Virgin Australia Staff Travel

[AviatorInsight]

Can you use staff travel to go to the states? would it be on United?

If you wanted to go direct it would be UA or DL.

Otherwise staff travel being mostly luck you could try, HA, AC, NZ, FJ, CX, etc.

 

[Steven of Mysore]

How all very timely and interesting. I am a VA Platinum plus Gift Platinum (nose high in the air now) and had 'booked' Business Upgrade via points (waitlisted) from Choice, last month. Denpasar to Gold Coast. I could see a vacant seat for 24hrs before and on check-in was told it might go with staff travel - someone was on hols but check at the gate.

I did check (same friendly fellow) and yup a staff travel (holiday) had bumped me off. I would have thought I rated above staff holiday travel, afterall, aren't these seats supposed to be 'at risk'?. Not as if they couldn't have got back - they could have had my 3A! No names used as the check-in fellow probably shouldn't have told me what he did.

Thoughts? Please play nice, I don't care much for J VA as my domestic flights are so short and 3A (usually) is nicer.

 

[Human]

Thoughts?

Well, obviously there are competing interests here. On the one hand VA should be about maximising revenue from paying customers (even if they're "paying" in points rather than currency).

On the other hand, VA should be about looking after its (lets face it, long-suffering) staff and if that means occasionally giving a Business Class seat to a staff member ... well, none of us know the backstory.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that I can see both sides and I have no idea!

 

[twinaisle]

How all very timely and interesting. I am a VA Platinum plus Gift Platinum (nose high in the air now) and had 'booked' Business Upgrade via points (waitlisted) from Choice, last month. Denpasar to Gold Coast. I could see a vacant seat for 24hrs before and on check-in was told it might go with staff travel - someone was on hols but check at the gate.

I did check (same friendly fellow) and yup a staff travel (holiday) had bumped me off. I would have thought I rated above staff holiday travel, afterall, aren't these seats supposed to be 'at risk'?. Not as if they couldn't have got back - they could have had my 3A! No names used as the check-in fellow probably shouldn't have told me what he did.

Thoughts? Please play nice, I don't care much for J VA as my domestic flights are so short and 3A (usually) is nicer.

They couldn't have bumped you off if the company didn't decide to take your points upgrade. It's like QF where they don't always take points upgrades and keep J seats free.

Flight closure means the seat would have been free and thus allocated to staff.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They couldn't have bumped you off if the company didn't decide to take your points upgrade. It's like QF where they don't always take points upgrades and keep J seats free.

Flight closure means the seat would have been free and thus allocated to staff.

Agree.

VA decided the seat wouldn’t be available for an award or upgrade. Two possible reasons (a) they think they could have sold the seat, or (b) they don’t want people booking cheap fares and taking away revenue by upgrading. If upgrades were ‘guaranteed’ on an empty seat, fewer people wouod book premium to start with.

Once chicken closed and the seat was still free, it would be available for staff seating.

 

[MooTime]

Agree.

VA decided the seat wouldn’t be available for an award or upgrade. Two possible reasons (a) they think they could have sold the seat, or (b) they don’t want people booking cheap fares and taking away revenue by upgrading. If upgrades were ‘guaranteed’ on an empty seat, fewer people wouod book premium to start with.

Once chicken closed and the seat was still free, it would be available for staff seating.

Chicken closed....haha.

 

[ash.1111]

Ex VA Dom CC from 12-15. Was really good. Dom about $30 from memory Bne to Syd, standby in Y only. You would wait around til the flight shut. $1000credit per year.
The real bonus was V Australia AUS to LA. $275return Y, $500 premium, $1000 J.
I was living at home so would get my 6 paid weeks leave + a roster or two of unpaid leave to travel.

 

[Steven of Mysore]

They couldn't have bumped you off if the company didn't decide to take your points upgrade. It's like QF where they don't always take points upgrades and keep J seats free.

Flight closure means the seat would have been free and thus allocated to staff.

It had already been allocated, as my post suggests.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:29 PM

Agree.

VA decided the seat wouldn’t be available for an award or upgrade. Two possible reasons (a) they think they could have sold the seat, or (b) they don’t want people booking cheap fares and taking away revenue by upgrading. If upgrades were ‘guaranteed’ on an empty seat, fewer people wouod book premium to start with.

Once chicken closed and the seat was still free, it would be available for staff seating.

Nope, it had already been allocated - how else would I have known at check-in?

 

[muppet]

It had already been allocated, as my post suggests.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:29 PM

Nope, it had already been allocated - how else would I have known at check-in?

From Virgin’s UpgradeMe T&Cs:

• For operational reasons not all Business Class seats are made available for upgrades. This means that there may still be empty seats on departure.

Flight Upgrades

Avail flight experience benefits with priority service with upgrades. Use upgrademe to enjoy virgin Australia domestic or Internationale flights. Platinum member can use velocity point to get complimentary upgrade credits.

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

 

[Steven of Mysore]

From Virgin’s UpgradeMe T&Cs:

• For operational reasons not all Business Class seats are made available for upgrades. This means that there may still be empty seats on departure.

Flight Upgrades

Avail flight experience benefits with priority service with upgrades. Use upgrademe to enjoy virgin Australia domestic or Internationale flights. Platinum member can use velocity point to get complimentary upgrade credits.

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Thank you for that. Well aware of it. If you reread my question, you will see that is not relevant to the point I was making.

 

[twinaisle]

So you wanted the seat but in this instance they decided to allocate it to a staff traveller beforehand. Great to see staff being rewarded for something

 

[Steven of Mysore]

So you wanted the seat but in this instance they decided to allocate it to a staff traveller beforehand. Great to see staff being rewarded for something

I am really loving the way I get attacked for something to be clarified. The last few non helpful responses, like yours, obviously HAD NOT read my original post.

Staff get paid plus benefits (like the one under discussion) for providing the services to the loyal customers of VA. It's not a right to get a J seat (customers or staff) and there are very clear rules (I have checked) about its use - which was my point. As I made clear, why didn't the staff get my 3A seat and the customer gets J?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I am really loving the way I get attacked for something to be clarified. The last few non helpful responses, like yours, obviously HAD NOT read my original post.

Staff get paid plus benefits (like the one under discussion) for providing the services to the loyal customers of VA. It's not a right to get a J seat (customers or staff) and there are very clear rules (I have checked) about its use - which was my point. As I made clear, why didn't the staff get my 3A seat and the customer gets J?

Didn't expect to find a pack of Trumpinisters on here, so will not interact through the forums again.

Back to my post, VA perhaps doesn’t want to end up in a situation where passengers are unwilling to pay for premium seats on the likely chance they may get an upgrade. It eats into revenue long term.

The US carriers used to do this… any unsold seat on departure was open to elites for upgrades. The US airlines have pretty much turned this around and are now filling seats with revenue pax. So if elites want first class, they have to secure it beforehand,

There may have also been operational reasons why the seat was ‘not for sale’, for example catering (or lack there of).

Other question, is DPS-OOL weight restricted? If so, that could have affected the inventory for J/Y.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Other question, is DPS-OOL weight restricted? If so, that could have affected the inventory for J/Y.

DPS - OOL is not restricted, but the reverse is. Taking off on runway 14 is the more restrictive of the two departures at OOL.

 

[twinaisle]

I am really loving the way I get attacked for something to be clarified. The last few non helpful responses, like yours, obviously HAD NOT read my original post.

Staff get paid plus benefits (like the one under discussion) for providing the services to the loyal customers of VA. It's not a right to get a J seat (customers or staff) and there are very clear rules (I have checked) about its use - which was my point. As I made clear, why didn't the staff get my 3A seat and the customer gets J?

That's clearly not an attack but pretty much a summary of information of what was presented.

VA probably didn't want your points upgrade and decided to clear the seat for staff travel prior to flight closing.

Another scenario could be that they saw you were gifted platinum and felt like it wasn't worth their effort.

There could have been plenty of reasons why the customer didn't get the J seat, I don't know why, the customer doesn't know why.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That's clearly not an attack but pretty much a summary of information of what was presented.

VA probably didn't want your points upgrade and decided to clear the seat for staff travel prior to flight closing.

Another scenario could be that they saw you were gifted platinum and felt like it wasn't worth their effort.

There could have been plenty of reasons why the customer didn't get the J seat, I don't know why, the customer doesn't know why.

The OP means they reached platinum and qualified to gift platinum to someone else… so 1800SCs in a year. Not that they were gifted plat themselves.

 

[markis10]

was told it might go with staff travel - someone was on hols but check at the gate.

How do you know they were on holidays? The checkin agent told you, who probably is not even VA staff and probably assuming.

Could have been deadheading off duty staff due to an irrop, some awards on airlines mandate J travel or even a marketing/promotion trip participant. I have been on a number of trips as staff travel in J organised by the publicity team or won in a charity auction but never worked for an airline.

Given this is a loss of an upgrade that likely was never there, cest la vie.

 

[twinaisle]

The OP means they reached platinum and qualified to gift platinum to someone else… so 1800SCs in a year. Not that they were gifted plat themselves.

Ahhh okay, I thought it meant they were gifted it.

 

[Saab34]

DPS - OOL is not restricted, but the reverse is. Taking off on runway 14 is the more restrictive of the two departures at OOL.

Is a MAX any different?