Jetstar or Virgin Blue

[boban]

In the last 7 years I would say I've flown over 100 times to various destinations with a large variety of carriers, regional and the big boys. Honestly, they are much the same at the end of the day. I've had bad experiences but not many.

The best service I've had was in Qantas business class, but you pay for that. I've also had my worst experience with Qantas. Try cancelling your flight, changing your flight time and not informing you. That cost me over $300 and I got nothing but legal mumbo jumbo from customer service. These were $500 flights.

For a quarter of the price, I wouldn't complain too much about bad service. Remember you get nothing for nothing and sometimes nothing for something.

[floyd7]

Why anyone would fly Jetstar is beyond my understanding. :confused:

You have to be there no later than 30 minutes before departure time. A friend of mine came 29 minutes before the scheduled departure time and was refused the flight and lost his money even though the plane took of 1 hour late because of a delay in Sydney. :mad:


Peter.

So what is the problem?? Your friend must have been aware of the conditions when purchasing a ticket. Can you really blame the airline?

Used Jetstar this w/end adelaide - melb and back again and I couldn`t fault them

[Ashore]

So what is the problem?? Your friend must have been aware of the conditions when purchasing a ticket. Can you really blame the airline?

Used Jetstar this w/end adelaide - melb and back again and I couldn`t fault them

What about the guy in tassi he was there on time but their staff couldn't get to him and he still lost out




The trouble with life is there's no background music.

[floyd7]

What about the guy in tassi he was there on time but their staff couldn't get to him and he still lost out


[/size]

Was he or was he not at the counter on time? Obviously not, but bought the ticket knowing the conditions. Don`t like the conditions, don`t buy the ticket!!

[bitingmidge]

In the last 7 years I would say I've flown over 100 times to various destinations with a large variety of carriers, regional and the big boys. Honestly, they are much the same at the end of the day. I've had bad experiences but not many.

For a quarter of the price, I wouldn't complain too much about bad service. Remember you get nothing for nothing and sometimes nothing for something.

I'm also a pretty heavy user of Aircraft of all sizes and brands.

On domestic routes, particularly if one is doing the business hour thing, it is surprising how often Qantas is the same price or even the cheapest alternative.

Jetstar is an airline of last resort for me for three reasons only:
1) I don't fit. The seats are spaced at exactly the same dimension as my upper leg, so if there were no backrest on the seat in front I'd be right.

2) I often fly into airports 10 or 15 minutes between scheduled departing times, with my Qantas boarding card tucked safely in my pocket. With Jetstar I'd lose 45min twice in a day!

3) Orange uniforms are not pretty.

Virgin is just another airline, there's no reason for me to dislike it, I've had no unhappy circumstances, but if I'm going to pay $5.00 for a cup of coffee then it's not going to be Nescafe! :eek:

Finally Qantas: just another airline, occasionally one gets a whiff of great service, only to be dashed against the rocks next time one travels. With serious airmiles, a special (metallic coloured ) frequent flyer card and life membership of "the Club" one can't expect too much can one!

Cheers,

P

[Gingermick]

I missed a flight coming out of Brisbane once as some nut was on the story bridge pouring acid onto cars (Police stopped traffic after a bit and traffic was backed up to the PA Horsepiddle) I told all this to the girl at the Virgin Blue counter and she transferred the value of the flight onto the next available. I had to pay the difference but was very happy that they didn't make me forfeit my flight.

[Dean]

I can nearly always find Qantas tickets for under $10 more than Virgin Blue on most major routes. I'm happy to spend that little extra for some inflight entertainment, free newspaper and a snack, plus proven Q safety record.

Last time I flew Virgin Blue I sat there bored for 2 hours, and that was after reading the dull in-flight magazine about holiday destinations no non-billionaire could afford

Yet to try Jetstar, but probably will not after reading the other posts here

[echnidna]

Was he or was he not at the counter on time? Obviously not, but bought the ticket knowing the conditions. Don`t like the conditions, don`t buy the ticket!!

The bloke in tassie arrived early but got stuck in their queue and was refused service.

Sometimes unforeseen delays occur.

I got to coolangatta 3 minutes late (I would have been 10 minutes early except for unexpected delays on the freeway) and was refused service.
People in front of me were also refused service yet they must have only been a minute or so late.

However we could have still comfortably reached the boarding gate within their specified time.

Then we got slugged an extra $100.

(Virgin doesn't rip off like this)

AT THE BOARDING GATE Jetstar passengers queue up in a compound like a herd of sheep 20 minutes before boarding so you stand around like a stale bottle of P*** because jetsar don't allocate seats.

Virgin allocates seats so you remain seated in the departure lounge until ready to board the plane.

Qantas sucks too - but after all they are jetstar anyway.
Their food is horrible.

ok sometimes you can get a qantas flight within $10 of virgin.
I'd rather travel virgin and spend the saving on virgins inflight food which is far better quality than qantas free food.

HOW MANY PEOPLE HERE VOTED QANTAS BUT HAVE NEVER FLOWN QANTAS?

[kiwigeo]

The best service I've had was in Qantas business class, but you pay for that. I've also had my worst experience with Qantas. Try cancelling your flight, changing your flight time and not informing you. That cost me over $300 and I got nothing but legal mumbo jumbo from customer service. These were $500 flights.

(rant mode ON)

Theres definitely a difference in the way they treat you if you fly business class but overall Qantas's business class is not worth the extra dollars.....I only go business if the client is paying for it or Ive just had 4 weeks on an oil rig and am very likely to morph into a pathological killer if subjected to 3 hours in Qantas economy class.

Qantas are useless at keeping passengers informed of flight changes..even if youre a Qantas Club member and have registered your mobile number for their (non-existant) SMS flight change message service. No they just merrily cancel your flgith and rebook you on a later flight and dont have the common courtesy to tell you. Oh the joys of spending an extra hour enjoying the sights of Adelaide airport.

Priority baggage...what a joke. Over a period of 8-9 years Ive only had my bags come off with the rest of the priority baggage on 3 occasions....the figure is accurate because I make a note in my diary every time I fly. Maybe not a big issue to most people but when youre on a tight schedule getting your bags off first does make a difference.

Customer service.....another joke. I dont bother ringing them up to complain anymore....all you get is excuses...no apology and no effort made to rectify the situation.

Try changing a booking more than once via Qantas's website....you sit there wondering why you keep getting thrown back to the entry page. You then ring up Qantas and report a problem with their website. They spend days trying to track down the problem. You then get told that internet bookings can only be changed once via the net. if you want to change them more than once you have to ring up the 1300 number and pay the normal booking change fee. Theres nothing at all on the website that explains this. I rang them up to suggest they add more info to their booking page but got some lame brain excuse as to why they couldnt.

(rant mode OFF)

[vsquizz]

A few years back I was working a job on an oil rig out on the north west shelf with the chopper support coming out of Karratha. With the current activity on the NW shelf as well as the huge numbers of tourists heading up that way there was an obvious need for the only major airline servicing the town to put on more flights. Our requests were ignored and we were eventually forced to fly our people in and out of Karatha using a WA based air charter service. What was the major airlines response to this.... they complained to a WA Member of Parliament that we were operating an air service in direct competition with them and we should be forced to go back to using their flights to move our people around.

Landed in either Pt Hedland or Karratha awhile back (both Qantas only) and as we taxied in the Hostie gave us the ususal spiel finished with "and thank you for flying with Qantas today". Plane was full of a crew change for one of the rigs and a voice from the back of the plane yells out "Like we have a bloody choice lady" which brought forth much chuckling and wry smiles.

Cheers...I voted Qantas for anything East West/Coast to Coast after hearing some horror stories about the other mobs.

[Sturdee]

So what is the problem?? Your friend must have been aware of the conditions when purchasing a ticket. Can you really blame the airline?

Used Jetstar this w/end adelaide - melb and back again and I couldn`t fault them

Wouldn't have been so bad if the plane left on time.

My friend was 1 minute late according to them and then the plane left 1 hour late :mad: , so he was actually there 89 minutes before departure rather than 29 minutes before departure. This doesn't happen with Virgin.

Thats why Jetstare sucks. :mad:

Peter.

[kiwigeo]

Plane was full of a crew change for one of the rigs and a voice from the back of the plane yells out "Like we have a bloody choice lady" which brought forth much chuckling and wry smiles.

Rig crews never in the best of moods when theyre heading out to the job....a different story when theyre heading home though. I actually feel sorry for the flight crews when they get landed with a plane load of rough necks straight off a rig.

I really cant think of an airline Ive really enjoyed flying with....with perhaps the exception of Singapore....and Air New Zealand before the Ansett debacle.

[vsquizz]

Theres definitely a difference in the way they treat you if you fly business class but overall Qantas's business class is not worth the extra dollars.....I only go business if the client is paying for it or Ive just had 4 weeks on an oil rig and am very likely to morph into a pathological killer if subjected to 3 hours in Qantas economy class.

Kiwi, I reckon BC is worth it for the leg room and comfortable seats and the service is a bonus...but I'm no midget.

A lot of Business people I know who fly much more than I do (now) have chucked in their Gold Wing memberships because they found the service at the airport was hardly better than cattle class.

Anyway, thats not what the thread was about but I think some of the smaller airlines get a really raw deal, not necassarily direct from the Gov or Qantas but from the airports corp/owners. Virgin Blue flight stopovers in Adelaide used to be a tin shed (ala Bombay) on the side of the runway.

sorry Mumbai

Glad I don't fly much anymore but have to burn my FF points before they go the way of Ansett and the Dodo. Mate of mine who I served in the Navy with always used to say "spent 10 years in the Navy with 9 of them on a RAAF Hercules". Hercules, now theres 1 st Class service for you! they even issue you with your own ear plugs for free!. Beats the hell outa Seakings anyway .

Cheers

[vsquizz]

If you Google in au for "Jetstar Sucks" you'll find a few interesting sites including this one containing some rough language...BE WARNED:

http://forums.australianinfront.com....?PostID=104710

Cheers

[bitingmidge]

A lot of Business people I know have chucked in their Gold Wing memberships because they found the service at the airport was hardly better than cattle class.

I thought they chucked it in because Ansett went broke???


P