Tigerair: My recent experience...

[Mattg]

I never thought I would be saying this, but... I flew Tigerair over the weekend. :shock:

Like many AFFers, I had been actively avoiding Tiger ever since the CASA groundings. Not that I'd ever flown them before the groundings, due to their reputation of terrible customer service. But it seemed like things had been improving lately, and I thought I would give them a go.

In the past, if I noticed that Tiger was offering $30.00 fares to somewhere I wanted to go, I would see if a Jetstar price beat was possible. It often is, but in this case the destination was Coffs Harbour and Jetstar don't fly there. So, I decided to book with Tiger and hope for the best.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The experience was absolutely fine!

My first sector was Friday's lunchtime SYD-CFS flight. We seemed to board from the furthest gate in Terminal 2, at one of the only gates with no aerobridge. But other than that, I really cannot complain. The flight's loading was only about 60% and I had a whole row to myself towards the back of the plane. After take-off the cabin crew came through the aisle offering snacks & drinks. I didn't buy anything but did peruse the menu and it seemed to be roughly on par with JQ in terms of product offering and prices. (i.e. kind of expensive for what you get, but I would stop short of calling it highway robbery).

Most of the announcements were pre-recorded but the cabin crew smiled and seemed friendly.

The legroom of course wasn't great, but I thought it was at least the same as or better than the legroom on Jetstar. In fact, it's probably about the same as you would get on a Qantas or Virgin 737. The seats were reasonably comfortable too and the plane was clean.



Our flight ran on time. Slightly early, in fact. There was another flight bound for the Gold Coast that was scheduled to leave around the same time as ours. That flight was delayed about 2 hours. But the ground staff were actively keeping passengers updated and handed out meal vouchers.

The return sector, today's CFS-SYD flight was much the same. The flight ran slightly early and the cabin crew seemed happy. We had a different aircraft with cloth-covered seats (rather than leather). The cloth seats reminded me very much of the seats on Easyjet's aircraft (which, by the way, isn't a bad thing - I found them more than adequate for a short flight).

My only criticism is that I found a boarding pass in my seat pocket for a flight more than 2 days ago - which makes me wonder how thoroughly they clean their planes. But that is a very minor thing and the rest of the plane wasn't noticeably dirty.

So, what to make of all of this? Well, I would actually fly Tiger again. If the price was right, and the flight was short. I wouldn't consider them for a flight longer than 3 hours or a red-eye, but I wouldn't consider Jetstar in those cases either.

I actually found the experience better than most of my Jetstar flights. The whole experience was, well, pleasant. A big disadvantage of flying Tiger for me was the lack of lounge access and the opportunity to earn points/SCs (though with the recent JQ Plus Bundle increase I probably wouldn't bother on JQ anymore anyway). So, if for some reason Qantas wasn't a viable option on a day/route I needed to fly, I would consider Tiger. There, I said it.

Anyone else flown Tiger lately (and is willing to admit it?) How was it?

 

[samh004]

I've not flown them, but to counter the suggestion they have bad customer service (and I'm sure sometimes they do, sometimes they don't), I once booked a return to MEL pre-grounding, but ultimately forgot to book accommodation so chose to throw away the flights and was actually phoned up by check-in staff to see if I was going to check-in (presumably checking to see if I was running late and not simply trying to sell my seat on to the next person)

So it's not all bad, but I think a JQ price beat would still be my preferred route, if only for lounge access!

 

[drivatruk]

I worked as Tiger Ramp crew for 6 months. Tiger use Aerocare to provide ground services. Part of my duties included cleaning the aircraft at the end of its flying day. Every seat pocket is meant to be emptied of rubbish as part of the cleaning process. It also includes windows cleaned, toilets cleaned, overhead bins cleaned and vacuuming and also some mopping.

 

[eastwest101]

.... but I think a JQ price beat would still be my preferred route, if only for lounge access!

JQ price beat not really worth it anymore because in SYD and MEL you have lost convenient access to the QF Lounges now and chances are that the Qantas Club is either closed or non-existant at your destination anyway. Also with the re-alignment of JQ bundle prices any SC earn or checked baggage is also not available so not many economic/price compelling reasons to fly JQ over TT anymore, unless JQ are actually cheaper than TT, which they usually aren't. So you may as well spend the extra $20-$30 and fly a real airline (QF or VA) if possible/offered, and have a better chance at lounge access.

Having said that - I do know people whom fly TT and also JQ fairly often, and they have also mentioned that they see them as pretty much interchangeable/equal 'rides on a bus' on short sectors. So interesting to see the real life experience as posted by the OP.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for the report. There was another 'my first Tiger flight' a while back with similar conclusions.

I reckon most Tiger and Jetstar flight pass as you experienced - uneventful and better than walking. But the reason that I would never fly with them is the consequences of a delay or a flight cancellation. That's when the poo would hit the fan, and I suspect all the pax would be liberally coated, with no recourse or timely assistance from the airline. You might chuck a $50 fare away and fly some-one else to get to where you were headed, but that assumes there was an alternative at the time, and you could get a seat for under [$lots]when they saw a herd of Tiger passengers heading their way!

 

[Mattg]

I reckon most Tiger and Jetstar flight pass as you experienced - uneventful and better than walking. But the reason that I would never fly with them is the consequences of a delay or a flight cancellation. That's when the poo would hit the fan, and I suspect all the pax would be liberally coated, with no recourse or timely assistance from the airline. You might chuck a $50 fare away and fly some-one else to get to where you were headed, but that assumes there was an alternative at the time, and you could get a seat for under [$lots]when they saw a herd of Tiger passengers heading their way!

This did occur to me. TT only fly SYD-CFS 3 times a week, so there would have been some major issues had the flight today been cancelled. Of course it wasn't, so everything was fine. But if they had've cancelled it, waiting to fly another day wouldn't have been an option for me. The most likely outcome would have been that I would have got a $30 refund from Tiger and then paid nearly $300 to fly home on QF. Hardly ideal.

Having said that, I don't think delays/cancellations on TT are as common now as they once were. And on the high-traffic routes (SYD-MEL, SYD-OOL etc.) I don't think there would be so many problems even if there was a cancellation as they have reasonable frequency.

Of course, my preference is definitely still QF where possible. Never had a bad experience with them and although I've had a number of QF flights cancelled, I've always just been put on the next flight with less than an hour lost in total.

 

[drron]

I did consider TT when I had to fly to SYD and back 3 weeks ago.Times didn't suit.
Since VA took over you don't hear many horror tales so thought it was worth a shot.

 

[drivatruk]

This did occur to me. TT only fly SYD-CFS 3 times a week, so there would have been some major issues had the flight today been cancelled. Of course it wasn't, so everything was fine. But if they had've cancelled it, waiting to fly another day wouldn't have been an option for me. The most likely outcome would have been that I would have got a $30 refund from Tiger and then paid nearly $300 to fly home on QF. Hardly ideal.

Having said that, I don't think delays/cancellations on TT are as common now as they once were. And on the high-traffic routes (SYD-MEL, SYD-OOL etc.) I don't think there would be so many problems even if there was a cancellation as they have reasonable frequency.

Of course, my preference is definitely still QF where possible. Never had a bad experience with them and although I've had a number of QF flights cancelled, I've always just been put on the next flight with less than an hour lost in total.

This would be if every Tiger flight was cancelled. However depending on how much less Tiger charges per flight. If only one in twenty were cancelled then you would save more than the $270 in your scenario.

 

[Mattg]

This would be if every Tiger flight was cancelled. However depending on how much less Tiger charges per flight. If only one in twenty were cancelled then you would save more than the $270 in your scenario.

Just had a look at the latest available stats, which happen to be for June 2015. In that month, 0.7% of Tigerair flights were cancelled. This is actually lower than Virgin, Qantas and Jetstar. So, the odds would seem pretty good I guess.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

I flew Tiger last year Chennai to Singapore, exit row, perfectly fine, except for the middle of the night departure.

LCC just means managing the expectations, it ain't too hard.

Cheers
BF

 

[samh004]

Just had a look at the latest available stats, which happen to be for June 2015. In that month, 0.7% of Tigerair flights were cancelled. This is actually lower than Virgin, Qantas and Jetstar. So, the odds would seem pretty good I guess.

Don't they have a vastly smaller fleet though?

What I'm getting at is that as fleets grow, routes increase and complexities multiply. Sure if you have a big fleet you might be able to find a spare aircraft, but usually you're making best use of the fleet, not aiming to fill a redundancy. And I guess a smaller fleet could cause troubles equally, but there should be less complexity.

 

[Anna]

I reckon most Tiger and Jetstar flight pass as you experienced - uneventful and better than walking. But the reason that I would never fly with them is the consequences of a delay or a flight cancellation. That's when the poo would hit the fan, and I suspect all the pax would be liberally coated, with no recourse or timely assistance from the airline.

+1 for this. It's not the onboard experience of an LCC that concerns me, it's that there will be no real service offered if something goes awry in the period between booking and take-off, whether that be a schedule change weeks ahead, a mechanical problem on the day or whatever.

 

[moa999]

The legroom of course wasn't great, but I thought it was at least the same as or better than the legroom on Jetstar. In fact, it's probably about the same as you would get on a Qantas or Virgin 737. The seats were reasonably comfortable too and the plane was clean.

Both use 180-seat configurations, so I think identical - SeatGuru shows a difference in position of rear galleys and toilets, but I actually think they are the same.

 

[Mattg]

Both use 180-seat configurations, so I think identical - SeatGuru shows a difference in position of rear galleys and toilets, but I actually think they are the same.

Quite possibly. The only difference I noticed between the TT & JQ A320s was that seats 1A-C on the TT jet have a bulkhead in front. On Jetstar, these seats have no bulkhead in front and therefore excellent legroom.

 

[yohy?!]

Don't they have a vastly smaller fleet though?

What I'm getting at is that as fleets grow, routes increase and complexities multiply. Sure if you have a big fleet you might be able to find a spare aircraft, but usually you're making best use of the fleet, not aiming to fill a redundancy. And I guess a smaller fleet could cause troubles equally, but there should be less complexity.

It's going to come down to how VA/TT handle recoveries from cancellations - ie will they put pax on VA to avoid the bad press or leave people on their own a la JQ

I have seen examples of pax getting reaccomodated on VA since the takeover (but not a huge number)

 

[Mattg]

It's going to come down to how VA/TT handle recoveries from cancellations - ie will they put pax on VA to avoid the bad press or leave people on their own a la JQ

I have seen examples of pax getting reaccomodated on VA since the takeover (but not a huge number)

That's promising. A few months ago JQ cancelled my flight and offered to fly me the day before or give me a refund (of the $45 or so I paid for the flight). Neither option worked well for me but they flat out refused to put me on another carrier.

 

[Buzzard]

As you say Mattg, you paid only $30. You couldn't get a bus for that sort of money and I doubt the bus would be any better comfort wise plus quite a lot longer travel time.

When I flew Tiger last year MEL to ADL I didn't expect a lot and I didn't get a lot. At the end of the day it was a 1 hour flight and I was quite happy sitting there reading my book.

If it was not for airlines like Tiger, I'm certain there would be quite a few people that could not afford to travel.

 

[TomVexille]

If it was not for airlines like Tiger, I'm certain there would be quite a few people that could not afford to travel.

And that's a key point. I need TT around so I can afford to fly QF :mrgreen:

And for the record my one ADL-MEL flight on TT back in 2011 was perfectly fine.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Just to add to the conversation, when I travelled on TT last year from MEL > HBA ( the first time in over 5 years) I set myself extremely low expectations.

Once onboard I found the journey relatively painfree ( other than that tin shed TT uses at MEL, which is soon to be replaced).

TT have certainly picked up their game following the disastrous CASA grounding a few years back.
This could be evident from both the inflight service & the inviting inflight menu.

I'm my eyes TT are more or less on par with JQ, although the route network is still not as large as what it was pre CASA grounding ( ie CBR still missing off the route map)

I have no doubt that the best thing that could have happened to TT was VA's management of the airline.

For myself personally, If I had to choose between the two LCC's i would choose JQ over TT based on the ability to earn QF SC's ( although the recent increase in the cost of the 'plus bundle' is certainly a factor to weigh up nowadays) & the use of QF lounges ( in a ever shrinking limited number of ports) has its advantages.


Although I can see that VA has plenty of growth to extract from TT if they play their cards right.

 

[Mattg]

I'm my eyes TT are more or less on par with JQ, although the route network is still not as large as what is was pre CASA grounding ( ie CBR still missing off the route map)

I would love to see TT return to CBR! If nothing else, to provide a bit of competition and bring prices down. Airfares to CBR are way too high.