[PatG]

I'm looking at booking some domestic flights and Tiger Airways have good prices at reasonable times. Last (and only) time I booked with them was a few hours before their fleet was grounded and so I had to rebook with Virgin and get a refund. Does anyone have some recent experiences with them? It works out around 30% cheaper than Jetstar or Virgin....

[seaside_shells]

I was also caught up in the grounding & at the time vowed never to fly Tiger again! But I have since broken that vow.... As the prices are just so good! I recently flew to/from Sydney with them & the flights themselves were completely fine - on time, good landings etc. I was 30 weeks pregnant when I flew though and had to spend nearly an hour on hold to their call centre because my booking needed special notations on it, so that was extremely frustrating.

[FiveAus]

We flew from Melbourne to Brisbane and back on the weekend of Jan 19. We flew up on the Friday and back on the Sunday to attend my sons wedding.

I booked with Tiger with great trepidation, their reputation is abysmal but the whole weekend was costing a lot of money and I thought that at least I could save on the airfares.....plus they were flying at the times we wanted to fly (late Friday afternoon and early Sunday morning).

We were on a tight schedule, as we had 5 dogs in boarding kennels which was costing us over $120 per night, and we had only a one hour window on the Sunday (5pm-6pm) when the kennels were open for us to collect them...so we really couldn't afford any delays.

Well, I was fearful for nothing.....the Friday flight was delayed by 30 minutes because an incoming flight was late and they had to wait for it to land so the runway would be clear.
But that was the only small hitch and we barely noticed it.

We got to Brisbane in good time to attend the pre-wedding dinner on the Friday night, and we got home to country Victoria in plenty of time to collect our dogs.

We were both extremely happy with the service. However, my daughters boyfriend was also supposed to arrive on the Friday night from Sydney, and I'd been comandeered to collect him from the airport as I was the only one who'd hired a car.....and his flight (Virgin) was cancelled and he didn't arrive until 11 am Saturday.

My daughter gave me a good tip though.....she regularly flies Melb to Sydney....she said if you get the Tiger price, then contact Jetstar within 30 minutes, they will better the price by 10%.

This post has been edited by FiveAus: 06/02/2013, 08:31 PM

[Mocha Coffee]

We flew with them over Australia Day weekend. Fabulous. We, too, were nervous. Get there really early for check in though. That is the best tip I can give you so they don't shut the flight on you!

[maryanneK]

flown with tiger a lot and only once had a problem where they delayed the flight 2 hours and didnt tell us till we were at the airport! but that was a one off. have had at least 10-20 tiger flights which have been perfect. I fly a lot and have had probably the worst service (in terms of being on time etc) with qantas. Had good flights and bad flights with all of them - i think most of the issues with delays etc are not really within their control - usually its weather or air traffic control.

to the PP with flights to brisbane - be aware that brisbane has a shortage of runway space and flights coming in to brisbane in the evening are pretty much ALWAYS delayed by 30-60 minutes while you circle the airport

[tickledpink72]

Wouldn't go near them. Don't know of anyone who has anything good to say about them.

[*the*lucky*one*]

All 7 of us flew with them in April and they were great. Departed early on way down and left on time on way back. Check-in was quick and stress free.

[kreme]

I've flown with them 3 times in the past 6 mths.
We've had a couple of short delays, but nothing that I haven't experienced with other airlines. The staff have always been pleasant and helpful. We flew to Melbourne and back on Tiger with our kids recently and both flights were perfectly on time.

[FiveAus]

to the PP with flights to brisbane - be aware that brisbane has a shortage of runway space and flights coming in to brisbane in the evening are pretty much ALWAYS delayed by 30-60 minutes while you circle the airport

It was delayed from the Melbourne end, couldn't take off on time because they were waiting for another flight to arrive. But yes, we circled for about 20 minutes above Brisbane but the captain explained it beforehand.
The absolute worst thing about Tiger is the arrival terminal in Melbourne. It's a cyclone fence, a tin roof, a bitumen floor and a set of portaloos!

[blackcat20]

If Jetstar have similar times, call them and ask for a price beat. It's a little known thing but easily done.