Spirits Spotted at the VA Lounge SYD

[bullerdude]

A bottle of Jim Beam bourbon was also there went I passed through the other day, which is a good sign.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

A bottle of Jim Beam bourbon was also there went I passed through the other day, which is a good sign.

Oh so the quality is going downhill, that's a shame.

 

[drewbles]

Oh so the quality is going downhill, that's a shame.

They started with Gordons Gin, they didn't have far to fall

 

[Milefest]

Spirits seem to have disappeared from the SYD lounge according to a friend of mine. They said to her that the trial is over..

 

[Rigs]

Spirits seem to have disappeared from the SYD lounge according to a friend of mine. They said to her that the trial is over..

All I have here in Brisbane is a couple of pretty girls handing out small glasses of Peroni.

 

[Blackswan]

Spirits seem to have disappeared from the SYD lounge according to a friend of mine. They said to her that the trial is over..

I passed through SYD two weeks back, and the staff said they were getting very strong positive feedback regarding the trial. Hopefully it gets rolled out nationally.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

I passed through SYD two weeks back, and the staff said they were getting very strong positive feedback regarding the trial. Hopefully it gets rolled out nationally.

Hopefully! I just can't see how a trial like that could fail...

 

[Deleted member 29185]

the staff said they were getting very strong positive feedback regarding the trial.

You could have knocked me off the chair with a feather! :mrgreen:

(Pick the sarcasm )

 

[JohnK]

Hopefully! I just can't see how a trial like that could fail...

Costs more?

 

[Notyourbag]

No Spirits spotted in the PER lounge yesterday (or any of the advertised food) - this was at 2pm. Very poor offering.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Costs more?

I think that's a given – doesn't really take a trial to figure that out. But if the uptake was too high, I suppose that might be considered a 'failure'.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Costs more?

Their airfares cost more too. We don't seem to get any more (I could even argue, less)........so I'd say that's not a valid excuse, although VA have recently not needed a valid excuse to bow to their trans Tasman masters!

 

[G00r]

Just paid a casual entry about 20 minutes ago, but glad i asked "are the spirits still flowing?" Which was met with a cheerful yes.
No such luck at the bar. Trial has finished.

No questions asked when requesting a refund.
As a no beer or wine drinker, my joining the VA lounge was contingent on this offering.

 

[Milefest]

Just paid a casual entry about 20 minutes ago, but glad i asked "are the spirits still flowing?" Which was met with a cheerful yes.
No such luck at the bar. Trial has finished.

No questions asked when requesting a refund.
As a no beer or wine drinker, my joining the VA lounge was contingent on this offering.

The beer and wine isn't bad in my opinion (although I do think they should have some other draft beer options like QF), it's just that sometimes you want another option like a G&T.

I PMed VA through Twitter recently for an update on the spirits:

The team are currently reviewing the trial’s results and we will provide an update if this becomes a permanent fixture. Thank you for your question today.

Still hopeful.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I PMed VA through Twitter recently for an update on the spirits:Still hopeful.

Perhaps they asked NZ to pay for it :mrgreen:

 

[Blackswan]

Just paid a casual entry about 20 minutes ago, but glad i asked "are the spirits still flowing?" Which was met with a cheerful yes.
No such luck at the bar. Trial has finished.

No questions asked when requesting a refund.
As a no beer or wine drinker, my joining the VA lounge was contingent on this offering.

Good on you for requesting and receiving a refund based upon this. Hopefully they'll see how much their guests value this.

 

[G00r]

Good on you for requesting and receiving a refund based upon this. Hopefully they'll see how much their guests value this.

I made a point of asking first, so that I had the consumer right about "sales person said product/service did x" to seek a refund later if the product/service didn't meet advertised... something (3rd spirit).

At $30-40 a bottle, it couldn't be a huge hit to the bottom line to offer this, but I guess given the other threads on here about them losing money, Air NZ's support and people's points (transferring to partnering airlines) perhaps they see it as an easy saving.

I don't know how exactly they are going to extrapolate data out of the trial.

"Okay, nationally we went through 804 bottles, what is each marketing-team-member's interpretation of these results?"

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Realistically spirits would need to be served by bar staff.
Both from a cost control perspective and from a responsible service of alcohol perspective.
Extra staff costs would dwarf any difference between the cost of spirits and the cost of wine.
The alcohol in the old Perth lounge was served by the same staff who acted as the barista, and this created an awful bottleneck.
The alcohol in the new Perth lounge is basically self-service.
I'd imagine staff costs represent a hurdle to rolling this out.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Realistically spirits would need to be served by bar staff.
Both from a cost control perspective and from a responsible service of alcohol perspective.
Extra staff costs would dwarf any difference between the cost of spirits and the cost of wine.
The alcohol in the old Perth lounge was served by the same staff who acted as the barista, and this created an awful bottleneck.
The alcohol in the new Perth lounge is basically self-service.
I'd imagine staff costs represent a hurdle to rolling this out.

I'm not sure I agree. For RSA, they allow self service of wine (at 12% or so, that could be an issue) and they seem to manage it OK and beers already use bar staff, so they could manage spirits as well, I assume.

 

[Milefest]

I'm not sure I agree. For RSA, they allow self service of wine (at 12% or so, that could be an issue) and they seem to manage it OK and beers already use bar staff, so they could manage spirits as well, I assume.

The venue is already 18+* so from a RSA perspective they're permitted to provide self-serve spirits under supervision. It seems to circle back to the cost of providing spirits.

*Anyone under 18 must be under supervision by a responsible adult.