Virgin does it again - will no longer fly with them

[bakerbj]

So booked a holiday in Pt Douglas. First offer was fly Brisbane to Cairns except that involved a cross border drive from Tweed Heads to Brisbane, no thanks. Checked and found Virgin had flights from OOL to CNS so switched flights to VA1059 confirmed, Yea!! Virgin then decided no more flights from OOL to CNS, dang,. No worries, changed flights to go OOL to Sydney then to Cairns, messy but at 75 last birthday, a bit extra flying time beats driving and then airport parking for a week.

All good, then Virgin changes flights yet again to fly us OOL to SYD then to Brisbane and finally to Cairns, ie waste a day flying? Checked on the Virgin site, whats that? the direct flight SYD to CNS still has seats available! ! ! Rang Virgin, pointed out we were booked on flt VA1419 some time ago when seats were still available, why were we being bounced again? Virgin "no comment"

Back to the travel agent suggesting they see if we can switch to Jetstar. No surprise, still trying to sort out flights.

Realised the head of Virgin is some bloke named Richard, does that mean he is Richard (call me Dick ) head of Virgin

Best advice after years of loyalty we will no longer fly Virgin for future bookings

 

[bakerbj]

And now, we just received an email offering to "upgrade" the flights we are no longer booked on.
REALLY Dick?

 

[eric2011]

So booked a holiday in Pt Douglas. First offer was fly Brisbane to Cairns except that involved a cross border drive from Tweed Heads to Brisbane, no thanks. Checked and found Virgin had flights from OOL to CNS so switched flights to VA1059 confirmed, Yea!! Virgin then decided no more flights from OOL to CNS, dang,. No worries, changed flights to go OOL to Sydney then to Cairns, messy but at 75 last birthday, a bit extra flying time beats driving and then airport parking for a week.

All good, then Virgin changes flights yet again to fly us OOL to SYD then to Brisbane and finally to Cairns, ie waste a day flying? Checked on the Virgin site, whats that? the direct flight SYD to CNS still has seats available! ! ! Rang Virgin, pointed out we were booked on flt VA1419 some time ago when seats were still available, why were we being bounced again? Virgin "no comment"

Back to the travel agent suggesting they see if we can switch to Jetstar. No surprise, still trying to sort out flights.

Realised the head of Virgin is some bloke named Richard, does that mean he is Richard (call me Dick ) head of Virgin

Best advice after years of loyalty we will no longer fly Virgin for future bookings

Ahh, I love posts like this

 

[ozstamps]

They are falling apart at the seams lately. And WHEN they screw up, do the '3 Wise Monkeys' act.

We had exact deal last month - booked SYD-OOL-CNS. Booked deliberately to get the many extra SC.

They put us on SYD-CNS without asking, and cancelled out existing 3 D/F Plat seats, and allocated nothing else, so and ended halfway down plane surrounded by screaming feral kids for 3 hours.

Spent an hour with some robo drone in an overseas call Centre to ensure the original SC would actually post. “Yes of course” Never occurred naturally.

They then changed the CNS-SYD to morning not mid afternoon so we missed a lunch meeting . No-one cares, ''Platinum line'' if it indeed exists anymore, under all the cost cuts goes quiet, no one anywhere wants to know, and talking to robo drones Asia about it for hours, who always do zero, is not my idea of fun.

 

[lovestotravel]

When they pay staff peanuts what do you expect ?

 

[ozstamps]

It seems clear who they got.

Wish my TICKETS this year cost 'peanuts' to match.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Sad lot of good that its now Bangladesh, no sly against its country or people, but the fact that VA has gone that low.

 

[TomVexille]

Back to the travel agent suggesting they see if we can switch to Jetstar. No surprise, still trying to sort out flights.

If you won't fly an airline again that changes flights, you wont be flying at all. I think you'll find JQ and QF no better in this regard.

Also, as you booked with an agent, you must go though them, not the airline to make any changes.

 

[levelnine]

If you won't fly an airline again that changes flights, you wont be flying at all.

Exactly. Good luck flying with the competitors LOL.

 

[UP4014]

If you won't fly an airline again that changes flights, you wont be flying at all. I think you'll find JQ and QF no better in this regard.

Also, as you booked with an agent, you must go though them, not the airline to make any changes.

But sometimes you need the satisfaction of not using.

 

[levelnine]

But sometimes you need the satisfaction of not using.

Only to be treated just as worse for twice the price with QF? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!

 

[UP4014]

Only to be treated just as worse for twice the price with QF? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!

Subjective view, I haven't had that experience with QF.

 

[levelnine]

Subjective view, I haven't had that experience with QF.

Anecdote does not equal data.

Have a look at the Qantas forum on this website or open any newspaper or visit any form of social media and search 'qantas' or visit Choice's website or or or ....

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Hopefully ZL will be much better, we can only hope.
First, DL, maybe more positive news, who knows.
Pity they can't make a move faster, FF wise and also partner wise.
VA/VFF was very good in the past, but I guess with them now cost cutting like the Redroo, its all downhill for them from now on.
I haven't had to call up their FF call centre of late, but for me, personally, the all Y 737s is their downfall.

 

[ferntree]

I haven't had to call up their FF call centre of late, but for me, personally, the all Y 737s is their downfall.

Yes, that is a very discouraging development. I seem to recall that before she got the job Janey's "vision" for Virgin was as a bargain basement airline to compete with Jetstar.

 

[Vic]

You used a travel agent! Why are you ringing anyone? Make the agent do the work.
And why are you suggesting changing to Jetstar if the virgin flight you really wanted is still available?

and if you think it's all good to spend more time to fly to Sydney to avoid driving to Brisbane, then why worry about a bit more time flying? Especially, when it's avoiding that drive. Or maybe you could've just got the train to Brisbane, and you'd still be in the same situation.

and why the comment about driving across the border to go to Brisbane, when you'd need to drive across the border to get to gold coast airport?

So many questions...

 

[Saab34]

Virgin do appear to have been going backwards in the last month or two, my flights have been split 50/50 JQ/VA and JQ are much more reliable at the moment.

I had a CNS-SYD Virgin cancellation who then cancelled the one after also, they offered to send me CNS-BNE-SYD-MEL. I got a refund and got a JQ direct for the same price. They canceled the SYD-MEL which was the last one so thank god I didn’t take that option.

Seen some strange re routing also. They got a spray on that A Current Affair report I see.

 

[Vic]

Yes, that is a very discouraging development. I seem to recall that before she got the job Janey's "vision" for Virgin was as a bargain basement airline to compete with Jetstar.

My experience with the all economy flights has been extremely positive. Admittedly via someone else flying on my business account. They had no problem changing to a different flight with business available at the airport. Of course it was a lucky situation where they actually wanted to extend transit in BNE to a stopover. Basically worked out perfectly.

I haven't had to call up their FF call centre of late, but for me, personally, the all Y 737s is their downfall.

Hey? Don't you only fly economy? How is no business going to affect someone who only flies in economy.

 

[brokenagain]

VA are having major issues crewing aircraft of late which is why their operational performance is really starting to drop. Current crew are basically saying no to duty extensions, changes and working days off because VA are relying on those measures to keep the show on the road rather than admit they are very understaffed and do something about it. Lots of crew are leaving (many for much better opportunities in the US), and they’re unable to rehire or recruit enough at the moment to keep up.

 

[ferntree]

My experience with the all economy flights has been extremely positive. Admittedly via someone else flying on my business account. They had no problem changing to a different flight with business available at the airport. Of course it was a lucky situation where they actually wanted to extend transit in BNE to a stopover. Basically worked out perfectly.

If you're flying Y then I guess it can be a positive. In contrast, there's a recent post in this forum of someone being downgraded from J to Y flying Broome to Cairns - and that's some flight. If that happened to me I would not be happy!

More to the point, business travellers will lose confidence in the airline if it gives the impression of moving towards being Jetstar 2.