Qantas Tweet Up (13 Apr 2013)
Qantas Tweet and Eat Spice Temple, Melbourne
Saturday 13 April 2013
Entering this competition was nerve wracking. As soon as Qantas released the entry form, only the first in the door would be invited. In a sense, it was almost like those crazy contests in the US where you put your hands on an object you want to win, and if you take your hands off the object, you lose. Many of us had our Twitter clients on ready to pounce. At 2pm, the form was released and the AFF collective pounced - as did many other Twitter users. Within a mere minute, all of the spots at the lunch were
gone. I think even whoever was managing
@QantasAirways that day couldn't quite believe how fast the spots disappeared.
Now unlike the QFF Rockpool Lunch, flights were
not provided with this invite, so I had to make my own way to Melbourne this time. I probably should've flown Qantas in this instance, except for a JASA Qantas wanted at least $200 for the co-pay, and not much less than that for a YASA. Ouch. So I wasn't left with a choice - with a recent influx of points, I hit up the Velocity website, and found a Business Reward same-day return, with a significantly lower co-pay compared to Qantas.
So I was flying with the enemy going to a Qantas function. At least I got to sample the competition, which, not counting when I flew the first version of their coast-to-coast Business product, I had not had the experience of doing yet.
Fast forward to the day and before the crack of light, Dad drove me to the airport. Went through security and straight to The Lounge to collect my boarding pass and have a coffee. Getting to T-20 minutes, or official boarding time, no announcement was made yet, so I wandered over to the front desk to ask after the status of my flight. At that very moment, the gate staff had chosen to call the lounge to inform them that my flight was ready to board.
Flight: Virgin Australia VA308 Brisbane (BNE D) - Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T3)
Depart: 0655h Sched; 0702h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VOK "Johanna Beach" Boeing 737-800
Class: Business
Seat: 1A
Priority boarding is something on the domestic arena where Virgin Australia is a Viking. Waltz up to the purple sign, the agent turns to you, scans your BP, and of course you earn about a half-dozen death stares from the regular line wondering what rude imbecile has the gall to uncivilly push in.
Anyway, get on board and a very vibrant Sarah greets me. Absolutely, could not wipe the smile off her face - it was almost really comical. Her CSM colleague Brett was a bit more subdued and relied solely on projecting a professional front.
Originally, this aircraft was meant to be an Embraer E90, but it was swapped out for this 737-800. There were only five of us in Business this morning, though handling up to eight Business passengers compared to twelve on a Qantas aircraft of similar size, this should be easy peasy for Virgin.
VA 737-800 Business Cabin.
Legroom in 1A.
Looking across from 1A.
The VA Business cabin features leather seats with respectable recline. No extendable foot rests, but I hardly use them anyway, and the recline wasn't enough to really warrant their use anyway.
Pre-flight drinks of orange juice or water were offered, as pax were quickly ushered onto the aircraft. It was raining outside, so Virgin's normal boarding
modus operandi of boarding via the stairs at the back wasn't feasible this morning. So, everyone poured in through the front, which slowed up the boarding process considerably.
A little bit late, we pushed back from the gate and soon were on the way to MEL. It took us considerably long to get to cruise, where we passed quite a bit of turbulence on the way up. Almost immediately after we punched above the clouds, the double-ding came on and the crew sprang up into life. A little bit later, the seat belt signs were turned off and Brett was asking me for my choice of breakfast. Brett also asked if I wanted to use the entertainment Galaxy Tabs. Normally I wouldn't watch a lot of TV, but I decided to see what the hype was all about.
An entertainment unit arrived and was easy to use. However, the entertainment selection was pretty bland for my liking, so I didn't end up watching anything. The earbuds were provided in a nice little zip case, but like the ones that Qantas provide in their refurbished 767-300s, they are el cheapo and nasty mono earbuds. Probably the biggest thing I miss from Qantas entertainment compared to Virgin is the daily news...
The Samsung Galaxy Tabs provided as part of the in-flight entertainment on Virgin Australia.
My hot breakfast arrived soon after. Probably the first hot breakfast I've had in a while where there are no eggs. Tasted all OK, except perhaps the stewed beans were still quite firm. Apart from that, it's a nice warm filler. A generous fruit salad was served with the breakfast, though when I flew Virgin the first time, they served the exact same fruit salad accentuated nicely with lychee juice and shredded mint. No more... which is a shame, since I really liked it that way (albeit probably unhealthy given the sugar in the lychee juice).
And a little tip -
always check your butter! My butter was a bit off, and probably shouldn't have been served. Not a big deal since the already buttery croissant didn't need any more butter.
Hot breakfast of sausage, bacon, potatoes and braised beans.
Coffee with Virgin is brewed, which I'm guessing they prepare in a plunger. I guess they only have the rather sizeable espresso machines on their A330s and 777s. Ah well, brewed is good enough.
White brewed coffee in Virgin signature china by avantgarde.
I had a bit of a nap as we headed at full throttle towards MEL. The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, with the weather in MEL mirroring that of BNE, except without the rain.
After landing, I headed to the Virgin Lounge to take care of some email.
Princess Fiona, also flying with VA to MEL, had come down on a flight from SYD. We managed to meet up and then get in contact with
ChrisCh and
Boogs who had arrived from BNE on a QF flight. We managed to hole up in the MEL T1 QF J Lounge for a while over a couple of coffees and pastries.
ChrisCh had an Uber deal going that would give us a nice luxury transfer to the Crown complex, but getting an Uber car was proving to be uber frustrating. Continual harassment of the Uber app eventually gave us a car, which picked us up outside the Park Royal.
We instructed our driver to drop us off at Crown Tower, which luckily was a mere stone throw away from Spice Temple. Spice Temple is another Neil Perry institution, located in Melbourne's huge Crown Casino complex, right next a branch of Neil's other institution, Rockpool Melbourne.
Several Tweeps who were invited to this Tweet and Eat had already arrived. Many of them were members of AFF, which just goes to show how many of us were working and multi-tasking on Twitter at the time! Anyway, we were only outside for about five minutes before the clock struck noon, the doors opened and we were invited inside and downstairs.
The restaurant area downstairs consists of a bar area and an extensive dining area. The restaurant environment was set up as dark with subtle lighting, which is a little bit chic in some way, but hell on the unseasoned photographer. The tables in the dining area were long, to promote a communal dining experience similar to that in Asia.
Spice Temple downstairs bar and bar area.
At the bar area, looking towards the dining area.
- another story), we decided to head straight to the city towards Rockpool. Just as well, as there was a rather thick block of traffic which we had to traverse.
But, so be it we pushed back on time, taxied to the runway and soon were off into the sky hurtling towards Brisbane.
