Virgin airline:never again

[Warks]

It was Virgin Blue back then?

Yes DJ!

 

[simmomelb]

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

What was the flight number and departure date, out of interest? I'd love to see what happened to your flight

Welcome to AFF

 

[kevviek]

I’ve been sitting in Brisbane airport for 6 hours waiting for a connecting flight to Rocky that was supposed to be 30 minutes.

It’s been a complete sh!tshow with the number of delay announcements, gate changes, plane changes - not just for our flight but it seems every other plane has engineering issues, they must have announced 4 swap outs, passengers gone missing on fully boarded flights….not very confidence inspiring!

 

[louisek]

What was the flight number and departure date, out of interest? I'd love to see what happened to your flight

Welcome to AFF

Hi. the flight was VA 454, departing thurs sept 12th, departure 12.25 pm from Darwin. I would be interested also. It seems all airlines now departing 1 am

 

[DC3]

Like I said: NEVER again

You may have had a reason for selecting VA?

 

[DC3]

Here’s an interesting thread about ‘never again’

What is the statute of limitations on “never again”?

I’m sure we’ve all had a bad experience with an airline that made us say “I’ll never fly with that airline again”. But then, after a while, we forget why that airline made us angry and book with them again anyway because they’re the lowest price, or perhaps the only convenient option. A few...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[simmomelb]

Hi. the flight was VA 454, departing thurs sept 12th, departure 12.25 pm from Darwin. I would be interested also. It seems all airlines now departing 1 am

Sep 12? It's the 6th of Sep today. This for a flight in the future? I thought you had already taken this flight.
Are you flexible with dates?

 

[DC3]

Sep 12? It's the 6th of Sep today

Or, in 2023?

 

[justinbrett]

Nothing in the OP says the flight has already occurred.

If it is the 12th, looks like VA has downgraded the flight to E190 and bumped you. QF is also operating an E190 that day.

Only day time option to get you home that day is QF via CNS, but is expensive. You could try asking VA to rebook you on it. I doubt they will though.

 

[simmomelb]

Hi. the flight was VA 454, departing thurs sept 12th, departure 12.25 pm from Darwin. I would be interested also. It seems all airlines now departing 1 am

It is due to load factors (very few passengers), Virgin Australia starts daily direct services from the 22nd of September (except 30th Sep) when passenger numbers increase for the year between Darwin & Brisbane.
You should be able to move to another direct service if flexible with dates, such as 14th Sep with Virgin Australia.
Qantas doesn't have a direct service on the 12th Sep either, only Jetstar.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

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

Sorry to hear of your experience with Virgin. A 26 hour delay like that is unacceptable. What I would have done in that instance would be to insist they put me on the next flight operated by Virgin departing within a couple of hours. If they couldn't do that I would have insisted they rebook me on a competitor like Qantas. If refuse, I would have simply bought a next ticket and then claimed reimbursement for it later from Virgin. I know some folks will claim legally, they aren't obligated to do that (more on that in a moment). However, I have had colleagues managed to do that with Virgin. Most recently a colleague was flying from Sydney to Brisbane and the flight got cancelled and rebooked for the following day which wouldn't work for them as they had a hotel booked and were looking at houses in Brisbane. A quick call to Virgin had them rebooked on Qantas flights.

Now to the legal question, are airlines obligated to rebook you on competitors when they cannot provide a reasonable option, I would make the argument that this is the law of the land and has been the case for many years. Specifically Australian Consumer law and the Australian Consumer Guarantee come into play. Quoting from the ACCC:

The consumer guarantee that services are provided within a reasonable time is especially relevant to travel services. When a travel service is delayed or cancelled, it may mean this guarantee has not been met,

If the consumer had to book a new flight with another airline because the airline they had originally booked with had no reasonable replacement flights, they may have a right to reimbursement from the original airline for the cost of that flight.

Now of course the question here is what is "reasonable". This is something that frankly needs to be adjudicated in a tribunal or court of law. Would a 1 hour delay be enough to trigger the consumer guarantee? I think for many on this forum, the answer might be no. But what if that one hour delay results in a mis-connection resulting in you having to stay overnight at the airport? Certainly this new itinerary offered by Virgin Australia is unreasonable. Having to wait the better part of a day for a new flight is way too long both from an Australian perspective but also globally. If we were to look at Canada or the EU, they would have already received a cash entitlement of up to 600 Euros, meals, hotels and of course rebooking on a competitor if they ended up arriving at their final destination just 4 hours later than scheduled.

I think a key point here is we need to have travellers suing airlines when they refuse to rebook and having courts decide where the consumer law applies. For instance, if a Federal Court says anything longer than a 4 hour delay for a domestic flight is unreasonable under Australian Consumer law, we would have consumer protections comparable to the EU, without our MPs having to vote on a single new piece of legislation, as the court would set the precedent for this vague law.


-RooFlyer88

 

[simmomelb]

Sorry to hear of your experience with Virgin. A 26 hour delay like that is unacceptable. What I would have done in that instance would be to insist they put me on the next flight operated by Virgin departing within a couple of hours. If they couldn't do that I would have insisted they rebook me on a competitor like Qantas.

Qantas doesn't have a direct flight on the said day of travel either, it's a quiet route at this time of the year. Picking up to daily services with all airlines in 2 to 3 weeks.

 

[justinbrett]

, Virgin Australia starts daily direct services from the 22nd of September (except 30th Sep) when passenger numbers increase for the year between Darwin & Brisbane.

Sorry that’s fundamentally wrong. Darwin is heading into the build up and wet season which is the off season. Sep is the tail end of the peak season and pax numbers will drop off until the next dry season next year.

As far as I was aware VA have had daily flights from BNE throughout the dry season if not year round.

Qantas doesn't have a direct flight on the said day of travel either, it's a quiet route at this time of the year. Picking up to daily services with all airlines in 2 to 3 weeks.

They do, it’s sold out on the 12th. They have a flight via CNS available for sale on the 12th.

The next day QF has a flight selling for over $2800 one way in J, Y is sold out.

 

[Harrison_133]

It is due to load factors (very few passengers), Virgin Australia starts daily direct services from the 22nd of September (except 30th Sep) when passenger numbers increase for the year between Darwin & Brisbane.
You should be able to move to another direct service if flexible with dates, such as 14th Sep with Virgin Australia.
Qantas doesn't have a direct service on the 12th Sep either, only Jetstar.

Virgin are running daily services between Brisbane and Darwin all through September.

The 737 services Mon/Tue/Wed next week are just sold out already, and Airnorth take over on the E190 from Thursday until the end of the month.

Some dates in September will see 2 E190 services because of demand.

 

[simmomelb]

Virgin are running daily services between Brisbane and Darwin all through September.

The 737 services Mon/Tue/Wed next week are just sold out already, and Airnorth take over on the E190 from Thursday until the end of the month.

Some dates in September will see 2 E190 services because of demand.

Yep, agreed, I screwed up when reviewing the scheduled and sold out. My bad.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Seeking some clarity @louisek

You say you and your husband "took" a holiday, can we assume this was in 2023? Or as you state, Thursday 12th September which is next week , you are yet to travel?

You will gain much insight here from the AFF community when things don't go according to plan.

 

[Gladstone Tim]

I’m wondering if the times on the ticket were misread and the flight booked was always going to be a Darwin redeye special, louisek?

 

[DazMel]

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

Sorry to hear your flight drama
I'm 70 yo retired with Parkinsons
Last month I also travelled with Virgin from Darwin to Melbourne
Initially booked DRW-ADL-MEL
Then VA changed my itinerary same route but with overnight in ADL, no problems I'm retired
Then VA put me on that dreaded red-eye ETD 1am direct DRW-MEL at which time I phoned VA and expressed my preference of flights resulting in a DRW-BNE-MEL route with afternoon departure and minimal transit in BNE. Don't say never again, I maintain my Pt status with Velocity even in retirement, I suggest that you study FF information on this site and understand the benefits

 

[louisek]

<redacted>

Yes, first time poster.I don't know what gives you reason to be sceptical ? I am not a frequent flyer, perhaps 40 trips in total including overseas. I felt the need to vent, perhaps this was the wrong forum for that. But my issue was why sell a ticket with a particular flight time when it seems Virgin would have reasonably known their Intention not to proceed with that timing. There were not multiple options to reduce the impact of this time change, and I did change my carrier. As I said , I am not young, have many health issues and had I known of this flight time in advance I would simply have chosen another destination for my holiday

 

[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.

Thank you. I have the travel bug, and have travelled O/s many times, only old age will stop me