VB service

[glastar]

The thread on lack of service at QF prompted me to comment on a recent pleasant experience my wife and I had with VB.

We had visited Bne to celebrate with our son who had just been checked out as a 737 captain.
Our return ticket was sub load and we were due to leave at 10.30 am on sunday. At 7.15 we recieved a call from VB apologeticly informing us that all 5 flights to Melbourne were fully booked but if we could make the 8.15 flight he would confirm our seats there and then. We accepted the offer and reached the airport with 30 minutes to spare. There appeared to be 3 spare seats.
My son had paid for the tickets using his mobile phone number and the call we recieved was at his home. So whoever contacted us had to go to the trouble to search out this number.
This was for a sub load passenger.
As a crew member for 34 years at AN and 6 years at SQ this had not happened to us before and may indicate part of the reason that VB are picking up increasing market share at the expence of QF.
On the flight I kept tabs on the 4 female cabin attendants, as it was a two hour flight and I presumed that on a minimum service airline they would have plenty of spare time.
Not so, with 3 drink and food services and sale of various gift items they were fully occupied. Even so, one girl found time when she could have rested, to seek out a number of children and conduct a face painting session in the rear galley area.
The kids loved it and the parents in our area were really appreciative of the relief from the ankle biters for a period.
All in all a very pleasant flight on a full a/c in the least comfortable section at the rear of the a/c.
Hopefully VB will be around for many years to come.:) :) :)

[Mr. Hat]

Congratulations on your son's efforts. Must be a proud moment for a mum and dad.:ok:

[Thylacine]

I recently flew 4 sectors on Virgin Blue. As I use a wheelchair I booked by phone noting my wheelchair requirements. On check-in LST I was greeted by my first name and asked if I would like to have my wheelchair available in transit MEL. I was boarded first using a specialist hoist as the crew were busy getting the aircraft ready during the 15 minutes or less between disembarcation and re-boarding. The crew however still found time to chat as they went about their tasks.

In MEL I was greeted at the door with my wheelchair and again used it to go to the aircraft door for the connecting flight to ADL. In ADL the wheeelchair was waiting at the foot of the hoist ready for me to use.

On board this flight was a cabin crew supervisor who used humour and to ensure passenger's listened attentively to the safety briefing. On arrival ADL he cautioned any passenger who ignored the seat belt sign and stood before the aircraft came to a complete stop at the terminal would be asked to assist the crew clean the cabin. No one disobeyed.

I noticed as each passenger was farewelled with genuine and appropriate phrase according to gender and type of passenger. A thank you sir/madam to a g'day, see y'later.

On the return I was again greeted by name as I entered the terminal and assisted to the check in. As the ADL/MEL flight continued through to LST with the same crew I remained on board in MEL and was impressed as the crew performed the task of preparing the aircraft in a few short minutes before passengers were boarding again.

The 47 minute flight to LST was absolutely full as were all the others and a full bar and light snack service was completed in a friendly unhurried manner to 150 passengers.

The fresh approach and genuine smiles are the reason Virgin is taking market share from Qantas. If they have 35% of the market now with a much smaller fleet they must be doing something right and it can only mean that there is bright future for Virgin Blue at Qantas' expense.

My son who is an F/O with Virgin and his partner who has just moved across from Qantas-Link find the company great to work for. All positive people with can do approach.

The cabin crew training even for a ex Qantas-Link cabin crew trainer was an exhaustive 5 weeks where every detail of the Virgin way of doing things was drilled into everyone. Their service style isn't as casual as first appears. It has been thought through carefully and is implemented strictly in accordance with their policies and marketing plan.

:O

[PacificOrigin]

Sounds like JUST the type of company that I want to work for...

Bring on the NZ operations and the application forms I say!

[missleadfoot]

Sorry, but what do you expect from an airline!!. Everything that has been stated above is nothing out of the ordinary, from any airline.

Every time I have travelled on a staff travel ticket I have been called if there is a delay.

Every wheel chair passenger I have had on board is greeted with an escort and chair.

What you described above is nothing that you shouldn't expect, and is certainly nothing out of the ordinary, except for the face painting. You seem suprised that Virgin Blue offer this service, what did you expect? The points mentioned are basic services offered by all airlines.

I don't see your point!

[Kaptin M]

Except for missleadfoot's nasty little snap, I found this topic and its posts a pleasure to read, albeit a couple of the contributors have a "vested interest" in Virgin Blue.

And back to missleadfoot again,
"What you described above is nothing that you shouldn't expect, and is certainly nothing out of the ordinary, except for the face painting. You seem suprised that Virgin Blue offer this service, what did you expect? The points mentioned are basic services offered by all airlines.

I don't see your point!"

The point is, you DON'T always get what you say are "basic services", or if you do, it's with a :* instead of a ;)
THAT is the point!

Nice read - thanks people! :ok:

[puff]

My last flights with Virgin the things I disliked about the service were

1. Trying to squeeze 150 odd into a a/c that normally has 110 means that there is basically no overhead space left, this means having to put your bags under the seat, which takes away from your non existant legroom, if your at all tall that is.
2. No bulkheads means no cupboards or storage space for seats with no storage area for carry ons, on these flights the pax in the first 2 rows ended up having their bags placed under the legs of other passengers down the rear of the a/c....then of course we all had to wait before we could deplane until these bags were recovered. Basically when it's full it has a bombay express kinda feel to it.

The main thing that annoyed me was that half way thru the flight the FA told us to look alive and to give us some mental exercise to grab the safety card and put it infront of all the other stuff, she then tells us that if we do that for them then they can get into the pub at the hotel faster.....now they work for a carrier that chooses not to employ cleaners then it's their job to prepare the aircraft not the pax...whats next giving us a vacumm cleaner and to face up the seatbelts before we get off?

I guess thats just the way it is now, not bitching just my observations of how it is....

[Gnadenburg]

Congrats Glastar. A nice story.

34 years with a full service airline, Sir Reginald etc...surely you have similar experiences?

Has 89 clouded your sentiments or were you just a grumpy old bastard?

You jest to mention Singapore and Ansett's full cabin sevice in the same breath as Virgin Blue.

If it wasn't for 89 you may have got an upgrade on the way to your son's Command party!

[glastar]

Gnadenburg.
I have travelled many times with SQ, mostly first class but occaisionly business or tourist, both on duty or vacation and I did not compare VB's service to SQ.
I only suggest that the service they do provide is extreamly good value for mony.
As for being a grumpy old bastard I dont see how you could deduce that from my post,
We sat at the rear of the full a/c one on either side of the isle and enjoyed every minute of the flight.
With VB you get the feeling the cabin is alive because the cabin staff are so out going and nothing seems to be too much trouble.
In any case sub load pax have a problem as the a/c are mostly full so they must be doing something right.

[Gnadenburg]

Fair enough Glastar, bang for buck the service is acceptable.

Anything much more, in my opinion, a figment of the imagination.

Vey little grace or panache amongst the ladies. I understand that is being addressed. Make up coaching and a discussion of good service mannerisms.

Before some young F/O leaps to the defence, I agree, bubble-gum blondes are a lot of fun of on overnights. I just prefer the service grace of Full Service F/As-no pun and no QF in the last!

Marketing wise, always felt VB cabin service like a new inner city apartment. Dates and weares quickly in the mind of the tenant.

Doesn't matter at the moment though, bang for buck and no competition from the angry ladies of QF.

[TIMMEEEE]

Great to hear service is actually alive and well at VB but the one thing I would not like to see is that service attitude go down the toilet when/if more competition enters the market and if VB start finding it more difficult to make a buck.

I have actually flown VB recently from ADL-SYD and apart from the entire passenger cabin being boarded and the flight attendants disappearing to crew another aircraft we were actually left on board with no one to supervise for a five minute period apart from a ground staff member that stayed at the front entry door!!!
Not even Tech Crew!!

I found this hard to believe because no one was available to evacuate in case of an emergency.
Sure it was an obvious and serious oversight and only for a short period but still it would make for a great court case in case of an incident or injury.
Violations of CAOs/CARs, duty of care etc.

To make matters worse the girls were saying Brett Godfrey was running around in the terminal at the time!!

All that aside service was ok, plenty of smiles abounded and the girls were as busy as one-armed taxi drivers with crabs no less.

One complaint I have heard is in case of things like a breakdown less aircraft are available to move the displaced pax and at times the staff at the service desk/baggage services tend to lack experience (especially if new - but this is the same with any airline).

Hopefully the VB pax arent full of their own self importance as those with full service airlines.

[QF skywalker]

missleadfoot,

I support your statement 100%. Everything that was mentioned in the above post complimenting Virgin Blue and their wheelchair service is normal, there is nothing special about crew making time to chat to a wheelchair pax! We do it all the time !

It is great that they (DJ) are prompt with their wheelchairs meeting the aircraft, but Qantas are also prompt with their wheelchair requests, maybe sometimes there are delays but add another 40 aircraft to the virgin blue fleet and then see how prompt they are ??? If Qantas had 30 aircraft in the fleet everything would be perfect,but it's a global airline so of course there are going to be delays just like any other global airline.

I can assure you though as a flight attendant for the QF group that I always LOOK after my special assistance pax, I always smile and am genuine, I look after EVERYONE and I love my job.I can also tell you that I would NEVER vacate an aircraft when there are pax still left on board, this is disgraceful if the above story re: virgin blue is true. If this aircraft needed to be evacuated it would be disastourous, so much for virgin having the fastest record for evacuating a cabin when your cabin crew can't even remember to stay on the aircraft at all times when there are pax on board - NOT ACCEPTABLE.

SAFETY BEFORE SCHEDULE - GOOD ON YOU QANTAS.:ok:

[balance]

What about that VB Flight Attendant that called over the PA for all passengers to "BRACE BRACE BRACE" during taxi in just for a laugh?

That good service?

The point is, neither VB or QF are perfect and suggesting that one is at the expense of another is quite ridiculous......

[Australia2]

Glastar,
Good to see the virgin folk are doing their best to fly the company flag and ensure on-going, stable employment. Many over at QF are trying to do the same, although the all too common horror stories (reference customer service) must be keeping Dixon and the team awake at night. In these changing times I only hope your son and I can hope for the same wonderful ( with great respect re: 1989) career oportunities that you and your peers have enjoyed. Things never seem to improve in this industry while the pilot group as a whole seems to become further fragmented at every corner. We claim to be as smart as our managment "adversaries" yet the demise continues. I guess only time will tell.
Congratulations on a successful career, enjoy your retirement.

[Buster Hyman]

IMHO, at the end of the day, it all boils down to the individual crew. A couple of good ones, a couple of ordinary ones & sadly, some shockers.

No airline is ammune to this & I doubt it will ever change. If you had a great flight, good on you, write a letter. If you had a shocker, tough titties, write a letter.

:ok:

[mmmbop]

Yeah yeah....my best friend's brothers girlfriend's mother's sister.....blah blah blah.

More interesting is this thread on the Cabin Crew forum -

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=100636

[Wheeler]

As an ex-gold QF ff, I'd take VB any day. At least they usually run more or less on time and they don't rip you off (quite as much) if you are unfortunate enough to book late.

[glastar]

Australia 2.

Thanks for your kind words, I too hope you can have a long and worthwhile carrear. Unfortunately the conditions we fort for over many years were lost because of the actions of a few but if the new group of pilots can stay united a lot of it can probably be regained.
Best of luck.

Just as an aside.
In 34 years at ANA & Ansett I averaged 600 hours.
In 6 years at SQ I averaged 630 hours.

Ansett went broke. SQ makes massive profits.

AS Dr Choong told my wife and I at a business meeting in Singapore.[ Ansett didn't have a problem with its pilots just 4 managers who could'nt manage.]

[permFO]

Glastar- Could you do us all a favour and PM your last statement to Kaptin M, he has this idea that it was the pilots fault.

[Australia2]

Glastar,

Yes I always thought as much during the time at AN, unfortunately the incompetent managers do not seem to suffer like the rank and file workers.
Particularly as this time of the year approaches again many will ponder what could have been if the good doctor had more of a say at the time.
Reference collective pilots, well we can only hope.
Best wishes again, Brimbank is lovely this time of the year.