Business Class Trip Report

[Mal]

Currently the beer offering in J Class is Crown Lager and the guest beer, which is currently Fat Yak Pale Ale.

Pax in economy have a choice of either Cascade Premium or Pure Blonde

Yep. It was fat yak not blonde. Thanks.


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[MomoWang]

Flight Report - Business Class BNE CNS

I traveled on Thursday evening from BNE to CNS in Business Class so I thought I would share my experience.

I booked the night before using the Velocity phone line. The connection was instantaneous, it didn't even ring. I spoke to Belinda in the Brisbane Head Office who was superb. I had checked the website before so I knew exactly what I wanted and I had two credit shells to use up and it was all done very quickly.

The Brisbane lounge met my expectations. I joined the queue but was quickly pulled across to the service counter so I wasnt kept waiting. Boarding pass - seat 2a. The sandwich maker has changed in the last few weeks from a flat surface one to the grill type, personally not a fan of the new one but it does the job. I was in the lounge from about 5.30 - 6.30pm and it is certainly well use, Not many spare seats around. There was no boarding announcement so about 10 minutes before departure I headed off to gate 44. Boarding was well in progress and with the priority queue empty I went straight through.

I was a bit surprised to find an Embraer 190 when I turned the corner at the aerobridge. I guess they still haven't ironed out the kinks in selling business on the ejets - as I later double checked the website and these flights are ejet and being sold as business. This didn't bother me that much as I was going on a few days break combined with a status run for double points and I'd get the service and meals anyway. It will be interesting to see if I get the credit back anyway.

Greeted upon arrival at the door by Supervisor Kel who met me by name. He put my bag up for me and took my jacket, followed soon after by serving of the cranberry coughtail drink. The seat next to me was blocked and there was a couple in row 1 who chose to sit together. So 3 of the 4 J seats for this flight sold.

Great sunset departure out over the city and away. DigiPlayer was offered but I didn't bother as I was reading and had my iPad. I could have checked to see if they had updated the content in the last 4 weeks but I didn't bother. The quality of the devices is poor and I personally don't like them. Looking forward to the Samsung Galaxies that are coming.

One thing that did come as a bit of a surprise was the Business Class amenity kit sitting on the chair next to me when I boarded. Now airborne I had the opportunity to explore it. It contains a blanket, blow up pillow (like the style that wrap around your neck but it is rectangular), earplugs, eye shades, tissues, socks, a pen and a toothbrush/paste.


Virgin Australia Business Class (domestic) Amenity Kit by MomoWang.AU, on Flickr

Soon after departure, was asked if I would be dining tonight. The meat dish was the Moroccan lamb with cous cous and didn't bother finding out what the vegetarian was, I think it was a pasta. I had read in previous posts in this thread the lamb was good and not being a fan of the former shepherds pie, I was happy for some variety.





This dish was very nice, although I don't like pine nuts they were easily pushed aside.

About 30 minutes after I had finished, and with constant drink refills from Kel, he offered me a Luke Mangan Ice Cream Sandwich. Naturally you say yes to see what it is like.



Nice simple presentation, hover it was as hard as a rock. It had possibly been sitting on dry ice all day.If you look closely you may be able to see my bite mark at the top of the photo where I nearly broke my teeth off. I had to leave it sitting there for about 20 minutes before I could even cut into it with a knife. It was a nice serving and it is vanilla ice-cream with some slight berry flavour through it, only subtle though. Just need to overcome the 'frozen' part when it is served or atleast tell people.

It was a bumpy flight with the seat belt sign on for half of it. Nice smooth landing into CNS. Kel handed my jacket back to me and I was off the plane very quickly.

Overall
Booking - Velocity Gold Call Centre was very efficient and excellent response time
Check-in - At Lounge, wait time 20 seconds
Lounge - Clean, efficient, busy, sometimes struggle to keep glasses, plates and cutlery restocked
Seat - Premium Economy, seated in 2A, seat 2B blocked
Amentiy Kit - Surprised as not expected, maybe not needed for 2 hr flight, good to get though
Service - Excellent, good job by Kel
Meal - well presented, good quality, met expectations, frozen ice-cream only issue
IFE - didn't bother due to poor previous experiences

Business Class BNE CNS
- normal flight not worth it for me personally
- status run maybe worth it
- status run with double points, very worth it
- status run with double points and possible credit shell back due ejet, exceptionally worth it

Return flight to BNE in a few days.....

 

[Blackswan]

Flight Report - Business Class BNE CNS

I quite like the icecream sandwiches. So much so the crew on my recent J flight must have noticed - I was given a few for the road as I deboarded.

 

[Mal]

Flight Report - Business Class BNE CNS

I traveled on Thursday evening from BNE to CNS in Business Class so I thought I would share my experience.

Same flight. A day later...
No amenity kit. Was asleep during climb and woke up about 30mins into flight. No digiplayer offered but no loss. Have never used it.

Straight away offered dinner. Very plainly described.. 'do you want the lamb or Penne pasta'. Had the lamb, was moroccan lamb again.... I had it a week before. This time i enjoyed the lamb more but there seemed less of it. Presentation was fairly sloppy imho. In addition this time it had a small dish on the side of what some people might call salad. Lettuce was old and wilty. Other greens were ok but it really was poor. Made sense why the balsamic and olive oil exists. Also there was a pack of Luke's special nuts. 2 choc and toffee coated macadamias.

Same as the photo above but less salad, no butter offered that i recall. As i only rarely have butter i may have missed it. Only one roll given.

No ice cream sandwich. Was it not loaded? Did the staffer forget? Definitely was not offered.

Asked for a red wine. Unlike qf it was poured in the galley and put on tray without any comment what is was.

Wine was refilled a couple of times more.

Upon landing the aisle wasn't blocked by staff. I was sitting down in the aisle seat after collecting my bag. When the door was opened i was personally invited to disembark first which annoyed the guy in the aisle who had moved there from econ.

A little bit meh overall. Staff friendly but lacked j polish. The e190s do need j seats, and quicker than the timeframe planned.

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[Comoman]

I flew A330 Syd-Per this week. Was my 5 or 6th time (I think) on A330 J class. Flight left bang on time.

Food unchanged - had the Barramundi in Miso soup. Getting a little boring now - have also tried the pie. However the crew were probably the worse I have experienced. Gossiping loudly (I could hear from row 2) and laughing hysterically in both galleys. Not pleasant if you're trying to work. I had to ask 3 times for a wine refill - didn't come around offering refills like all the other trips. CSM didn't come around and be sociable/meeting & greeting etc. Once food service finished all crew retired to said galley and caught up on their gossip. My seat neighbour (from a very large mining company) also commented on it.

Got off the aircraft feeling very underwhelmed. $1400 later

Tried to give feedback to Virgin but the Captcha thingy wasn't working.

 

[Moopere]

I flew A330 Syd-Per this week. Was my 5 or 6th time (I think) on A330 J class. Flight left bang on time.

Food unchanged - had the Barramundi in Miso soup. Getting a little boring now - have also tried the pie. However the crew were probably the worse I have experienced. Gossiping loudly (I could hear from row 2) and laughing hysterically in both galleys. Not pleasant if you're trying to work. I had to ask 3 times for a wine refill - didn't come around offering refills like all the other trips. CSM didn't come around and be sociable/meeting & greeting etc. Once food service finished all crew retired to said galley and caught up on their gossip. My seat neighbour (from a very large mining company) also commented on it.

Got off the aircraft feeling very underwhelmed. $1400 later

Tried to give feedback to Virgin but the Captcha thingy wasn't working.

I'm a bit sensitive to this sort of thing as well. In my view it comes down to a good or bad CSM. A professional (re:good) CSM would almost certainly have pulled his team into line in relation to this sort of behaviour.

 

[Comoman]

Unfortunately the CSM was one of the ones gossiping the galley.....

 

[Noob]

I'm a bit sensitive to this sort of thing as well. In my view it comes down to a good or bad CSM. A professional (re:good) CSM would almost certainly have pulled his team into line in relation to this sort of behaviour.

So true, in any team situation how the manager behaves trickles down the chain to all the team. A good manager almost always equals a good team, and a good CSM almost always guarantees a great crew.

 

[mickeyc747]

I flew A330 Syd-Per this week. Was my 5 or 6th time (I think) on A330 J class. Flight left bang on time.

Food unchanged - had the Barramundi in Miso soup. Getting a little boring now - have also tried the pie. However the crew were probably the worse I have experienced. Gossiping loudly (I could hear from row 2) and laughing hysterically in both galleys. Not pleasant if you're trying to work. I had to ask 3 times for a wine refill - didn't come around offering refills like all the other trips. CSM didn't come around and be sociable/meeting & greeting etc. Once food service finished all crew retired to said galley and caught up on their gossip. My seat neighbour (from a very large mining company) also commented on it.

Got off the aircraft feeling very underwhelmed. $1400 later

Tried to give feedback to Virgin but the Captcha thingy wasn't working.

I am flying the A330 this week to Perth and have previously flown and had the opposite experience and as you say it is all about the (CS) Cabin Supervisor. My last flight to Perth was great but it was the CS on the OOL - SYD leg who was rude and treated myself and my travelling companion like a schoolie on an opup (Platinum the hard way). What i will say is that I gave JB the feedback and I got a reply from him within 48 hours and an apology for the bad service from the CS (whos name I cannot reveal but is the destination of QF7). The crew on the A330 where fantastic and especially when I informed them of the bad start to the day I had with the CS on the OOL SYD sector, then manatory 4 hour delay of the A330 and my boarding pass rejecting me at the gate. I had three spakling wines before take off. I will agree with your comments above it is the CS that makes the flight. (just watch out for QF7 melbourne based CS and those of you that know Pam Ann he is a real CSD)

 

[koonyaflyer]

So true, in any team situation how the manager behaves trickles down the chain to all the team. A good manager almost always equals a good team, and a good CSM almost always guarantees a great crew.

Cannot agree with this more. Had one PE flight where the CSM was more worried about her sunburn, talking to the First Officer and ducking to the toilet to check her makeup. She did sweet nothing for most of the flight, whilst the crew worked hard. The feeling on the flight was appalling .... The crew were clearly not happy. I have to say DJ guest relations took the feedback seriously, and I was exceptionally happy with the outcome.

 

[maninblack]

Flight Report - Business Class BNE CNS

About commensurate with my recent experiences. Pretty dreadful presentation of a J class product, served with appropriate lack of knowledge and attention to detail, taste and consistency only marginally better. They need a new caterer and improved crew training.

 

[dk4]

Pretty dreadful presentation of a J class product...

IMO, it is not too dissimilar to the way Qantas presents its domestic business tray - except maybe that at QF the tray is grey and at DJ the tray is purple (and Virgin uses Salt & Pepper shakers and Qantas uses tacky satchels).

Example of Qantas Domestic Business Class meal tray presentation.

Example of Qantas Domestic Business Class main meal presentation.

 

[dk4]

Example of Qantas Domestic Business Class icecream presentation.

 

[travelislife]

Pretty dreadful presentation of a J class product, served with appropriate lack of knowledge and attention to detail, taste and consistency only marginally better.

What do you expect presentation wise? As shown from the photos it is pretty much the same as QF. I can understand about the knowledge of the FA's though. Would be good for them to know the ingredients, etc. to provide a better service.

 

[maninblack]

What do you expect presentation wise? As shown from the photos it is pretty much the same as QF. I can understand about the knowledge of the FA's though. Would be good for them to know the ingredients, etc. to provide a better service.

I have said it before and I will say it again. If Virgin's ambition is simply to be just a bit worse than Qantas then they are achieving this modest ambition. That is probably not a great way to win J customers though. They have an opportunity to really do it better but are not taking up that option.

I really have been hoping for this but so far it's been pretty ordinary.

 

[Fruitcake]

I had a close family member travel CNS-BNE-SYD and then SYD-CNS in J over the weekend (using points upgrades). He thought the "two seats" setup in J on the E190 CNS-BNE was a fantastic concept, due to having space to put stuff whilst in flight, and having two tray tables to work with. The SYD-CNS leg was supposed to be a 737-700, DJ rang him two days out and said that due to seating not being of 737 J class standard, he would be getting his points refunded, but would still receive J service. As it happened there was a late aircraft change - to a 737-800 - so he got the J seats anyway. He was impressed with catering and especially the service, both of which he rated above recent QF domestic J experiences.

 

[Mal]

Here are a few points regarding the last few posts.
Why was there no icecream on my flight but was the night before? Sounds like a service or catering issue.
Staff need to explain options better. Lamb? No. It should be consistently described between flights as spicy Moroccon lamb with cous cous.
When a customer asks for wine the fa should name what they are serving or at least show the bottle.
I can tell that the fa is doing the garnish, care should be taken to make it look presentable.
And why an amenity pack one night but not the next?

Consistency is needed. And not consistently underwhelming.

These are all small things but overall it brings down the product.



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[MichaelD]

If Virgin's ambition is simply to be just a bit worse than Qantas then they are achieving this modest ambition.

I think that sums up my experience perfectly, as well.

After a disastrous MEL-OOL set of J flights in PE seats (well-discussed in another thread) and the changes Virgin made in response, we gave them another go MEL-OOL.

A plane substitution saw a PE seat for the return offered. We changed flights and got the proper J seating. At least this time we were warned before boarding.

MEL-BNE yesterday - lovely food, but looked very ordinary in presentation. IMO the photos of Virgin vs Qantas catering earlier in this thread show this perfectly - the Qantas offering looks WAY more appetising. It also seems as if there is little to no variation in Virgin J meals which will get stale very quickly. The Qantas J menu changes frequently.

I've also now concluded that the Qantas 737 and 767 J seat is more comfortable. I'm not as sure about the Airbus J seating yet but haven't had that much.


What makes Virgin the "poor man's J"?
1. The significant chance of you getting a PE seat - I now have to consider alternative flight options when booking Virgin J in case of aircraft substitution so I can react on check-in. I also have to check for and avoid E190s. Not an issue on Qantas.
2. The food just isn't as well presented. Putting 2 chocolate macadamia nuts in a packet and printing "Luke Mangan" on it does not make them anything other than ordinary chocolate macadamia nuts. It's very JetStar StarClass.
3. The main meal windows are far too short and the snack service in between main meal flights is sub-par.
4. The service can vary from really very good indeed, even other-the-top and fawning, to non-existent. In the last 12 months, I have found Qantas J service to be faultless and consistent.
5. It really irritates me that points and SCs take 3 days to appear. With Qantas, they are there by the next morning if not the same day.

In short, the product is still too variable and inconsistent to be relied upon.

So why am I still spending some of my travel $ on Virgin?
1. The frequent flyer program is very attractive *for domestic travel* - points + pay is very well priced indeed for leisure travel; the 4 free J upgrades per year are very appealing; points are very easy to earn; family pooling means I don't need to waste points and SCs once I'm requalified for Platinum.
2. On some routes the product is very good indeed (PER-SYD on the A330 - if the plane is working!).
3. They seem at least to be trying and responding.

Right now, I plan to keep at least 2 of my family at Virgin Platinum but direct the rest of the flying spend to Qantas to keep us at WP1/WP/WP.

 

[medhead]

I have said it before and I will say it again. If Virgin's ambition is simply to be just a bit worse than Qantas then they are achieving this modest ambition.

I'm sorry, but there are plenty of AFF members who think it is perfectly fine for Qantas to be only as good as the next airline. That being the case, why are we demanding that Virgin be better than their competition? Their results certainly show they are attracting customers by being as good as Qantas.

 

[MichaelD]

why are we demanding that Virgin be better than their competition?

Virgin have a long history of overpromising and underdelivering which they continue to this day. Why would a loyal Qantas J customer move to Virgin unless there is something about their product that differentiates them from Qantas?

Lest I be accused of being a Qantas fanboi - when it all comes down to it I will pick the flight which best suits MY purposes. Where Virgin offers the better option for me, I will choose them.

eg yesterday's MEL-BNE sector - a no-brainer for Virgin: double points/SCs which will get me to exactly 800 SCs and requalify me for Platinum for this year.