LiamR
Established Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2010
- Posts
- 2,632
For those of you who just want to see pretty pictures, scroll down!
If someone told me yesterday what would happen to me today, I wouldn't have believed you.
Original Booking:
Outbound:
OOL-SYD DJ526
E170 Dep 1400 Arr1530
Booked as a partner of Virgin Staff - Space Available Ticket
Return Leg:
SYD-OOL DJ535
b737 VH-YFC Dep 1710 Arr1830
The idea sparked me the night before, one of my close friends was working the E170 flight to Sydney, so I thought I'd grab a staff fare, fly down with him and then catch up for a few hours before heading back on Virgin’s brand new bird. There were oodles of available seats, so I didn't doubt for a moment not being able to get on. For my return trip, I paid for a revenue ticket, $90, I thought for less than 16 hours out that was a pretty good deal.
Oh how I couldn't be more wrong...
It all started when went online to check my flight, DJ526, had been cancelled. This was around 11:30. I quickly picked up the phone, dialled 13 13 13, Damn, that’s Qantas. I ended up looking on the side of a Virgin model plane that happened to be in the right place at the right time (For those of you who ever questioned the number on the plane, it saved me a good 20 mins today)
Got the message saying there was a big disruption to the network today, and expect long delays, great I thought to myself... Two rings and I was thru, explained what was going on to the agent, who couldn't change my booking to depart from BNE because it was a discounted staff flight but gave me the options of taking the 1pm flight, or 3pm flight. If I left then and there, I would have gotten to the airport at 12:40ish...
That’s what I did, walking into the door at 12:45, I had no chance of getting on the 1pm flight, so I stood there for a while thinking, so, 3pm gets me into Sydney at 1630, my flight on VH-YFC leaves at 1710, boarding at 1640... Yeah, I should make it, if I'm on time.
Somehow I was issued with a boarding pass, what Virgin did with the 70 people from the previous flight I do not know. I thought my chances were slim getting on as a standby passenger, given a flight before me was cancelled... I had already checked in on my flight coming back, so I could head directly to the gate...My flight was now DJ528
My new plan was going to work, sure, I'll miss out on having dinner with my friends and meeting Misha in the lounge, but I still get to fly on their new Bird coming back on DJ535 SYD-OOL. As long as my flight is on time..
After about two hours in OOL, without a lounge, I became pretty board of sitting watching Jetstar passengers trying to sneak half their possessions. Went and checked the FID and it gave me an estimated departure time of 1535. 35min late.
This meant I would miss my original flight home, which wasn’t a flexible fare at all, after a moment of thought I had faith that virgin would let me go on a later flight without being charged, and instead of getting on the new bird, I would just go out for dinner with friends, or spend some time in Sydney and take the latest flight home. I had spent too long at the airport to go home and not fly.
At this point in time, I was 45mins or so from departure, and pretty angry at Virgin to be honest, I had visions of me writing a rage post to Virgin Australia and so on... I spent all day trying to get on VH-YFC, quite frankly, I didn't want to hear of it again that day.
I bought myself some lunch and watched an aircraft come in, when, hey, what you know, its VH-YFC. It suddenly clicked, it was operating both of my flights I had now booked on. It turns out it was doing OOL-SYD-OOL runs all day, this meant that because I was on the aircraft for both flights, there’s no way I could miss my flight home. It would be delayed too.
As I ran over to get a photo of the new bird I head a PA "Paging Mr Liam Rasmussen, please contact a member of staff at gate 5 please" Slightly confused, I walked over expecting to be told the flight was oversold, and I'd have to take the next flight. When I was greeted with a boarding pass showing 1F, a huge apology, airport meal voucher, and told the seat next to me would be blocked. Turns out they knew what I was going thru all along and the airport manager wanted to personally say sorry for what I was going through, he was interested in my trying to get on the new bird and noticed I my new flight was on YFC too, he jumped at the chance to offer me a J class seat.
Wow, I was really impressed, I had gone from being furious at Virgin and remembering why I chose QF, to being a bit of a Virgin Fan. Went to the bathroom and waited to board. Everybody just wanted to get on the flight and go home, we all had been delayed for at least an hour, some more. The line before boarding announced was very long, much longer than normal.
Out of excitement, I pulled a small DYKWIA and cut thru the entire queue when Gold members are called (Yes, you can yell at me for doing it, but it is a benefit) all the ground staff waved me goodbye and told me they all heard about my journey to get on this damn aircraft. Even the crew had been told about it.
The legroom in Row 1 is far superior to that of the second row. It was day time, and I didn't get many chances to take photos, I'll leave that for the return journey. The sculpted walls feel very different when you sit next to them, you don't realise it until you sit in a window seat, finding that when you lean on the window, you are nolonger leaning on a flat surface, rather what feels like a tube. The position of the new baggage compartments is different, I hit my head many times, again, its great providing more space, just something I'll have to get use to.
The only other person in Business class was a paxing flight attendant seated across the aisle from me. Since I was the first to board, I got to watch the expression on everybody's face as they saw the inside of the new aircraft.
This was the crew's first flight on the new aircraft, as they only joined the aircraft in OOL, so they were occupied trying to work out the new lighting as we taxied out for take-off. After the safety demo, I was briefed on my seatbelt, which contained an airbag, and I shouldn’t twist it or bang it against a wall. Fair enough, I don't normally do those, but thanks for the advice.
Normal Safety demo, except afterwards, I was offered from a selection of newspapers and other things to read. Nice touch, considering I was travelling in J but with Y service.
I went to check out the bathroom, which is the one down side of this aircraft, it’s really small. The R2 lavatory is much narrower, with the mirror you usually have on the side sticking out much further than ever before. In the L1 lavatory, the curvature of the aircraft meant I could just get in without having to duck (Mind you, I am tall).
Landing in Sydney, I had about 20mins or so before the aircraft was ready to go again, I ran up to the lounge in an attempt to get some dinner, saving me from cooking that night. I was rushing through there when I heard a faint “Liam”, it was Misha, trying to get my attention, but wasn’t sure if it was me or not. I completely forgot I was meeting him in the lounge. (Sorry)
Just before Sydney I got a nice shot of the aircraft, erm, well, actually Misha took the photo, right after he nearly dropped my iPhone 4. I nearly died.
Upon boarding, the crew welcomed me back, as I had told them of my plan on the flight before. I was originally assigned 3C, but she quickly moved me to 1F, which is now known as ‘my usual’. Just before pushback, she said my lips looked dry and was offered a bottle of water and today’s newspaper. WOW, that’s service I thought, I was thirsty, and she noticed going out of her way to assist. I was impressed. This is the sort of service I believe top tier FF’ers should expect.
Since it was now dark, the cabin lights were dimmed, this is where I got the best photos.
So, to sum up. Virgin could have made me really not want to fly them again, I felt like I was really stuffed around, but they went the extra mile and made me feel like a valued customer. A particular thanks to the crew at the front of the aircraft, for treating me extra special, and showing me around the aircraft on the ground.
If someone told me yesterday what would happen to me today, I wouldn't have believed you.
Original Booking:
Outbound:
OOL-SYD DJ526
E170 Dep 1400 Arr1530
Booked as a partner of Virgin Staff - Space Available Ticket
Return Leg:
SYD-OOL DJ535
b737 VH-YFC Dep 1710 Arr1830
The idea sparked me the night before, one of my close friends was working the E170 flight to Sydney, so I thought I'd grab a staff fare, fly down with him and then catch up for a few hours before heading back on Virgin’s brand new bird. There were oodles of available seats, so I didn't doubt for a moment not being able to get on. For my return trip, I paid for a revenue ticket, $90, I thought for less than 16 hours out that was a pretty good deal.
Oh how I couldn't be more wrong...
It all started when went online to check my flight, DJ526, had been cancelled. This was around 11:30. I quickly picked up the phone, dialled 13 13 13, Damn, that’s Qantas. I ended up looking on the side of a Virgin model plane that happened to be in the right place at the right time (For those of you who ever questioned the number on the plane, it saved me a good 20 mins today)
Got the message saying there was a big disruption to the network today, and expect long delays, great I thought to myself... Two rings and I was thru, explained what was going on to the agent, who couldn't change my booking to depart from BNE because it was a discounted staff flight but gave me the options of taking the 1pm flight, or 3pm flight. If I left then and there, I would have gotten to the airport at 12:40ish...
That’s what I did, walking into the door at 12:45, I had no chance of getting on the 1pm flight, so I stood there for a while thinking, so, 3pm gets me into Sydney at 1630, my flight on VH-YFC leaves at 1710, boarding at 1640... Yeah, I should make it, if I'm on time.
Somehow I was issued with a boarding pass, what Virgin did with the 70 people from the previous flight I do not know. I thought my chances were slim getting on as a standby passenger, given a flight before me was cancelled... I had already checked in on my flight coming back, so I could head directly to the gate...My flight was now DJ528
My new plan was going to work, sure, I'll miss out on having dinner with my friends and meeting Misha in the lounge, but I still get to fly on their new Bird coming back on DJ535 SYD-OOL. As long as my flight is on time..
After about two hours in OOL, without a lounge, I became pretty board of sitting watching Jetstar passengers trying to sneak half their possessions. Went and checked the FID and it gave me an estimated departure time of 1535. 35min late.
This meant I would miss my original flight home, which wasn’t a flexible fare at all, after a moment of thought I had faith that virgin would let me go on a later flight without being charged, and instead of getting on the new bird, I would just go out for dinner with friends, or spend some time in Sydney and take the latest flight home. I had spent too long at the airport to go home and not fly.
At this point in time, I was 45mins or so from departure, and pretty angry at Virgin to be honest, I had visions of me writing a rage post to Virgin Australia and so on... I spent all day trying to get on VH-YFC, quite frankly, I didn't want to hear of it again that day.
I bought myself some lunch and watched an aircraft come in, when, hey, what you know, its VH-YFC. It suddenly clicked, it was operating both of my flights I had now booked on. It turns out it was doing OOL-SYD-OOL runs all day, this meant that because I was on the aircraft for both flights, there’s no way I could miss my flight home. It would be delayed too.
As I ran over to get a photo of the new bird I head a PA "Paging Mr Liam Rasmussen, please contact a member of staff at gate 5 please" Slightly confused, I walked over expecting to be told the flight was oversold, and I'd have to take the next flight. When I was greeted with a boarding pass showing 1F, a huge apology, airport meal voucher, and told the seat next to me would be blocked. Turns out they knew what I was going thru all along and the airport manager wanted to personally say sorry for what I was going through, he was interested in my trying to get on the new bird and noticed I my new flight was on YFC too, he jumped at the chance to offer me a J class seat.
Wow, I was really impressed, I had gone from being furious at Virgin and remembering why I chose QF, to being a bit of a Virgin Fan. Went to the bathroom and waited to board. Everybody just wanted to get on the flight and go home, we all had been delayed for at least an hour, some more. The line before boarding announced was very long, much longer than normal.
Out of excitement, I pulled a small DYKWIA and cut thru the entire queue when Gold members are called (Yes, you can yell at me for doing it, but it is a benefit) all the ground staff waved me goodbye and told me they all heard about my journey to get on this damn aircraft. Even the crew had been told about it.
The legroom in Row 1 is far superior to that of the second row. It was day time, and I didn't get many chances to take photos, I'll leave that for the return journey. The sculpted walls feel very different when you sit next to them, you don't realise it until you sit in a window seat, finding that when you lean on the window, you are nolonger leaning on a flat surface, rather what feels like a tube. The position of the new baggage compartments is different, I hit my head many times, again, its great providing more space, just something I'll have to get use to.
The only other person in Business class was a paxing flight attendant seated across the aisle from me. Since I was the first to board, I got to watch the expression on everybody's face as they saw the inside of the new aircraft.
This was the crew's first flight on the new aircraft, as they only joined the aircraft in OOL, so they were occupied trying to work out the new lighting as we taxied out for take-off. After the safety demo, I was briefed on my seatbelt, which contained an airbag, and I shouldn’t twist it or bang it against a wall. Fair enough, I don't normally do those, but thanks for the advice.
Normal Safety demo, except afterwards, I was offered from a selection of newspapers and other things to read. Nice touch, considering I was travelling in J but with Y service.
I went to check out the bathroom, which is the one down side of this aircraft, it’s really small. The R2 lavatory is much narrower, with the mirror you usually have on the side sticking out much further than ever before. In the L1 lavatory, the curvature of the aircraft meant I could just get in without having to duck (Mind you, I am tall).
Landing in Sydney, I had about 20mins or so before the aircraft was ready to go again, I ran up to the lounge in an attempt to get some dinner, saving me from cooking that night. I was rushing through there when I heard a faint “Liam”, it was Misha, trying to get my attention, but wasn’t sure if it was me or not. I completely forgot I was meeting him in the lounge. (Sorry)
Just before Sydney I got a nice shot of the aircraft, erm, well, actually Misha took the photo, right after he nearly dropped my iPhone 4. I nearly died.
Upon boarding, the crew welcomed me back, as I had told them of my plan on the flight before. I was originally assigned 3C, but she quickly moved me to 1F, which is now known as ‘my usual’. Just before pushback, she said my lips looked dry and was offered a bottle of water and today’s newspaper. WOW, that’s service I thought, I was thirsty, and she noticed going out of her way to assist. I was impressed. This is the sort of service I believe top tier FF’ers should expect.
Since it was now dark, the cabin lights were dimmed, this is where I got the best photos.
So, to sum up. Virgin could have made me really not want to fly them again, I felt like I was really stuffed around, but they went the extra mile and made me feel like a valued customer. A particular thanks to the crew at the front of the aircraft, for treating me extra special, and showing me around the aircraft on the ground.
Last edited:
Good write-up and awesome pictures.
I too had forgotten :mrgreen: 
- and I hardly "nearly dropped" it - there was slightly, ever so minutely, barely noticable moment of lost grip which resulted in the phone floating through the air some 30 centimetres, before I once again clusped it in my hands with an iron-strong grip 
