Switch from Qantas to Virgin

[FishFood]

I'm considering switching my loyalty from Qantas to Virgin, I am currently a Qantas silver frequent flyer.

For those who have made a similar switch recently, what has that been like?

Are you happy with the change?

 

[SJF211]

I haven’t completely switched but I’ve gone from only flying Qantas to earning Gold from scratch and actively seeking them out in the last few months.

Tbh Silver with either isn’t really fantastic. If I had to pick one I’d go with Qantas solely because I was until 2 weeks ago based in DRW and priority check in was an actual benefit.

For higher status:
Just within capital cities I definitely prefer Virgin. Imo the lounges are nicer then their QP equivalent. QF J lounges are sort of on the edge but I haven’t been very impressed with any of them recently and I’d rather the VA lounge food so a tick to VA. VA consistently has good priority boarding, if that matters to you. It does to me and I’ve been very happy with it. To be fair recently QANTAS has actually been starting to enforce it but VA is definitely better and more consistent. On board in Y there’s not really any recognition of status with either. Occasionally with Qantas I’ve been offered a drink or an extra snack but nothing major. Priority baggage with Virgin also is a lot more consistent then with Qantas which I also greatly appreciate.


Overall I’d say it’s definitely worth the switch if you’re mainly flying with major locations domestically and can be more flexible with times. If it weren’t for the fact that I often need to travel at odd times that only Qantas offers I’d probably move entirely to Virgin. I’ve been very happen with them.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

What are your future flight plans like?
Lots of domestic flights with VAd only?
If so, its worth it, as its much easier to use the VA lounge, as a VFF PS, you get 2 a year, and there is a discount of only $300 fixed for a year of access to the VAd lounge after that, if you will do many VAd flights above the 2 with the free entry, its worth it.
VA now also has a lot of international partner airlines, which is a good thing, but they are not in an alliance, and there could be some fares with international partners, that are not "codeshares" and the class of travel might not eligible for earn.
I flew VAd once, put in my SQ KF #, it wasn't a code share, but guess what, the flight was nil earn, I put in a claim, and they said it was an ineligible earn class, or something, I didn't want to make a fuss.
But I guess if you are going to fly SQ, and where VA does not fly, you would probably earn VFF points and VFF SC.
For now, though, you have to make bookings on the partner website, and enter your VFF #, partner flights can't be booked on the VA website at the moment.
UA, SQ, AC, NH, EY, and more recently QR, these are their partner airlines. DL is gone now.
I guess VA has still got a long way to go, considering their own lack of a lot of long range international flights and partners.
Like should they join Skyteam, or still too hard to join *A.
But if you are going to fly purely domestic, VAd is good, though of course, their lounges are not as good as QF's.
Provide more info, on your flight plans, and the others can help more indepth too.
Where do you plan to go, and what class you plan to fly.
Edit: ZL (Rex) is starting their own FF program, and they do fly to a lot of places QF and VA don't go.

 

[ferntree]

I took the Virgin Gold status match in December 2020 and have never looked back.

One serious benefit (as I fly a lot and my circumstances are always changing) is that you can actually get thru to the call centre. Usually within a few minutes, longest I've been on hold was about 20 minutes.

If you need to cancel, the refund goes to a travelbank instantly. I'm still waiting for Qantas travel credits from over a year ago.

Lounges I would say are better than Q Club, not as good as Q Business, but good.

If their schedules suit your need I'd say come on over to the dark side!

 

[SCM]

Switched, couldn't be happier. VA gold feels easier/cheaper to get, and I mostly fly internationally with SQ or QR so their recent partnership stuff is very good news for me.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

As one member on here said/mentioned, on another post, (and confirmed via contact with VA, the QR tie in hasn't moved further as yet).
(OffT): so, as of now, if/when NZ opened further, ie, no RAT test on arrival, I would still not put my VFF # into the booking yet, would put in my QFF # instead for the time being.(OnT).
Would wait for further info.

 

[jasecao]

I think it depends on your travelling patterns, if it is mainly Domestic, I think Virgin would serve you well, Status qualification is easier, and status per dollar would also be better. eg Qantas Gold - 700 and Virgin Gold - 500

However if you are looking at International Flights, Qantas does have the network and alliances that makes routes easier, Virgin is a mismatch of partnership, in some cases they won't even recognise. Also if there are flights to Perth than the A330 on Qantas is just better than a 737 for hours (Sydney <-> Perth for me)

 

[UP4014]

If you mainly fly capital city routes it's ok, but the moment you step out to anywhere else QF still remains leader in my view.

 

[AshM]

I'm a Lifetime Gold Qantas FF. I've been switching all my travel - inc work travel (and I manage a team of people) - and as much of my points earning as possible over to Virgin in recent months and I'm also a Gold Virgin FF now.

I used to be a staunch QF FF for its international network and the oneworld benefits. In particular, my preferred use of QFF points was for OW classic reward tickets in business. I had a pretty good experience on my previous (pre-pandemic) OW classic reward ticket when I was Platinum. But I booked another OW ticket last year for travel this year (I'm currently in NYC, two legs into it) and it has been nothing but drama and frustration over many many months.

The sheer amount of time I wasted banging my head against the wall trying to get Qantas to provide half-decent customer service drove me to Virgin, which, in contrast, has been excellent to deal with.

So I'm a convert - for both work and personal travel - and I'm not looking back. I'll be interested to see how I go when I go to use Virgin points for international travel but, even if its international network is a patchwork work in progress, the experience can't be any more painful than Qantas has been.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I think we can summerise/summarize that there won't be any changes till AJ decides to depart.

 

[harnetcd]

I'm considering switching my loyalty from Qantas to Virgin, I am currently a Qantas silver frequent flyer.

For those who have made a similar switch recently, what has that been like?

Are you happy with the change?

Family Pooling and what seems like a less rigid anniversary date are appealing. However the best benefit at Platinum is the free access to economy X. Never got past solicit with QF whilst have benefited with Etihad, Delta, Singapore (& Silk) and Italia so no complaints and recommend

 

[Fred Thearle]

I'm considering switching my loyalty from Qantas to Virgin, I am currently a Qantas silver frequent flyer.

For those who have made a similar switch recently, what has that been like?

Are you happy with the change?

I just booked Virgin Economy X Perth to Brisbane and Brisbane to Sydney . Compared Qantas and Virgin Economy X and Qantas Std Economy and Qantas was double points required vs Virgin Economy X. I will be pushing Evan Virgin point from now on as Qantas points are only worth half a Virgin point inowdys in my experience. Plus always been easier to use Virginpoints when you want to.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I am with both Aust FF programs.
Waiting to see what Rex brings out.
For some situations/circumstances, its still better to keep QFF.
Unless, unlikely as it is, that VFF and Rex join in a FF alliance.
Yes, its better to keep with one FF program, so you get to SG with one, but VFF's tier reach for SG is not that high.
VAd J fares are quite low on some routes, so its just easier to go that way, compared to QF.
But then on the other hand, for some routes, like SYD - CBR, VA have given that route to Link, so no J, ie, no lounge access, at least with QF, on some days, they do still have the 737 with a J service.
On ADL - PER, VA have given all that service to VARA on the A320, without a J service either, so I would go QF if I wanted a J going ADL - PER.
VA only has one overseas call centre, in the Philippines, where they speak good English, only with that accent, but with QF, you could get any one of the 4 call centres, and on here, its said that those can be "bad".
Partnership wise, QF have the upper hand, with one world, but with VA/VFF, its a bespoke, and if you are not flying a code share, your claim for points might not be successful, ie, they might decline the claim.
((I once put in my SQ KF FF # into a VAd booking, wasn't a code share, after I had flown the route, the points didn't appear, so I put in a FF points claim, it got declined!
I didn't want to make a fuss.
Compared to QFF, if you put in your Avoid FF # into a QFd booking, I am sure the points would be in your Avios account within days!)).
Both airlines do cancel flights occasionally, so for now, to sum up, they are really both on an equal(ish) footing.

 

[serfty]

Platinum with both, and have earned/booked to retain both 'til 2024I can pick and choose ...

I am finding the SQ tie up beneficial with VA and the MH tie up via *O with QF great for my currently regular SE Asia trips.

Domestically this year I have not flown on a QF flight that wasn't changed and required rebooking within 48 hours of travel.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

One more from me, if you get to VFF PS, you can buy VA lounge access at a discount, ie, no joining fee, and VFF PS gives 2 visits to the lounge, after that, in that year, you can buy econX seats, and have lounge access for not a lot of $, and its cheaper than paying QFF's J class fares/prices.
I did that for about 3 years or so, pre covid when I fles a lot in a year, with both airlines.
You can buy econX seats, without having to phone the VA's phone contact centre, where as for QFF, if you want to buy a comfort seat booking, you have to phone their contact centre.
Guess the main point is how you fly, where you usually fly to (int/dom)... etc.
Only you know the answers to those.

 

[ferntree]

If you mainly fly capital city routes it's ok, but the moment you step out to anywhere else QF still remains leader in my view.

It really depends on individual circumstances. All my journeys start (and ultimately end!) at HBA and find for most of my needs Virgin trumps Qantas hands down ... flying J between HBA and BNE regularly for seriously less than half the Qantas J are - and direct, which I can't do in J with Qantas!

 

[clifford]

If you're not particularly interested in One World, then VA is definitely the way to go.

VA have better and more reliable partners IMHO (eg SQ) and treat you better as a Plat.

 

[bladeau1981]

I am now gold with VFF and Qantas and have almost gotten to platinum on VFF starting from 0 in the last 6months. My experience is that they both have strengths and weaknesses.

Booking/Call centers etc. - Qantas website I find easier to navigate especially the app. Virgin on the app it takes you from VFF app to the Virgin app and it has a weird thing where you select your route then the next option is points or cash and if you change you have to go back. I would say booking is a wash. Call Centers VFF is ahead in almost every way, although I personally have not had any issues with Qantas for flight changes or refunds. Virgin is generally cheaper both in cash fares and reward fares.

On the ground - Check-in Qantas always has staff, Virgin I have found a couple of times no staff around (although this was around May/June so has probably gotten better). I find the Qantas lounges to have better F&B options and more consistency. I.E. breakfast in the Qantas lounge you can make a toasted sandwich, usually there is bacon and scrambled eggs, the pancakes, cereals and toast amongst other things and they generally are much faster at getting coffees out (they have several people serving coffee, virgin usually is 1 per sod trying to serve the masses). Lunch and Dinner is the same, just more variety and always a hot option at Qantas, on Virgin you are lucky to find a premade sandwich (that is if there is even a lounge where you are flying from!).
Priority boarding works better on Virgin most of the time, Qantas is a bit hit and miss but seems to be better lately.

In the air - Qantas planes are getting old but they have Wi-Fi onboard, most planes have seat back screens or at least the shared screens and you always get something to eat and drink, Virgin food and drinks must be bought if you want something on board and no Wi-Fi, entertainment is via their app which connects to a Wi-Fi signal (no internet). Staff is about on par on board.

After flight - Virgin priority baggage is almost perfect record, Qantas it's like they don't even look at the tags (and have been known to misplace bags a bit lately). Virgin has on arrival lounge access for Gold/Platinum whereas Qantas only has it for Platinum one

In summary I have switched a lot of my business flying to Virgin but I do tend to gravitate to Qantas when it is leisure. They have a much wider network of lounges (Darwin, Cairns etc. as well as international) than Virgin that has some glaring gaps and the partner airlines are much more integrated with Qantas as part of the One World Alliance. It all depends on where you fly the most and what you value the most really.

 

[Brian Gow]

I recently got a status match to VA Gold which I'm excited to try out.

Needed to book a flight to Sydney first week of October. Qantas economy red e-deal was $ 375.00 but for an extra $ 25.00 I got Virgin business which is a no brainer and will get me the required SC to get gold for another 12 months.

Seriously interested to see the difference between the 2 airlines and who gets my business moving forward.

 

[jamdav93]

I recently got a status match to VA Gold which I'm excited to try out.

Needed to book a flight to Sydney first week of October. Qantas economy red e-deal was $ 375.00 but for an extra $ 25.00 I got Virgin business which is a no brainer and will get me the required SC to get gold for another 12 months.

Seriously interested to see the difference between the 2 airlines and who gets my business moving forward.

Same here, haven't held status with Virgin before but recently got a status match from QF to VA.

I'm doing a status run next month to keep my VA gold, only required a return business class flight MEL <> ADL which was only $598, which is $84 more than a red-e-deal from Qantas on the same route. Keen to see how it stacks up and what the lounges are like in both cities.

Thinking about taking my partner to Thailand next year and Singapore Airlines is looking ever so attractive through VA's partnership, and cheaper compared to a reward ticket on Qantas. Seems like there's better business reward tickets through Virgin (for SQ) compared to Qantas which is a bonus.

Will see how things go after next month and whether i'll switch completely over to VA.