Virgin Blue Experience

[Reggie]

I will politely hope that the answer is "not for many years and never will again". Could you imagine how unpleasant it would be for everyone if he ever stepped aboard one of our aircraft and behaved as he does on the Virgin Blue threads on this forum?

His appearances here are only ever to vent and never actually contribute anything positive to the community on the topic of Virgin Blue. He has obviously made up his mind long ago and has stated that nothing we ever do will change his perceptions, so I am certainly not going to waste my time trying. I would like to thank our supporters but suggest they too not give his posts any more attention than they deserve.

cheers

CrazyDave98

Here Here for the Gentry

Amen to the converted

 

[Major]

I will politely hope that the answer is "not for many years and never will again". Could you imagine how unpleasant it would be for everyone if he ever stepped aboard one of our aircraft and behaved as he does on the Virgin Blue threads on this forum?

His appearances here are only ever to vent and never actually contribute anything positive to the community on the topic of Virgin Blue. He has obviously made up his mind long ago and has stated that nothing we ever do will change his perceptions, so I am certainly not going to waste my time trying. I would like to thank our supporters but suggest they too not give his posts any more attention than they deserve.

cheers

CrazyDave98

And so say all of us

 

[drewbles]

And some of the current supporters of DJ were once one-eyed supporters of QF and probably one-eyed Ansett supporters before then.

Their undying support for DJ seems to come from a protest against QF and recent 'enhancements'....

I was an adamant AN-only supporter, until they went under. I then had pretty much no choice but to swap to QF as there were no full-service airlines around to compete.

If DJ can get up to where AN were, i'll happily fully defect !

 

[straitman]

My last DJ experience was on Friday on DJ327 from MEL-BNE.

I had little lounge time (in MEL) as I arrived a lot later than I normally do. What I saw of the food was good and the staff were friendly and efficient. The flight was called on time and off we went. Having to go through security after the lounge is not a whole lot of fun IMHO but that's life. I also managed a secondary test for explosives.

On board I quickly settled into my 9D seat and was surprised to see that there seats even further aft. I was also surprised that I did not have a pre allocated seat at check in. I am not sure if that is normal but I have had so on the last couple of flights. Everything seemed set for an on time push back but we just sat there for an extra 6 minutes. Then we were off and flying and all was very pleasant. No on board recognition as a Gold which was no different to QF and crew were helpful and pleasant. I could not find any of the feral cabin crew and did not see any of the cough service referred to in post #41.

I did not buy any food as I had had a lounge snack but plenty of people seemed to do so and spend what I considered relatively large amounts of money. I just drank my water.

The 2 hrs went quite quickly and suddenly we were in BNE and still about 5-6 min late. On approach into BNE the person next to me received a text message :evil: and it took me a couple of attempts to get him to actually turn his phone off. (He did try to ignore me but that was not going to work)

After landing I ducked into the Virgin lounge for a few minutes and had some soup and toast before heading into Brisbane on the infamous train.

Did I enjoy the trip :?:
NO :!:
Why :?:
Because I was travelling economy and that does not fit into the category of enjoyment no matter which airline we are talking about.

How did this trip trip compare to Qantas :?:
Pretty much the same. My ticket was cheaper which meant I could have bought in flight food or snacks to about $20 to roughly break even and I had lounge access before and after the flight.

One other positive of this trip was that I had to cancel my wife off the trip at approx T-18 hrs and the call centre was very helpful and simply allocated her share of the ticket to another booking reference to be used up to 12 months from when we first booked the trip.

My recent experiences with Qantas has been 50% on time performance and Virgin 100% on time but I'm sure that varies per person and per time period.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

It absolutely is.

The hosties are feral (picked for this reason) and the service is cough. They will always be a high-priced LCC in my view with a cough FF program (Velocity).

Good luck to Air NZ for getting into bed with such a cough "airline".

Not on the DJ flights l have been on.

He has obviously made up his mind long ago and has stated that nothing we ever do will change his perceptions, so I am certainly not going to waste my time trying.

CrazyDave98

I know people exactly like that CrazyDave98. It doesn't matter what you do, they are stuck in their own stupid world and no amount of goodwill will change their mind. Best to stay clear of these people and let their negativity take them, and only them, down.

A saying a wise old man told me years and years ago, which l keep telling myself - "You can't argue with a sick mind".

 

[markis10]

My last DJ experience was on Friday on DJ327 from MEL-BNE.


How did this trip trip compare to Qantas :?:
Pretty much the same. My ticket was cheaper which meant I could have bought in flight food or snacks to about $20 to roughly break even and I had lounge access before and after the flight.

Pretty much a carbon copy of my trip yesterday, although I might add compared to QF, I did get a Barista coffee in the lounge in the afternoon on a Saturday

 

[munitalP]

Perhaps we could start a new thread called "Flight Cost Comparisons" but to follow on from JohnK's earlier posts:

I am in a position that I am presently budgeting to fly MEL/BNE Sunday arvo's, & BNE/MEL Friday evenings. This will be (kind of) self funded ( :shock: ). I am also looking at the same options Hervey Bay, but, timing sucks - but not yet completely written off as a 2.5 hour drive from BNE or to BNE is not enthralling...

Anyway, I have looked at 6 months of flights starting March. My criteria has been mid afternoon (+/- 1 hour) for BNE/MEL and late evening (1900/2000) BNE/MEL. I also included JQ's later Friday evening flight.

In summary:

MEL/BNE (Sundays)
Difference between QF & DJ = $408.00
Difference between QF & JQ = $1,006.00
Difference between DJ & JQ = $598.00

Average flight price (over 30 flights from 06/03/11 to 25/09/11)

QF = $168.03
DJ = $154.43
JQ = $134.50

BNE/MEL (Fridays)

Difference between QF & DJ = $634.00
Difference between QF & JQ = $1,536.00
Difference between DJ & JQ = $902.00

Average flight price (over 30 flights from 11/03/11 to 7/10/11)

QF = $164.19
DJ = $143.74
JQ = $114.65

I will always have a drink (or 2) and a snack on my flight. On the Sunday flights, I will be driving at the other end, so alcohol is out of the question, whereas my Friday flights, a beer or two on the way home is OK as I will be getting picked up.

So:

Additional costs

Sundays

QF: Snack (whatever's offered) & 2 bottles water
$0.00
DJ: Snack (pringles) & 2 bottles water
$7.00
JQ: Snack (pringles) & 2 bottles water
$11.00

Fridays

QF: 2 beers
$0.00
DJ: 2 beers
$14.00
DJ: 2 beers
$14.00

Re-calculated average flight cost:

Average flight price (over 30 flights from 06/03/11 to 25/09/11)

QF = $168.03
DJ = $161.43
JQ = $145.50

Average flight price (over 30 flights from 11/03/11 to 7/10/11)

QF = $164.19
DJ = $157.74
JQ = $128.65

Recalculated differences:

MEL/BNE (Sundays)
Difference between QF & DJ = $198.00
Difference between QF & JQ = $676.00
Difference between DJ & JQ = $478.00

BNE/MEL (Fridays)

Difference between QF & DJ = $193.55
Difference between QF & JQ = $1066.45
Difference between DJ & JQ = $872.90

OK - these are my costs because I understand that many others don't buy food or drinks - your personal situation does not affect my calculations so now that's cleared up, there will be no need to point it out.

However, that said, the cost difference between QF and DJ is small.

I look at the following also, I will earn an additional 900 status credits and 103080 frequent flyer points on QF. DJ - I need help working out the spend vs Velocity (if someone can help, it would be appreciated).

 

[allitsab]

Multiply for 5 if red, 6 if silver and 7 if gold.

Also, when you priced the DJ flights did you assume all Go! fares, or a mix of Go! and Blue Saver, or all Blue Savers - because your average cost per flight looks very exxy...

To compare, I've booked 8 return flights (Syd-Bne tho, not Mel-Bne) for Rugby matches, at a total cost of $1300 - $81.25 per leg...

 

[pauly7]

MunitalP - don't tease us with that many SC's and QFF points!!! I'm already spending them on upgrades in my head

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I was originally an Ansett fan, but their demise saw a need for change (plus a loss of over a million FF points).

Since then, I became very disillusioned with airline loyalty and as I pay my own fares, I'd just select the cheapest option for the flight I wanted (Webjet became a great way to easily compare) and Virgin was the lowest on my list. But over the last year or so, I decided my flying has increased so I'll try the SC game again and as QF only services some of my most frequented airports via codeshare with JQ, it made sense to jump into bed with DJ.

To my surprise, DJ has been somewhat acceptable. The flights are largely on time, the hosties are polite and efficent, the "cheapie" flights are comparable with JQ (and for me, always cheaper than QF), we have reasonable lounges (need more of them though), a workable FF programme and importantly, we have a choice of PE seating if we want it (I chose PE for my flight last Friday for example because I had two consecutive 1.30am starts with 6 am flights and late returns so I wanted space and comfort for a quick kip, over price).

Add it all up and Virgin has gone from being "low man" on the totem pole to the top, in my estimation.

I'm really looking forward to the changes in Virgin this year as there are many areas where some improvment would mean a huge leap forward in carrier status and similarly, any retrograde steps (or JQ improvements...like FF points for the economy fares) will see me at least re-evaluate the worth of the carrier to me.

So my "Virgin Blue Experience" has been up and down. The down being moreso because of perceptions I guess, but now it seems I'll regain gold this year, which is something I can't do with QF without choosing JQ expensive fares consistantly.......at least with Virgin, I can choose the seat I wish without penalty. Isn't that what it's all about? Us, the clients having the choice? Unless DJ stuff up badly, they've won me over (for now )

(EDIT - Just to clarify, the penalty I refer to is with JQ. The way I see it, you could fly return every day of the year on a JQ economy fare and never be recognised by JQ as being a FF. You are no more valuable to them than someone who flys once in their life. With Virgin, given a fraction of that senario, you'd be a gold FF with included luggage and complementary Lounge access.)

 

[oz_mark]

I look at the following also, I will earn an additional 900 status credits and 103080 frequent flyer points on QF. DJ - I need help working out the spend vs Velocity (if someone can help, it would be appreciated).

Multiplying the fare by 5/6/7 as appropiate will give you a pretty good approximation of the earn. But be prepared for it to be somewhat smaller than QF earn. One area that QFF runs rings around Velocity is the points earning on the cheaper fares*



(Of course the cheap fares on QFF stablemate JQ earn you nothing)

 

[anat0l]

But be prepared for it to be somewhat smaller than QF earn.

The flip side to this is that for many awards, DJ/VA can be substantially cheaper (read: faster) to achieve than QF.

The nett differences, however, when weighed up against relative earning power can either be subtle or stark.

Once we start including partner airlines (e.g. MH/EY/etc. for DJ/VA, and oneworld et al for QF) for both earn and burn, the whole situation becomes invariably more complex to evaluate.

 

[munitalP]

...
(EDIT - Just to clarify, the penalty I refer to is with JQ. The way I see it, you could fly return every day of the year on a JQ economy fare and never be recognised by JQ as being a FF. You are no more valuable to them than someone who flys once in their life. With Virgin, given a fraction of that senario, you'd be a gold FF with included luggage and complementary Lounge access.)

Yes - I couldn't agree with you more (regardless of SC's on Y fares). DJ in recent months has caught approx 70% of my flying, QF25% and DJ5% (DOM). Admittedly DJ vs JQ into NTL is a no brainer, but the DJ vs QF flights - Im giving back. DJ gave me Gold, I'll give them my flights - a delicate balancing act though, my wife has *A Gold so partner Gold is not needed on QF as most of her flights are TT and she can fly NZ, so I just need to ensure at the end of the year I have WP, DJ gold, and hopefully LTG tucked away..

 

[oz_mark]

I look at the following also, I will earn an additional 900 status credits and 103080 frequent flyer points on QF. DJ - I need help working out the spend vs Velocity (if someone can help, it would be appreciated).

On QFF, you would also get an additional 10000 loyalty points (2 x 5000).

To get 900 status credits, you are talking 30 return flights though (30 x 2 x 15 = 900)

Yes - I couldn't agree with you more (regardless of SC's on Y fares). DJ in recent months has caught approx 70% of my flying, QF25% and DJ5% (DOM). Admittedly DJ vs JQ into NTL is a no brainer, but the DJ vs QF flights - Im giving back. DJ gave me Gold, I'll give them my flights - a delicate balancing act though, my wife has *A Gold so partner Gold is not needed on QF as most of her flights are TT and she can fly NZ, so I just need to ensure at the end of the year I have WP, DJ gold, and hopefully LTG tucked away..

Back of envelope calculation 161 x 30 x 2 x 7 = 67620

More than enough to renew DJ gold. Depending on your other work travel, perhaps you would need to look at some QF and DJ in order to achieve the objective of retaining the highest level in each.