Virgin Australia vs Qantas

about ready to pull the trigger on flights from SEA -PER with a return AKL -LAX. Trying to decide between Qantas out of SFO on 787 for long outbound leg and A330 for the long return leg. OR Virgin Australia on 777 via LAX for both long legs. We are flying business.

Haven’t ever flown either. Flight times and layovers are similar, cost is almost the same. Looking for comfort, good service and food and decent lounge access during layovers. Online reviews look solid for both

Any opinions or personal experiences welcome.

Thanks.

My experiences have been on VA. Excellent lounge experience in SYD, onboard service was quite nice and the 777 has a bar area for business where they stocked a very pleasant Balvenie Doublewood. Good place to get out of your seat and socialize. Have not flown QF, so I would have to defer to other folks. One thing to note is that VA uses narrow body aircraft between AKL and SYD or BNE, so your "business" experience would be more like USA domestic first. Not sure what they are currently using between SYD/BNE and PER. For both airlines, consider routings other than through SYD (BNE/MEL if available) to see if you can get better pricing or timings or equipment.

One other thought - you might want to see what a stopover might cost along the way - if you are going as far as Australia, consider getting to spend some time in another city beyond just a cruise stop.

Trying to decide between Qantas out of SFO on 787 for long outbound leg and A330 for the long return leg.

I do, however, see QF putting its code on AA's non-stop AKL-LAX flight. Have you seen that as an option? It might be a useful time-saver over the connecting itineraries that I think you've been looking at on these airlines, although it does mean factoring in one further (operating) airline option whose service quality you'd have to take into account. (There are other options too, I know.)

Sorry. It was a typo. The return on QF was an A380 not 330. There were a lot of other possibilities but because of cost considerations we were down to those 2 options. I liked the times on the QF a little better but when I went to buy this morning the price on QF had gone up several hundred $. So I went ahead and and bought the VA option. They routed us through MEL on the return instead of BNE with a slightly longer layover but the price was right. (The codeshare nonstop wasn’t an option at the lower fare). The fare is gone tonight so I guess I’m glad I went ahead and bought them. I always feel like I may be buying too soon but then when I wait and fares go up I wish I hadn’t waited. Definitely a first world problem. Thanks for the input.

Among other things, the VA lounge in MEL has a pool table. Never saw that in any other lounge.

If you're members of either the Alaska or American Airlines mileage plans, the Qantas flights will earn you a bucketload of usable miles.

If you're a member of Delta Sky Pesos (aka SkyMiles,) you can earn miles for your VA trip ... we got a bunch of miles from our trip January 2017 when we flew RT SYD for our cruise. Was enough with other trips to get us Silver Medallion (which is pretty useless but, hey, at least the miles never expire.)

Thanks Doglover... don’t fly Delta that often anymore but I am actually pretty close to Silver on Delta so this should do it...like you said pretty useless but can’t hurt.

Hi all, my wife and I are both VA platinum frequent flyers and live in Perth. From my own experience, VA wins hands down. QFs lounges are better, but VA have much better seats and soft product. Is the long return leg an Air NZ codeshare?

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Was enough with other trips to get us Silver Medallion (which is pretty useless but, hey, at least the miles never expire.)

I wouldn't be so quick to knock the silver level of medallion status. While the free upgrades may be few and far between for silvers, a few key benefits include a free piece of checked luggage on every trip, which equals a round trip savings of $50/person, the ability to select preferred seats such as exit rows, priority check in, and earlier boarding.

I wouldn't be so quick to knock the silver level of medallion status. While the free upgrades may be few and far between for silvers, a few key benefits include a free piece of checked luggage on every trip, which equals a round trip savings of $50/person, the ability to select preferred seats such as exit rows, priority check in, and earlier boarding.

Plus earning extra miles. 7 vs 5. (not much, but they do all add up after a while.)

Hi all, my wife and I are both VA platinum frequent flyers and live in Perth. From my own experience, VA wins hands down. QFs lounges are better, but VA have much better seats and soft product. Is the long return leg an Air NZ codeshare?

 

 

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Actually no on the code share. We fly back from AKL to MEL and then nonstop on VA to LAX.

Thanks for the info on Virgin. Comfort will be priority one for those long flights.