Canberrans no longer to ride the Tiger.

I called tiger yesterday and they said:

“services will continue out of Canberra and that the removal of Canberra from the drop down menu is an inconsistency with the website”

And I was assured that my flight out of canberra to melbourne on the 1st will be happening… hmmn…..

hmmn….

dungfungus said :

The next Ice Age will arrive before Canberra Airport becomes an autonomous international one but if you are flying international with most airlines from Sydney, Qantas will issue boarding passes at Canberra and take care of luggage from Canberra all the way to Europe or where-ever.

Maybe youve missed the work being done out at the airport, the international terminal is underway after the new domestic terminal has already been finished. The runway has already been upgraded to allow for larger international flights. While I agree, we wont ever be as big for international flights as Sydney or Melbourne, we dont want to be. Having a few flights to key locations in NZ, asia, Europe and US would be a good start.

Also, the problem you point out, is with checking of the bags. If you fly Qantas back to Canberra from OS, then they wont ‘take care of your bags’, youre required to pick them up and carry them across any inspection point.

switch said :

Erg0 said :

It is. I’ve done Qantas to Qantas and Virgin to Delta transfers in Sydney and they were both followed pretty much the same procedure. That said, I had a negative experience transferring from Delta to Virgin on the way back

Me too. Be prepared for a lot of stupid hassle convincing the Virgin staff at Sydney that your luggage is not over the International weight limit of their Emirates partner and therefore you should not be charged extra for the last bit Sydney to Canberra.

I never got to experience that joy, as I decided to buy a SYD-CBR ticket on Qantas rather than wait the 8 hours it would have taken to get on the next Virgin flight to Canberra (having been travelling for 24 hours at that point, I wasn’t in the mood to wait).

In contrast to your experience, the Qantas booking agent didn’t charge extra for my luggage, which was well over the domestic weight limit, because I still had the international tags on it.

Erg0 said :

It is. I’ve done Qantas to Qantas and Virgin to Delta transfers in Sydney and they were both followed pretty much the same procedure. That said, I had a negative experience transferring from Delta to Virgin on the way back

Me too. Be prepared for a lot of stupid hassle convincing the Virgin staff at Sydney that your luggage is not over the International weight limit of their Emirates partner and therefore you should not be charged extra for the last bit Sydney to Canberra.

JC said :

dungfungus said :

dvaey said :

There could have been a lot of positives if Tiger had stuck around long enough for the new airport. IMHO, whichever airline settles as Canberras first international carrier, will be set for a long time. I was hoping it would be a discount carrier like Tiger.

The next Ice Age will arrive before Canberra Airport becomes an autonomous international one but if you are flying international with most airlines from Sydney, Qantas will issue boarding passes at Canberra and take care of luggage from Canberra all the way to Europe or where-ever. All one has to do is take the transfer bus at Sydney domestic to the international terminal with hand luggage and through Customs then up, up and away. This is about as good as it gets. As far as I am aware, this can’t be done if you are flying Virgin from Canberra to Sydney.

Virgin has interlined (which is what you are talking about) with several carriers for a number of years and there is a transfer bus from the Virgin/Rex/Jetstar terminal to international. Not sure if it is free though.

It is. I’ve done Qantas to Qantas and Virgin to Delta transfers in Sydney and they were both followed pretty much the same procedure. That said, I had a negative experience transferring from Delta to Virgin on the way back (couldn’t get on the plane because they were checking people in manually and appeared not to know I was coming), so I’m planning to stick to Qantas for such transfers in the future.

dungfungus said :

dvaey said :

There could have been a lot of positives if Tiger had stuck around long enough for the new airport. IMHO, whichever airline settles as Canberras first international carrier, will be set for a long time. I was hoping it would be a discount carrier like Tiger.

The next Ice Age will arrive before Canberra Airport becomes an autonomous international one but if you are flying international with most airlines from Sydney, Qantas will issue boarding passes at Canberra and take care of luggage from Canberra all the way to Europe or where-ever. All one has to do is take the transfer bus at Sydney domestic to the international terminal with hand luggage and through Customs then up, up and away. This is about as good as it gets. As far as I am aware, this can’t be done if you are flying Virgin from Canberra to Sydney.

Virgin has interlined (which is what you are talking about) with several carriers for a number of years and there is a transfer bus from the Virgin/Rex/Jetstar terminal to international. Not sure if it is free though.

taninaus said :

So what is left? I thought Melbourne was their major base. Well I refused to fly them before as their idea of customer service is very different to mine, this just removes it as a desperate option.

Melbourne Tullamarine is their main base, not Melbourne Avalon. The latter should be called Geelong rather than Melbourne to alleviate any confusion as demonstrated by this post.

Dungfungas – Virgin offers this service so long as you book the domestic at the same time as the international so you are on one ticket – but this may end up with the domestic being a flexible fare not a discount one so weigh up the benefits.

We’re booked to fly on Tiger Airways from Canberra in September, but booked a refundable fare on another airline just in case the Tiger flights didn’t work out. It seems that was the right thing to do.
It’s a real disappointment – Tiger have been great to us, and I loved the Tiger flights between CBR and ADL – perfect times, perfect price, and I never had any trouble. Alas, obvious the market wasn’t there. Hopefully they get their act together and return to Canberra some time in the future. If the CBR-MEL market post-Tiger is anything like CBR-ADL is, expect fares to increase quite significantly.

Canberrans no longer to ride the tiger? Lucky He-Man doesn’t live here, then!