Virgin Australia and Air NZ to Form New Partnership

[marcojim]

Looks like the partnership has been approved by the ACCC

ACCC authorisation for Virgin Australia to sell and market Air New Zealand’s trans-Tasman services

The ACCC has granted authorisation to allow unilateral code sharing arrangements between Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand that will boost travellers’ fare choices on trans-Tasman routes.

www.accc.gov.au

 

[The-Aviator]

Great news! Keen to see this up and running.

 

[jase05]

The highlighted part will make one forum member hopping mad



Based on current information, the ACCC is not satisfied that the proposed conduct is likely to result in public benefits by increasing the efficiency of Air New Zealand's trans-Tasman operations. While the ACCC accepts that the proposed conduct has the potential to result in increased passenger numbers and higher capacity utilisation on Air New Zealand operated trans-Tasman services to destinations other than Queenstown, many of these additional passengers otherwise would have flown with Qantas. An improvement in Air New Zealand's capacity utilisation may be at the expense of Qantas'.

 

[n7of9]

Good, I want to go to Hobbiton, dammit

 

[HS-TQE]

You'd think Qantas would be happy overall though, and to some lesser extent NZ as VA effectively becomes a 'Authorised travel agent' for NZ through buying NZ seats and lounge access for eligible J passengers and reselling them to their own (VA) customers. It also effectively eliminates a potential competitor.

The new unilateral (one way) VA/NZ partnership probably the lowest risk VA can take on the core NZ market by being a travel agent/reseller for NZ as NZ carries 100% of the costs and also dictates the pricing. Although I would think the margins for VA reselling NZ seats would not be much better than actual third party travel agents.

This is as opposed to the old JV where VA had to carry some of the costs yet still lose money (plus the former NZ ceo having previously pointed out that VA wasn't carrying their weight in the old JV as they were still bleeding red ink on the old JV services).

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

There are only 2 regular large planes that QF has, flying Aus east coast to NZ, ie, BNE morning, and SYD morning some days.
Other slots are narrow bodied.
AirNZ also flies a lot of small planes across, which do not have J and no works deluxe.
Guess that AirNZ also has limited large planes they can slot in, apart from Aus - NZ, a lot of the 787s also go up to the US and Japan.
Yair, good to be able to earn VFF on "some" AirNZ routes, but no J, and no works deluxe, so its sardine class on all narrow bodied planes, and maybe able to earn VFF points and SC on AirNZ premY if they will sell that to VFF.
Off T: had a broken table, on an AirNZ 777 AKL - MEL last Dec, previous crew probably knew it, but no one reported, so when I took the seat, I had a very wonky table, not a good impression. On T.

 

[SeaWolf]

You'd think Qantas would be happy overall though

Or at least not bothered. It's telling that Qantas did not make any submissions at all in response to this, so I'm guessing they probably just don't care.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

QF already has the NZ JQd flights down pat, so they dont feel threatened by this JV.
They would probably still make more money by having NZ JQd flying around domestically within NZ than VA would, of course they wouldnt, just saying.
This VA and AirNZ JV is quite really hamstrung, really, if a person wants to fly somewhere domestic in NZ, they would still have to fly domestic AirNZ, while earning the NZ equiv now of Airpoint$, or go NZ JQd.

 

[HS-TQE]

QF already has the NZ JQd flights down pat, so they dont feel threatened by this JV.
They would probably still make more money by having NZ JQd flying around domestically within NZ than VA would, of course they wouldnt, just saying.
This VA and AirNZ JV is quite really hamstrung, really, if a person wants to fly somewhere domestic in NZ, they would still have to fly domestic AirNZ, while earning the NZ equiv now of Airpoint$, or go NZ JQd.

VA and Air NZ are not in a JV.

It's a one way unilateral agreement where VA acts as a 'Authorised Travel Agent' for NZ by reselling NZ tickets under the VA code.

NZ gets a commission from VA for reselling their tickets in the same way NZ gets a commission from actual third party travel agents.

 

[aaa99]

It would be interesting to see how the fares would compare booking on VA code vs the NZ code for the same flight. Would there be cost penalty to the customer to offset the commission that VA pays NZ?

 

[ozstamps]

'' eligible Virgin Australia customers will have access to Velocity Frequent Flyer program benefits and international lounge access.”

 

[HS-TQE]

'' eligible Virgin Australia customers will have access to Velocity Frequent Flyer program benefits and international lounge access.”

Lounge Access for eligible J customers (or Status) was bought by VA where they pay NZ as part of the unilateral agreement. VFF benefits can only be earned by booking on the VA code.

 

[justinbrett]

So how does it work for NZ domestic flights?

The way I read it is only the international flights will carry VA codes. So for example if someone flew SYD-AKL-ROT, the first would be on VA codes and the second would be on NZ codes. Any lounge access or benefits for the domestic leg?

 

[ozstamps]

Nope.

But right now SYD-AKL gets zero points or lounge.

Pricing will be interesting.

 

[RSVKanga]

So how does it work for NZ domestic flights?

The way I read it is only the international flights will carry VA codes. So for example if someone flew SYD-AKL-ROT, the first would be on VA codes and the second would be on NZ codes. Any lounge access or benefits for the domestic leg?

Is ROT even bookable on the VA system? There are no VA codeshare flights flying into those regional cities, and they aren’t included in this partnership. At the present moment even AKL, WLG and CHC don’t appear on the VA website, let alone regional destinations (That will change very soon now that this is approved)

 

[openseat]

I guess there is the beginning of some better trans Tasman service with VA. It's amazing the damage that a spat between two CEOs caused years ago.

 

[roby]

Until the QF partership

I guess there is the beginning of some better trans Tasman service with VA. It's amazing the damage that a spat between two CEOs caused years ago.

That's your Prime Minister you are talking about, lol.

Unless the QF partnership ends, VA customers won't be able to enjoy any benefits on the NZ domestic leg nor can NZ flyers vice versa. Of course, a quick getaround would be for VA to join *A but that's not going to happen, either, at least for now.

 

[HS-TQE]

Not to mention if QR ends up acquiring a stake in VA in a post-trade sale with Bain, it'll probably be safe to say that VA will be remaining outside the Alliance world in that scenario (and there's no way that VA would be joining Oneworld with their main competitor being a co-founder despite the ongoing QR speculation of acquiring a stake in VA)

 

[Rayesfeg]

Apologies for the ignorance, but from what we know about this partnership, does anyone have an opinion on whether Air NZ/Virgin would interline the following two itineraries when the partnership is finalised:

• Flight 1: Sydney to Melbourne flying Virgin Australia - booked on Virgin Australia
• Flight 2: Melbourne to Auckland flying Air NZ - booked on Air NZ.

Reason for this itinerary is to pick up an elderly family member to accompany to NZ, but also would like to experience the business class onboard the Cathay Pacific plane that NZ has possession of (their own business class seating is rubbish).
Both flights would be on the same day (Melbourne flight arriving at 8am, Auckland flight departing Melbourne at midday so have plenty of time between flights).
I don't care about baggage transfer to the onward flight, but more so having these separate itineraries interlined onto 1 would be very helpful in case there are delays or cancelations on the domestic leg.
I suspect the answer will be no, but am interested to hear others thoughts on the possibility.

 

[HS-TQE]

Apologies for the ignorance, but from what we know about this partnership, does anyone have an opinion on whether Air NZ/Virgin would interline the following two itineraries when the partnership is finalised:

• Flight 1: Sydney to Melbourne flying Virgin Australia - booked on Virgin Australia
• Flight 2: Melbourne to Auckland flying Air NZ - booked on Air NZ.

Reason for this itinerary is to pick up an elderly family member to accompany to NZ, but also would like to experience the business class onboard the Cathay Pacific plane that NZ has possession of (their own business class seating is rubbish).
Both flights would be on the same day (Melbourne flight arriving at 8am, Auckland flight departing Melbourne at midday so have plenty of time between flights).
I don't care about baggage transfer to the onward flight, but more so having these separate itineraries interlined onto 1 would be very helpful in case there are delays or cancelations on the domestic leg.
I suspect the answer will be no, but am interested to hear others thoughts on the possibility.

I'd say very unlikely. It's been reported in the past that VA has a policy of not interlining on separate bookings, even the second booking on their own services or their partners.

You'd pretty much require to grab travel insurance in case the VA leg gets delayed and causes you to miss your flight as separate bookings are not covered for missed connections.