What's your feeling about Virgin Australia?

[Deleted member 29185]

Over the past year, Virgin have been redefining themselves. For many months we saw positive change, many programs implemented and good listening skills demonstrated. Recently, we've noticed some roll-backs, some tightening of the Virgin belt (chastity belt? ) and dare I say it, some QF style "enhancements".

Some AFFers have been very supportive of these changes, some are indifferent and others harbour varying degrees of disappointment.

What's your position.....
Excited
Generally pleased
Indifferent
Disappointed
Dismayed

 

[777]

You seem to lack anywhere on the scale between "Excited" and "indifferent" but i would describe myself as "generally pleased".

Sure some things happen i don't like, in general i'm mostly pretty happy with where they're going without kidding myself that they get everything right all the time.

 

[UP4014]

Indifferent.

 

[Justchecking]

Whats that saying? Can't please all the people all the time?

 

[Meggsy]

Overall I am pretty happy with my flying experience on VA. I am watching the recent enhancements with only a very small amount of concern as they have not really had any impact on me or my usual travel. Having been a DJ/VA regular for about 3 years now I much prefer the current VA and all that it offers as it filled a big hole at OOL when QF abandoned the port

 

[here2go]

Living in DRW, they're still viewed as a low cost carrier, although this is changing. The biggest concern is that they mostly fly at awkward times (excluding the new SYD-DRW flight). Furthermore, they don't fly to Adelaide, which is DRW's go to place if it all gets too hard. Hence it is not easy to be a regular DJ customer. If a DJ/Skywest ATR were put on the DRW-Katherine-Tennant Creek-ASP run (currently not flown by anybody except charter) it would get a fair whack of business from the Public Service.
If they wanted to be strong in the NT, luring AirNorth away from the Qantas camp would have a major impact on business and customer preference through their mining flights.
As it currently stands, Qantas are generally my preferred option.

 

[oz_mark]

I probably shouldn't have answered this given my VA booking experience today. :evil: I've been enhanced!

 

[GeeZed]

Shareholders are happy

 

[MadFairlane]

I'm happy, and enjoy flying with VA... (BIS Gold too...)

After flying to BNE - AKL return last weekend on QF, I am glad that most of my flying is VA... The QF trip was just... "ordinary"
No exemplary service, so so attitude from the attendants, QF ran out of meals halfway down the plane etc etc

Maybe its because being of a younger generation I can connect better with the youthful atmosphere that VA has.

I can't put a finger on the reason, but I won't be changing my Airline choice any time soon.

T.

 

[pat25d]

I'm happy, and enjoy flying with VA... (BIS Gold too...)

After flying to BNE - AKL return last weekend on QF, I am glad that most of my flying is VA... The QF trip was just... "ordinary"
No exemplary service, so so attitude from the attendants, QF ran out of meals halfway down the plane etc etc

Maybe its because being of a younger generation I can connect better with the youthful atmosphere that VA has.

I can't put a finger on the reason, but I won't be changing my Airline choice any time soon.

T.

Doesn't help when I have never seen a QF employee younger than 30, and most have been 40+.

It's like they have attitude because they don't want to be 'serving' someone much younger than them.

 

[p9c]

Fully agree as a DRW resident - all but one Virgin flight ex DRW is back of clock. Still, service is much better than JetStar; and if the flight time suits, a Virgin now offers a good alternative to Qantas. I seriously doubt Virgin would make money on the Centre Run (DRW-Katherine-Tennank Creek-ASP) with or without a regional partner. No airline has been able to make money on this route for many years, although a few smaller ones have tried since the bigger airlines dropped the route - just not enough passengers and long distances.

 

[here2go]

Agree re Jetstar and "Service". When Qantas dropped DRW as an International port, there was an assurance that we'd still be able to connect with OneWorld flights in Singapore, which you can do close to the time, but not with the same level of convenience as if we were serviced by a full One World piece of metal. Trying to book Christmas holidays in Europe is stymied by QF / JQ's refusal to put the QF Codeshare QF 271/272 on the route beyond October. With insurance not covering the failure of tight connections if I book point to point, it's either Silkair or risk the price going up if I wait.

 

[MarkD]

Doesn't help when I have never seen a QF employee younger than 30, and most have been 40+.

It's like they have attitude because they don't want to be 'serving' someone much younger than them.

Thats a bit harsh Virgin also have quite a few "Mature" staff, so a bit hard to blame that. The rudest crew I have ever had were all "young" and they spent 3/4 of the flight flirting with each other. There is good and bad in all age brackets of crew. Generally both airlines have satisfactory crew, ie they provide the service I have paid for. I have to agree that Virgin Cabin crew are generally more chatty, which is great, I love to have a chat. But then again its easier to chat to the passengers when you only have a 737 to provide cabin service to in a 1 hr flight as against a 767. Maybe thats part of the reason QF crews seem less interested, they simply dont have the time to chat

 

[Justchecking]

Doesn't help when I have never seen a QF employee younger than 30, and most have been 40+.

It's like they have attitude because they don't want to be 'serving' someone much younger than them.

I'd actually suggest that someones service attitude is unrelated to their age group. Are you just disappointed that there isn't any eye candy onboard? If you think all young people give good service then I'd suggest you hop along to your local shopping centre where you can witness many bored and cant be bothered younger people wasting time in jobs.

 

[JimmyP]

I'd suggest that generally speaking, Virgin crew are more enthusiastic and appear to be genuinely interested, as opposed to QF who are going through the motions.

Being a younger guy travelling, I often feel as though I'm being spoken to by a school teacher or my mother when on QF.

Perhaps if I was an older Gentleman I'd receive different treatment....Although I find the exception to be QF Jetconnect...who coincidentally seem to be closer to my age.

Does doing the same job for many years make the individual blasé?

 

[pat25d]

I'd actually suggest that someones service attitude is unrelated to their age group. Are you just disappointed that there isn't any eye candy onboard? If you think all young people give good service then I'd suggest you hop along to your local shopping centre where you can witness many bored and cant be bothered younger people wasting time in jobs.

Hypocrite much?

Plus, I was actually referring to my interactions with Virgin staff who weren't the gender I am into.

 

[Bolthead]

Generally Pleased

 

[medhead]

Hypocrite much?

Plus, I was actually referring to my interactions with Virgin staff who weren't the gender I am into.

If you were referring to your experience with virgin staff why did you explicitly say "QF staff"?

I fine a similar mix of ages on both airlines, myself. And age definitely has nothing to do with attitude or service levels, IME. YMMV.


Sent from the Throne

 

[under the radar]

I'm happy, and enjoy flying with VA... (BIS Gold too...)

After flying to BNE - AKL return last weekend on QF, I am glad that most of my flying is VA... The QF trip was just... "ordinary"
No exemplary service, so so attitude from the attendants, QF ran out of meals halfway down the plane etc etc

Maybe its because being of a younger generation I can connect better with the youthful atmosphere that VA has.

I can't put a finger on the reason, but I won't be changing my Airline choice any time soon.

T.

QF running out of meals halfway down the a/c???? maybe they ran out of your preferred choice??? but i'm sure there was still a COMPLIMENTARY meal for you to eat...but i forget the 'younger generation' wants WHAT THEY WANT, WHEN THEY WANT...

 

[simongr]

Is there free food on DJ Oz-NZ?