be 40-70$, the SC earn difference in both cases is 15SC ...

Ultimately though, no-one except us OCD FFers will care. The general punter will simply ask for the cheapest ticket on any given day. Surely VA know this and its formed part of their strategy. SC's are essentially meaningless to someone who doesn't fly enough to ever attain any useful status. For me, it looks like I'll pay what I pretty much always have for trips over east, I'll just be annoyed now because a 'cheaper' option has popped up which I cant avail myself of because I'm hunting SC's and of those, more will be coming in for a given trip on the now 'Elevate' ticket that used to be called the 'saver' ticket

 

[ozstamps]

What's the chances that the same people flying VA will still fly VA with out any hesitation? I honestly don't think many people are going to change their habits or work travel policies.

You' be surprised.

There are choices. Virgin needs to realise that. Not many places Virgin flies to, that Qantas does not.

United lied to me, and all other top tier fliers. I was a top tier 1K for TEN years straight. 100,000 PAID real miles every year.

They lied to me, weaseled out on a written promise of 2 x Million Miler upgrades a year "for life", and I have never bought a ticket since on UA. And large numbers of others did the same.

No-one is glued to ANY airline. As United discovered.

One guy took extensive legal action against them and the FT thread on that had 100,000s of page view. Damage to United millions of dollars lost business, and lost Elites - all over 2 x capacity control upgrades.

Idiotic nickel and diming like this inspires once loyal clients to jump ship.

 

[Hivetyrant]

I've been out of the game for a while but this announcement has made me question my loyalty to VA again, which they've had ever since the great status match of 2011 - however I had thought QFF was not amenable to status matching. Has something changed or are you just trying your luck?

Qantas won't status match, but you can do the "Status challenge" where if you hit 200SC within a certain time frame they will bump you to gold, and from there it should be a pretty simple climb without losing out on the creature comforts we get from VA (lounge, priority check-in/boarding, etc).
My team all hit their challenge requirements very quickly and we've all but finished up flying with VA for now, time will tell if we return.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Just looked at the new fares PER-SYD
At $359 compared to $249 Elevate fares are a whopping 44% premium on discount Getaway fares.
That's reduced. But even at $279 or $299 that's a premium of 29% and 20% respectively.
And as far as I can tell only the price of the Getaway fares seem to vary. The Elevate fares stay at $359 no matter what.
So the Getaway fare definitely seems to be the old Saver and Elevate is a new price point between Saver and Flexi.
For interest the Freedom fare is $639 so the difference between Elevate and Freedom is a 78% premium.
Incidentally at $2029 isn't the business fare a little higher than it was last week?

 

[MH_fan]

For the first time in years, I have no forward bookings with VA. These new changes in the fare structure won't be persuading me to book anything with them in the near future. All I'm going to need is 2 return tickets on the golden triangle routes at the cheapest fare with the other half (who pools to me) to earn my 8 squiggles to re-qualify for WP in the next 12 months, so it looks like QF are going to benefit from these changes and I will get to enjoy more of the QF WP benefits domestically.

 

[eastwest101]

Just looked at the new fares PER-SYD
At $359 compared to $249 Elevate fares are a whopping 44% premium on discount Getaway fares.
That's reduced. But even at $279 or $299 that's a premium of 29% and 20% respectively.
And as far as I can tell only the price .....

Have had a look around pre and post fare changes and I agree with some of the other posters, once you work your way through all the PR spin, smoke and mirrors this is essentially a fare increase dressed up as new products with some cutbacks in status earning.

Will be interesting to see how domestic fares go from here.

 

[JohnK]

What's the chances that the same people flying VA will still fly VA with out any hesitation? I honestly don't think many people are going to change their habits or work travel policies.

Some of the most loyal VA flyers on AFF have been very vocal in these threads. That cannot be a good sign for VA.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Yeah, I have them in my name, but that change was the last straw. Pretty much going BFOD/H now.

 

[TheInsider]

Some of the most loyal VA flyers on AFF have been very vocal in these threads. That cannot be a good sign for VA.

I understand that, but it is still a small group of people compared to what they have.
Companies with agreements with VA need to decide to change before they would change anything IMO.

 

[Moopere]

I don't really see the difference. Honestly. Not for my routing anyway, which is always transcon. Perhaps roving up and down the eastern seaboard is more expensive now? PER->East is essentially the same pricing on average using an Elevate ticket.

Random dates in the near term are low to mid $300 elevate which they pretty much have been for 6-8 months or more. Very very occasionally you'd see a PER-SYD or PER-MEL for mid $200 previously, and these appear to be gone and now appear only in Getaway, but these were pretty rare and tended to be relegated to the nastiest flight timings.

If I choose to turn a blind eye to the Getaway fares, then the only thing I'll really notice is an increase in SC earn (because I'll be buying Elevate ... ala previous Saver).

 

[Moopere]

I've got to ask though - whats the point of it all? Seems on face value to be some sort of attempt to scoop up some business from Jetstar/Tiger with PAX who might be vacillating. Those who really want to travel with a full service airline but aren't willing to veer too far from the cheapest tickets available in LCC land?

If passenger numbers stay essentially the same, this change will surely end up losing VA money right? Almost everyone I know, who thinks I'm some sort of crazy person because of the effort I put into the whole SC/FF thing won't ever bother to read the fine differences of ticket conditions - they will simply ask for the cheapest flight from A->B. If their preferred airline is VA they would have paid $300+ to do a transcon, now they'll pay circa $250-260. As the planes never seem very empty even as it is, whats going to happen here? More flights? More customers? Or simply less revenue?

 

[Milefest]

Some of the most loyal VA flyers on AFF have been very vocal in these threads. That cannot be a good sign for VA.

In my particular scenario, I now have to pay an extra $40 on average for the privilege of cashing in my earned benefits such as bonus points earn, FlyAhead and maybe down the track, seat selection.. I can see why people aren't happy, I found it especially insulting that they intentionally mislead all of us.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Some of the most loyal VA flyers on AFF have been very vocal in these threads. That cannot be a good sign for VA.

Is it time to put up a poll?

It would be interesting if a poll was put up here, just like when QF implemented "Sinplier and fairer" a few years ago, to gauge how VA's consumers base is thinking .

Whilst I acknowledge AFF is really only a very small proportion of the overall population these changes affect, it would be interesting nonetheless to compare with AFF members opinions.

 

[bean]

lol Virgin you are jokers!!

Id had my mind set on booking 3 business class airfares for the family for a holiday in Rarotonga. Had been waiting for a sale to come out so was constantly checking and was well aware the rate was around $1,950 return. Checked again today and the price has increased to around $2,450-a 28% increase....in a 737...lol surely they jest...

Just no idea.

 

[anat0l]

lol Virgin you are jokers!!

Id had my mind set on booking 3 business class airfares for the family for a holiday in Rarotonga. Had been waiting for a sale to come out so was constantly checking and was well aware the rate was around $1,950 return. Checked again today and the price has increased to around $2,450-a 28% increase....in a 737...lol surely they jest...

Just no idea.

...but you get more status credits........