das
Jul 5, 02, 3:36 pm
Upon arrival in Sydney, I scheduled a last minute side trip to Melbourne. The choice between QF and DJ (Virgin Blue) was easy, since QF was double the price.
Virgin Blue has an interesting fare structure -- every flight has a slightly different price based on projected loads. For a given travel date, booking two or three days out, there were flights for AUD $115, AUD $140, AUD $150, AUD $160, and AUD $199. Everything is based on one way fares, and there is a AUD $10 discount for booking online.
They use the "Express" terminal in SYD -- which is also shared with Hazleton Regional Airlines (small airline with prop planes). The check-in line was a zoo, but there is an express line (with no wait) for people with just carry-on luggage. It was hard to spot this line, so I am sure many people were needlessly in the long line.
No gate check-in is offered, but they make sure no one misses their flight by calling out flights 20 minutes before departure and bringing everyone on that flight to the front of the line.
At check in, you get seat assignments on a receipt that looks identical to JetBlue or Airtran.
The security line was quick, but my grandmother had her scissors confiscated. She was very upset, and couldn't understand why she couldn't carry scissors in her purse.
The gate area is one big waiting room, with a snack bar and bookshop. All planes are boarded by two sets of stairs (one in the front, one in the back). Just like Air Canada, the F/As double check your boarding pass upon boarding the plane.
We boarded a 737-700 for our 10:30am flight to Melbourne. The plane was completely full, and as usual for Sydney we had a very long taxi.
Virgin Blue doesn't serve any complimentary drinks or snacks -- everything is for sale. Instead of "what would you like to drink", the F/As went around asking "would you like to purchase anything?".
No one seemed to be interested in buying anything -- they offer all sorts of beverages, chips, cookies, instant soup, along with shirts and model planes.
The inflight magazine was interesting. It had a picture of F/As with Richard Branson saying that many of them were finalists in a contest for the "sexiest women in Australia".
Sure the F/As were young and cute, but since there was no free service, you didn't see them much.
We landed in rainy Melbourne on time around noon, and taxiied past lots of mothballed Ansett planes. Again, deplaned via airstars into an "Express" terminal that looked a lot like Sydney.
We booked a return flight for 8pm the next day, but we ended up arriving at the airport around 6pm. Although there were 3 flights leaving to SYD before ours, I didn't ask about standby, and we just hung around the gate area for two hours.
There were numerous short delays, but they made lots of announcements to keep passengers up to date. Boarding was quick because of using two sets of airstairs, so even though we didn't start boarding til 8pm, we were on our way by 8:15pm.
The flight back to SYD was on a new 737-800, but unlike some of the other -800s in the Virgin Blue fleet, this one didn't have the optional wingtips. I slept most of the flight, but I'm sure it was the same service. The flight was full, just like the outbound.
Conclusion - Virgin Blue is brigning the JetBlue/Southwest model to Australia. They take 'no frills' to a new level, but I like their new planes and high frequency service. They are going to outgrow their cropduster terminals in SYD and MEL, but I thought their terminals while tacky, were very convenient.
Certainly a change from my SYD-BNE trip on QF two years ago, where I got hot meal service!
Virgin Blue has an interesting fare structure -- every flight has a slightly different price based on projected loads. For a given travel date, booking two or three days out, there were flights for AUD $115, AUD $140, AUD $150, AUD $160, and AUD $199. Everything is based on one way fares, and there is a AUD $10 discount for booking online.
They use the "Express" terminal in SYD -- which is also shared with Hazleton Regional Airlines (small airline with prop planes). The check-in line was a zoo, but there is an express line (with no wait) for people with just carry-on luggage. It was hard to spot this line, so I am sure many people were needlessly in the long line.
No gate check-in is offered, but they make sure no one misses their flight by calling out flights 20 minutes before departure and bringing everyone on that flight to the front of the line.
At check in, you get seat assignments on a receipt that looks identical to JetBlue or Airtran.
The security line was quick, but my grandmother had her scissors confiscated. She was very upset, and couldn't understand why she couldn't carry scissors in her purse.
The gate area is one big waiting room, with a snack bar and bookshop. All planes are boarded by two sets of stairs (one in the front, one in the back). Just like Air Canada, the F/As double check your boarding pass upon boarding the plane.
We boarded a 737-700 for our 10:30am flight to Melbourne. The plane was completely full, and as usual for Sydney we had a very long taxi.
Virgin Blue doesn't serve any complimentary drinks or snacks -- everything is for sale. Instead of "what would you like to drink", the F/As went around asking "would you like to purchase anything?".
No one seemed to be interested in buying anything -- they offer all sorts of beverages, chips, cookies, instant soup, along with shirts and model planes.
The inflight magazine was interesting. It had a picture of F/As with Richard Branson saying that many of them were finalists in a contest for the "sexiest women in Australia".
Sure the F/As were young and cute, but since there was no free service, you didn't see them much.
We landed in rainy Melbourne on time around noon, and taxiied past lots of mothballed Ansett planes. Again, deplaned via airstars into an "Express" terminal that looked a lot like Sydney.
We booked a return flight for 8pm the next day, but we ended up arriving at the airport around 6pm. Although there were 3 flights leaving to SYD before ours, I didn't ask about standby, and we just hung around the gate area for two hours.
There were numerous short delays, but they made lots of announcements to keep passengers up to date. Boarding was quick because of using two sets of airstairs, so even though we didn't start boarding til 8pm, we were on our way by 8:15pm.
The flight back to SYD was on a new 737-800, but unlike some of the other -800s in the Virgin Blue fleet, this one didn't have the optional wingtips. I slept most of the flight, but I'm sure it was the same service. The flight was full, just like the outbound.
Conclusion - Virgin Blue is brigning the JetBlue/Southwest model to Australia. They take 'no frills' to a new level, but I like their new planes and high frequency service. They are going to outgrow their cropduster terminals in SYD and MEL, but I thought their terminals while tacky, were very convenient.
Certainly a change from my SYD-BNE trip on QF two years ago, where I got hot meal service!