New A330's

[lovestotravel]

I think Virgin are far from alone in that!

While that may be true, with a fleet of 4 x A330's there is really no excuse!

 

[pat25d]

I think I've come up with a solution that meets lovestotravel's needs:

1. Withdraw all planes except for 1 - cant have any inconsistent planes
2. Close all lounges except for Sydney - cant have any inconsistent lounges
3. Fire all cabin crew except for 5 - cant have any inconsistent crew
4. Build new planes 1 at a time, exactly to the same specs as the old ones.
5. As each new plane is introduced, withdraw the old one to be refurbished so it is identical to the new one

Repeat steps 4 and 5 forever.

 

[TirEoghain]

I think I've come up with a solution that meets lovestotravel's needs:

1. Withdraw all planes except for 1 - cant have any inconsistent planes
2. Close all lounges except for Sydney - cant have any inconsistent lounges
3. Fire all cabin crew except for 5 - cant have any inconsistent crew
4. Build new planes 1 at a time, exactly to the same specs as the old ones.
5. As each new plane is introduced, withdraw the old one to be refurbished so it is identical to the new one

Repeat steps 4 and 5 forever.

So who is going to crew the new plane when the old one comes back from refurbishment?

 

[pat25d]

There is only ever 1 plane in service.

CONSISTENCY!

 

[markis10]

There is only ever 1 plane in service.

CONSISTENCY!

Huh, it's 2 x 2?

 

[lovestotravel]

I think I've come up with a solution that meets lovestotravel's needs:

1. Withdraw all planes except for 1 - cant have any inconsistent planes
2. Close all lounges except for Sydney - cant have any inconsistent lounges
3. Fire all cabin crew except for 5 - cant have any inconsistent crew
4. Build new planes 1 at a time, exactly to the same specs as the old ones.
5. As each new plane is introduced, withdraw the old one to be refurbished so it is identical to the new one

Repeat steps 4 and 5 forever.

FAIL

1. No the 738's are pretty much consistent, in J
2. Lounges - The best lounge IMO is MEL, SYD will be great once renovatged. OOL looks good, will be there next week to try it out
3. Not worth a comment. Although the pathetic staff will get weeded out/quit as the pressure mounts on them.
4. Refer to 1.
5. Yep that should be done with the A330's and markis did hint that the ex-Emirates ones will be refurbished later this year, but I haven't seen anything on this.

 

[lovestotravel]

Huh, it's 2 x 2?

He was trying to be funny................

 

[JohnPhelan]

What about the crew goes on holidays?

 

[elemist]

Well i got luck this morning and scored one of the new planes. Bit of a review for you.

What can i say - bloody impressive. I thought the previous version of business class was very well done, but with the new planes it just takes things to a whole new level. The seat was pretty dam comfortable to sit in, i do agree with the comments about it not being full flat - so could be uncomfortable to sleep in for a long period. That said i managed to have quite a good nap, and had no issues sliding down it.

Built in seat power, plus connections into the entertainment system are brilliant. In this day and age of everyone having laptops/iPads/Tablets/DVD players etc having power is almost essential!

The entertainment system was pretty good. Whilst its definitely a massive leap up over the previous generation, i wasn't overly impressed with the controls. There was a tendency to lag slightly - causing you to jump two spots instead of one. Also one small but really annoying in conjunction with the slight lag was the poor feed back from the buttons, it was very hard to tell when you had pushed a button or not. The menu system was pretty convoluted and not overly intuitive - by this i mean lots of clicks to start something playing, trying to scroll screens was a pain and i think the colour needs to change a bit more dramatically so you can easily see which button your currently on. Lastly with the menu's was a weird thing about TV series and TV episodes - not sure why both were required, they both contain separate things - yet there is some mixture of the both. Content itself overall was good. Nice mixture of movies, tv shows/series and music.



The food was very nice. Breakfast was served on the flight, which involved starter of fresh fruit, yoghurt and a pastry. Mains was a choice of French Toast with a whole lot of nuts/berries/anything else on top or a scrambled egg, bacon and sauce (plus other ingredients i cant remember).

Crew couldn't have been more attentive. Few champagnes served on the ground, they had to take away my half drunk glass for take off - but literally the minute they were out of their seats i had a fresh glass sitting next to me. Throughout the flight my glass was always full, i was always addressed by name - by all crew not just the crew in J. The cabin manager was brilliant, came around and introduced himself. At the conclusion of each coarse he came past again to make sure everything was ok. Just overall very friendly and attentive crew!

So overall was very impressed. Although i can't help but be left with the feeling these are overkill for domestic service and most likely after the initial marketing to attract customers from QF may end up being regional to Asia etc.

 

[djfuzz]

Although i can't help but be left with the feeling these are overkill for domestic service and most likely after the initial marketing to attract customers from QF may end up being regional to Asia etc.

Thanks for the review - any thoughts on preferred seating? Your last point does make sense, they should be sending these up to BKK, HKG or TT.

Fingers crossed the do a resub on my upcoming flight, but I'm not overly fussed either way.

 

[elemist]

Row 1 clearly has the most leg space.. But there was decent leg room in all rows.

 

[Bofter]

Checked this morning and I have now 2 of 2 flights for a PER-MEL-PER return that have changed from the new to the old seat map. I had been quite looking forward to trying out the new configuration, but not to be.

 

[lovestotravel]

Checked this morning and I have now 2 of 2 flights for a PER-MEL-PER return that have changed from the new to the old seat map. I had been quite looking forward to trying out the new configuration, but not to be.

Bound to happen..... Will continue to happen.......

 

[elemist]

Despite the negative nellys on here carrying on about inconsistent product blah blah blah...

Yes ok i agree getting PE instead of J is a big issue. That should never happen except in an emergency - Even general operation issues shouldn't be a good enough reason.

That said J on the 737 is acceptable. On the A330 its very good and on the new a330's its brilliant. Thus i look at it this way. If i get a 737 or an older A330 that's great. If i get a new A330 well thats just a bonus!

 

[lovestotravel]

Despite the fanbois carrying on here about accepting an inconsistent product, I am glad that VA have not marketed the newer A330s (besides the initial PR) !

 

[Fruitcake]

Despite the fanbois carrying on here about accepting an inconsistent product, I am glad that VA have not marketed the newer A330s (besides the initial PR) !

Out of curiousity, which airlines more than a decade old that target business travellers has a 100% consistent product that you can recommend me?

 

[serfty]

Personally I look to book the Airbus specifically - even routing from MEL through SYD to PER.

I'd be pretty annoyed if a 737 were subbed.Posted on a wing and a prayer ...

 

[pat25d]

Out of curiousity, which airlines more than a decade old that target business travellers has a 100% consistent product that you can recommend me?

Its not even inconsistent in a bad way, it's inconsistent in a good way. As in the base product is good, and any inconsistency is of a better standard not worse.

I was supposed to be on a SQ A380 but it got subbed for a 777 - different product yes, inconsistent no. And I got over it.

 

[TirEoghain]

Its not even inconsistent in a bad way, it's inconsistent in a good way. As in the base product is good, and any inconsistency is of a better standard not worse.

I was supposed to be on a SQ A380 but it got subbed for a 777 - different product yes, inconsistent no. And I got over it.

Especially since I imagine the soft product was the same. It's not like they subbed for an aging 767.

 

[lovestotravel]

Out of curiousity, which airlines more than a decade old that target business travellers has a 100% consistent product that you can recommend me?

So because others do it, it's acceptable ?