After spending several days in the Sydney suburbs with family, we escaped the mild Australian winter with a few days up in North Queensland. We would fly up to Cairns, about three hours North, and stay an hour’s drive away in Port Douglas, staying on points at the Sheraton Grand Mirage there on points. Though I’ve been to the Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef several times, it had been 8 years.
Flying up to Cairns there was no award space available, and flights were mostly full when I booked about a month out. Not only is it Australian winter, with Aussies heading North, it would be IRONMAN Cairns weekend.
I organized my plans to ensure I’d fly back to Sydney the day before the event, though, as Captain Cook Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas would be closed making it a three hour trip via back roads between the two cities instead of merely an hour if I’d returned the next day.
I’m a big fan of flying late morning or early afternoon if I can – no need to get up super early for the airport, we had a leisurely breakfast before packing up on a quiet Wednesday and headed to Sydney’s domestic terminal 2.
What surprised me was that it ultimately took 50 minutes for Priority Check-in. I didn’t check in online, and needed to see an agent to have my extra baggage allowance properly applied. Though I was flying economy, I’d be using United MileagePlus status. Unfortunately there just weren’t many staff working, and it seemed they struggled with each passenger.
I didn’t expect any difficulty. I had tickets and seat assignments, and just needed to check bags. However Virgin’s system didn’t recognize my United status, though I’d hoped they would. They re-entered my United number, but it didn’t update. And traveling with wife and daughter that meant paying for bags.
I had had enough travel on United planned to easily make Gold, maybe Platinum with a challenge. So I’d submitted a status match challenge back in late March.
Of course United doesn’t give you a choice what level you challenge to. I sent them my American Airlines status, and they gave me 120 days of 1K status, and a 1K challenge that would require me to stretch to keep. Still, I figured I’d shift some flying to United. However some disruptions happened in my plans and I had to abandon the challenge, giving up some of the trips I was going to take with United.
Still, at least I might get some use out of 1K status flying their partner Virgin Australia. There’s priority check-in, lounge access, and an extra baggage allowance. They don’t send you a card during a challenge and benefits with partners where a card is needed (like some Star Alliance lounges that might want to see one) aren’t guaranteed. But that is the only benefit they say ‘might’ be a problem, though in practice partners often won’t see challenge status.
I agreed to pay for bags so we’d make the flight. I did argue, though, that I should be charged the pre-paid bag price. Had I known their system wouldn’t recognize my status, so they wouldn’t honor the free bag allowance, I’d have certainly paid online. They agreed.
However they couldn’t process the payment. Their system wouldn’t take it. The agent went and got another card reader. But the card reader wouldn’t work, either. We waited and waited, and finally it processed.
Our bags checked, I was handed boarding passes… but not for the seats I’d reserved (and that had still been assigned a few hours earlier). We were moved from row 6 to row 25. A supervisor came over and explained that they had status passenger who wanted our seats, and so they’d been given there. The plane was full and there were no other options available.
There was only time at this point to head through security, maybe stop at a restroom and proceed to the gate. I would have had Priority Pass access to AU$36 per person dining credits at two restaurants or to the Rex lounge, which I’d have visited purely to have some photos, but I’d have to give those a miss.
We made it out to gate 41 a couple of minutes before scheduled boarding. Plane and crew were ready but we took a more than 35 minute delay for no apparent reason, other than confusion with a group of special needs teenagers. No announcement was ever made at the gate about a delay or an expected boarding time, just silence from airline staff.
Boarding finally commenced and we headed towards the back of the aircraft.
Virgin Australia’s coach seats are tight at 30 inches of pitch, though that’s standard for regular economy now in the states (except Jetblue and Southwest are a bit more generous).
There are no seat back entertainment screens. There is no WiFi. And while there’s supposed to be streaming entertainment on board, that system wasn’t working.
Cabin crew came through the cabin with buy on board options. I was a bit peckish so ordered a bag of chips, mostly because… soy chicken? Even soda is charged on Virgin Australia, but water is free.
I spent the flight watching re-runs of L.A. Law that I’d downloaded to my laptop as I looked forward towards the actual rope separating coach from business class.
After a little over 2 hours and 50 minutes in the air we touched down in Cairns and deplaned out of both the forward door and the rear door using air stairs.
We got to Cairns safely, only about 25 minutes late, so the trip was fine – just a lot more like Spirit before Spirit improved than the last time I flew Virgin Australia in economy (my flight last year with Virgin was in business).
Ugh, stuff like these operational issues is so annoying. You wait and wait and wait, get it solved, proceed to the next step … and wait and wait and wait. Yet another reason to never count on anything ‘airline partnership’ to work.
@ Gary — Be glad you didn’t waste your money pursuing 1K. Although I guess we will complete our 1K challenges (if United doesn’t manage to colossally screw it up), I have to say we have not been impressed. We have flown over 7,000,000 miles apiece in our lifetimes, and we had our worst-ever flying inconvenience (it is only an inconvenience; no one got hurt or died) on a paid J international UA ticket a few weeks ago. You’d think two 1Ks, including a MM, would be treated well, but we were treated like first-time E- customers. I honestly believe that United has become too cheap for their own good.
While Attending the Oz Fest Flytertalk Do at the end of May, we flew VA MEL-HBA in coach, and were similarly unimpressed by the tight pitch in the seats at the back. Our UA Gold status didn’t help us at all with seat assignments, although we admittedly booked late. We thankfully didn’t experience the myriad of problems you did.
Flying SYD-BNE a few days later in VA business at least provided us with more legroom.Both flights were late but that of course can happen anywhere. Based on our limited experience, we prefer QF.
My new motto is carry-on only! It’s worked like a charm for several monthlong trips. And no hassles at the airport. Check in online and head right to security.
I will definitely avoid flying on this airline. $5 for a cookie. Give me a break.
@Gary: “They (United) don’t send you a card during a challenge and benefits with partners where a card is needed (like some Star Alliance lounges that might want to see one) aren’t guaranteed.”
But… American doesn’t send you a card AT ALL any more, unless the Posty ate mine.
Other than that: it’s Australia, it’s Virgin, go figure. At least the men don’t wear skirts on Virgin Australia.
You finally experienced how the other half travels. It’s not fun.
But but Delta lost its partner.
Looks like there was no loss at all for Delta and United is better off, right?
And Delta continues to increase flights to Australia
Welcome to Australia! Flying in Australia is not fun, delays, cancelled flights and boarding issues seems to be the new normal post covid.
Why didn’t you order Pringles?
They rock!
Snob?
A bit sad that you need excess bags for a few days in Cairns. Carry on only for each of you. Even with checked bags you should be able to stay under the weight limits.
@Rob -wasn’t convenient to leave bags with my family, we were on a 3 week trip abroad
Hi Gary, I’d say you had trouble with your status on VA due to the following in the status match Terms:
“During the 120-day offer period, you may not have access to all reciprocal Premier benefits with United’s partners, including access to Star Alliance lounges.”
Hence why VA system didn’t pick up extra benefits.
I’m VA platinum and on the whole find them easily the best Aussie domestic airline, friendly service on the whole and cheaper than Qantas but more included in your fare than Jetstar.
@Tim, yes DL did lose a partner. And United is adding flights to Australia at a much faster rate than Delta. Will Delta start flying to MEL, SYD, and BNE, all from multiple gateways, too?
It wouldn’t even have occurred to me to bring Delta into this discussion. Is there ever a time you don’t discuss Delta? Any conversations you think Delta might be irrelevant?
Always Fly Virgin..Never had a problem….Great Pilots and Crew and Lounges are more than adequate…Check-in a breeze…Give me Virgin every time.
My wife and I flew this same flight with you and your family. We make an appearance in your photos. A first for us to make a blog post! This was our first time flying Virgin. Maybe this flight was a bit off, we share some of your impressions. We booked award tickets via aeroplan. We reserved our seats on the Virgin site and at ticketing had been reassigned. Who knows…. I totally forgot about priority pass… The lounge was fine but no announcement was made about the delay. We didn’t mind the delay once we figured out the large group of special needs adults “might” have been the cause and honestly my life can interrupted for 45 minutes so folks who live in chairs can travel… we found the crew friendly and accommodating once onboard. We leave Port Douglas tomorrow for Melbourne. Any recommendations!?!
What is really impressive is the food prices! At $12 AUD for a glass of wine or beer ($8.25 USD) is really, REALLY cheap, considering minimum wage in Oz is $23.74 USD/hourly. Contrast that with Delta wine and beer fees of $8- USD, which is more than a poor Kettle’s minimum wage salary of $7.25 USD/hr.
Median house price in Cairns: $430K USD. Median house price in Florida $410K USD. It’s no wonder folks are pissed off about the standard of living here in the States.
Delta is doubling its service. United is not. We have read endlessly about the loss to Delta that Virgin was.
Clearly Delta recognized that Virgin Australia would never be what it was before. United’s gain
@ Tim Dunn
“Looks like there was no loss at all for Delta and United is better off, right?”
What – you’re basing your perception of VA based upon a rant in a VFTW article?!
If Gary paid for Economy Lite then he’d have to pay for checked bags either online or at physical check in.
One additional checked bag does not apply for United 1K, if Gary did indeed pay for Economy Lite.
Otherwise he’d have had 23kg checked bags included per ticket.
I’m not sure you can call yourself travel expert if you can’t fly around the planet within the limits of a standard allowance. Gary’s choice.
If Gary was having problems getting his 1K recognised, then he had the option to walk around to the Premium Entry facility (separate entrance at the end of the terminal with exclusive check in, security and escalator straight into the lounge) and run the issue past the staff manning the exclusive entry for business and elites (he might still have to deposit his bags in the main check in area). That entry could also be used once he’d check in his bags to bypass the security queues and enter the lounge directly.
Competitors such as Qantas have no comparable facility.
If Gary had an issue with 30 inch seat pitch he had the option of paying to upgrade to Economy X with 34 to 39 inch pitch or paying for business class (depending upon availability of seats of course) or travel on Qantas and leverage whatever OneWorld status he might have, if he believes the product to be superior in any way.
FWIW when I travelled SYD to CNS via BNE two weeks ago, the BNE-CNS flight departed about 30 minutes late – this was because of last minute changes to the filed flight plan due to military exercises affecting access to the airspace around Rockhampton: not every delay is the fault of the airline, dude.
Seating allocations aren’t guaranteed – we all know that.
FWIW VA’s competitor, QF, doesn’t have WIFI on all domestic flights.
“And Delta continues to increase flights to Australia”
And United continues to increase flights to Australia.
Incidentally, the CSM on my last two VA flights (SYD-BNE-CNS: same crew and airframe) was absolutely exceptional.
Oh, and, since Gary was United 1K as a result of a status challenge he wasn’t going to compete, he was aiming to get something for nothing – within the rules, perhaps, but rather rich to whinge and whine about it all.
Now I can’t wait to hear whether SNAs cleared at the Sheraton Port Douglas: anything less than an upgrade from a base room to one of the 2 bedroom villas would be a fail.
@ Tim Dunn
“Clearly Delta recognized that Virgin Australia would never be what it was before.”
And yet, Tim, Delta still uses Virgin Australia for the Australian domestic legs of its revenue-based airfares, apparently for the majority of airports serviced….;)
@ Jay
IMHO Melaleuca is the pick of the restaurants at Port Douglas and the RSL on the oceanfront by the car park the best spot for a drink in Port.
Stop off in Palm Cove in the drive back to Cairns for lunch at Vivos.
Catch a drink at the Boat Club in Yorkeys Knob for great views from the over water deck of marina and rainforested mountains.
Band playing at the Beach Bar in Trinity Beach from about 2.30pm to 6.00pm at the esplanade (corner Trinity Beach Road an Vasey Esplanade) for Sunday afternoon session – that’s where we locals hang out….;)
We have wallabies in our garden at Trinity Beach if you wanna come hand feed them carrots…otherwise check out the big fields next to the bowling club by the Trinity Beach roundabout on the Cape Cook highway – there are 100s of wallabies in there.
Stop at the road bridge on the Mowbray River just south of Port Douglas to check for the huge crocodile who suns herself on the bank of the mangrove island to the west of the bridge on lower tides.
Hartleys Crocodile zoo is worth a stop for an hour of two south of Port
@platy – it’s worse, Delta now has a (less extensive) partnership with REX!
@ Gary Leff
Yes, sir, you are entirely correct!
I noticed a SYD-ADL on Rex when I ran some dummy paid bookings on the Delta website.
Travel safe back to the USA. Hope you enjoyed Port Douglas. Next time let me know you’re here and l’ll make sure you get the royal welcome!
Sounds like it was a bit of a tough day but I reckon if you fly United a lot then you must be used to it!! In all honesty, as a Brit living in Australia and now Virgin Platinum, I think they are great and it’s good to see that they value their own tier membership higher than any UA carrier. Frankly I’m sure UA would.kust be the same.
Platy
You missed the point. By a long shot. Despite all those words
Clearly the partners that either Delta or United has doesn’t stop either from growing. And you still haven’t acknowledged that some people were breathless on predicting Delta’s demise in Australia when it decided to end its joint venture with Virgin Australia.
And yeah Gary is always looking for something for nothing. So are all the other travel experts
Virgin bashing all you like. Qantas is nowhere better. I have 2 cancelled flights during Covid lock down and they cannot find my credits. AnnnnnnD it took 4 hours waiting on the phone to talk to some off-shore agent who knew nothing about cancellation policies. But I digress.
Just flew SYD-ADL vis Melbourne on J last week. Could not fault them except they changed my pre-booked seats on one leg. And from what I can see, people in the back are OK too.
So, Qantas give you a muffin and charge on average 40% more on tickets, go figures.
I maybe wrong on this, as for pre-booked seat on Virgin domestic, VA would have recognised your status. Otherwise, you would not have been able to pre-select seat on Economy Lite fares unless you pay.
Virgin do have problems but no more, no less than Qantas. Different issues but same difference. No airline is perfect. Every one would have set policies. It is the crew that makes the difference. They may have a bad day. some A-hole passenger on the previous flight might have pushed the limit. Some may argue, …”if you can’t stand the heat….”
@CMorgan $5 a cookie. This is equivalent to underUS3.5. When was the last time you fly coach in US.
@ Tim Dunn
“Clearly the partners that either Delta or United has doesn’t stop either from growing.”
I didn’t deny such. I did challenge your snide remarks about VA as an illustration of the hypocrisy of your anti-VA comments cued by Gary’s neonatal grasp of Australian air travel.
Ironically, United seems to on-sell both Virgin and Qantas on its paid fares, whereas Delta does not -it’s mainly VA!!!.
That’s the point – your snide comments are easily exposed as snide comments without evidence to back your bias. You shiite on VA but your fanboy Delta embraces them.
Common, Tim, have you even flown on ONE VA fight ever in your life?! FWIW I attended their launch (Virgin Blue) and have flown on them countless times throughout all of the iterations.
“And you still haven’t acknowledged that some people were breathless on predicting Delta’s demise in Australia when it decided to end its joint venture with Virgin Australia”
But I wasn’t one of those people. I welcome Delta’s engagement with Australia. Fanstastic. I never had a bad flight on Delta. To be clear, I would anticipate their product to be superior to both UA and QF in biz having recently experienced both UA biz and QF first on the trans Pacific.
That said , as an Australian based frequent flyer, Delta offers me sweet FA.
I’m better off with VA partnered with UA. Real life reality check.
“And yeah Gary is always looking for something for nothing. So are all the other travel experts”
Yep – and yet your own persistence is appreciate in sharing your perusal industry knowledge and insights are greatly respected and appreciated, by myself at least.
Come back to us when you’ve travelled 90 domestic flights per annum on Australian operating carriers….;)
In the meantime, love your work and contribution.
Virgin Australia deplorable- I was threatened with border force by the supervisor at check in – as they moved us from 4 pre assigned exit seats And put us all in middle seats through out the aircraft – I challenged the ground staff, they couldn’t explain why, they then threatened me with border force – virgin just need to recruit and train correctly/ pathetic airline
One important thing – it’s honey soy chicken – which means honey + soy sauce + chicken. This is actually an incredible flavour and I don’t want you leaving Australia thinking we have some sort of weird honey soy milk chips.
As already noted, you do not have a right to Star Alliance benefits on partners during the challenge period. This is expressly stated in the T&C:
During the 120-day offer period, you may not have access to all reciprocal Premier benefits with United’s partners, including access to Star Alliance lounges
Surprised you did not do your homework here.
When I flew virgin australia earlier this year in January ….. I was given a FREE upgrade to the front of the plane and lots more leg room…….
@ Kacee
Yes, most interesting.
It seems that there is a take out lesson therein – those doing a status challenge need to check whether the temporarily assigned status confers reciprocal benefits when travelling on partner airlines.
There’s no use complaining about lines at priority queues, having to pay for excess baggage, etc., if certain benefits weren’t due in the first place.
It’s probably also a stretch to expect check in staff at a partner airline to be across the detail of such promotions or for partner airline booking systems to be populated with status details if none are due anyway.
One might conclude that the article unfairly maligns Virgin Australia on a number of such counts.
Curious to find out how the journey back from SYD to CNS went…
I hope you enjoy the Honey Soy Chicken chips though! They’re great!
Definitely a step up from Pringles!
“One might conclude that the article unfairly maligns Virgin Australia on a number of such counts.”
Please tell me what those number of such counts are?
– that the flight was delayed ~ 35 minutes, without announcements being made at the gte
– that our seats were changed, told that staff had decided to allocate them to more premium passengers?
– that streaming inflight entertainment was inoperative?
– that the airline’s systems for charging checked bags (indeed, taking payment for anything) were not working and this was the prime driver in a ~ 50 minute check-in experience?
You’ll note that the piece flags that there was lack of clarity rather than a Virgin failure in terms of United 1K benefits during a status challenge (United itself says only that partner lounge access where a physical card is required may not be available), in fact many of the benefits of the partnership aren’t spelled out online (extent to which they’re offered to other passengers on the same PNR for instance). But that’s hardly the meat of the piece, and Virgin isn’t really blamed for that issue.
@ Gary
The counts are spelled out in my previous post.
Your following statement is factually incorrect.
“United itself says only that partner lounge access where a physical card is required may not be available”
The United website lists some T&Cs for the status challenge (as word perfectly cited by @ Kacee above):
“…During the 120-day offer period, you may not have access to all reciprocal Premier benefits with United’s partners, including access to Star Alliance lounges…”
If you’d been travelling in economy without your misperceptions about expected status benefits you could have easily checked in online / mobile app, paid for any excess bags in advance and used the bag drop facility. Job done. And off to the Rex lounge with your Priority Pass or whatever.
But it appears you rocked up at the airport expecting benefits that didn’t apply.
You attended a priority line that you appear not to have been entitled to use only to complain about staffing levels.
You complain about your 1K not been recognised even though benefits may not be due to you under the status challenge.
You complain about excess bag fees chargeable at the airport when you would be responsible to pay for them when 1K benefits do not apply.
And yet the staff at VA apparently tried to accommodate your (mis)perceptions about entitlements. They attempted to enter your 1K status (even though it didn’t apply). They let you pay the online price for the extra bags even though you should have paid the full excess.
You whinge about being moved to make room for patrons of higher status. Hint – your 1K status didn’t apply, and , no doubt , if roles had been reversed, you’d be complaining that your status hadn’t been recognised by an airline that refused to move someone with no status to make way for you.
When you headline your article “Virgin Australia: What a Mess” it’s clear that you are blaming the airline for your travel woes.
It appears that you mistakenly expected certain 1K benefits (although maybe not lounge access) and that has directed your narrative as obvious frustrations have ensued.
Sure, United could do more to clarify the situation. I appreciate how United customers entering the status challenge could get confused.
In such situations there is always the option to contact United to be certain of what to expect on the day to avoid the risk of such problems arising, especially if travelling with family, checked and / or excess bags, etc.
Arguably, if you are going to write an article where questions of applicability of status challenge benefits on partner airlines is in any doubt, you have a responsibility to your readers to portray the situation accurately (which you haven’t).
For the record, in flight entertainment is not a guaranteed offering on VA, so complaining that it wasn’t available is misplaced. To quote the VA website:
“Virgin Australia offers In-flight Entertainment on a selected number of aircraft types and routes only”
Yes, it can be frustrating if boarding delays are not announced or explained.
Of potential interest to some readers – access to airspace can be affected by military exercises including those centred on Rockhampton and Townsville airports which double as military bases and civilian airports: this incurred a late minute and delay to my last VA flight from BNE-CNS. Current / upcoming military exercises include Exercise High Sierra and Talisman Sabre.
Looking forward to hearing about your experiences at then Sheraton, and the flights back.
Travel home safe, buddy.
Sounds frustrating, but at least Virgin Australia didn’t bait and switch seat class like they did me. Paid for bus class tickets, they changed the plane bumped me to economy and i had to more to get prem. economy. Nearly 4 weeks post travel and I still don’t have any refund of fare difference or compensation. Bad seats and service is not great, but outright theft is illegal.
@platy – you are quoting United’s website selectively, they explain what benefit not to expect during a match, specifically partner lounges because those might require a card that United does not send. My beef in detailing that is with United.
“You whinge about being moved to make room for patrons of higher status.” Yes, I reserved seats and it is poor practice to bump passengers at the airport merely because other passengers asked, without offering anything to those customers.
“For the record, in flight entertainment is not a guaranteed offering on VA,” yes they say on their website it isn’t offered on all aircraft, but it was offered on this one and not functional. That is a fail. It is an IT fail along the lines of their inability to process payment for bags from two separate devices, and it is a fail when that substantially delays their ability to check in passengers. Frankly surprised to see you excuse inop inflight entertainment that was announced to passengers as available at the start of the flight, and to excuse inop functionality for charging credit cards.
@ Gary
“you are quoting United’s website selectively, they explain what benefit not to expect during a match, specifically partner lounges because those might require a card that United does not send. My beef in detailing that is with United.”
No. The words in the T&Cs are clear and unambiguous. Your messed up. You thought you were entitled to certain benefits and you weren’t, or you pushed your luck and bombed out. Either way, you messed up. even as a travel guru and “thought leader” – you messed up. Remarkably, you don’t pass on the salient lessons arising from your fcpuukps to your readers.
Incidentally, just how am I quoting the T&Cs selectively? Cite the reference that proves your position.
Hint – you can’t.
“Yes, I reserved seats and it is poor practice to bump passengers at the airport merely because other passengers asked without offering anything to those customers”
Maybe a reasonable position. But you had no status and other passengers perhaps did. You failed to check in online in order to seek to get your excess baggage for free. You messed up.
You are now arguing post hoc from a position of deluded self entitlement. Despite VA trying to help you, you shafted them on an online public forum.
Goodness knows, VA has its weaknesses, but you haven’t got the balance of experience to expose them from an evidenced position.
“IT fail along the lines of their inability to process payment for bags from two separate devices, and it is a fail when that substantially delays their ability to check in passengers”
Not necessarily. We don’t know whether the internet connection was at fault rather than their excess baggage purchase functionality. In any case, you should have paid for those bags up front. You didn’t. That’s your fail.
You haven’t even revealed what sort of economy fare class you purchased. Seriously, dude, you have your family travelling in economy rather than biz to save a few hundred bucks. WTF.
“Frankly surprised to see you excuse inop inflight entertainment that was announced to passengers as available at the start of the flight, and to excuse inop functionality for charging credit cards.”
Not at all. The VA website is clear about what product features are offered for the the fare paid – they are utterly compliant with Australian consumer legislation in that regard.
In nay case, changing the story now are we?! Are you now claiming that you paid for WiFi and/ or in flight entertainment that you didn’t get (that complaint is new and not in your article)?!
Get your story right, dude, before you trash an airline publicly only to make an utter muppet of yourself.
@platy “But you had no status and other passengers perhaps did” so our confirmed seats were given away? Those passengers by the way had confirmed seats together, just in the back of the plane.
” they are utterly compliant with Australian consumer legislation in that regard.” No one says they acted ILLEGALLY. You’re arguing a straw man.
“you have your family travelling in economy rather than biz to save a few hundred bucks. WTF.” Business was sold out by the way 🙂 you make supposition on supposition (as usual) and it makes for poor argumentation.
” Are you now claiming that you paid for WiFi and/ or in flight entertainment that you didn’t get ” False, Virgin Australia advertises inflight entertainment on the flight, they announced it, but it didn’t work. That’s a failure. If your argument is ‘sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and there’s no legitimate complaint when it doesn’t’ then you really have no standards, do you?
Once again, here’s the actual language on United Airlines status matches.
“Premier membership materials will not be issued for the 120-day offer period. You may enjoy Premier benefits on United- or United Express-operated flights by providing your account number when making reservations or at check-in. During the 120-day offer period, you may not have access to all reciprocal Premier benefits with United’s partner airlines, including access to Star AllianceTM lounges.”
– lack of a membership card means that some benefits from partner airlines, like Star Alliance lounges, may not be honored.
The bottom-line on the Virgin Australia experience, and United status had nothing to do with it, was that things were largely chaotic and running poorly on this trip but I got there safely and with only a modest delay. It felt a bit like flying Spirit in the States, except that Spirit now has pretty decent wifi 😉
@ Gary
“The bottom-line on the Virgin Australia experience, and United status had nothing to do with it”
Based upon the content of your article and subsequent posts that is not the case given an evidenced based deconstruction.
FWIW VA and its Velocity program do have some endemic and concerning downsides, but you have failed to identify these.
“things were largely chaotic and running poorly on this trip”
Demonstrably based on your expectations of status.
The back-peddling is frankly embarrassing.
“but I got there safely and with only a modest delay”
And hopefully had a great time!
“It felt a bit like flying Spirit in the States, except that Spirit now has pretty decent wifi ”
Well, given Spirit’s record of days’ long operational meltdowns I’m not sure I’d be too chuffed about the comparison, if I was a VA executive!
Travel safe, buddy.
@platy – Quit gaslighting. Virgin Australia had poor check-in, inability to promptly process bag fees, dishonoring seat assignments, delays without communication to passengers and inoperative inflight entertainment.
@ Gary
Gaslighting?!
The T&Cs for the status match are unambiguous. Apparently, you continue to deny and misrepresent such, just as you do when called out for your non evidenced claims about certain hotel loyalty programs.
Be honest, dude, you tried to get something for free (benefits not guaranteed under the T&Cs of the status match), ironically under a status match that you weren’t even going to complete.
The VA staff still helped you – they let you attend priority line to check in (to which you weren’t entitled) and let you off baggage fees (paying less than you should have done). You refuse to give credit where credit is due preferring narrative of the airline being one big mess – glass half empty not half full.
Nor were you entitled to guaranteed seat allocations or in flight entertainment. Go on, put in a complaint to VA and see how far you get.
You cling onto some misplaced justification about physical membership cards being the issue, but seem unaware or ignore the reality that VA Velocity uses digital cards – as ever, your knowledge and comprehension of matters Australian is continually found wanting.
Finally (because it’s clearly time to move on), you mention a group of special needs passengers as a possible reason for delayed boarding and have photos of folk in wheelchairs in the article.
Your insidious sense of self entitlement (to a late boarding announcement) seems to outweigh any concern for these people. A heads up – boarding such folk can be a delicate task – I know first hand since I used to travel with a quad in a chair including on the SYD-CNS route – it’s quite a process to transfer from their chair to smaller airline chair, etc., and get them seated – sometimes things go wrong (staff once dropped my friend during the transfer in the aerobridge) or take longer than expected.
(FWIW Australia has a commitment to treat disabled people as equal and has a national government funding scheme for their care called the NDIS).
Yeah and on a lighter end note, I know words can be confusing for some, but as others have pointed out, it ain’t soy chicken, but honey soy flavoured chicken! They are rather delicious!
@platy – you defend all things Australia in the comments to my posts on this site. I get that. But you ignore the myriad issues with the Virgin Australia flight to make excuses for them and it makes little sense, going so far as to make up pieces of the story.
Just as you chastised me for not buying business class on a flight that was fully booked up front, you now pivot to suggesting the airline was merely trying to assist special needs customers when they took a delay and did not communicate at all with passengers *when those special needs passengers were delayed too!*
Virgin executed poorly on this trip. Your excuses for inoperative inflight entertainment early in the thread were flimsy, as well their ability to process payment for bags and their disservice in bumping us from our assigned seats.
No big deal in the scheme of things, as I noted at the end of the post. I still love your country! And the chips were… ok, I guess.
I’m struggling to understand the “mess” you experienced. Yes, I agree unannounced and unexplained delays are frustrating, but it’s not like the end of the world. The UA benefits transfer sounds like your misunderstanding rather than a VA issue and that is clear from previous comments.
May I recommend you also use the correct name for the product where you were seated? There is no such thing as “coach” on an airplane outside America. Here, and in most parts of the world, it’s called “Economy” and it’s the product you described.
Sorry for your frustrations, but the tone of your blog post sounds a bit dramatised and perhaps a bit over-privileged.
VA is without doubt an interesting hybrid at the moment as they establish themselves again after having been on the brink of disappearing into history. I quite like their biz class. I like the way they control it on board but let’s face it behind the rope it’s very much a LCC but I appreciate the Economy X seats and supply of coffee are useful and certainly good value for Platinum card holders flying economy. They lack lounges overseas and indeed also outside the Australian hubs domstically but much of the downs can be reflected in the pricing structure. Internet in the air around Australia is pretty poor anyhow when on an aircraft. Indeed recently on a Qantas 330 and 787 between Perth and Melbourne and Perth -Sydney there are “black spots” en route and many people around were losing connectivity. It comes and goes I have found on various routes in Australia.. I’m a Brit in Aussie, I have flown many European airlines and mostly AA in the states. I seriously thing VA is as good as any…
@Troy
Yep – my critique of such now censored.
@ Gary
End of the line dude.
You are committing yourself to the old guard and not the new….be well and travel safe…love and cherish your family (I’m sure you ).
@Platy -what on earth are you talking about?
@ Gary
You block every one of my comments subject to moderation regardless of length and content – you rejected my previous comment on this thread still not published – give up the charade dude enough BS
@Platy – your comments have been flagged by the system as potential spam and wind up in the moderation queue, I manually approve each and every one
Apparently not the case – of little real world consequence . Be well. Be brilliant.