Tokyo Haneda slot - how will Virgin Operate it?

[Ausbt]

Virgin Australia On Sale

That Y price is amazing, but not so much the J. I wonder what the upgrade from Flexi will be for this one, 27.5K or perhaps a bit greater than that.

 

[Stealthflyer]

I've booked a J award to come home from the AFF SIN Lounge crawl in June.

The award pricing to MEL was the same as a BNE_MEL award added to a HND-BNE award.

I thought the AFF SIN lounge crawl was One World only. Is it any broader than that?

 

[serfty]

I thought the AFF SIN lounge crawl was One World only. Is it any broader than that?

I'm flying on JAL to Japan departing SIN 1:50am,so qualify for lounge access the evening before.

 

[thompo]

Partner and I are going for 10 days in May irrespective to visit friends, and I'm in two minds: do I pounce on the sale fare for a pretty decent status run (SYD-BNE-HND) with partner pooling to me, or wait with fingers crossed that SYD-HND codeshare becomes reality with 2 reward seats up the front and blow the points on that?

 

[AIRwin]

That said, the A330s would need to be rotated around the VA network every now and again. So you'd expect to see them popping up a little bit on routes like BNE-SYD or BNE-PER, I guess. (A330s are also used occasionally on BNE-NAN.)

I checked each day in the first week of April but no A330 between BNE and MEL/PER/SYD yet...

 

[jase05]

I checked each day in the first week of April but no A330 between BNE and MEL/PER/SYD yet...

Would imagine a couple of A330’s are used to NAN on Saturdays during April for school holidays

 

[odysseus]

Partner and I are going for 10 days in May irrespective to visit friends, and I'm in two minds: do I pounce on the sale fare for a pretty decent status run (SYD-BNE-HND) with partner pooling to me, or wait with fingers crossed that SYD-HND codeshare becomes reality with 2 reward seats up the front and blow the points on that?

I'd say go the former.

ANA only release one seat up the front now for FF on AU routes, so even if it eventuates at a time that they're available and not already taken, you'll only be able to get one seat.

 

[futaris]

27,800 points + $129.31 in Economy BNE-HND
27,800 points + $117.91 in Economy HND-BNE

59,500 points + $192.31 in Business BNE-HND
59,500 points + $132.91 in Business HND-BNE

 

[jase05]

For those interested it appears they are releasing 2 reward fares on certain days during May and June that I saw. I haven’t researched any later dates but appears that Tuesday and Wednesday are the days that offer 2 reward seats in J. As a guide I’ve seen May 5th,12th,13th,20th,26th,27th as days with reward availability. Every Tuesday and Wednesday had 2 available for the return leg in May.

 

[CPMaverick]

Partner and I are going for 10 days in May irrespective to visit friends, and I'm in two minds: do I pounce on the sale fare for a pretty decent status run (SYD-BNE-HND) with partner pooling to me, or wait with fingers crossed that SYD-HND codeshare becomes reality with 2 reward seats up the front and blow the points on that?

I wouldn't wait for partnerships to be ready; look at how long ago the AC relationship was announced.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Aud$3499.
Can bear to do do whY ADL > MEL > ADL to meet the connection to MEL.
VAd MEL > BNE VAi > HND
Not too bad, considering SQ is asking more for J ADL > SIN > HND.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

I checked each day in the first week of April but no A330 between BNE and MEL/PER/SYD yet...

Looking this evening, I noticed the schedule must have been updated (My PER-MEL flight in April was downgraded this morning to a 737 ).


Perth

From April there are now 2 A330 flights each way PER-BNE and BNE-PER per week.

PER-BNE (from 17th April, as of now typically ~9 Z seats available on VA489 only)
Fridays: VA469, VA471

BNE-PER (from 17th April, as of now typically ~9 Z seats available)
Fridays: VA474
Sundays: VA470


Melbourne

BNE-MEL (from 30th March, as of now typically ~4 Z seats available)
Mondays: VA322
Wednesdays: VA322
Fridays: VA322

MEL-BNE (from 30th March, as of now typically up to ~4 Z seats available):
Mondays: VA309
Wednesdays: VA309
Fridays: VA309


Nadi

BNE-NAN (from 21st June, as of now typically around ~4 Z seats available):
Sundays: VA173

NAN-BNE (from 21st June, as of now typically between 1-4 Z seats available):
Sundays: VA174


Tokyo

BNE-HND (from 29th March, as of now typically between 2-3 Z seats available until middle of September - and a blackout in July)
Daily: VA77

HND-BNE (from 29th March, as of now typically between 1-3 Z seats excluding Thurs/Fri until middle of September - and a blackout in July)
Daily: VA76

 

[klm597]

Purely from a passenger experience perspective it's good to see more VA A330's flying into and out of BNE. I'm a little surprised by the BNE <-> MEL rotations as I had assumed they would just rotate the HND aircraft using PER flights but it's good news for passengers regardless - assuming no swaps that is.

 

[fkn_ace]

I just booked one J award seat on this new route. I was hoping for 3 J award seats, but i fully accept/understand why they don't release that many J award seats per flight. So now i sit in blind hope that they'll release 2 more j award seats on my particular flight even though it would make no sense for them to do so. ha.

The ff gods have shined on me: 2 more reward j seats have become available on the same flight, so I booked them last night. Now all 3 of us are off to tokyo in J on reward seats.
3 reward seats in a cabin of 20. I'm impressed.

 

[rbjhan]

Booked MEL - BNE - HND early Nov, 71500p.
I'm out of Velocity points now so the return leg will be on SQ.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Booked MEL-BNE-HND just then in J, bit of a birthday trip in April. I could see availability slowly drying up around my preferred dates, so if you're thinking about it, it might be best to just jump on it. First time in Japan and doing it solo, so I should do some research...

71,500pts and $172 in taxes. A nice civilised 08:00 departure from Melbourne too, and a 90 minutes transit in Brisbane. Doesn't sound like the lounge (presuming they are going to use My Lounge) is worth visiting anyway. For comparison, a Y award MEL-BNE-HND is 34,800pts + $156 taxes.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

ADL - BNE (night before) transit overnight
BNE - HND (day of travel, 11.00 (11am) to get to HND, 20.00 (8pm)
then this is where it gets a no, if you do a multi city
HND - any other city, it won't come up
But HKG - SYD, anytime later, this one can be done in one booking.
ADL - BNE (6 Apr 2020)
BNE - HND (7 Apr 2020)
HKG - SYD (10 Apr 2020)
Aud$3534.59!!!

ADL6 Oct 4:10 PM	BNE6 Oct 6:05 PM	VA 1401 Non-stop | Duration 2hr hour 25min minutes Operator: Virgin Australia	Sold Out	Sold Out	$3534.591 fare(s) left	$7786.591 fare(s) left
BNE7 Oct 11:40 AM	HND7 Oct 8:00 PM	VA 77 Non-stop | Duration 9hr hour 20min minutes Operator: Virgin Australia International Virgin Aust Intl VA 77 is subject to government approval.
HKG10 Oct 7:15 PM	SYD11 Oct 7:40 AMNext Day Indicator	VA 82 Non-stop | Duration 9hr hour 25min minutes Operator: Virgin Aust for Virgin Aust Intl Virgin Aust for Virgin Aust Intl

This is very good, once the HKG protests settle down.
Cheaper with this VAi J class, than going SQ via SIN, going SQ via SIN is a mixed class part way.
Also can use my VFF points too.
Of course, have to pay HND - HKG, and SYD - ADL, but these short flights, I can bear in Y.
Not sure how the BNE dom to int airport bus can handle the transfer in 1hr, if I were to use the same day ADL - BNE - HND, so thinking might overnight in BNE.
Hope VAi will keep this timing for a while!

 

[AIRwin]

Not sure how the BNE dom to int airport bus can handle the transfer in 1hr, if I were to use the same day ADL - BNE - HND, so thinking might overnight in BNE.

VA1385 arrives BNE at 8 am on 7 October (or 9 am on 7 April) which will give you more than 2 hours to connect to the HND flight...

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Thought I saw dep ADL 8.05am arr BNE 10am... but you are right, dep ADL 6.05am arr BNE 8am.

 

[clarkkent]

Thanks to those who gave the heads up about 3 seats being available on many flights -- family trip booked