Oooh...I have a very cranky wife....

[markis10]

VA don't have a lounge in BNE - been like that for a while until they open their own or cosy up with another airline.

I suspect the tie up with NZ will solve that problem, give it 6 months though.

 

[anat0l]

I suspect the tie up with NZ will solve that problem, give it 6 months though.

That would be good, although I heard that is a DJ/NZ deal for Tasman only. Still, with some prudence, you'd think it wouldn't be difficult to allow VA / Velocity to use the lounge as well (for VA routes).

 

[JohnK]

No lounge in BNE, got on board with boarding pass for 10A... was moved to 14 E.
And was moved because some deadheading crew wanted to sit together.

Simply not good enough. Deadheading crew should have last choice of seats, meals etc. Surely a paying premium passenger is more important.

 

[markis10]

Simply not good enough. Deadheading crew should have last choice of seats, meals etc. Surely a paying premium passenger is more important.

Bit surprised that they need to deadhead crew all that way, poor planning or possibly a flow on form the issues they have been having with late flights.

 

[djfuzz]

Simply not good enough. Deadheading crew should have last choice of seats, meals etc. Surely a paying premium passenger is more important.

Sadly, even on QF in J, I've seen / experienced deadheading crew receive better treatment than paying pax when it comes to meal selection and seats (and not just Captains and flight crew, which is slightly less objectionable).

Don't get me wrong, deadheading crew deserve to be treated well (eg seated in a premium cabin) - but to be given first choice of other amenities over commercial pax is a bit poor.

 

[IainF]

Sadly, even on QF in J, I've seen / experienced deadheading crew receive better treatment than paying pax when it comes to meal selection and seats (and not just Captains and flight crew, which is slightly less objectionable).

Don't get me wrong, deadheading crew deserve to be treated well (eg seated in a premium cabin) - but to be given first choice of other amenities over commercial pax is a bit poor.

I am always OK with deadheading crew being looked after, they may be the crew on my return flight home, but VA just seem to be really unorganised in the cabins.

Rach said that J was full as was Y, so Prem seemed to cop the fallout.
It is going to cost me $1700 + $50 booking fee to upgrade her to J....
Am going to do it, just to avoid any more hassles.

 

[anat0l]

I'm not exactly sure how it all goes, but deadheading crew and flight captains seem to be treated like regular pax (as far as the order which food is offered), but one time I was sitting next to a cabin crew manager for QF in row 1 (I was op upped), with two deadheading (but off-duty) crew in row 2 (they were all heading to MEL for some important crew meeting). Everyone else (including me) was served first in standard order before the manager was served last.

Rach said that J was full as was Y, so Prem seemed to cop the fallout.
It is going to cost me $1700 + $50 booking fee to upgrade her to J....
Am going to do it, just to avoid any more hassles.

VA J seems to get a good rap, so I'm thinking there won't be anything wrong with your wife's journey going home.

 

[Skyring]

Further talks with her have also indicated that the J cabin was pretty well full with some sort of celebrity and entourage.. all of whom were fairly boisterous through out the night.

That you, Keith?

 

[QF WP]

After our phone call last night, nice to hear that you are looking to upgrade her to J, IainF...a nice present.

Brownie points for you , none for VA ...as I'm sure the return in J will not make up for the move to poor seat, no laptop power, 1 hr sleep and then going straight to work....:evil:

Had my neighbour fly out to LAX this morning with his two brothers on VA (in Y). He controls a $5M spend (ASX listed company) and VA have been trying to woo him away from QF for a couple of years for the Intl spend (~$3M). Wonder if they got Exit Row seats???

 

[IainF]

Ok...She decides that spending the extra $1700 to go to business was too much money.
She decides to stay in Prem Economy.
She gets to the airport about an hour ago.. checks in.
Again, same problem with the seat. she has been moved from the seat requested.
She gets that sorted, and gets her boarding pass from SYD to BNE.
Now we did book and pay for Prem Economy for the entire journey.
Except that she is handed a boarding pass for the syd-bne leg in 20C.
Aaah, thats not prem econ she says to check in person.
The check in person advised her that she was definitely booked in economy on the DJ flight.
Rachel showed her the eticket.
They said and I quote "sort it out when you get to Sydney.."
FFS - THATS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

As a coincidence, I was asked to book the two other directors to go to LAX from Brisbane next week. They are going Prem Economy as well.

Guess which airline will get their business?

 

[MelUser]

I have a feeling that DJ might have changed their policy for passengers travelling internationally in Premium Economy on VAUSTRALIA.

It used to be that the domestic flights were on Virgin Blue Premium Economy to match up with the Premium Economy on the international part BUT I think recently that VAUSTRALIA changed this so that the domestic Virgin sectors are in Economy and only international bits are into Premium Economy.

If you remember that initially when one booked on Jetstar star class, domestic sectors operated by Qantas caused the passenger to sit in the Qantas business cabin for the domestic flight(s) joining up to the international star class flight.

Jetstar soon changed this so that domestically, their Star Class passengers connecting to international jetstar services travel in economy on the connecting qantas flights.

This may simply be the market following the other market players?

 

[IainF]

It may be a new policy by VA & DJ, but I have an eticket which says different.
And if she gets into Syd tomorrow morning and is seated in Y, then DJ can kiss goodbye all of her flights & the rest of my companies bookings.
We will vote with our feet.

 

[ejb]

I have a feeling that DJ might have changed their policy for passengers travelling internationally in Premium Economy on VAUSTRALIA.

It used to be that the domestic flights were on Virgin Blue Premium Economy to match up with the Premium Economy on the international part BUT I think recently that VAUSTRALIA changed this so that the domestic Virgin sectors are in Economy and only international bits are into Premium Economy.

If you remember that initially when one booked on Jetstar star class, domestic sectors operated by Qantas caused the passenger to sit in the Qantas business cabin for the domestic flight(s) joining up to the international star class flight.

Jetstar soon changed this so that domestically, their Star Class passengers connecting to international jetstar services travel in economy on the connecting qantas flights.

This may simply be the market following the other market players?

It may be a new policy by VA & DJ, but I have an eticket which says different.
And if she gets into Syd tomorrow morning and is seated in Y, then DJ can kiss goodbye all of her flights & the rest of my companies bookings.
We will vote with our feet.

Just checked the VA website and it clearly says if you are flying Y+ and you have dom sectors you will be in Y+ for those.

Way to lose a customer VA/DJ.

ejb

 

[anat0l]

I thought it would have been worth it paying $1700 for the upgrade to J. Although if that was mere fare difference, then maybe not.

One thing is that you can't very well trust agents for an airline in remote ports to do their jobs well; interlining is a sticky one and if they do it badly I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know who does ground services for VA in LAX (is it Virgin themselves?)....

Most of the time, if the agents at the check-in port can't do the job, then they'll pass the problem downline - natural reaction. Since VA don't operate their own lounge in LAX, definitely they will hand this further down the line (to next port of call). QF are pretty much the same (for example, I couldn't get a better seat for my domestic leg check-in at JNB, even though the agent there could give me a SYD-BNE boarding pass. I had to wait until I got to SYD, but by that time the plane was utterly full with more than 30 people on the waitlist for my flight :shocked:. The main reason the agent at JNB couldn't do it is because it was > 24 h for my domestic flight. I hope at least the agents at LAX gave your wife the reason why she couldn't get PE for her domestic whilst at LAX).

As for moving of seat - not good, unless they had a very good reason. Hopefully, unlike last time, it was an equal or better seat than she selected.

 

[IainF]

And as I thought would happen, she was not given a premium economy boarding pass at SYD international transfer.
She stood her ground and they relented.
Leaving her 30 mins to transfer to domestic.

WTF is wrong with this airline?

 

[drron]

And as I thought would happen, she was not given a premium economy boarding pass at SYD international transfer.
She stood her ground and they relented.
Leaving her 30 mins to transfer to domestic.

WTF is wrong with this airline?

A death wish?

 

[IainF]

Actually Doc, I think it is just a symptom of the left hand/right hand not talking.
Using two different booking systems probably doesn't help, but after a year, you would think there would be a work around....
It is also the "jobsworth" attitude at the LAX end which has obviously let the team down.

I will DM Crazydave, but we went through all of this last year....

 

[ejb]

And as I thought would happen, she was not given a premium economy boarding pass at SYD international transfer.
She stood her ground and they relented.
Leaving her 30 mins to transfer to domestic.

WTF is wrong with this airline?

An airline run by kids

Seems time to look at another airline, it may save your marriage.

ejb

 

[Flying Fox]

If you remember that initially when one booked on Jetstar star class, domestic sectors operated by Qantas caused the passenger to sit in the Qantas business cabin for the domestic flight(s) joining up to the international star class flight.

Jetstar soon changed this so that domestically, their Star Class passengers connecting to international jetstar services travel in economy on the connecting qantas flights.

I wasn't aware of this change. Was it a recent thing?

 

[oz_mark]

If you remember that initially when one booked on Jetstar star class, domestic sectors operated by Qantas caused the passenger to sit in the Qantas business cabin for the domestic flight(s) joining up to the international star class flight.

Jetstar soon changed this so that domestically, their Star Class passengers connecting to international jetstar services travel in economy on the connecting qantas flights.

Are you sure?

No-one has told the booking engine that (picking a random date/route) gets:

(Departs from Domestic Terminal - T1)
StarClass fares are seated in Qantas Business Class for this flight.