Virgin Australia flights to Doha now on sale

[levelnine]

Swaps almost never happen on the Australian routes.

 

[WilsonM]

I guess from the tables, they've aligned to the higher QR partner chart coming 21 January.

But a couple of interesting notes on their page, right below the new award chart:

"When a single booking includes: multiple flights with a break in the journey (at least 24 hours between flights); a change in cabin class; multiple airlines on one itinerary; or a VA domestic connection to a VA long haul flight; the number of Points required for Reward Seats will be higher."

Will Qatar be counted as on the same chart as Virgin Australia? From an FAQ on the same page: "A Reward Seat is also calculated on a per sector basis when there is a change in class of travel within the journey or when combining a journey that includes airlines located in different Reward Seat Points tables."

Yes, VA Long Haul and QR are the same cost, but the tables are under a different heading. You can't combine SQ and QR, even though they're on the same table...

Also hilariously, if you take a VA domestic flight before a VA long-haul international one, it'll be counted per sector, not combined. Even though they're the same airline, although I guess you can also argue they're not - VA International is technically different I guess?

From the chart, it seems obvious that they're allowing QR to be combined with VA. But all I'm pointing out is that the T's and C's say something different, and it'd be pretty crucial to get the wording correct on this.

 

[bernardblack]

Yes, this seems odd to me too.

The general thrust of the new chart seems to be that they intend to offer single through award bookings [Aust port]<>DOH<>[Euro/Gulf port] and vice versa. But as far as I understand, VA prime codes will only be between Australia and Doha. And award seats are almost always sold on prime codes only.

So will this actually work as a joint booking on a VA code then a QR code (or vice versa)? Or will they offer award seats on VA codeshare flight numbers beyond Doha?

Also: The dollar copay table has only a single row, for 4000+ miles. If shorter sectors are free, it should mean that you only need to pay one sector between Australia and Qatar, and almost anywhere in Europe is no additional surcharge? (Obvs if you route through Doha to the Americas or maybe deep Africa, you'll hit a second surcharge.)

 

[Layslow]

Just to be clear there will be (eventually) 28 new weekly flights between Australia and Doha. This does not translate into any new flights onto London/Europe etc, so the excess capacity is literally to a place no one wants to visit. So don't expect $5K business class airfares anytime soon to Europe as they will continue to be sold at a premium. So Qatar's desperation for extra capacity into Australia could prove to be a pyrrhic victory. Enjoy.

 

[levelnine]

Just to be clear there will be (eventually) 28 new weekly flights between Australia and Doha. This does not translate into any new flights onto London/Europe etc, so the excess capacity is literally to a place no one wants to visit. So don't expect $5K business class airfares anytime soon to Europe as they will continue to be sold at a premium. So Qatar's desperation for extra capacity into Australia could prove to be a pyrrhic victory. Enjoy.

QR is not short of any capacity into Europe.

Have a search for award availability from DOH to Europe on Virgin Australia. It is mountainous.

The crunch point is Australia to DOH.

 

[Layslow]

QR is not short of any capacity into Europe.

Have a search for award availability from DOH to Europe on Virgin Australia. It is mountainous.

The crunch point is Australia to DOH.

If there is so much capacity why don't the (announced) introductory fares reflect that and even by Jayne Hrdlicka's comments today about $10K lead in business class tickets to London doesn't reflect that either....

 

[jase05]

Just to be clear there will be (eventually) 28 new weekly flights between Australia and Doha. This does not translate into any new flights onto London/Europe etc, so the excess capacity is literally to a place no one wants to visit. So don't expect $5K business class airfares anytime soon to Europe as they will continue to be sold at a premium. So Qatar's desperation for extra capacity into Australia could prove to be a pyrrhic victory. Enjoy.

We love Qatar. Have visited a couple of times per year for the last few years and always stay a minimum of 2 nights but preferably longer.
From next year we will be aiming to go several times just for a 3-4 day break. From Doha there is often tons of award availability to Asia and Europe so plenty of options to go elsewhere if you please

 

[levelnine]

If there is so much capacity why don't the (announced) introductory fares reflect that and even by Jayne Hrdlicka's comments today about $10K lead in business class tickets to London doesn't reflect that either....

Judging by their press release, they're prioritising economy fares as part of their launch sale. I'm sure we'll see a business class sale soon.

 

[Layslow]

Judging by their press release, they're prioritising economy fares as part of their launch sale. I'm sure we'll see a business class sale soon.

Well that was the CEO on radio today so.... They ain't going to be cheap...

 

[levelnine]

Well that was the CEO on radio today so.... They ain't going to be cheap...

Additional capacity into Australia certainly isn't going to lead to higher fares, so there's no way that Australians lose from this arrangement.

 

[WilsonM]

If there is so much capacity why don't the (announced) introductory fares reflect that and even by Jayne Hrdlicka's comments today about $10K lead in business class tickets to London doesn't reflect that either....

They're adding 1176 Business Class seats per week to the market. In the context of Australia-Europe, this really isn't that much to expect anything drastic. They'll compete against all the top-tier airlines - it'll mean airlines such as EK or SQ can't push fares higher, but they'll keep fares the same.

10k for J to LHR, for example, isn't really out of line with what airlines mentioned above charge. They're selling it for the most popular time of the year for this market, so why would they go drastically lower? VA is not a new entrant to the Australian market, they're an extremely well established brand already. Yeah, they haven't done Australia to Europe before, but its not like they have to get their name out there - media outlets will do most of the advertising for them.

Downward pressure will be more on the Economy side - people are more price-conscious, and less concerned about quality of product. Plus the 77Ws add over 7x the amount of Y compared to J.