Virgin Australia - SYD check-in chaos.
 

Hi...

As a loyal customer of Virgin Australia (and any airline that flies aeroplanes lol) I have had unpleasant experiences at check-in at SYD the last few times I have flown on VA.

It takes between 30-45 minutes on the bag-drop queue. There is an obvious lack of check-in counters at the terminal. Every counter was in use.

This was at 9am in the morning - peak time I guess.

There was confusion as to which queue was which, as the queues were back running the length of the terminal. I took pictures of the chaos and the unhappy faces on the queue.

This was on a normal morning - with all flights on time or close to it.

Am I unlucky, or is this problem going to continue until some sort of expansion? Or avoid morning flights?

Regards,

Steve S

The company wants feed back (good and bad) so contact them via email include the photos. JB and his team will take it on board and look at ways to fix the problem.

When living in Sydney and flew Virgin from T2, I always had a similar experience in the bag drop queue. It made Internet check in almost irrelevant. I began making sure I just had carry on bags.

I just sent Virgin some feedback.

It does make internet check-in pointless, apart from an attempt to get the desired seats.

Effectively I checked in three times - first at home on the internet, then at an airport kiosk as advised to print the boarding pass, then at the bag drop counter where ID was provided.

Terminal 2 also has long queues for security screening lately - I don't know why.

I flew Qantas a month ago for the first time in years. In comparison the entire process took 2-3 minutes to kiosk check-in and do your own bag drop.

Steve,
Did you happen to notice how much more room QF had over there. They dont have the likes of JQ, Rex & Tiger to battle with for check in space & security queue lines.

Just a thought! :)

Ha yeah Jayden,

or the lack of staff at QF T3.

You could be paying full fare Business class for $1000+ on domestic flights and the first person you will see to greet you is in the lounge after security. There is 1 tiny service desk with 1/2 people which always has a long queue.

The sooner people relise when you fly with the like Va what more do you expect.Want to be a full service airline but will not have staff there to handle situations.Thus the reason why i fly QF.People will not learn you get what you pay for and have the staff what they get paid.

I understand Virgin Australia staff are paid well for the positions they're in Ray. And there is more people at the Virgin check in counters than QF!

As to the cost, QF's tickets are much the same prices, so the whole "you get what you pay for" thing doesn't really apply in my view.

I do agree though, that Virgin's check in at Sydney could certainly do with some improvement. I flew them a bit over a week ago out of Sydney and the wait was painful. Out of Brisbane, quite quick in comparison. Perhaps moving the regionals (QLink, Rex, Brindabella, Aeropelican) to a completely different terminal in the future and freeing up T2 for Virgin and Jetstar, would help the situation.

Mick

P.S. What do you have against Virgin Ray?

If its because of any previous travel experience with them (Virgin) I would completely understand his position.

Personally i would never set one foot again on their planes not after the way I and my family have been treated. The only reason why was the Qantas alternative was twice the cost. But like people say you get for what you pay for I guess.