It’s common for airlines to have partnerships of all kinds with one another, ranging from interline agreements, to codeshare agreements, to joint ventures. Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand have just rolled out a partnership, and what makes it unique is that it’s one-sided.
Continue reading: Virgin Australia & Air New Zealand Launch One-Sided Partnership
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This seems to be a "Tick and Flick" type of unilateral partnership so that Virgin Australia can state "they serve New Zealand" through their upcoming one-way Air NZ partnership.
However it's a sensible decision financially for Virgin considering their history of financial losses operating on the Tasman on their own aircraft (even back when they operated the services as the old JV with Air NZ), as the new one-way partnership puts 100% of the operating risk on NZ and is a partnership that's barely 1 step above a simple interline agreement.
VA used to be partnered with NZ. I flew on a VA booking on NZ metal across the ditch around 2014. Back then, I believe that if you bought the ticket through VA, you were booking via the low-cost channel (which got you lower fares, but came with steep checked bag fees, something like $95 AUD per checked bag. Overhead was/is limited to a very paultry 7kg (~15lb) ( https://www.airnewzealand.com/baggage-help).
The IFE was used to order food, beverage, amenity kits etc. I believe the IFEs of the VA bookers was programmed to allow for fewer free drink options and no free snack options vs. the NZ bookers.
I suspect it more than being able to make a claim. If you want to fly Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, or a non-capital city to CHC or WLG, you'll need to connect in SYD or MEL. VA can now sell you an ticket on VA to get you there. One flight on VA and one on NZ listed as a VA flight. Consumers like that.
I will never understand why the regulators approve code shares. They stifle competition on routes where airlines code share, which seems to be proven in this case, as apparently they can only code share on routes where they do not compete. Case in point, Virgin and Air NZ can't code share on the Queenstown route because the regulators determined it would stifle competition, and should Virgin decide to fly into say, Christchurch, then this code share arrangement would have to cease. Why? Because it would stifle competition on that route.
The only benefit to travelers with code share arrangements is that you can book domestic connecting flights, very rarely is there any competition on the fares. Have seen the same with QANTAS - Emirates code share.
There are other benefits to this for travellers. For example, VA FF will now earn points on those flights, whereas they would have no option to earn points if taking a flight on that route prior. Similarly, those with status will get benefits of that status in making that booking, whereas again before, no benefits would be received without the codeshare.