Virgin 3.0 product revealed

[Maccaj73]

Thought I’d start a new thread for comment on people’s thoughts of VA 3.0s reveal today. Key changes:

- CNS, DRW, MKY lounge to close with CBR under review.
- Buy on board now no snacks but free coffee and water. No word on happy hour.
- Business Class product under review for reveal 2021
- Wifi TBA
- More investment in technology and airport self service.

Full details here:

Ready for take-off: Virgin Australia Group soars out of administration, unveils future direction

 

[jakeseven7]

No CBR lounge is very short term thinking... maybe it will come later in the mix...

 

[aus_flyer]

No CBR lounge is very short term thinking... maybe it will come later in the mix...

Especially given the very high margins from government staff.

 

[jakeseven7]

Especially given the very high margins from government staff.

They don't have the aircraft for CBR runs though now they've jettonised all their e-jets and ATR's.

CBR needs frequency and they will lose money hand over fist trying to run heavy gas guzzling 737's at significant frequency up against QF's mix of Q400 / 717 / 737's even A330's that flex to demand as required.

 

[blackcat20]

- Buy on board now no snacks but free coffee and water. No word on happy hour.

So back to DJ then....

 

[TheInsider]

So what's actually changing besides meals and a couple of lounges???

 

[JeeJee]

No announcement on Alliance/Partnership with SQ, DL, EY, etc. Wonder what’s happening in that space!

 

[Bundy Bear]

I would hope a lounge in Canberra can open, even a smaller scale one, you want to suck up to those politicians.
Buy on board seems to be the way to go but they need to add an option in their booking system where you can order a prepacked type meal or have it as some option on a flight to Perth.

 

[jakeseven7]

I would hope a lounge in Canberra can open, even a smaller scale one, you want to suck up to those politicians.
Buy on board seems to be the way to go but they need to add an option in their booking system where you can order a prepacked type meal or have it as some option on a flight to Perth.

100% because a lot of corporates / SME's aren't allowed to expense meals that fall out of structured B/L/D and this was always a bug bear in DJ days and when we force our teams onto JQ if there is no other option....

Bundling it helps with this.

EDIT: Sorry I keep forgetting Bain/VA2 aren't as focussed on corporate travel anymore!

 

[Milefest]

Removing PS as CEO was a mistake in my opinion. He had a clear path to success for the airline and was making great progress towards that vision. Jayne's vision seems to be a purple jetstar.

 

[oz_mark]

Removing PS as CEO was a mistake in my opinion. He had a clear path to success for the airline and was making great progress towards that vision. Jayne's vision seems to be a purple jetstar.

PS was always going to be leaving. It just happened a bit sooner that I had thought. And if he was still there, I image the PR today would have said much the same stuff as it did.

 

[mad_atta]

So by 'no material change to Velocity' can we assume that Plats will still get complimentary access to Economy X? That's a pretty meaningful benefit, which at least provides differentiation from JQ and QF in Y...

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

No announcement on Alliance/Partnership with SQ, DL, EY, etc. Wonder what’s happening in that space!

Thought I read something mentioned about that, down the bottom of yesterday's blurb.
Dom and int alliance.
Maybe they will join Rex/Rex join them.
Will see if I can find the article in the VA website's announcement from yesterday.
Edit:
The multi-award-winning frequent flyer program will announce a number of significant new partnerships in 2021, giving members more opportunity to earn points on every day spend.
That was a cut and paste from their Ready for Takeoff blurb, down the bottom.
Granted, it could also be more so about earning points on the ground, without flying activity.

 

[eastwest101]

So what's actually changing besides meals and a couple of lounges???

They have handed the CNS DRW and all of TAS market over to QF, up to Qantas now to decide if they Jetstarize those ports or not. They have handed all the Federal public service and other high value consulting/Business traffic into and out of Canberra over to Qantas and all the political decisions about aviation and travel will be made inside Qantas or Rex lounges.

Will be interesting to see if VA platinum status pax still get access to EconomyX, if they stop that they can kiss goodbye to any remaining frequent flyers.

Lots of costs stripped out of the business but also flexibility stripped out of the business so they have less ability to respond to changing circumstances.

Realising that they can't completely exit regional and a belated realisation that the FIFO charter business is worth keeping.

 

[jakeseven7]

They have handed the CNS DRW and all of TAS market over to QF, up to Qantas now to decide if they Jetstarize those ports or not

Can’t speak to DRW really but QF / QFLink have done very well in Tassie, as their tourism market diversified and attracted more premium passengers QF have scooped them up by adding more and more services. Still a lot of the orange star down there but lots of Roos too. Bain/VA2 is going to struggle in Tassie, always has... doesn’t have the right aircraft or strategy.

CNS is a funny one very seasonal and relies a lot on international feeder traffic that QF scoops up a lot of. I don’t think they will jetstarise CNS too much if there is margin to be made.

 

[moa999]

Helluva lot of TBAs.
I'll wait to they make some decisions

 

[ole nimeton]

No CBR lounge is very short term thinking... maybe it will come later in the mix...

Would be nice to see the Virgin Lounge space transfer over to a third party/Priority Pass lounge. Would certainly provide some incentive to try some of the smaller airlines that are now flying out of CBR.

 

[footy99]

Any alliance with Rex, particularly where VA points could be used for Rex flights, would benefit me enormously. I'd love to see something happen there.

Also keen for CBR lounge to re-open as I have a bunch of J flights coming up out of there.

 

[Pcoder]

Would be nice to see the Virgin Lounge space transfer over to a third party/Priority Pass lounge. Would certainly provide some incentive to try some of the smaller airlines that are now flying out of CBR.

Yeah, or even transferring the full lounge to a third party like 'The House' lounge for these other minor airports without losing the exclusive lounges in the major ports. They could still come to a deal on access as well so they don't lose too much of their lounge footprint.

 

[Mattg]

I suspect it may be quite telling that Virgin does NOT say they’ll keep complimentary checked baggage on economy class tickets. Expect the U.S. system of paying for checked bags to come soon...