Virgin Blue... a short rant...

[Blue Oval Mopar Man]

This is what I dont understand! From the time Virgin Blue took of , They have always said they are a "NO FRILLS" airline and they are trying to keep the price of airfares low ! They are nearly Half what the opposition was charging to fly the same routes ! Now the opposition being Qantas offer flights at the same basic price providing you meet their criteria! If you areant lucky enough to meet these criteria they will happily charge you their normal rip off prices and leave you feeling like you just spent the night with BUBBA ( or Sourbastard ) in his cell ! I will never fly Qantas again after the Ansett affair because the prices they were charging were just out of the average persons reach and when opposition arrived they miraculously were able to find ways to compete with them price wise ! Qantas are Ripping us off and have no concience about doing it ! Every time I want to fly these days I use any other airline and if I turns out I must travel qantas ,even at the same low fare, I will drive or just not go ! Qantas can suck my jetstream cause I will never fly with them again !

[flappist]

Originally Posted by XA Coupsta

And Flappist - insinuating remarks about how Qantas actually does their maintenance (and therefore Virgin dont) is not on mate. Very poor form and you cant go anywhere near backing that statement up, and its a pretty serious one.

If you re read my post you will see that the maintenance point was made against the foriegn airlines such as DELTA, China (pick a compass point), Garuda.......
CASA do a good job here maintaining the standard.

As for the rest, if you are in the game then you will have already read the crash comics and seen who is star of the show....
If you are not then I suggest you do a bit of research.....

My bona fides:
I am a pilot who used to own a charter organisation.
My best mate was a chief pilot for a turbine charter company.
My second best mate is chief check & training for two classes of aircraft for another major aviation company.
I know personally many fairly senior tech crew and am usually up to date with industry gossip (if you fly you will understand how this works).

I see you are Brisbane based, you are not a DJ employee are you?

[Rapid260]

I don’t know what all the bloody fuss is about, do you think you are the only person on the plane that is having a bad time, what about the poor hostesses, they have to put up with cranky people like you all day everyday,
I fly to the middle east twice a month 11hrs there 11 hrs back, this time over, I was unlucky enough to be next to a guy that was 6ft 4” I'm 6ft, surrounded by kids, crying & running up & down the isle, there’s not a lot you can do, the parents of the kids are doing there best to keep them quiet or to stop them from moving around, & the hostesses are trying to keep 300 people happy.
The time before that I was upgraded to business class free, it’s the luck of the draw, as far a food goes, well it’s never good on any plane, even business isn’t the best, so if you don’t like it don’t eat it.

The other thing is, you get what you pay for.

Kev.

[blue fairy]

I can't really complain.
I have flown with QANTAS, Ansett (back in the day) and Virgin Blue.
Out of all of my flying experiences, I love Virgin Blue. I love the "quirk" factor and think it is a great budget airline.

I do understand Neek's point about snoozing and being asked for food and drink.
I would much rather be left alone to rest than be woken by a grinning cabin member.
.. On the other hand.. at least they grin!

[Mr. CVE]

I agree.
I try to fly quantas every time,
and as you say book enough in advance the flights cost the same or even cheaper.
Can't be bothered driving to avalon so didn't try Jetstar.
went to perth on virgin and never again. big bus with smelly toilets !!
virgin may be ok for the melb to syd trips, but you usually get stuck in the air waiting to land in syd anyway.
quantas all the way for me.
you even get headphones !!

[Lagom]

Gee there are times I miss flying Ansett - it's only in recent times that Qantas had the amenities that Ansett had years ago.

A pity Air New Zealand bought them - they would've probably been still around if Singapore Airlines bought the other 50%, rather than letting AirNZ get 100%.

[Jeld-Wen Falcon]

Ive recently travelled from Hobart to Perth and back. The only problem I had was the prices of food and drink, but you can always buy food before you get on.

I was actually impressed with the flight staff from Melb to Perth, they were good in entertaining the kids.

Id have no problem with flying with them again.

[crYnOid]

I also do a bit of flying for work. Unfortunately my work outsources all travel requests to a travel company. This means that they are given the leaving/arrival location and approx. time you want to arrive. So I get whatever suits the situation best.

So from my experience I prefer to travel with Qantas then Virgin and I really really hate getting stuck on a Jetstar flight. Lucky that doesn't happen often.

I don't mind the cramped seats on virgin when the cabin crew are fairly attractive like they have been each time I fly with them. Maybe i'm just a perv.... The Qantas crew always seems more 'mature' :(

[Hunter]

I don't mind Virgin too much... had to go to Cairns for work late last year and the only thing that annoyed me was the lack of room in the 737-700 (which is what I got on both ways : ). Got rather uncomfortable towards the end (takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to Cairns from Brisbane). The hosties were ok, though some were a bit old (early 40s) but otherwise visually pleasing. They did not seem like they were on nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to me. And the food was reasonable.

[professorsabre]

geez all you guys complained airfares were too expensive and now that deregulation is here and fares are dirt cheap you're still complaining. Just hang a DO NOT DISTURB sign on your seat, easy. I don't get it, if you hate Virgin so much don't fly Virgin. Pay the little extra and fly Qantas. Not very hard solution. I hear this everyday remember you get what you pay for.

Sorry rant over.

[Dark Horse]

I've done my days in Cattle Class. JetStar/Virgin, no thank you.

Flappist, I'd have to agree with you on your second point about the Boeings.

I enjoy my flying whether it be at the controls or from the Business Class seat.

[davocol]

AS long as the cheery person waking me up is female, about 5 10", blonde hair, blue eyes and easy on the eyes I could not care if I was flying on a dirty old carpet. Although the coffee on the virgin blue flights takes like sump oil.

Either way the longest you have to put up with it is for about 4 hours, put the headphones in pop a valium and let the crappy airline music send you to snoozeville.

[gtfpv]

for budget airlines i fly virgin . newer planes . but for fares they both worry me . id rather pay more for safety. but wont fly quantas because they are tight and prefer profit therefore offer nothing over budget airlines . i am not in the game but have some friends who know people . i hear lots of high ranked people resign from quantas in diisgust over lack of maintenance and want nothing of it. the others same deal i'm told you wouldnt believe the risk our airlines are taking with flights. a while back i was told the allowable limit for faults on a plane flying was 6. things like blown globes etc . now it has been expanded to 27 faults allowed whilst flying . i ask where are the discounts coming from ? and if our maintenance goes overseas what then.? sorry to venture off topic . my choice is still virgin because they have virtually new planes.

[zetec]

Originally Posted by XA Coupsta

And your comments about "go the Aussie carrier if you can" just shows you really dont know what you are talking about.

Virgin is more (far more) Australian than Qantas!!!!! Qantas has foreign ownership of the maximum allowable 49%. Virgin is majority owned by its executive members, Chris Corrigan/Patricks (all aussie there) and a small percentage of investors (people on the street)

Agreed. That also reminds me of my biggest most favourite all time narrow-minded redneck bogan argument that Holden is the Aussie car company and Ford is a Yank company... same argumant there. Falcon is the ONLY fully designed, engineered, tested and built car in Australia and has about 87% of components locally made... leaving Commonwhore for dead. Nothing else Holden builds is any more Aussie than Ford's. And that's not even starting on Territory.... so it's 2 to Ford, zero to Holden.

But back on topic, you'll find an argument here for Jetstar, Virgin, QANTAS as much as you'll find arguments for why people will never buy a Holden or a Ford again. Nothing can be gained here more than a share in people's stories.

I personally will never fly Jetstar again after 2 direct (me) and a couple of indirect (friends) bad experiences. I have however had nothing but extreme delight from Virgin from over 20+ flights with them over the years. I reckon Virgin have as much ability to burn me as Jetstar, just that now Virgin has given me such a high impression, it would be forgiveable of them to stuff up once or twice in terms of lateness, rudeness or some other inconvenience from a cranky steward. But that's me, and I'm sure the next guy will be equally impressed by Jetstar. Yay for competition coz if it wasn't for Virgin, you'd probably not be so happy to fly QANTAS when you had to mortgage a child each time you flew 1000km. Same goes for Holden. Let them keep building dog poo, it makes Ford look like it has the Midas touch.

QANTAS are not a low-cost carrier and to assume that because their flights are more expensive and thus they are money hungry bastards is nothing short of ignorant and childish. Since when was running a profitable business dirty? The rest of you out there make profit from your customers no matter what business, how dare you all try to profit from the hard earned dollars of our general public, shame on you all. : QANTAS are not far away mostly on price from airlines that have dedicated low-cost methods built into their business plans from day one like Virgin and Jetstar. It is unfair and ignorant to expect QANTAS, a worldwide carrier to sustain daily prices at Virgin levels, hence they started Jetstar to do so and are still quite competitive qith them anyway mainly. Not bad for a major carrier to stay profitable whilst still trying to sell seats to Joe Bogan Average who only cares about his own back pocket and NOTHING else and competing with better service against lower cost carriers. I personally fly Virgin due to cost, yes they are cheaper, and because I have a little thing called loyalty that is hard earned, and Virgin deserve mine. I fly often enough that their price difference makes a difference to me but I don't slag off QANTAS. If you can't say anything nice, then shut the hell up.

[Pedro]

I do a fair bit of flying and I agree with Neeek about the half witted comedy attempts by Virgin staff. Other than that I am happy to fly with them. Most domestic flights are only an hour or two at the most, so why eat anything? I'm sure most passengers only eat the crap food because it's put in front of them. As for Jetstar, the last time I saw cattle being herded like that was at the Beaudesert rodeo.

[64compact]

lets be thankfull for Virgin as before then Q charged what they liked REMEMBER!! i had to go to a Funeral in Townsville and i had to fly in 2 days so i could not give the 1 week notice back then, and it cost me $1300, return to Brisbane. and if i wanted to take my 4 yo son it was another $1300. as for the airlines the best one i flew on was a Muldof flight from Frankfurt to Budapest a NEW 80 seat plane with 7 cabin crew on it and 8 passengers, the Best 2 hour flight i ever had. and the food was great.

[64compact]

And another thing I don't mind paying a bit more for a Virgin ticket over a Jetstar, as i still remember how many times Quantas ripped me off. and all of a suddern they can sell cheaper tickets since Virgin came in to Australia.

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by Pedro

I Most domestic flights are only an hour or two at the most, so why eat anything? I'm sure most passengers only eat the crap food because it's put in front of them.

Ahhhhhh!.. But there's the Byron Bay cookies AND Crownies on Virgin!
Jetstar only have that insipid Tooheys dishwater!

[rodderz]

I dont fly much now, a few years back i did between melb and queensland. It was a mixture of qantas as virgin. As Pedro said it's only 2 hrs between those 2 cities so you dont really need a meal especially if you have a feed beforehand or when you get there

I found both airlines very good, not one bad experience. If anything, you get more service with qantas, but overall found virgin to have quicker boarding (and hostesses too) . I spose the more you fly the more chance of getting a bad flight or service may be greater

[Laminge]

I still want to book a flight on that new airline where you can order personal pillow fights between the penthouse and playboy playmates hostess's

Anyone got their number?

[Lagom]

Originally Posted by charliewool

Ahhhhhh!.. But there's the Byron Bay cookies AND Crownies on Virgin!

Qantas was actually the airline that introduced me to Byron Bay Cookies - they're great!

[max^power]

i may be going to sydney soon for interviews, and virgin blue is much less than the other places, while i like qantas, i need to save a few bucks, and $75 fares to sydney sounds like a great deal to me.

[aimzes]

ive used virgin a few times now, never had a problem. they were cheap,always been on time and never lost my bags... what more could i ask for?

jetstar on the other had have lost our bags twice and been late most of the other times.

[zetec]

Originally Posted by Laminge

I still want to book a flight on that new airline where you can order personal pillow fights between the penthouse and playboy playmates hostess's

Anyone got their number?

That was supposed to be Jet Star, they had a Lynx Jet planned and everything, until political correctenss got in the way, something about not wanting to portray women hostesses as sex symbols... :

[Lightning Strike GT]

Refuse to fly Virgin as a family friend had a business with the name "virgin" in it and Bransons lawers got to him and he went broke and topped himself.
The only hassle I have had with Qantas was an internet booking in 02 with a flight No of QF0054 from Bne to Syd
Lobbed up at the check in said who I was and the flight number he looked at me strange and said that leaves from the international terminal , pulled out the printed paperwork and there was no mention of this flight leaving from the int terminal BUT there was T1 with an asterix in smaller than fine print at the end of the 3 pages of conditions saying T1 is the International Terminal yes it was my fault for not reading the 10000 word document but they put me on another flight and did not charge me for that
As I said to the bloke??? why the hell would a domestic flight leave from the international terminal. :gren:

[gtfpv]

jokes only.
new airline out competes with the best . JIHAD AIRLINES. i hear their offering 1/2 price deals . thats a return ticket for the price of one way. apparantely all planes are brand new. i asked why so cheap they told me they keep costs down buy ordering generic brand landing gear and retreads. fair enough.,no luggage screening no security and no waiting times just buy the ticket walk on and fly . simple.
remember just jokes. hope it gets a laugh.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by AU XR8

As I said to the bloke??? why the hell would a domestic flight leave from the international terminal. :gren:

Tasmania maybe?

[zetec]

Originally Posted by gtfpv

jokes only.
new airline out competes with the best . JIHAD AIRLINES. i hear their offering 1/2 price deals . thats a return ticket for the price of one way. apparantely all planes are brand new. i asked why so cheap they told me they keep costs down buy ordering generic brand landing gear and retreads. fair enough.,no luggage screening no security and no waiting times just buy the ticket walk on and fly . simple.
remember just jokes. hope it gets a laugh.

I also hear they fly you direct into your office each morning...

[zetec]

Originally Posted by AU XR8

As I said to the bloke??? why the hell would a domestic flight leave from the international terminal. :gren:

Quite often Qantas use larger aircraft on their way from Melb to Syd and then onto an international destination, quite often with frequent flyer bookings. It effetively helps them fill seats on the international bound flight. This is the only reason they depart from the international terminal.

[GT-E]

I fly atleast twice a month, and use Virgin Blue. While I can understand "some" people not liking happy cabin crew, myself I find it refreshing as I have woken up at the crack of dawn and been greeted by a pretty and happy chick as I board the aircraft. I am 6'5" and 130kg, so legroom is always great in the normal seats. I can choose a exit row if I wish, but the seats are too narrow for my big ***. I have also flowen Qantass several times in both cattle and biz class and found the cabin crew rude and uncomprimising.
So far on Virgin flights, I have witnessed 1 marrige proposal, several bouts of aerobics by the cabin crew and many jokes. It makes a dull flight interesting.
Oh and for the uninformed, Richard Branson has nothing to do with Virgin Blue anymore, its owned by Patricks and public.
I like the way they keep the bastards honest.