I've been meaning to post on this for a while - now seems appropriate as I'm sitting at Sydney waiting for my flight to Melbourne - just walked off the Perth flight.
Firstly - the A330 - wow! Didn't mind having to route through Sydney to have a go. Accepted that it was quick & rushed - so the IFE is pretty ordinary but the staff, leg room and especially the food is awesome.
Have done a few on the 737 as well - including Bris-Per late at night. Functionally its the same/slightly better than QF but again, the food was very very good. Disappointing that Brisbane/Melbourne - Perth doesn't get the same food/fleet choices but I guess more A330's will fix that (although they still charge the same AND all the advertising was that Melbourne would get A330s)
The things I haven't enjoyed was the transition from Premium Econ was appalling communicated. The fleet rollout was good and for a while there were J seats for Y prices but from a brand perspective, I was unable to tell when Y stopped and J started (except the prices went up). The website was advertising 'Business' as the class at premium prices and I was taking flights that were indistinguishable as NOT being J flights but came with that god-awful Luke Mangin rubbish from the Y menu.
As such - when it became proper J, prices up by $100's per sector - I hadn't twigged that some part of the product had changed. So on some levels that made me 'resent' the price increases - I was quite happy in the new seats at the old prices and still thought that for more money, I was at risk of getting crappy old seats.
Not that it's my money (well, sort of not) but still - I would have thought that a Virgin Gold or Platinum FF would have gotten a clear message on when the old stopped and when the new started. Of course, this is now the past so hopefully the good product they've got will continue.
So, whilst the company pays, I'll choose it over QF every day - especially where on my main routes I feel that there is a QF risk of getting a 737-400 for which $1300 Mel-Bris is just insulting.
What's curious is how empty it is. 7 PAX (and one appeared to be a freebie/known to crew) PER-SYD and I've never sat next to anyone on a 737 - I wonder how it's stacking up financially? Anyone know load factors?