Virgin airline:never again

[louisek]

My husband and I took an impromptu holiday to Darwin. Our return flight to Brisbane was supposed to.be at 1pm, straight thru. After arriving in Darwin we were advised that our return flight was leaving at 1a.m, thru to Melbourne and then on to Brisbane, 26 hours +. ARRRRGH! I am 72 with numerous health issues, including sleep problems. Like I said: NEVER again

 

[Human]

Welcome to AFF @louisek and I'm so sorry to hear of your terrible experience. I hope that this doesn't put you off travelling altogether, but merely results in a change of preferred airline!

I hope your health has recovered after your ordeal.

 

[Forg]

Not trying to downplay how nasty that trip was; but I don’t think the alternatives are any better in any way. I’ve been way more delayed with Qantas and Jetstar than with Virgin.

 

[p--and--t]

This is one of the reasons we need the Feds to introduce a regulation/compensation scheme for flight disruptions/cancellations of the majors (QF/VA/JQ). Unfortunately the current "white paper" and inferred proposals don't cut it.

 

[dajop]

Welcome to AFF. It's often a roll of the dice as to delays, it could definitely happen on Jetstar and Qantas as well. Though sometimes it's not the delay that's the problem it's how it's handled by the airline, and I'm not convinced that any one of the airlines stands out in this regard.

 

[MooTime]

My husband and I took an impromptu holiday to Darwin. Our return flight to Brisbane was supposed to.be at 1pm, straight thru. After arriving in Darwin we were advised that our return flight was leaving at 1a.m, thru to Melbourne and then on to Brisbane, 26 hours +. ARRRRGH! I am 72 with numerous health issues, including sleep problems. Like I said: NEVER again

Did you explore other flight time options?
Next day or day after 1pm flight?
Surely better than 1am dep.

At 72 your not working so extra day or 2 wouldn't hurt.

What dates were these flights for?

 

[justinbrett]

Welcome to AFF. It's often a roll of the dice as to delays, it could definitely happen on Jetstar and Qantas as well. Though sometimes it's not the delay that's the problem it's how it's handled by the airline, and I'm not convinced that any one of the airlines stands out in this regard.

As a former Darwin resident myself, the issue is the difference in scale of VA ops compared to QF/JQ. Reaccomodation on QF/JQ just has more options.

Just looking at the schedule for Aug, VA has 2-4 departures daily. JQ/QF have 15 on Monday alone (I didn’t count the rest of the days). And that’s not including international or GOV.

It’s always been this way, even with VA1 & DJ.

 

[drron]

Did you explore other flight time options?
Next day or day after 1pm flight?
Surely better than 1am dep.

At 72 your not working so extra day or 2 wouldn't hurt.

What dates were these flights for?

How do you know. I retired at 75.
But then I also had a regular VA flight today. No problems and I finally have some status on an Australian airline making Silver.

And to the OP a warm welcome to AFF. Stick around and learn some of the tricks. One of which is to explore what other alternatives were available. For example looking up the VA flight history VA 454 DRW to BNE operated yesterday and today at ~ 2.50pm arriving in Bnrisbane ~ 7pm. Even picking to fly the day after you wouldn't be that much later getting home but would fell much more rested than you obviously did with that awful timing.
Two years ago we had such an experience with Qantas flying from Geraldton to Brisbane. They cancelled the midday flight to Perth so missed connection to Brisbane. Next couple of flights were full so put on Perth to Melbourne arriving early morning and then on to Brisbane. Like you felt pretty awful when we eventually got home.

 

[dajop]

As a former Darwin resident myself, the issue is the difference in scale of VA ops compared to QF/JQ. Reaccomodation on QF/JQ just has more options.

Just looking at the schedule for Aug, VA has 2-4 departures daily. JQ/QF have 15 on Monday alone (I didn’t count the rest of the days). And that’s not including international or GOV.

It’s always been this way, even with VA1 & DJ.

That be true.

I haven't looked at August schedules, only this month, but for last minute cancel on a 1pm departure, it might even be a struggle for QF to get pax on anything that would get them home that evening given the timing of departures to east coast. Maybe via ADL? If the cancel was known in advance, it should be easier (at least for status pax) to be shifted to an alternate routing, depending on loads.

 

[Cynicor]

At 72 your not working so extra day or 2 wouldn't hurt.

Haha, how young are you? My mum is almost 80 and still working. She’s away nearly 1/3 the year travelling and takes mostly accumulated overtime and unpaid time off

 

[MooTime]

Haha, how young are you? My mum is almost 80 and still working. She’s away nearly 1/3 the year travelling and takes mostly accumulated overtime and unpaid time off

Yes I've read and heard many stories of many fine folk working into their 80's.

Apologies @drron I assumed this.

Maybe @louisek can confirm either way.

 

[louisek]

Welcome to AFF @louisek and I'm so sorry to hear of your terrible experience. I hope that this doesn't put you off travelling altogether, but merely results in a change of preferred airline!

I hope your health has recovered after your ordeal.

I've always loved travel, so it definitely won t put me off. Thank you for the welcome

 

[louisek]

Not trying to downplay how nasty that trip was; but I don’t think the alternatives are any better in any way. I’ve been way more delayed with Qantas and Jetstar than with Virgin.

Well i am learning that there are lots of issues flying domestically at least. Our previous flight was with Qantas, Port Macquarie to Sydney. We boarded, but there was engine problems. That issue meant a 12 hour delay in Sydney. Fortunately we were able to leave the airport so made the most of it

 

[louisek]

Not trying to downplay how nasty that trip was; but I don’t think the alternatives are any better in any way. I’ve been way more delayed with Qantas and Jetstar than with Virgin.

It seems most problems occur with domestic flights. I have never had such hassles with international flying

 

[AIRwin]

It seems most problems occur with domestic flights. I have never had such hassles with international flying

Same as your previous flight with Qantas from Port Macquarie to Sydney - I boarded my Qantas flight in Singapore last month, the aircraft pushed back but there was engine problems so it didn't taxi and after a some time returned to the gate. We waited on board while engineers were looking into it and were eventually requested to disembark. The estimated departure time kept being delayed until the flight was cancelled in the end.

 

[Warks]

I remember having a rant about this on here in about 2003 or 4, vowing to never fly them again. And I kept it up for a while. But am now a VA WP.

 

[AIRwin]

I remember having a rant about this on here in about 2003 or 4, vowing to never fly them again.

It was Virgin Blue back then?

 

[Human]

I remember having a rant about this on here in about 2003 or 4, vowing to never fly them again. And I kept it up for a while. But am now a VA WP.

That's the way things work. I vowed never to fly Jetstar again after a terrible experience in 2015. I kept to my word until 2024, when I had to fly Jetstar because there was no other option available. I did pay for extra legroom, but the flight was actually very pleasant and now I'm questioning whether I should continue to maintain the rage...!

 

[Flyfrequently]

I have never had such hassles with international flying

It does happen @louisek and as others have noted, it is how they handle the situation.
Another welcome to AFF, lots of knowledgeable folk here.
Happy travels

 

[Denali]

My husband and I took an impromptu holiday to Darwin. Our return flight to Brisbane was supposed to.be at 1pm, straight thru. After arriving in Darwin we were advised that our return flight was leaving at 1a.m, thru to Melbourne and then on to Brisbane, 26 hours +. ARRRRGH! I am 72 with numerous health issues, including sleep problems. Like I said: NEVER again

They tried similar with us a couple of years ago but I phoned Virgin and as they were making the flight change, they moved us to a more reasonable hour and direct flight the next morning. We paid an extra night accommodation, happily, to avoid the 1am departure and enjoyed our flight home.