V Australia launches fares to Thailand and South Africa

I was lucky enough to be invited to go on a press trip to Australia this past May. Along with 5 other American journalists who were brought to Queensland in an effort to promote the Working Holiday Visa now available to Americans and backpacking in Queensland in general, we were flown on one of Virgin Australia’s new trans-Pacific flights from Los Angeles to Brisbane.

>>Read about the V Australia flights from Kathleen Crislip, one of my fellow journalists on the press trip

As much as I was dreading the long haul flight (and turning around and doing the same flight on the way back just one week later), I was totally impressed (and surprised) with how easy the whole flight felt on Virgin. Not only did we get great treatment in our Premium Economy seats—the food wasn’t horrible, the wine was free flowing and there were so many great entertainment options there was no way I was going to see or listen to all that I wanted on the 12+ hour flight.

In other words, I was impressed with Virgin Australia and would recommend that not only other travelers consider them for their flight to Australia, but me, the budget savvy girl, would even go so far as to say that it might even be worth spending a few extra dollars to fly Virgin than one of the other airlines (if you are going to be stuck on an airplane that long, you don’t want the whole thing to be that unpleasant of an experience).

Because I had such a great experience flying on V Australia, I got excited when I heard news that V Australia would be launching fares to Thailand and South Africa. V Australia launched operations on the competitive trans-Pacific route from Los Angeles to Sydney last February—which prompted fare wars between Virgin and Qantas and drove prices down on flights to Australia by almost half of what they had been just one year before and which made for some insane deals on flights to Australia.

While Virgin still took a hit last quarter (the travel industry has been hard hit by the economic recession and fewer people traveling by air), apparently the airline is not backing down for opening new routes and breaking into new markets. V Australia is also hoping to dominate a corner of the market—as it will be the only airline offering direct flights from Brisbane to Phucket and Melbourne to Phucket.

While the V Australia flights to Thailand will only be departing from Australia, those looking for airfare to Bangkok should be pleased that Virgin is entering the market. Not only does it have the potential to drive down fares in general to Thailand (especially from Australia), but it also offers up another great carrier option for those looking to travel to Thailand.

I met many backpackers (some American, some assorted Scandinavians, and a whole lot of Brits) during my trip to Australia and many of them had just been to or were headed to Thailand as part of their extended travel plans and around the world trips. Hearing about all of the great, cheap hotels in Bangkok, the Full Moon parties, the beaches and the food (oh the food) made me pretty envious my trip to Australia was ending with a flight back to the U.S. and not to Thailand.

>>For those headed to the World Cup in 2010, V Australia will also be launching new routes from Oz to Johannesburg in March just in time for the worldwide soccer event. The airline has also sent an application asking the International Air Services Commission for permission to operate flights between Australia and Fiji-which means that V Australia fans could soon be able to fly from Oz to nearby Fiji.