6pm departure = snack service

[brad330]

If VA keep snacks

First flight-0759 , Breakfast
0800-1059, Morning Snack
1100-1359, Lunch
1400-1659, Afternoon Snack
1700-1959, Dinner
2000-Last flight, Evening Snack

If VA removes snacks, please do!
First flight-0859, Breakfast
0900-1459, Lunch
1500-Last flight, Dinner

 

[maninblack]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Finally, no peep in from the Virgin rep on this thread, has anyone notified via a PM, think it would be interesting their reaction as I think most of these things are quite an easy fix for a cabin only holding 8 people!

I hope he/she is reading this and taking some of the thoughts back to the office. I am really delighted that Virgin have jumped into the fray and are giving QF some competition but at this point I am not at all delighted with the Business product. Is it enough of a disappointment for to me to take my business back to Qantas? YES.

IMO here is what Virgin need to fix straight away.

The seat.
In seat power.
IFE
Meal quality and meal service times and consistency.
Cabin crew consistency.
Check in staff knowledge and manners.

and on a slightly different tack their terrible website(s)

 

[Platinum A332]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Qantas seems much more consistent with their J product. From the looks of things, it is only worth using DJ in J Class if you can get on the A330 to Perth.

 

[`X']

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Qantas seems much more consistent with their J product. From the looks of things, it is only worth using DJ in J Class if you can get on the A330 to Perth.

Qantas have had how many years of practice at this compared to DJ?

It's still early days!

 

[pshepvic]

I've had 3 flights SYD-MEL at 6pm and all they've had is the cheese plate. Because of that, I stopped booking and now book the 6:15 or 6:30 because it always has the full dinner service. It seemed to me that it was 6:01 departures that were getting full service, not 6pm.

Will give it a go again this week at 6pm and see what happens.

On another somewhat related note, the crew will generally bring you anything from the Y menu as well. We were flying back from BNE-MEL on a 4pm flight in J and it was during daylight saving so we weren't arriving until after 7pm. We were also quite hungry and weren't going to be home until at least an hour after the flight, so asked instead of the cheese plate if we could get a pie and they were more than happy to oblige.

 

[lovestotravel]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Just saw on Facebook, that someone was complaining about the J meals and meal times.....

Of course there was the silly VA Fanboi who simply said "don't fly VA then"

A follow up post mentioned this thread and low loads in J and the poor meals...

The VA rep responded with

"We are aware of what's being said in that forum and the feedback received overall. I assure you our team takes this on board and is working to improve our offering"

So fingers crossed something changes

 

[under the radar]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Qantas have had how many years of practice at this compared to DJ?

It's still early days!

excuses excuses.... when QF introduce anything 'new' they are expected to perform perfectly from day1...yet DJ receive a 'grace period'!! this 'grace period' has now been going on 2+ months.........

 

[markis10]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

excuses excuses.... when QF introduce anything 'new' they are expected to perform perfectly from day1...yet DJ receive a 'grace period'!! this 'grace period' has now been going on 2+ months.........

When was the last "new" thing Qantas introduced to domestic flights, at least in a positive sense, Cityflyer perhaps, which still causes confusion with crew on Public holidays?

 

[AsterisK]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Has anyone had any issues with not receiving your meal on a flexi fare? I regularly get forgotten about, despite being in rows 3-8 and people around me getting theirs... Maybe I look funny?

 

[airbus380]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Totally agree with u 'under the radar' it's a product that u pay for and quite frankly should be delivered!! Soooo many excuses!!! I have friends working at virgin and the things such as catering issues, and safety issues that occur that doesn't attract any media attention is incredible, the moment QF forgets to load hot towels, god help us!!

 

[777]

excuses excuses.... when QF introduce anything 'new' they are expected to perform perfectly from day1...yet DJ receive a 'grace period'!! this 'grace period' has now been going on 2+ months.........

And how long did QF have between claiming to offer domestic priority boarding and *actually* offering domestic priority boarding?

 

[dandandan]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

A guy on the VA facebook page had a rant about this, and posted a link to this thread and got a response. It's under the Gold Coast Suns topic on the wall.

• Andrew Musgrave Steve Dyer - Social media is not a place simply for free adverts. I wonder if you are a platinum member like me with 1500 SC earned this year alone ?? Simply telling someone to fly on another airline because they have feedback doesn't achieve anything.
  
  Virgin Australia - The loads in J are very low, I have had 6 flights over the past month and all of them except 1, were just myself and one other person. As for people talking about the poor food in J and/or the poor meal times, YES, they are. I suggest getting the Virgin rep in this forum to catch up on this thread. http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-australia-business-class-catering-38257.html
  
  Grapes and cheese are not an appropriate meal in J class for a 2 hour flight flight leaving at 17:55 for example... Asking for a sandwich from Y is not a solution.Tuesday at 11:46am · Like
  
  
  
• Virgin Australia ‎Andrew Musgrave We are aware of what's being said in that forum and the feedback received overall. I assure you our team takes this on board and is working to improve our offering
  

I haven't flown Virgin J, but this thread has been an interesting read. I find it amazing that they sent the meals by departure time, doesn't make any sense to me. Rather shouldn't dinner be served if the flight is in the air between certain hours? At least some flexibility as has been noted there really is some strange ones at the moment.

I think the other big thing to come out of this is the lack of consistency, the product is still young but you would have thought this would have been the easiest time with all J cabin crew having done a training course to get everyone up to speed, it would then fall off later you would think but it seems to have started pretty badly.

Finally, no peep in from the Virgin rep on this thread, has anyone notified via a PM, think it would be interesting their reaction as I think most of these things are quite an easy fix for a cabin only holding 8 people!

 

[dandandan]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Sorry posted before seeing this.

Posts about the rights and wrong of snack service times and comparison with other service provides moved here:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....locity/6pm-departure-snack-service-38059.html

In this thread please stick to how DJ serve their business customers- what, where and when. Put the Why and How posts in that other thread.

 

[greenfish]

And how long did QF have between claiming to offer domestic priority boarding and *actually* offering domestic priority boarding?

Yes, not a stellar effort from QF.

The difference though is that people pay extra for business class and therefore expect additional services. Tomorrow night I'm flying ADL-BNE with an 8:25 departure, so just a snack if in J. Not much of an incentive to spend an extra $500 for J over my $330 flexi fare. Let's compare:

Seat: Excellent leg room in row 3, but risk of a middle seat occupant. Win to business but not a huge margin - Row 3 economy is maybe a bit too good.
IFE: Digiplayer v BYO. A draw (and inferior to last night's CBR-BNE on QF with gate to gate IFE)
Lounge access: Already have it - a draw
Baggage: Not checking any - draw
Food: Cheese platter v some inedible flexi thing - draw
Priority boarding: Already have it - a draw

So essentially my $500 is just buying me a little more seat width and recline. Decent food would at least help provide a little incentive to spend the cash and can be delivered quickly.

Feed me!

 

[777]

Yes, not a stellar effort from QF.

My point was not defend DJ but simply to point out that the double standard claimed above doesn't really exist.

People on this forum have been complaining about the inconsistency of VA J product since the days after it was launched. There has hardly been a "grace period" of no complaints. Some have been more forgiving than others about how long it takes to smooth the bugs but the criticism has been steady. Equally, QF has gone through long periods of not delivering products that claim to deliver, they have long had a sub fleet of planes that offer a sub-standard J service, and have also been rightly subject to complaints about it.

Legitimate complaints on both sides? Yep. Double standards? Not that i can see.

 

[Justinf]

I'd go as far to say that the flexi meal packs (wrap, nuts, chocolate) are better and more substantial than the cheese platter.
That's only my personal view, but when a Y product (ie meal) is superior to a J product, then there is a problem.
At least there is consistency in the flexi product.

 

[simongr]

QF copped flak from the day they launched real priority boarding.

In terms of how much experience DJ have just a couple of points. Their CEO is ex-QF with many years of experience in the airline industry. To get what J should be all they have to do is look at QF and do it better. My feel is that they havent designed a better J product - it isn't so much delivery as design.

 

[greenfish]

I'd go as far to say that the flexi meal packs (wrap, nuts, chocolate) are better and more substantial than the cheese platter.
That's only my personal view, but when a Y product (ie meal) is superior to a J product, then there is a problem.
At least there is consistency in the flexi product.

Maybe there is a flexi-lite pack between main meal times, but I was appalled at what I was offered ADL-CBR on a Flexi on Tuesday. No chocolate bar, a wrap with some form of "pickle" or mustard and a packet of chips. I'd have preferred the cheese platter(!)...

 

[greenfish]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

When was the last "new" thing Qantas introduced to domestic flights, at least in a positive sense, Cityflyer perhaps, which still causes confusion with crew on Public holidays?

Gate to Gate IFE on the new and refurbed 737-800s is pretty nice, and fairly new too...

 

[Fruitcake]

Re: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus

Gate to Gate IFE on the new and refurbed 737-800s is pretty nice, and fairly new too...

And QF has made it to the trial stage with their wifi IFE solution well ahead of Virgin. Potential difference is that DJ has stated that it will be implemented across the whole narrowbody jet fleet, whilst I don't think QF has publicly stated exactly what they're going to do with it (or if they did, I think it's 767s only).