V Australia cans Melbourne - LAX

NO - You are wrong there

http://www.vaustralia.com.au/about-u.../P_009799.html

Melbourne to Los Angeles, USA direct flights twice weekly from 1 December 2009.

It seems that could just be an error. Just off the phone to VA re my booking, and they assured me that it was 3 weekly

But who cares I guess.

[Justin L]

Originally Posted by Montague S

6 flights per week isn't what I would call well served, there is plenty of room for more competition...I don't get the Melbourne idea, ok, the world cup gig and all is one thing, but what happens when that month is over? There isn't a large expat community of SA's in Melbourne.

I think the World Cup mention is a bit of PR but also a good kick start (no pun intended) as many people may be introduced to VA for the first time when they go to the World Cup.

I read in other posts/articles/websites that part of the JNB-MEL thinking was so increase the Virgin group's ability to sell round the world tickets (LON-JNB-MEL-LAX-LON as one option).

Not knowing the full demographic of South African expats in Perth, I'd expect they're not all from Jo'burg, so perhaps SA would be a better product for them to connect to/from other cities (similar to UA on the US-SYD route) and VA thought they'd try and create a new market. They may even get connecting traffic from BNE/ADL/SYD/NZ through MEL to JNB as domestic/international connections are easy in MEL anyway due to all terminals being connected under one roof unlike SYD/PER/BNE. They may even take away some of QF's and SA's connecting traffic through SYD and PER respectively.

Air Mauritius pulled out of Sydney but kept Melbourne, so maybe there is a market out of Melbourne for the Southern Indian Ocean region that VA have seen?

[Andrew M]

Originally Posted by Lukas M

It seems that could just be an error. Just off the phone to VA re my booking, and they assured me that it was 3 weekly

But who cares I guess.

Me as I have a booking on the Tuesday flights

Otherwise I wouldn't care so much.

They assure me the flights are going as normal, but that does NOT reassure me at all they they did the same thing with the SYD and BNE launch and were still selling tickets for Sep/Oct/Nov flights MEL-LAX and saying they had no reason to delay the MEL-LAX launch, even though the plane wasn't due until after the launch....

Time will tell, but I am planning my onwards bookings so cannot rely on changes to my flight schedule.

[Robert S]

Originally Posted by Andrew M

They assure me the flights are going as normal, but that does NOT reassure me at all they they did the same thing with the SYD and BNE launch

Remember that those delays were due to the Boeing strikes delaying delivery of their first planes... no planes no service!

There doesn't seem to be any real concern with the aircraft delivery schedule at this point in time.

[Andrew M]

Okay so after a few emails back and forward, V Australia still tell me that they are flying on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday MEL-LAX from 1st December.

When I pushed about the timings of the flight and if they would be "Non-Stop"

They recommended that "I take out travel insurance and read the fine print in case it didn't' cover delays" etc etc, as they are not sure if any of the flights will be non-stop....

Very POOR and NOT IMPRESSED.

I can see that V Aus will simply put people on a domestic flight from MEL to either SYD or BNE if the loads are not good enough for a direct flight from MEL-LAX.

[Andrew M]

Originally Posted by Marty H

Correct Lukas it wont go back to two weekly until MEL-JNB starts in March 2010.

Interesting...

The booking engine shows 3 x weekly all through up until July next year...

MEL-LAX: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
LAX-MEL: Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays

[Marty H]

Andrew I guess it all depends on aircraft rotations, I havent checked the booking engine myself and honestly am a bit confused since in the media they did say twice a week and could see it being three a week up until MEL-JNB started in March 10, lose the third service to start MEL-JNB. Im not sure how the rotations will work weather the aircraft that ops back to MEL from LAX will then ops to JNB and then back to MEL and then through again to LAX, or maybe the aircraft that does MEL-JNB-MEL wil then go to HKT and back to MEL, can see the need to two aircraft to be ops through MEL to meet the schedual, especially if as the booking engine suggests MEL-lAX remains x3 weekly.

[Andrew M]

Thanks I honestly don't think VA really know what they are doing with MEL-LAX either. Their press release don't match their booking engine and the customer service reps are very VAGUE

My guess is all this is a publicity stunt to try to generate more bookings, if bookings don't increase they will simply shunt people via SYD/BNE.

The word "direct" is interesting, as it's not "non-stop"

I was very disappointed with the advice to simply take out travel insurance in case they stuff me around with flights.

I have booked 2 x J class seats with VA for next year MEL-LAX, cancellation fee is $550 each......

Very tempted just to cancel and book on Air NZ for peace of mind..

[D Chan]

Demand them to either transfer you to another airline that does non-stop or ask for a full refund. You shouldn't have to pay $550 if they are not even able to tell you afterall you have paid the fare in goodwill. If they are not going ahead and still want you to pay the $550 I would bring this to the ACCC,

[Andrew M]

Yes well I booked my tickets about a month ago on the basis that the flight was non-stop and will operate by that.

The "confusion" around if the flights are 2 x weekly or 3 x weekly is concerning enough, let along that 2 different customer service reps have simply said to get travel insurance to cover me if they don't operate as advertised.

I will give them a call tomorrow and ask them to book me on Qantas or Air NZ, I know the answer will be NO.

I am not willing to wait for the day of departure and then find out for "operational reasons" that I am flying via SYD and will arrive into LAX 10 hours later than planned, and then miss my onward flights.