General Virgin Australia Lounge Discussion

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UPDATE: You're right, they were taken over by Aspire and probably maintaining "The House" name in Melb and Syd, "My Lounge" in Brisbane and "Aspire" in Perth (yet to be confirmed).
The issue is, that the old No1 operated it locally with Etihad and VA, Aspire is fully operated by them and is only available for VA Platinum status members and American Express Platinum Card holders, or those wishing to pay about $70 entry.
 
simmomelb said:
The issue is, that the old No1 operated it locally with Etihad and VA, Aspire is fully operated by them and is only available for VA Platinum status members
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I am so confused by you saying that Aspire is only for VA plat. According to Virgin's website there is no lounge access in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Nadi and Denpasar prior to Virgin Australia international flights.
 
henrus said:
I am so confused by you saying that Aspire is only for VA plat. According to Virgin's website there is no lounge access in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Nadi and Denpasar prior to Virgin Australia international flights.
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There is currently no access because they haven't reopened them yet. So that is true.
Aspire lounges in Australia, is for anyone in international ($70 entry fee) and for AMEX Platinum and VA Platinum they bill them for your entry fee.
They had proper lounge access prior to Covid, I used it several times and it used to be for gold, platinum and business class travellers, a shame that has all changed now.
 
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henrus said:
When you say VA platinum I assume you mean someone with Virgin Australia Platinum status?
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Yes, sorry, that's correct.
That's what I last read but given they haven't opened (reopened) the lounges under Aspire yet, who knows, it may even be better, like it used to be or worse. I'm a little puzzled Aspire still haven't opened them yet.
Surely there is plenty of traffic now.
 
henrus said:
Out of interest where did you read this?

I haven't ever heard of VA Platinums getting access to Aspire lounges?
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So I had to do some digging, and I was partly wrong and partly right (with some extra good news and a little bad news)
The Aspire Lounges are for all Gold and Platinum Velocity members, not just Platinum.
In other good news, The House lounges in Sydney and Melbourne have reopened.
The bad news, for now, this is only for flights on Etihad, unlike prior to Covid when The House was for all Virgin-operated international flights (under the old "The House" ownership).
Time will tell if this is extended to Qatar and their own Bali, NZ, Fiji, and Samoa flights.
This info can be found at point 5 here: Review: The House lounge, Sydney International Airport
Of course, those flying with Singapore Airlines can use their lounges with Gold or Platinum Velocity, so there is no need for Aspire lounges if this is the case.
 
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Traveling on Weds MEL to SYD on VA in Economy.
I am SQ Gold, can I access the VA Business Lounge?

Cheers,
Mitch
 
Mr Jurahn wasn't impressed with the MEL lounge late morning today - no hot drinks available, pax are still unable to make their own and none of the drink stations were staffed. Not great when hot drinks are no longer offered on shorter flights (e.g. MEL-HBA, MEL-CBR and vice versa) even when in J, due to short flight duration - we've both experienced this in recent months.
 
Jurahn said:
Mr Jurahn wasn't impressed with the MEL lounge late morning today - no hot drinks available, pax are still unable to make their own and none of the drink stations were staffed. Not great when hot drinks are no longer offered on shorter flights (e.g. MEL-HBA, MEL-CBR and vice versa) even when in J, due to short flight duration - we've both experienced this in recent months.
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The coffee bar in the centre, behind reception, wasn't open? I've never not seen it open at the times I've been there, and I travel around once a week through it.
I've heard it closes late in the evening when it's quiet.
 
simmomelb said:
The coffee bar in the centre, behind reception, wasn't open? I've never not seen it open at the times I've been there, and I travel around once a week through it.
I've heard it closes late in the evening when it's quiet.
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No, he said it wasn't open, nor was the one closer to the premium entry exit. He was there about 10am.
 
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Jurahn said:
No, he said it wasn't open, nor was the one closer to the premium entry. He was there about 10am.
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There is only one coffee bar, which is behind the reception/entry desk, not 2 of them.

There used to be one to the left on entry, but I believe they stopped that years ago (terrible memory).

That's very odd. Must be a staffing issue at a guess.
 
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simmomelb said:
There is only one coffee bar, which is behind reception/entry (not 2 of them).

That's very odd. Must be a staffing issue at a guess.
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Sorry, I think I'm getting a bit confused. When I was in the MEL lounge in May to/from CBR, there were two coffee bars/hot drink stations operating. One was in the open area technically behind reception (I walked past it on the way to the premium security screening area, which was open at the time), so perhaps that's the one you're referring to? There was another one along past the end of the food servery/bar counter. Both were open when I was there. Neither was staffed when Mr J was in there this morning. Hope that clarifies what I meant :)
 
Jurahn said:
Sorry, I think I'm getting a bit confused. When I was in the MEL lounge in May to/from CBR, there were two coffee bars/hot drink stations operating. One was in the open area technically behind reception (I walked past it on the way to the premium security screening area, which was open at the time), so perhaps that's the one you meant? There was another one along past the end of the food servery/bar counter. Both were open when I was there. Neither was staffed when Mr J was in there this morning. Hope that clarifies what I meant :)
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Ah yes, so the premium security has been removed, off to the side of the lounge, as you probably know (no need for it now), that's the only coffee bar I've seen open, and yep, that's the coffee bar I am referring to (stand-alone one) :)

Interesting to know the other one is open sometimes, I've just not seen it open in a very long time.
 
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simmomelb said:
Ah yes, so the premium security has been removed, off to the side of the lounge, as you probably know (no need for it now), that's the only coffee bar I've seen open, and yep, that's the coffee bar I am referring to (stand-alone one) :)

Interesting to know the other one is open sometimes, I've just not seen it open in a very long time.
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Ah I see! I haven't been through since the lounge has changed to being after security, so wasn't sure whether the rest of the layout had changed at all :)
 

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