scottz95
Member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2015
- Posts
- 124
Hi all,
As most of you are probably aware, Virgin Australia has been working to get themselves a new terminal for quite some time in Perth and it has finally come time to open the domestic pier at Terminal 1. The official launch date is set for the 22nd of November assuming no other delays occur but today for some of the general public, they got hands on access to the new terminal (but no lounge, sorry lounge lizards, I wanted a fresh barista made coffee more than anyone else in the terminal but alas, they haven't finished it yet) as part of a trial for the airport to work out where they need to fix things prior to go live.
So a quick rundown of how the trial worked from a running schedule:
1) 9:15am: Passengers meet at the Long Term Carpark as far away from the terminal as possible, are checked in and given their information sheet (a.k.a. a Virgin Australia booking itinerary and/or an eBoarding pass, assuming your character checked in online. If you were so lucky to receive a blue sheet, you were a business customer and got all the perks of that class of service. Absent though was the differences between an economy status flyer and standard economy flyers which was an odd thing not to test out.
2) 9:30am: Bus takes you over to the terminal, where you are told to, and I quote "DO NOT TAKE ANY PHOTOS, VA HAS A STICK UP THEIR BUTTS ABOUT THIS". You can tell this is an external contractor speaking who clearly hadn't slept well the night before hand. But who doesn't take a few happy snaps for our friends on AFF to have look at.
3) 9:35am: Arrive at the terminal and the simulation begins. It's a full boarding and arrivals procedure, in which you actually board the plane, sit on it for a few and come back off to collect baggage if you bought it.
4) 10:55am: A flight to Derby-Curtin boarded a Fokker 100 through gate 44
5) 11:05am: A flight to Darwin boarded a B738 through gate 47a
6) 11:35am: A flight to Brisbane boarded a A332 through gate 48a
7) 11:35-12:10pm: All flights were offloaded and the arrivals trial began
4) 12:25pm: All finished and sign out back at the Carpark.
Check In and Baggage Drop
Upon entering the departure sliding doors, you immediately know you are in the VA terminal, if the sign outside saying "Virgin Australia" didn't give it away, there's a huge dose of purple that is synonymous with the Virgin Australia brand. One thing that struck me as odd was the flow of the Priority Check-in compared to the [-]pleb[/-] standard check-in. While there was notably more check in kiosks for the standard passengers, they seemed to positioned more conveniently as compared to the Priority Check-in kiosks which are painfully close to the door and could create a queue in peak periods of travel. Its also noted that the bag drop for priority passengers flows around the underside of the escalators and around the lifts to a partitioned off section of the check-in space behind both of the aforementioned features, again, this doesn't bother people as of yet but I imagine that this maybe a choke point upon peak period departures.
The Kiosk Check-in system is identical to Qantas in the look and feel except the screens are larger and the software has been given a lick of paint in the colour and theme of online check-in from VA. There was an odd bug in that you couldn't pick your seats on screen either which struck me as odd too. I'm assuming it was just disabled because of the trial but if it's an actual feature that's failing, there's no doubt, I will be checking in online every single time.
Baggage drop is very similar to the Qantas system in which you drop your item on the belt and you scan your boarding pass so the system knows whom it belongs to and which flight it belongs to. The one stark difference is that the VA baggage drop system, unlike the Qantas variety does not scan to identify your baggage tag, rather it recognises that you haven't printed one off at the Check In Kiosk and will prompt you to print one off there instead prior to accepting your bags. To me, this will catch out flyers who check in online as they will assume that they can simply go to the drop and print a tag there rather than queuing with passengers to check in as well. Another notable thing which I hope will be ironed out prior to launch is that the kiosk allows you to set your bags in the system however it didn't print your baggage tag when checking in, instead you had to return to "Reprint Baggage Tag" at the kiosk. A strange bug that multiple passengers fell subject to. In saying that, once it's fixed, I feel it will be slightly faster than the Qantas system which I have found to be somewhat temperamental in the past when checking baggage if it couldn't precisely scan your baggage tag with the laser that it runs over your bag.
Terminal to Security Checkpoint
Once baggage is checked in, or if you don't have any checked, you will head up either the escalator or elevators (referred to above) and turn right to a large security area. This has the same vibe as the Qantas Domestic Security checkpoint but has dark wood lining the walls making it feel less intrusive rather than the clinical colour scheme adopted at T3. Unfortunately, as has been a pet peeve of mine in the the T4 Virgin Terminal, the lounge has an entry hidden off to the side of the security checkpoint and while the signage is clearer than the previous terminal, it's still very easily missed. For obvious reasons, absolutely no photos are allowed to be taken in the security area as is standard at every airport that I am aware of.
Virgin Lounge
The Virgin Lounge as mentioned is just off of the security checkpoint. It wasn't open for the trial nor was it particularly easy to peer into and they made sure nobody would leak any photos as when I was there, a member of the VA team was standing outside ensuring people didn't take any photos.
However, to give you an idea, you scan your boarding pass or Velocity card before the sliding doors will open up so hopefully this reduces the number of [-]over-entitled saver[/-] confused passengers trying to enter. However there will be staff at the desk just incase, if like me, the readers don't respond to your Velocity card/Boarding pass so well. The lounge from the outside looks quite small but it does appear they have worked in the VA Leaf skylight pattern. Another point is the Coffee bar that's positioned further down the lounge closer to the tarmac views. I personally can't wait for that to become available.
For anyone that's paying attention, the Club is located closer to the Pier away from the entrance to the Lounge and has the subtle "Private" door you have seen in the VA Lounge in Melbourne and Sydney out in the terminal rather than being within the Lounge itself.
The Domestic Pier and Boarding Gates
This was probably the most exciting feature of the domestic pier we could have a look at today as it actually makes Perth Airport look like a real airport. In the past, its looked pretty hobbled together and not appealing at all. The terminal looks clean, there are some nice art installations in the roof and some food outlets that actually put the old terminal to shame by a mile. In addition to this, there is some retail stores incase you want a pair of sunnies or [-]overpriced[/-] last-minute headphones.
The boarding gates are very similar to the appearance in the Sydney domestic terminal for VA however the colour scheme is a lot more subtle, which for me is a positive as I'm a fan of minimalistic, industrial design.
Different gates have different layouts for boarding. The majority are designed for those whom are priority passengers and business class to board through one lane and all standard passengers board through the other meeting afterwards in the air bridge. The notable exception is the air bridges for the A330s. This was confusing to me as they have a dedicated Business queue (makes sense given the number of seats in business on an A330) and a queue for General passengers but notably, those with Velocity status were not allowed to use the Business queue. This is partly due to the fact that passengers in Business boarded through the front door of the plane and standard passengers boarded through the second galley doors. As such, if you are a status holder flying in economy and like to board early, I would highly recommend lining up fast as I can be sure that nobody is going to let you through to the front when they call to board status holders. Boarding procedures are the same as previous, scan your pass on the reader and off you go.
Arrivals and Baggage Claim
Virgin has clearly thought about this quite well in that every gate has clear signage pointing people back up the pier towards the escalators to the Baggage Claim area which is downstairs positioned behind the bag drop and check-in kiosks but sectioned off. Heading back up the terminal feels like a pleasant walk as its only 250m or so long but I wouldn't be rushing to get off the plane as even with no other "flights" arriving, baggage claim still took quite sometime. One interesting point that I missed on the way in, was that there was a window through which you can view directly into the new International Departure lounge and further through, the Emirates Lounge that they opened up late last week. Also alongside of walkways on the way back up, I noticed that there is a glass partitioned area that acts as the arrivals concourse for those arriving on international flights at a remote stand. I'm looking at you Tiger and Malindo to use this the most.
Baggage claim only features two carousels which I don't think will pose an issue unless there are flights coming all in at once, then this might pose an issue as I believe there were three carousels in the T4 set up. For the short term, be aware that the carousel may change. Our "flight" was suppose to have baggage come through on carousel 1 but actually appeared on carousel 2. This is despite the fact that the screen still depicted the baggage would appear on carousel 1. Probably a mistake by the baggage handlers but it may catch a few passengers out if they aren't observant.
Summary
The terminal is leaps and bounds better than the previous T4 setup. It feels open and spacious with plenty of lighting and great runway and tarmac views depending on where you chose to sit at the gates. Is there a few improvements that could be made, yes but will those things be a huge problem to the passenger experience if they are not resolved, probably not with the exception of the software on the kiosks having a couple of hiccups.
If there is anyone that did attend todays trial, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well or if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away.
As most of you are probably aware, Virgin Australia has been working to get themselves a new terminal for quite some time in Perth and it has finally come time to open the domestic pier at Terminal 1. The official launch date is set for the 22nd of November assuming no other delays occur but today for some of the general public, they got hands on access to the new terminal (but no lounge, sorry lounge lizards, I wanted a fresh barista made coffee more than anyone else in the terminal but alas, they haven't finished it yet) as part of a trial for the airport to work out where they need to fix things prior to go live.
So a quick rundown of how the trial worked from a running schedule:
1) 9:15am: Passengers meet at the Long Term Carpark as far away from the terminal as possible, are checked in and given their information sheet (a.k.a. a Virgin Australia booking itinerary and/or an eBoarding pass, assuming your character checked in online. If you were so lucky to receive a blue sheet, you were a business customer and got all the perks of that class of service. Absent though was the differences between an economy status flyer and standard economy flyers which was an odd thing not to test out.
2) 9:30am: Bus takes you over to the terminal, where you are told to, and I quote "DO NOT TAKE ANY PHOTOS, VA HAS A STICK UP THEIR BUTTS ABOUT THIS". You can tell this is an external contractor speaking who clearly hadn't slept well the night before hand. But who doesn't take a few happy snaps for our friends on AFF to have look at.
3) 9:35am: Arrive at the terminal and the simulation begins. It's a full boarding and arrivals procedure, in which you actually board the plane, sit on it for a few and come back off to collect baggage if you bought it.
4) 10:55am: A flight to Derby-Curtin boarded a Fokker 100 through gate 44
5) 11:05am: A flight to Darwin boarded a B738 through gate 47a
6) 11:35am: A flight to Brisbane boarded a A332 through gate 48a
7) 11:35-12:10pm: All flights were offloaded and the arrivals trial began
4) 12:25pm: All finished and sign out back at the Carpark.
Check In and Baggage Drop
Upon entering the departure sliding doors, you immediately know you are in the VA terminal, if the sign outside saying "Virgin Australia" didn't give it away, there's a huge dose of purple that is synonymous with the Virgin Australia brand. One thing that struck me as odd was the flow of the Priority Check-in compared to the [-]pleb[/-] standard check-in. While there was notably more check in kiosks for the standard passengers, they seemed to positioned more conveniently as compared to the Priority Check-in kiosks which are painfully close to the door and could create a queue in peak periods of travel. Its also noted that the bag drop for priority passengers flows around the underside of the escalators and around the lifts to a partitioned off section of the check-in space behind both of the aforementioned features, again, this doesn't bother people as of yet but I imagine that this maybe a choke point upon peak period departures.
The Kiosk Check-in system is identical to Qantas in the look and feel except the screens are larger and the software has been given a lick of paint in the colour and theme of online check-in from VA. There was an odd bug in that you couldn't pick your seats on screen either which struck me as odd too. I'm assuming it was just disabled because of the trial but if it's an actual feature that's failing, there's no doubt, I will be checking in online every single time.
Baggage drop is very similar to the Qantas system in which you drop your item on the belt and you scan your boarding pass so the system knows whom it belongs to and which flight it belongs to. The one stark difference is that the VA baggage drop system, unlike the Qantas variety does not scan to identify your baggage tag, rather it recognises that you haven't printed one off at the Check In Kiosk and will prompt you to print one off there instead prior to accepting your bags. To me, this will catch out flyers who check in online as they will assume that they can simply go to the drop and print a tag there rather than queuing with passengers to check in as well. Another notable thing which I hope will be ironed out prior to launch is that the kiosk allows you to set your bags in the system however it didn't print your baggage tag when checking in, instead you had to return to "Reprint Baggage Tag" at the kiosk. A strange bug that multiple passengers fell subject to. In saying that, once it's fixed, I feel it will be slightly faster than the Qantas system which I have found to be somewhat temperamental in the past when checking baggage if it couldn't precisely scan your baggage tag with the laser that it runs over your bag.
Terminal to Security Checkpoint
Once baggage is checked in, or if you don't have any checked, you will head up either the escalator or elevators (referred to above) and turn right to a large security area. This has the same vibe as the Qantas Domestic Security checkpoint but has dark wood lining the walls making it feel less intrusive rather than the clinical colour scheme adopted at T3. Unfortunately, as has been a pet peeve of mine in the the T4 Virgin Terminal, the lounge has an entry hidden off to the side of the security checkpoint and while the signage is clearer than the previous terminal, it's still very easily missed. For obvious reasons, absolutely no photos are allowed to be taken in the security area as is standard at every airport that I am aware of.
Virgin Lounge
The Virgin Lounge as mentioned is just off of the security checkpoint. It wasn't open for the trial nor was it particularly easy to peer into and they made sure nobody would leak any photos as when I was there, a member of the VA team was standing outside ensuring people didn't take any photos.
However, to give you an idea, you scan your boarding pass or Velocity card before the sliding doors will open up so hopefully this reduces the number of [-]over-entitled saver[/-] confused passengers trying to enter. However there will be staff at the desk just incase, if like me, the readers don't respond to your Velocity card/Boarding pass so well. The lounge from the outside looks quite small but it does appear they have worked in the VA Leaf skylight pattern. Another point is the Coffee bar that's positioned further down the lounge closer to the tarmac views. I personally can't wait for that to become available.
For anyone that's paying attention, the Club is located closer to the Pier away from the entrance to the Lounge and has the subtle "Private" door you have seen in the VA Lounge in Melbourne and Sydney out in the terminal rather than being within the Lounge itself.
The Domestic Pier and Boarding Gates
This was probably the most exciting feature of the domestic pier we could have a look at today as it actually makes Perth Airport look like a real airport. In the past, its looked pretty hobbled together and not appealing at all. The terminal looks clean, there are some nice art installations in the roof and some food outlets that actually put the old terminal to shame by a mile. In addition to this, there is some retail stores incase you want a pair of sunnies or [-]overpriced[/-] last-minute headphones.
The boarding gates are very similar to the appearance in the Sydney domestic terminal for VA however the colour scheme is a lot more subtle, which for me is a positive as I'm a fan of minimalistic, industrial design.
Different gates have different layouts for boarding. The majority are designed for those whom are priority passengers and business class to board through one lane and all standard passengers board through the other meeting afterwards in the air bridge. The notable exception is the air bridges for the A330s. This was confusing to me as they have a dedicated Business queue (makes sense given the number of seats in business on an A330) and a queue for General passengers but notably, those with Velocity status were not allowed to use the Business queue. This is partly due to the fact that passengers in Business boarded through the front door of the plane and standard passengers boarded through the second galley doors. As such, if you are a status holder flying in economy and like to board early, I would highly recommend lining up fast as I can be sure that nobody is going to let you through to the front when they call to board status holders. Boarding procedures are the same as previous, scan your pass on the reader and off you go.
Arrivals and Baggage Claim
Virgin has clearly thought about this quite well in that every gate has clear signage pointing people back up the pier towards the escalators to the Baggage Claim area which is downstairs positioned behind the bag drop and check-in kiosks but sectioned off. Heading back up the terminal feels like a pleasant walk as its only 250m or so long but I wouldn't be rushing to get off the plane as even with no other "flights" arriving, baggage claim still took quite sometime. One interesting point that I missed on the way in, was that there was a window through which you can view directly into the new International Departure lounge and further through, the Emirates Lounge that they opened up late last week. Also alongside of walkways on the way back up, I noticed that there is a glass partitioned area that acts as the arrivals concourse for those arriving on international flights at a remote stand. I'm looking at you Tiger and Malindo to use this the most.
Baggage claim only features two carousels which I don't think will pose an issue unless there are flights coming all in at once, then this might pose an issue as I believe there were three carousels in the T4 set up. For the short term, be aware that the carousel may change. Our "flight" was suppose to have baggage come through on carousel 1 but actually appeared on carousel 2. This is despite the fact that the screen still depicted the baggage would appear on carousel 1. Probably a mistake by the baggage handlers but it may catch a few passengers out if they aren't observant.
Summary
The terminal is leaps and bounds better than the previous T4 setup. It feels open and spacious with plenty of lighting and great runway and tarmac views depending on where you chose to sit at the gates. Is there a few improvements that could be made, yes but will those things be a huge problem to the passenger experience if they are not resolved, probably not with the exception of the software on the kiosks having a couple of hiccups.
If there is anyone that did attend todays trial, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well or if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away.
