Reliability of domestic airlines

I'm trying to find domestic flights Brisbane/Cairns/Darwin and Virgin and Qantas seem quite expensive. How reliable e.g. cancelled flights etc are Jetstar and Tiger?

I'm trying to find domestic flights Brisbane/Cairns/Darwin and Virgin and Qantas seem quite expensive. How reliable e.g. cancelled flights etc are Jetstar and Tiger?

Check with your airline, which you are flying to Australia with, whether you are entitled to cheaper internal flights, within Australia, in connection with your international flight.

I'm trying to find domestic flights Brisbane/Cairns/Darwin and Virgin and Qantas seem quite expensive. How reliable e.g. cancelled flights etc are Jetstar and Tiger?

Generally speaking, Virgin and Qantas are the most reliable airlines when it comes to punctuality and not cancelling flights.

These are the stats from February this year -

"Qantas achieved the highest on time arrivals among the major domestic airlines at 87.6 per cent followed by Virgin Australia at 85.9 per cent, Jetstar at 75.8 per cent and Tigerair Australia at 67.7 per cent."

It gives you a good indication, I think.

More information about on time performance can be found online at https://bitre.gov.au/statistics/aviation/otp_month.aspx

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm trying to find domestic flights Brisbane/Cairns/Darwin and Virgin and Qantas seem quite expensive. How reliable e.g. cancelled flights etc are Jetstar and Tiger?

I've found Jetstar to be quite reliable. We flew with them from Sydney to Hawaii in 2013 and couldn't fault them.

In my mind QANTAS is a premium price airline, Jetstar and Virgin are economy airlines and Tiger is a budget airline. In my mind Tiger has a reputation for being unreliable with cancelled flights etc but perhaps this is undeserved.

Just be aware that the airlines often practice "drip pricing". They advertise a low price but then charge you extra for baggage, meals, a booking fee, etc.

Just be aware that the airlines often practice "drip pricing". They advertise a low price but then charge you extra for baggage, meals, a booking fee, etc.

Qantas pricing includes a meal, 23kg of checked luggage plus hand baggage. In practice if your large suitcase weights a maximum of 23.9kg it is OK. In cabin baggage is one item of 7kg plus a handbag (mine is large) or a computer bag. These are not weighed. In the unlikely circumstance that they were weighed, we would simple remove items that we are allowed to carry separately - camera, book, umbrella, coat etc before the bag was weighed.

We always choose Qantas for reliability, but if the price is particularly high on the flight we want, Virgin is our second choice. They are probably better than they were on reliability, but years ago we experienced them cancelling our flights (a couple of times) leaving us sitting at the airport for a long time waiting for the next flight.

We avoid Jetstar ('One star') and we haven't been desperate enough to even think of Tiger.:D

I'm trying to find domestic flights Brisbane/Cairns/Darwin and Virgin and Qantas seem quite expensive. How reliable e.g. cancelled flights etc are Jetstar and Tiger?

I think you will find limited frequency with Tiger.

Also, not even sure whether they fly Cairns - Darwin.

Used to fly Jetstar a lot, but it's been a while, never had any complaints.

Now Tiger, only once, that was one too many.

Once flew Tiger - only because someone else booked the flight for me and I didn't get a say in it. It's just a 'no' from me.

Have flown Jetstar a couple of times. I've been lucky and had no problems with them, but I often hear of people who do get stuck with delays with them. Even a couple of cabin crew members that work for them suggest if you "absolutely have to be there on time", look at one of the others.

Personally prefer Virgin over Qantas, but both are about the same really (though you might get one or two 'extras' included with Qantas if you're lucky)

The university where I worked would not permit Tiger bookings in Australia.

Jetstar was used only if Qantas or Virgin were unavailable.

Virgin fares include checked luggage (one bag and 23 kg) while Jetstar and Tiger don't unless you pay for it. The limit for cabin luggage is one bag/7kg - if you go over that limit and they catch you at the gate, significantly higher charges apply - far more than what Qantas or Virgin would have originally cost. Tiger has been enforcing the weight limit at the gates in Sydney Airport lately.

Flights out of Darwin are always more expensive because of its greater distance from other cities and fewer flights serve the city. If you want reliability, I would pay more for Virgin.

Virgin and Qantas fares include meal and you have to buy onboard with Jetstar and Tiger but when I say meal, think crackers, cookies and coffee/tea on Virgin. They only provide hot meals on Perth-Sydney/Brisbane/Melbourne flights. Not sure what Qantas offers outside Perth-SYD/BNE/MEL flights. The big thing you need to look for is the check-in baggage - how many pieces and how heavy yours are going to be.

If the flight is going to connect to your cruise, avoid Jetstar and Tiger at all cost.

Check with your airline, which you are flying to Australia with, whether you are entitled to cheaper internal flights, within Australia, in connection with your international flight.

Also check whether you will be entitled to higher baggage entitlements on your domestic flights, when connecting with an international flight.

Another Qantas fan. If there's fog , Virgin will cancel early flights, Qantas won't. Prices are often similar to Virgin and they also depend how far out you book.

I've only heard bad reports about Tiger.

Enjoy your time in Australia.

Another Qantas fan. If there's fog , Virgin will cancel early flights, Qantas won't. Prices are often similar to Virgin and they also depend how far out you book.

I've only heard bad reports about Tiger.

Enjoy your time in Australia.

Agree Qantas would be best.

My last three Virgin flights have been delayed. The last morning flight was delayed so long we were given food vouchers for lunch. Prior to this all my flights on Virgin were always on time, with quick boarding and exiting by front and back stairs.

I fly a fair bit for work & am frequent flier with both QANTAS & Virgin. I have also used Jetstar at times. Let me tell you they all have their moments!!!

A favourite trick for both Q and Virgin is to 'combine' flights, where they will effectively turn 2 flights into 1, or 3 flights into 2, by delaying & cancelling flights, to fly fuller planes. This mostly happens off-peak. If they have flights at say, 11am & 12noon, they will delay and then cancel the first and put you on the second.

After a cancelled flight, I had a follow-up call a few days later, with the agent asking if I was happy with how the issue was handled. I said not really, & told them about the numerous people at the gate who were threatening never to fly with them again. The agent asked me about that, and I said if I was to follow thru on a threat like that, I would soon run out of options :-)

If I have to be somewhere at a certain time, I use QANTAS or Virgin for domestic, and allow an hour or two to cover minor delays. If I am a bit more flexible, I add Jetstar to the mix. As someone wrote I have heard nothing but bad about Tiger.

Have flown with Tiger once SYD - PER. Defo wouldnt do that route with them again. We had our flight delayed by an hour.

Havent flown QANTAS but we do like Virgin. Flew Virgin last time we flew SYD - PER - GET and they did cancel our SYD - PER flight and put us on another one and same with the GET - PER flight on the return journey. However we didnt mind and it was a far more comfortable flight than with Tiger!!

I've used Jetstar and Tiger and have (touchwood) never had any problems. This is between Gold Coast and Sydney. The prices have been about half the price of Virgin and Qantas.

I recently flew Virgin from Sydney and the flight was delayed by 2.5 hours with very little communication. We did get a biscuit when we were on board! The service and plane, in my opinion, was no better (or worse) then either Jetstar or Tiger.

As long as you allow enough time for your arrival, depending on what your plans are, I don't see a problem with any of the airlines and would just choose the cheapest/best value at the time. I normally use webjet to check the prices and then book direct with the airline.

I'm with you Jacq. I fly a lot with jetstar and tiger. Haven't had any problems with either, in fact the most delays I have had have been with Qantas. Once I was flying Sydney to Melb with hand luggage only. My 1pm flight was cancelled. A later flight took off while I was still waiting for my new flight. I politely went and asked if there were any seats available on the flight that was going, explaining I didnt have any luggage to complicate matters. I was told as I had bought a cheap non refundable fare they wouldn't do anything. I did point out that if my flight had taken off on time I wouldn't have been making the request. By memory I think I finally left Sydney around 5 pm, just making it in time for a theatre booking that night. Funny enough, that was the reason I decided to fly Qantas on that occassion due to the theatre booking.

Happy to fly jetstar and tiger anywhere but we always fly the day before we cruise. I do make about 6 return flights a year to various places around Australia, something I wouldn't be able to do if I had to pay Qantas and Virgin prices.

A survey has named Jetstar as the "worst airline in the world". The survey did not include Tiger.

Research found that one out of four Jetstar flights is delayed and that the luggage of one out of ten passengers is either lost or delayed to a later flight. This confirms our policy of using Qantas (first choice) with Virgin as our second choice.