Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 3899 times:
Hi all,
I was just browsing on the airlinemeals.net website and I noticed that Virgin Blue and Virgin Express are serving Coca Cola products, but Virgin Atlantic is serving Virgin Coke.
Why don't all Virgin airlines serve Virgin drinks? Is VS the only airline in the world which serves Virgin drinks onboard?
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 3843 times:
Quoting LHZXF (Reply 1): Perhaps because they suck?
I can't comment because I never drunk it (unfortunately).
But when only Virgin Coke is onboard, the people have to drink it (and pay for it at least on Virgin Express and Virgin Blue) when they want to have a coke.
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 3809 times:
Quoting LHZXF (Reply 4): I couldn't say the last time I seen virgin coke in a store in the UK.
I was wondering myself about this, I looked in shops in London, Manchester, and Birmingham but I couldn't find it anywhere. When I asked: "Do you sell Virgin Coke?", everyone told me: "No, sorry".
Quoting LHZXF (Reply 4): Perhaps more popular in mainland Europe?
I never saw it in shops in other European countries either. Damn, I want to drink this stuff one day, I am already searching long enough for it!
Patrick
PS. Or Branson is serving it on VS only because he wants that I buy a plane ticket.
UAalltheway From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 3729 times:
Not sure about the initial question of this thread (sorry)- but when I was on VS and had the Virgin Diet Cola I thought it was pretty good.. kind of like a British thing, almost. It seems like everything tastes different in Europe (well.. at least London)- even the ketchup and BBQ sauce taste the same... (no offence intended). So once again, maybe it's just a british kind of way of making it or something...
FlyLondon From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 376 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 3700 times:
Virgin Cola is not part of Virgin group, just a franchise of the Virgin brand, so there is no automatic reason to use it on board particuarly if a competitor is offering a better deal.
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 3684 times:
Quoting FlyLondon (Reply 8): Virgin Cola is not part of Virgin group, just a franchise of the Virgin brand, so there is no automatic reason to use it on board particuarly if a competitor is offering a better deal.
Ahhhh.... thanks for the information, now it makes sense!
It is because Virgin does not own all the Virgin airlines.
They don't own Virgin Blue and they don't own Virgin Express (they have minority holdings), and I think their stake in Virgin Nigeria is limited to 49%.
IRelayer From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 1071 posts, RR: 2 Reply 12, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3582 times:
I bought it in a 7/11 (convinience store) here in San Diego (USA). Surprised to see it there. It tasted ok...I noticed that it had half the sugar content of Coke. Which is pretty good. Coke is REALLY sweet.
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3565 times:
Quoting Mariner (Reply 11): It is because Virgin does not own all the Virgin airlines.
They don't own Virgin Blue and they don't own Virgin Express (they have minority holdings), and I think their stake in Virgin Nigeria is limited to 49%.
Ah, I didn't know that!
Ok, your reply combined with the following reply makes actually sense:
Quoting FlyLondon (Reply 8): Virgin Cola is not part of Virgin group, just a franchise of the Virgin brand, so there is no automatic reason to use it on board particuarly if a competitor is offering a better deal.
But when I even only have a minority holding or a "franchise" in any of these companies, I would make sure that both of them sell combined as many of my products as possible, or?
Mariner From New Zealand, joined Nov 2001, 22874 posts, RR: 87 Reply 14, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3548 times:
Quoting Sabena332 (Reply 13): But when I even only have a minority holding or a "franchise" in any of these companies, I would make sure that both of them sell combined as many of my products as possible, or?
Why would "Patrick Inc.", as the central brand name, demand that a franchise (Patrick Cola) sells to a franchise (Patrick Belgian Airlines)?
You, "Patrick Inc.", would not earn any more money, you would still get the same franchise fee from each company.
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 3534 times:
Quoting Mariner (Reply 14): Why would "Patrick Inc.", as the central brand name, demand that a franchise (Patrick Cola) sells to a franchise (Patrick Belgian Airlines)?
You, "Patrick Inc.", would not earn any more money, you would still get the same franchise fee from each company.
That makes economical sense but I would just love it when the name of my company can be seen on every product.
Lincoln From United States of America, joined Nov 2004, 3887 posts, RR: 8 Reply 17, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 3486 times:
Quoting Mariner (Reply 14): Why would "Patrick Inc.", as the central brand name, demand that a franchise (Patrick Cola) sells to a franchise (Patrick Belgian Airlines)?
You, "Patrick Inc.", would not earn any more money, you would still get the same franchise fee from each company.
Depends on how the license was structured
It's not inconceiveable (to me, at least) that a portion of the franchise/license fee would be based on percentage of gross revenues... In which case it would make tons of sense for Lincolnco to make Lincoln Airlines purchase Lincoln Cola as a condition of license, and I would then have additional income from those purchases and, indirectly, disadvantage the cola franchisee's compeitiors (by slightly reducing market share, not earning the revenue from the sale of product to Lincoln Airlines) and strengthening trhe position of the cola franchise
No... I have no formal business education so this may be implausable in so many ways, but...
Lincoln
CO Is My Airline of Choice || Baggage Claim is an airline's last chance to disappoint a customer || Next flts in profile
Mariner From New Zealand, joined Nov 2001, 22874 posts, RR: 87 Reply 18, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 3446 times:
Quoting Lincoln (Reply 17): It's not inconceiveable (to me, at least) that a portion of the franchise/license fee would be based on percentage of gross revenues.
It is not inconceivable. Some franchises probably do operate that way.
With the Virgin Group, it gets incredibly complex, though. Where would, for example, Virgin Money stand in all this, and would it apply to all countries where the franchise exists?
If Patrick Corporation (who own Virgin Blue, at least at the moment) decided they could make more money selling Koala Cola instead of Virgin Cola, I doubt SRB would have stood in their way.
Note that Virgin Blue may not use the "Virgin" part outside Australia because Singapore doesn't want any brand dilution of Virgin Atlantic.
So the NZ and Pacific services of Virgin Blue are operated by Pacific Blue. Since SRB doesn't own either of them (at the moment), why should Pacific Blue sell Virgin Cola?
Wunala From Australia, joined Mar 2005, 940 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 3168 times:
Quoting HKGKaiTak (Reply 16): I didn't even know Virgin Cola was still in production ... here in Oz they promoted it many many years ago and then nothing happened.
On DJ flights at least, only Coca-Cola products are sold.
Thats what I thought. I can say that I can never remember seeing the grey bottles over here. I have never flown DJ to comment on what they serve on board. I am a QF person. I think they serve Coke on board too. Can't be sure, I only drink somethng with a % vol on the label.
N1120A From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 25869 posts, RR: 79 Reply 22, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 3110 times:
The term Coke as used for a soft drink is trademarked by The Coca-Cola Company and cannot be used for any other brand name. Hence it is Virgin Cola. Just a technicality there
Quoting IRelayer (Reply 12): I noticed that it had half the sugar content of Coke. Which is pretty good.
Check again that you weren't comparing a bottle of Virgin Cola, which will list the sugar content of an 8 oz serving, to a can of Coca-Cola which will list a 12 oz serving. It is better to compare two plastic bottles.
BTW, anyone else think that the reason Virgin Cola is used on VS and not the others is that it is more easily catered in the UK than anywhere else and the other two airlines are not UK based?
[Edited 2005-08-23 16:20:25]
Mangeons les French fries, mais surtout pratiquons avec fierte le French kiss
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 3074 times:
Quoting N1120A (Reply 22): The term Coke as used for a soft drink is trademarked by The Coca-Cola Company and cannot be used for any other brand name. Hence it is Virgin Cola. Just a technicality there
You are right, I should actually know that. It happened to me very often in the USA that I ordered a "coke" but then the waiter told me sometimes: "Sorry, we don't have Coke, only Pepsi". Here in Germany we don't make a big deal about this, we just order a "Cola" and don't care if it is Coca-Cola or Pepsi (or even Afri).
Quoting N1120A (Reply 22): BTW, anyone else think that the reason Virgin Cola is used on VS and not the others is that it is more easily catered in the UK than anywhere else and the other two airlines are not UK based?
That could be also a reason, I can't imagine that they send Virgin Cola to Belgium and Australia only to sell the stuff on Virgin planes.
Patrick
Edit:
Quoting AIR MALTA (Reply 23): Well if you want to drink Virgin Cola, you have to go to Tunisia. There you will find Virgin Colas in all colors
Really? But it was introduced there in the last few years, or? I remember that you only got Coca-Cola everywhere when I was in Tunisia in 1990. I remember the bottles and cans with the Arabic writing:
[Edited 2005-08-23 16:36:07]
25 IRelayer: It was most definately a 20oz plastic bottle, and I checked the serving sizes. It was an opaque gray bottle with a black label with Virgin Cola on it
26 BAViscount: The only place I can ever recall seeing Virgin Cola is on Virgin Trains in the UK - it's the only type they sell. Can't honestly remember what I had o
27 Swisskloten: I've been to London and searched every Tesco I could find. Nobody had it. I've drunk it before. It tastes pretty good. You would enjoy it if you were
28 N1120A: That stuff is absolutely horrible That is easy, get tea or leave the place Actually, that is quite common in the US South. There was a map on here a
29 777ER: Virgin coke wouldn't even be knowen in Australia, Nigeria etc
30 Pictues: I've had Virgin Coke here in Vancouver, doesn;t taste that good, Western Family Coke is better (One of the local grocery store's brands here in YVR).
31 Sq212: No. PR serves Virgin beverages in 3 flavors: red, white, and blue. Cheers[Edited 2005-08-24 09:59:09]
32 Sabena332: Actually I like Afri Cola, the bottle looks very stylo: In the past I prefered Pepsi but somehow has the stuff become too sweet in my opinion. Yes, I
33 PanHAM: I am sure they would serve you a Virgin Mary, but most people prefer some booze in it.
34 N1120A: That is a cool looking new bottle, but that stuff tastes horrid So sweet that Diet Pepsi tastes like toxic waste. Then again, we know how much you li
35 VirginFlyer: Regarding Virgin Blue, I think the primary factor would be that Virgin Cola is not distributed in Australia. For interest's sake, Qantas serves Coca-C
36 Soups: Actually Virgin cola was served on Virgin Nigeria flight LON-LOS but NOT on the ABV, PHC and ACC routes
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BTW, I got it in a Tescos. I also had it at a pub next to FAB.
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