Tiger Air Warning

[The Adelaide Connection]

Hey all, like quite a lot of you I have jumped at the opportunity to get some crazily cheap flights interstate through Tigers specials.

However just a bit of a warning, I have emails informing me that the times of two lots of my flights have changed. For the Carlton game my return flight to Adelaide was changed from a late evening flight to a mid-afternoon flight. I am not sure I would be happy only seeing the first quarter.

Anyway I went online to find that my original return flight was still available for purchase. WTF? I did notice the price on this flight was now much more expensive than the mid-afternoon one they had switched me too and I started to understand why I had been stitched up.

So I rang Tiger and told them that I couldnt fly the earlier flight and they offered me a refund. Then I mentioned how the other flight is still available for purchase "Ok sir, I have just switched you back to your original return flight". What? No explanation offered.

I don't know whether anyone else has had any similar experiences, but I thought I might warn you all anyways.

[Rocket Science]

This gets curiouser and curiouser.

Got an email from them last week re: our return leg from Adelaide, informing me they'd bumped us almost 7 hours from our Monday morning return flight (previously arriving Melb @ 9:25 AM) to a Monday arvo return flight (arriving Melb @ 4:05 PM). This has caused work complications for both myself and a mate.

Charlatan pricks.

[The Adelaide Connection]

Hey Rocket Science, get on the tiger site and search for your original flight or one closer to the one you took. Then ring them back and let them know that there is no way you can do the other flight. I am suspecting they bump people who got the flights dirt cheap to other flights to maximise profits.

[Dancin' Douggy]

And I was just hoping this was yet another punt road fiasco............

[LostDoggy]

Tiger Airlines is a disgrace. No flight leaves on the scheduled time. If you have booked them for flights to see the Dogs be very, very careful

Odds are you will be leaving after the game has started

[The Adelaide Connection]

Hmmm, that has me a little nervous. I booked some flights for grand final weekend, as I did last year just in case, and my Friday night flight over has been changed to a saturday morning flight. Might be worth asking for a refund and getting some with Qantas.

[LostDoggy]

Hmmm, that has me a little nervous. I booked some flights for grand final weekend, as I did last year just in case, and my Friday night flight over has been changed to a saturday morning flight. Might be worth asking for a refund and getting some with Qantas.

I have had to negotiate a refund for next week's game after they changed the flights to leave for Melbourne after the game is due to start

[aker39]

I have flown with Tiger on numerous occassions and have not had any problems.

Yes, they sometime change the times of flights, but if you ring them and say that it does not suit, they are very fliexible and allow you to choose a flight that suits.

[Axe Man]

It's not just tiger who do this. The exact same thing happened to me with Virgin. I got an email advising that my flight had changed, yet when I looked on the website my original flight was still there. I rang them up and they switched me back, but couldn't really explain why it had happened in the first place.

I've flown with all the airlines and can't really say any are better or worse than the others, from my experiences.

[LostDoggy]

It's not just tiger who do this. The exact same thing happened to me with Virgin. I got an email advising that my flight had changed, yet when I looked on the website my original flight was still there. I rang them up and they switched me back, but couldn't really explain why it had happened in the first place.

I've flown with all the airlines and can't really say any are better or worse than the others, from my experiences.

Fair warning for all budget airlines, basically -- Tiger, Air Asia, Virgin, Jetstar.

One of the reasons they can do the same flight for such cheap fares, apart from using old plane stock, drastically underpaying their staff (or having a skeleton staff), and using budget airports so they pay lower airport taxes, is that they also have (much) lower priority in the food chain on airspace rights compared to full service airlines. Their tickets are also effectively zero flexibility (up to their goodwill, and check the rebooking fees.. essentially the same as buying a whole new ticket)

Just one of the realities of getting things on the cheap -- is a good money saver though if time is not an issue.

Having said that I was just on a full-service Emirates flight from Singapore to Melbourne that was delayed for twelve -- that's right, TWELVE -- hours because it was supposed to be transiting from Dubai but had engine problems, and as Emirates is an arrogant-as-heck airline they have no partnerships with Star Alliance or the like, so couldn't book us onto a partner airline (as most full-service airlines are able to do, Qantas with BA/Thai/Malaysian Air, for example). We had to wait for a plane to come from Melbourne (that was flying to London) stop in Singapore, unload their London passengers and load us on and turn it around to come to Melbourne, while the London-based passengers were delayed for 5 hours waiting for our original plane to get fixed to take them to London. Farcical and confusing? You betcha. So if we're doing warnings, Emirates can be a wonderful flying experience as they are first-rate, but they are also crap as heck in flexibility and on-the-ground customer service (almost budget airline standard).

Having said all that, none of this compares to flying into Bhutan or Ethiopia, or some of the South American airlines...

[LostDoggy]

Fair warning for all budget airlines, basically -- Tiger, Air Asia, Virgin, Jetstar.

One of the reasons they can do the same flight for such cheap fares, apart from using old plane stock, drastically underpaying their staff (or having a skeleton staff), and using budget airports so they pay lower airport taxes, is that they also have (much) lower priority in the food chain on airspace rights compared to full service airlines. Their tickets are also effectively zero flexibility (up to their goodwill, and check the rebooking fees.. essentially the same as buying a whole new ticket)

Just one of the realities of getting things on the cheap -- is a good money saver though if time is not an issue.

Having said that I was just on a full-service Emirates flight from Singapore to Melbourne that was delayed for twelve -- that's right, TWELVE -- hours because it was supposed to be transiting from Dubai but had engine problems, and as Emirates is an arrogant-as-heck airline they have no partnerships with Star Alliance or the like, so couldn't book us onto a partner airline (as most full-service airlines are able to do, Qantas with BA/Thai/Malaysian Air, for example). We had to wait for a plane to come from Melbourne (that was flying to London) stop in Singapore, unload their London passengers and load us on and turn it around to come to Melbourne, while the London-based passengers were delayed for 5 hours waiting for our original plane to get fixed to take them to London. Farcical and confusing? You betcha. So if we're doing warnings, Emirates can be a wonderful flying experience as they are first-rate, but they are also crap as heck in flexibility and on-the-ground customer service (almost budget airline standard).

Having said all that, none of this compares to flying into Bhutan or Ethiopia, or some of the South American airlines...

What old planes are you talking about? Not one of those airlines use old planes. Most budget airlines use new aircraft to avoid maintenance costs.

[The Adelaide Connection]

Yeah that's a good call Lantern, when you take enough flights eventually you will have problems, delays, cancellations etc with all carriers including the Qantas's and Emirates. Dont even start me on Lufthansa or the US greyhound bus system. Let's also just say that unless you want to have to painfully live the lyric "counting the cars on the new jersey turnpike" with a driver who has "never driven without an instructor" then it is best not to take that mentioned bus service on the day before thanksgiving, like this idiot did.

However my initial warning was specific to Tiger (and I bet others do it) who are clearly changing flights based on maximizing profit. Obviously the demand pushes seat prices up and if you have got in early with a cheap seat on a popular flight they are going to move you to another less popular flight to sell your seat at a premium.

Check the flights on the net, call them up and demand your original seat. When caught out they will switch you back.

[bornadog]

What old planes are you talking about? Not one of those airlines use old planes. Most budget airlines use new aircraft to avoid maintenance costs.

I flew back from Adelaide a couple of weeks ago on a brand new Tigerairways plane and it cost me $33 one way.

[LostDoggy]

What old planes are you talking about? Not one of those airlines use old planes. Most budget airlines use new aircraft to avoid maintenance costs.


I flew back from Adelaide a couple of weeks ago on a brand new Tigerairways plane and it cost me $33 one way.

Dedicated low-cost carriers like Virgin or Southwest (in the US) and short-haul flights (like Melbourne-Adelaide) do indeed use newer planes, usually a sparsely kitted out fleet of identical airplane stock (commonly 737s?), and they are easier to maintain not because of their age, but because of their uniformity.

However, this is not true of low-cost subsidiaries of larger full-service airlines (Tiger for Singapore Airlines, Jetstar for Qantas), especially for longer-haul routes, where it is often part of the business model to caniballise the 'parent airline' for their older planes (as these larger planes are more suitable for long-haul flights), retrofitted to fit more seats in. This is a win-win for both operations as parent companies upgrade their fleet and have a cost-effective way of 'dumping' their older models instead of retiring them.

Air Asia X definitely uses several 'older'/reconditioned planes, notably seven leased A330-300s.

Heck, even full-service airlines use older stock -- Qantas is currently undergoing an upgrade of their fleet after a backfiring decision to 'age' its fleet (some dating back to the early '90s), and many European short-haul carriers (KLM etc) use planes up to two decades old. I guess it depends what you consider 'old'.

(ps. a small part of my MBA minor thesis was on low-cost carrier vs. full-service airline business models, and some of the stuff has stuck, I suppose!)

[ledge]

UMM does anyone think calling them Tiger is a dead giveaway of mediocrity?

[bulldogtragic]

Something has gotta give with the air fares at the moment, traditionally it has been the lesser/newer operators who fall first (Ansett the obvious exception). I would expect Tiget to follow in the footsteps of Paul Stoddarts attempts to run an airline here and just hope that in a few years time we have enough competition left in the market to not to back to $800 return to Sydney etc.

[LostDoggy]

UMM does anyone think calling them Tiger is a dead giveaway of mediocrity?

Depends if it is prefixed by "Richmond" or suffixed by "Woods"...

[LostDoggy]

I had my return flight next month for the Adelaide game changed from 12.30-2pm or so on the monday..

Which didnt bother me UNTILL I couldn't get the day off...so i called up Tiger and because I had been "affected by the schedule change" I didn't have to pay to change my flight to 6.30 monday morning..

So thats a positive, if the flight schedule change doesn't suit you they will change it at no cost

[LostDoggy]

UMM does anyone think calling them Tiger is a dead giveaway of mediocrity?

MUHAHAHAHA

[ledge]

Depends if it is prefixed by "Richmond" or suffixed by "Woods"...

Now thats both sides of the spectrum, maybe they need to clarify!