First flight on VA review

[cmon0005]

Last week I had my first flight on Virgin Australia since the airline was fully rebranded (I had flown Virgin blue many times before).

Here's how my experience went:

-Had to goto SYD for the day for a meeting, work only books with VA. I am only a red velocity member as never fly with them.
-Booked Fully Flex fares both ways, fly up in the morning, back to MEL on the 5:15pm.

Web checked in the day before, got good seats row 4 and 5 (Good).

Flew on 737-800 with new branding/seats inside.
First impressions MEL-SYD:
*Boarding seems a bit more orderly since their LCC days, and a lot more business people. (Good)
*Still seems just as squishy if not more so than their LCC days? (Bad)
*No seat back TV's, where did live2air go? (Bad)
*J class looks tacky, with the purple glass, and no curtains. (Bad)
*Less on-board announcements than I remember from LCC days. (Good)
*Friendly staff. (Good)
*Breakfast as part of the flexi fare was coughpy and boring to say the least, just a cold "apple strudel" in a plastic bag... (Bad)

SYD-MEL:
*Arrived at airport earlier than expected for 5:15pm flight back @ 3:50pm. Went to VA service desk asked if I could be put onto earlier flight without any hesitation was handed a 4:30pm boarding pass. (Very Good)
*Straight to the gate and boarded in 10 mins. (Good)
* "Dinner" was served as part of Flexi fare, was better then the breakfast but still boring/cold/coughpy. Roast beef wrap. (Bad)
*Arrived in MEL early and got home early! (Good)


So all in all, I think VA is leaps and bounds better than it was in the Virgin blue days especially for business travelers.
However there are still many things that need to be improved as above, and hopefully one day they'll shrug that LCC feeling off altogether.
For now I'll still do all my personal flying with QF, as they are still the best in my books.

 

[Shelf]

Agreed - the purple partition looks tacky

 

[drewbles]

Agreed - the purple partition looks tacky

The solution to this is easy. Just make sure you're in front of the purple perspex divider and you don't need to look at it!

VA are also much better at stopping whY pax wandering up to the J lav

 

[TonyHancock]

The solution to this is easy. Just make sure you're in front of the purple perspex divider and you don't need to look at it!

VA are also much better at stopping whY pax wandering up to the J lav

.....and protecting overhead locker space in J!

 

[moa999]

Mostly, although more often than not crew bags, headsets and the digi devices are stored up the front - normally row 2 left.

This is a pain as the row 1 bins wont fit a full size cabin bag (due to halfsize doors and the large hinges) or the smaller bins on the BSI aircraft.
IMHO would be better of these bags went in Row 1 so you still had access to the full size bins.

 

[cmon0005]

The solution to this is easy. Just make sure you're in front of the purple perspex divider and you don't need to look at it!

There is no privacy in VA J, 170 pairs of eyes looking at you in purple or through the gap where curtains should be!

 

[drron]

The solution to this is easy. Just make sure you're in front of the purple perspex divider and you don't need to look at it!

VA are also much better at stopping whY pax wandering up to the J lav

Not on DJ1508 today-Brown's cows as virtually all of rows 4-8 used the J loos.Us row 3ers had a lot more class!

 

[drewbles]

There is no privacy in VA J, 170 pairs of eyes looking at you in purple or through the gap where curtains should be!

I beg to differ. Most my VA flights are up front and the Perspex divider is suitably high enough to be just fine. I have no problems being in the 738 J cabins on them.

 

[serfty]

There is no privacy in VA J, 170 pairs of eyes looking at you in purple or through the gap where curtains should be!

Hmm ... what would I care- I doubt I'd see the 340 or so eyes unless I deigned to make the effort to turn around and peer back ...