Personalising a free upgrade in writing and then rescinding it entirely is just a “douche-bag move”, writes a Crikey reader angered at Friday’s Virgin Blue stuff up.
Virgin Blue
Virgin’s wheel of fire at the hub of wider problems
Virgin Blue lawyers are crawling over the words of aircraft engineers union federal secretary Steve Purvinas like ants over road kill this morning, but what is really going on?
Four airlines, two cities, and a big cat fight
Qantas and Virgin Blue lose a significant amount of control over domestic fares and scheduling from today when Tiger lifts its frequency on the Sydney-Melbourne route to nine times daily each way. The fur will fly, says Ben Sandilands.
Virgin minds its Vs and Qs over its future
Virgin Blue revealed yesterday that the day is coming when all of its airlines — Blue, Pacific Blue and V Australia — will be united under one brand. But why let this “secret” out? Perhaps Virgin are hoping to send Qantas flying into a panic.
Virgin Blue plans for high-flying future
Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey has an “airline of the future” unit working on the company’s renewal and growth. And believes success lies in treading the middle path between Qantas and low-cost carriers, says Ben Sandilands.
Consumer win: my triumph over Virgin Blue’s incompetence
Crikey’s Adam Schwab documents his inspirational (if time-consuming) victory over Virgin Blue after a flight from Hobart to Melbourne was randomly cancelled.
Virgin Blue tweets $9 fares
Airlines will do anything to save a dollar, so Virgin Blue’s latest marketing move — tweeting $9 promo fares — could spell trouble for traditional advertisers, not to mention jetsetting luddites, says Ben Sandilands.
Virgin posts $160m loss
Virgin Blue this morning confirmed a loss of $160 million for the year to June 30 while the guessing game about its recent strong share price performance continues.
V Australia’s 777 buy-up will bite Qantas
Qantas made an incredibly inept decision by choosing to buy a large fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and not buying Boeing 777s. With the latter optimised for long-haul flights, V Australia’s new 777 fleet will allow it to offer a very attractive alternative to Qantas and Jetstar.
Sydney loses its stranglehold on international flights
Virgin Blue played the Melbourne-versus-Sydney card hard today, with the announcement that flights by its V Australia subsidiary will go directly from Johannesburg to Melbourne.
Virgin Blue cuts the cost of survival
Virgin Blue is pinning its survival and expansion plan for the recession to much less cash than originally expected in the $231 million equity raising announced this morning.
Morning Market Report: Good start to the week, market up 53
The market is up 53, and the Dow up 24.
Want a stake in Virgin Blue? It’ll cost you $231m
Virgin Blue has revealed how it will fund its survive-and-expand strategy for the recession and the expected recovery. And the search has begun for a successor to CEO Brett Godfrey.
Qantas and Virgin go to war with Tiger
Qantas and Virgin Blue are being forced into a full-scale fare war with Tiger Airways, after the The Singapore Airlines-controlled low cost announced it is more than doubling its Sydney-Melbourne flights to up to nine daily returns from 4 October.
Tips and rumours: While the PM’s away…
What have the ALP been up to while Rudd has been globetrotting? Tipsters tell all.
Air war over the Pacific and Atlantic routes
Just how far can airlines go in cooperative joint ventures, marketing alliances, or route mergers?
Morning Market Report: Wall St down
Wall St was down 34 on Friday, with metals and oil struggling.
International carrier bloodbath: Qantas slows
International travel at the moment is a mutually destructive blood bath for carriers world-wide, with none of the major global airlines nor the two Australian flag carrier international routes expected to generate profits in the second half of this calendar year.
Qantas: Big Brother or nanny jet?
The Qantas “nanny jet” syndrome struck again as all references to the Air France disaster were censored from its Channel Nine news package.
Virgin pressure on Qantas mounts
The latest traffic figures for Qantas continue to pile the pressure on to its full service domestic product, which is losing altitude steeply as Virgin Blue, its own Jetstar and Tiger all continue to grow strongly at its expense.
Qantas beware: Virgins running amok!
Virgin Blue is leading Qantas on domestic routes in the latest traffic figures posted to the ASX this morning and it is clear Qantas has to do something to stay competitive.
Jungle warfare rages with Tiger poker
High stakes poker is now being played by Qantas/Jetstar, Virgin Blue and Tiger Airways over the Tiger’s plans to develop a significant Sydney hub.
Qantas IPs linked to cyber-raid on Virgin Blue
The source of online rumours claiming Virgin Blue is going broke has been outed as almost certainly originating on a Qantas computer, writes Ben Sandilands.
Virgin’s Qantas blue over frequent flyers
Virgin Blue has come out swinging with allegations of trickery and anti-competitive behaviour by Qantas, writes Ben Sandilands.
Death by pinstripes: airlines lose their best clients
There aren’t enough masters of the universe doing the longest non-stop business commute on the planet to keep it fully alive any more, writes Ben Sandilands.
