Virgin Australia's Identity Crisis

[Radi K]

Virgin Australia's Identity Crisis – A Low Cost Carrier That Pretends to be Something Else

23 June, 2014 by Martin Kelly


How appropriate Virgin Australia has been pulled up by the ACCC for drip pricing – hitting customers with fees they do not expect. That's because while VA claims to have a premium product – "The Romance is Back" is one slogan – the reality is that Virgin has not moved beyond its low cost carrier roots despite the hype.

I say this after four recent flights with Virgin, the first I have taken with them since John Borghetti took over a few years ago when it began the supposed move upmarket. My observations are based on the following:
•Just a couple of check-in kiosks at Sydney domestic, no automated baggage option. A 30 to 40 minute queue for human service was the outcome the morning we were there.
•Same customers, same fares, different treatment: ie domestic leisure travellers still pay for food yet those flying the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane business triangle get free food and drink. This says to leisure customers we do not like you as much as the suits.
•There's no in-flight entertainment on its B737s unless you have a computer of some kind and a pre-loaded app. Therefore on a six hour flight between Sydney and Bali 95% of passengers played cards, started into space, read or slept. They had no movies to watch, games to play or music to listen. There were no tablets available for rent. It was a trip back in time.
•You only get one piece of checked luggage on an international service. Weight limit however remains same as international rivals at 35kg, which do not limit the number of bags. This is a sneaky way to do business and runs counter to accepted practice for full-service carriers, which Virgin is pretending to be on international flights.

So for me flying Virgin was not the experience I'd been led to believe it would be.

I wasn't expecting anything amazing just an airline where I didn't have to pay for food or bring my own entertainment or cram everything into a single bag.

For all the rhetoric, Virgin Australia remains a low cost carrier with identity issues


http://www.traveltrends.biz/ttn555virgin-australias-identity-crisis-a-low-cost-carrier-that-pretends-to-be-something-else/

Some interesting points - curious what other members think about this blog points. I think VAA says its a full cost carrier when it suits it but then a LCC at different times. What is Virgin Australia? Full Cost of Low Cost?

[Steve S... 2]

Unfortunately I agree and the ongoing, unaddressed bag drop queue chaos at Sydney Domestic was too hard to take (45 minutes in the queue twice).

[Daniel M]

All very valid points and I agree with all of them. The point about meals I have been saying to friends and family for a while now ... reading the in flight menu, there is/used to be a list of all the different routings and the specific inclusions/non inclusions. Absolutely ridiculous.

[Scott L.]

Yes. Virgin have certainly window dressed themselves. It's all a charade.

[D Chan]

Just a couple of check-in kiosks at Sydney domestic, no automated baggage option. A 30 to 40 minute queue for human service was the outcome the morning we were there.
There have been suggestions VA are doing something to address this and having a similar bag drop / kiosk product that Qantas currently has.
I remember the days when QF passengers queued out to the door at T3 and they had to put up with similar waits to get checked-in. Some people love automated check-in and others hate it. To me the suggestion by some people they'd rather prefer waiting 30 to 40 minutes to have a human serve them is ridiculous because
1. that 'service' does not warrant 30 to 40 minutes wait at peak hour (its not a GP's appointment),
2. most people are able to self-serve,
3. the technology is already there and there are far easier ways to get checked in (in this day and age it is simply unexcuseable to ask passengers to wait that long for domestic flights)
4. you just don't know whether you'd be served by a grumpy staff

I think Borghetti probably has enough on his plate at the moment and project to revamp check-in is not a small undertaking. What he has certainly done is chase after the pointy end of the market / corporate market which QF has relied on from a domestic perspective. VA's financial results have not been fantastic and same can be said for QF. With the injections from the foreign backers (SQ, NZ, EY) I think he's had to spend it on areas that matter most meaning most of the product enhancements are geared towards the business market as opposed to the leisure end, so I'm not surprised when the author mentioned those examples. However what he has clearly not touched on are the improvements to business travellers such as lounge improvements and their business class product.

The other side of it is their marketing and VA is trying to position itself. Some people may have higher expectations only to be let down by the actual product. When a family member flew VA to MEL in economy last year she was actually surprised and disappointed by the product compared to QF.