VA Cancellations, Delays growing?

[TiredOldFlyer]

Some potential weather challenges late next week along the QLD coast if Jasper hangs around. Unknown exact course however will cause disruption for a few days regardless.

Could be a challenging 8 weeks across the networks with all sorts of curve balls, Rex 737 seems to be facing the lesser of challenges.

Good News for Qantas and VA - Perfect excuse!

 

[RooFlyer]

Over at Qantas, what they wanted to pay crew in 2026, they are paying that now and more, because it was also low and below the modern award.

Is that Qantas Group, Qantas mainline or mainline+Qantas Link ?

 

[milehighclub]

Is that Qantas Group, Qantas mainline or mainline+Qantas Link ?

That applied to crew working for 2 subsidiaries (Qantas owned, purely for crew) and 2 labour hire companies, with 6 different contracts. Might be some other workgroups I'm missing.

QF Link is slightly different as they a bunch of smaller airlines such as Eastern, Sunstate, Network etc. Although I believe Network also got a rise because of the modern award increase.

 

[MooTime]

Herald Sun claims urgent talks with FWC/Virgin/Unions tomorrow to try and come to a conclusion.

Also mentions Pilots back in discussions next week, no word on strike action though.

That's good to hear.

Who cares about the IPO trick n treats.

Let's hope the VA staff are happy with the numbers they receive.
Knock it over before Xmas, get the flying public where they want to go and return.
Great time of the year.

 

[Harrison_133]

Herald Sun claims urgent talks with FWC/Virgin/Unions tomorrow to try and come to a conclusion.

Herald Sun now reporting (behind paywall) that the talks failed to reach an agreement.

 

[Saab34]

Herald Sun now reporting (behind paywall) that the talks failed to reach an agreement.

Striking this month will cause considerable damage to the business and its IPO plans, as this H1 is what the IPO will be basing from, and the coming three weeks are the most profitable for the business.

Is anyone surprised that a PE company has no interest in giving staff a decent deal? They really couldn’t give a rats.

The Herald Sun said talks will continue mid next week as ‘progress’ was made today.

 

[MooTime]

Striking this month will cause considerable damage to the business and its IPO plans, as this H1 is what the IPO will be basing from, and the coming three weeks are the most profitable for the business.

Is anyone surprised that a PE company has no interest in giving staff a decent deal? They really couldn’t give a rats.

The Herald Sun said talks will continue mid next week as ‘progress’ was made today.

Do you really think that IPO interested parties will only look at latest H1 results?

C'mon Saaby, you can't be serious.
They'll be diving right into each qtr financials since March 2020.

A deal will be done, it has to be, push comes to shove and a deal will be brokered. Have you even seen these games play out before?

 

[RooFlyer]

Do you really think that IPO interested parties will only look at latest H1 results?

C'mon Saaby, you can't be serious.
They'll be diving right into each qtr financials since March 2020.

Agreed, but the most recent results which will best (imperfectly) reflect conditions later, will be the best guide. But no-one will simply use numbers from trading.

 

[Sleepy Sloth]

Just an update on my hideous 10 hour wait at Sydney Airport to fly home the 1 hour (and 10 mins) to the Gold Coast on 18 November. Virgin original flight at 1.30pm cancelled at time of boarding. Rescheduled flight at 5.20pm also cancelled at time of boarding, citing no flight crew. Offered a letter to give to hotels to try and find a room for the night for under $200 (in Sydney at 5.30pm on a Saturday? Yeah, sure) and then return to the airport at 5am for an "ad hoc" flight at 7am the next morning. No thank you.

Booked online the last available flight out for the night, with Qantas for almost $600. Finally actually boarded a plane (what a novelty!) and landed at 7.40pm, and got home just before 9pm.

I complained and am happy to report that Virgin are compensating the full cost of the Qantas flights. GOOD.

 

[Lis]

I was in Melbourne last night - booked on the last Virgin flight back to Sydney. It was cancelled, called the centre who advised me to speak to ground crew. In the meanwhile I was rebooked onto a flight leaving Melbourne on Sunday morning.
Ground crew insisted that the call centre should assist me, so I rang them again. Call centre emphatic that the Sunday flight was “the best they could do”.
Finally figured out that I needed to ask to be booked a flight back on another carrier. It was certainly never going to be offered to me by anyone at Virgin as a proactive solution.
Have just landed after taking the first Qantas flight out.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Qantas experience (until now, have been primarily flying Virgin and I am gold with both airlines).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was in Melbourne last night - booked on the last Virgin flight back to Sydney. It was cancelled, called the centre who advised me to speak to ground crew. In the meanwhile I was rebooked onto a flight leaving Melbourne on Sunday morning.
Ground crew insisted that the call centre should assist me, so I rang them again. Call centre emphatic that the Sunday flight was “the best they could do”.
Finally figured out that I needed to ask to be booked a flight back on another carrier. It was certainly never going to be offered to me by anyone at Virgin as a proactive solution.
Have just landed after taking the first Qantas flight out.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Qantas experience (until now, have been primarily flying Virgin and I am gold with both airlines).

Oh, wow. So that actually works? To be asked to get on another airline?

My cancellation last week it was never offered

 

[MooTime]

I was in Melbourne last night - booked on the last Virgin flight back to Sydney. It was cancelled, called the centre who advised me to speak to ground crew. In the meanwhile I was rebooked onto a flight leaving Melbourne on Sunday morning.
Ground crew insisted that the call centre should assist me, so I rang them again. Call centre emphatic that the Sunday flight was “the best they could do”.
Finally figured out that I needed to ask to be booked a flight back on another carrier. It was certainly never going to be offered to me by anyone at Virgin as a proactive solution.
Have just landed after taking the first Qantas flight out.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Qantas experience (until now, have been primarily flying Virgin and I am gold with both airlines).

That's interesting that VA could not accommodate you on a single Mel-Syd flight at all on Saturday... Not a single spare seat?
Of course they have others to accommodate too.

Lesson. To ask to be placed on another carrier.

 

[xen0n33]

That's interesting that VA could not accommodate you on a single Mel-Syd flight at all on Saturday... Not a single spare seat?
Of course they have others to accommodate too.

Lesson. To ask to be placed on another carrier.

I just had the MEL-LST leg of a OOL-MEL-LST canceled (last VA flight of the day to LST). I did notice there was a later JQ departure and half thought about seeing if I could be moved to that, but ended up accepting the overnight hotel and first flight the next morning - partly in hopes of keeping my J seat.

Of course, I ended up being downgraded anyway, so I'll now have to try and chase VA to try and get something back by way of compensation. (To add insult to injury, this was a DSC status run, so I may need to fight for ORC as well...)

Side note: I assume the cancelation was crew related, as the aircraft scheduled to operate the flight did end up flying to LST as scheduled, just sans passengers and with a 9xx_ flight number.

 

[TiredOldFlyer]

Side note: I assume the cancelation was crew related, as the aircraft scheduled to operate the flight did end up flying to LST as scheduled, just sans passengers and with a 9xx_ flight number.

Wasn't crew related - don't you think that some genius would have worked out that they save fuel by having no pax ?
Could be the new thing - no pax, no food, no luggage, no check in staff and etc.
And the added bonus - no points and status credits.
The savings would by enormous.

 

[Saab34]

That later JQ departure was cancelled so probably lucky you didn’t go for that option.

 

[Lis]

Oh, wow. So that actually works? To be asked to get on another airline?

My cancellation last week it was never offered

There is no way they would offer it. I definitely had to ask.

Also, the options they were offering me were terrible, I also had to point out that I was a sole parent travelling to collect my 8 year old; Sunday morning really was too far away.

On the self manage change flights option, there were several on Sat routing from MEL to LST on Saturday, overnight in LST and then onto Sydney first thing Sunday morning.

I actually live in LST so that would have been something I’d have contemplated if I didn’t have parent obligations. But I can see that flight was cancelled too!

It only works though if you say the magic words. Never offered and you will be told the terrible alternative is the best they can do.

 

[blackcat20]

Flew VA last weekend and yesterday. A minor delay (10 minutes) on the return but nothing major.

 

[bcworld]

I was on the last flight of the day CBR - MEL which was cancelled while I was in the lounge. FWIW I'm Platinum and was booked in Business. QF still had 2 flights departing to MEL that night with economy fares starting at $330. I was rebooked to the following day...I asked to be reaccommodated on QF was told "you'll have to pay for that yourself". Which is what my employer ended up doing. It was over a month ago and I'm still waiting on the refund for the cancelled VA flight.

 

[Saab34]

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/richard-branson-addresses-virgin-australia-staff/video/395875f6004dc316b004615b00a49994

So Bain sent in SRB to rally the troops?

SRB having a strike over offering cabin crew a decent deal? Silly old puppet

 

[MEL_Traveller]

pretty much a melt-down this morning on the SYD-MEL route… most flights either cancelled or delayed by 90+ minutes.

Was the weather in MEL bad this morning?