You know you should be flying V Australia when...

[1rocky]

Has anyone flown Hawaiian ?
Flew with qantas to China last year and the plane broke down even before we boarded and then there was a comedy of errors and broken parts before the plane eventually departed 8 hours late
Flying on a380 with singapore airline s in December.

 

[ame]

I shouldn't have read this thread

Actually we are flying with V Australia, chose them over Qantas (they were around the same price) purely for the entertainment options, and the fact that I've only heard good things from friends.

Soooo... we'll see how we go.

I've flown V syd-lax 3 times, once with kids. Ditto what your friends said, they were awesome. The entertainment was excellent, staff friendly and helpful, kids loved the food.

On one return flight (travelling solo) the flight was delayed 12 hours and they were great, transfers, meals and hotel room. Then very generous with the bubbly on the way home

I'm not completely sold on the new flight times for SYD-LAX, we'll see in April.

 

[AussiePJ]

Did you know qauntas is one of the only major airlines to of never lost a plane (ie complete loss of plane and life)

Wrong. They have never lost a jet, they have lost numerous planes and lives but nothing since the 50's. The latest A380 incident was an Airbus thing, nothing to do with Qantas but the 380 is known as the 3lately in travellers circles as they have a lot more delays, cancellations and turn backs than are reported. For example I had an associate coming out to visit from the US twice and they had 1 turn around 2 hours out of LA, 24 hour wait, then 3 hour delay. Second time he cam out 8 months later and it was a 4 hour delay. Neither made the news here.

I fly a lot and used to do it all with Qantas. Tried V-Australia last year in March as the price was too good to pass up and, imo, everything was as good if not better than Qantas. Flew Qantas to the US again in October and they were average at best. So the next trip back to the US in Feb is with V. The onward connection (either St Louis or Atlanta) isn't bad either, land at 8am and will board the onware flight around 11.

IMO Qantas is now trading on name alone and their standards have slipped a lot lately. From the airlines I have flown recently I would put Singapore, Cathay and V Australia well in front of Qantas.

 

[Eblink]

To be fair, the A380 fail had very little to do with Qantas. It's a brand new plane (in the context of the standard lifetime of a commercial plane) and it is clear now following investigations that the cause is a design fault in the engine.

It is probably due to Qantas' high training standards that the outcome wasn't worse than it was...although it was also due to a high degree of luck. It seems that it had every right to be a fatal calamity.

 

[heidispidi]

You know you should be flying V Australia when ... 3 days before you are due to fly direct from Sydney to LAX, Qantas ring to advise that you have been bumped from the direct flight and will now be travelling via Brisbane, leaving 7 hours earlier, with a 3 hour stopover in Brisbane, before arriving at LAX 3 hours earlier...

Which sounds like it wouldn't be 'that' bad, arriving early. But for a miriad of reasons, it SUCKS! Losing a packing morning b/c you have to leave home around 5:30am to get to airport on time. The sitting around Brisbane airport. The extra take off and landing for 2 already nervous fliers. The potential for flight delays and missing connections...

Basically Qantas contacted Aust yesterday and asked whether we'd consider changing flights - obviously we said no. Their response today was that they could only bump people that they could contact. Seems a lot of people don't put contact details on their flight bookings (I can see why now!).

We have sent a fax to Qantas detailing why this is an inconvenience to us. I'm sure they won't care, but we've asked for at least access to the Qantas lounge in Brisbane.

FLY V AUSTRALIA PEOPLE!!!!!