In-flight Wi-Fi on Virgin Australia

[twinaisle]

There is inconsistency among the VA cabin crew, which is probably inevitable given there are so many of them. I always bring my iPad on board, which has a keyboard case. Maybe 1 in every 5 flights I'm asked to fold the keyboard away for takeoff and landing.

You actually have to take off the keyboard for take off and landing.

"iPads or devices with keyboards must be switched off and stowed away for take off and landing"

Anything larger than the safety instruction card has to be stowed.

 

[shuuy]

There is inconsistency among the VA cabin crew, which is probably inevitable given there are so many of them. I always bring my iPad on board, which has a keyboard case. Maybe 1 in every 5 flights I'm asked to fold the keyboard away for takeoff and landing.

I'm asked 5x out of 5 to close the keyboard (but can keep using the iPad)

 

[henrus]

Does anyone have an update into the percentage with wifi?

 

[Mattg]

I’ve had generally good experiences with the free wifi for Plat/J on my last few flights.

Last night wasn’t great though - it would remember my login status for about 2 minutes and then disconnect, requiring me to enter my surname and seat number each time to reconnect. Had to enter those details a dozen times between MEL and CBR - lucky it was a short flight.

 

[henrus]

Is it just me or when you fly forward on a flight it doesn’t know your details. The live chat will happily issue a code to use but I wonder if there is a cutoff for when VA submit the passenger list to wifi onboard.

 

[Human]

Is it just me or when you fly forward on a flight it doesn’t know your details. The live chat will happily issue a code to use but I wonder if there is a cutoff for when VA submit the passenger list to wifi onboard.

Whenever I fly forward I have no problems accessing wifi if it's available. Generally, though, I call earlier in the day so my Fly Forward flight is organised several hours beforehand.

 

[henrus]

I call earlier in the day so my Fly Forward flight is organised several hours beforehand.

Yesterday I did it about 45 minutes before departure via a kiosk.

 

[Wolbi136]

I've got a reward seat on the CNS-HND route in October which will likely be operated by a 737-8. I'm also platinum status so get complimentary in-flight Wifi. I've flown the 737-8 a couple of times recently and once there was no entertainment or Wifi at all, and the second time there was entertainment only and no Wifi. Do any of Virgin's 737-8s have internet connection? I've also heard stories of the entertainment having issues. It would certainly make the 7.5 hours go a bit quicker!

 

[asterix]

I've got a reward seat on the CNS-HND route in October which will likely be operated by a 737-8. I'm also platinum status so get complimentary in-flight Wifi. I've flown the 737-8 a couple of times recently and once there was no entertainment or Wifi at all, and the second time there was entertainment only and no Wifi. Do any of Virgin's 737-8s have internet connection? I've also heard stories of the entertainment having issues. It would certainly make the 7.5 hours go a bit quicker!

We flew CNS-HND with Virgin on 26/06/2024 and had inflight wifi and entertainment on BYOD.

 

[RooFlyer]

I've had much better success in having wifi on VA recently - each of my past 6 flights. Hopefully you'll be OK but I still make sure my phone is also loaded!

 

[PERLHR]

I had none on a max between SYD and PER a few weeks back. The max was one week old at that time. I messaged VA asking them to tell me why I should not just dump them for QF who offer now probably a much better experience, at least down the back although I did happen to be in biz). After the usual standard response of how sorry they were I went back and reiterated that for a five hour flight without blanket or pillow at least wifi should be a must. We settled on 5,000 point credit.

 

[Wolbi136]

It's only been the MAX 8s and the newer ex-Silk Air -800s where I've had a hit and miss experience. All their other aircraft have had IFE and Wifi working perfectly.

 

[henrus]

I messaged VA asking them to tell me why I should not just dump them for QF who offer now probably a much better experience, at least down the back although I did happen to be in biz)

Give me the economy x and VA wifi any day of the week. Qantas as a platinum gets nothing special in legroom or wifi noting that whilst it’s free it’s heavily oversubscribed with many 737 flights seeing 300+ active connections to the internet. When it works VAs wifi has a 600-700ms ping and often 50mbps speeds whereas QF is often 1000ms and 1-2mbps.

 

[p--and--t]

It's only been the MAX 8s and the newer ex-Silk Air -800s where I've had a hit and miss experience. All their other aircraft have had IFE and Wifi working perfectly.

Wondering if it is a max issue generally. I couldn’t get free wifi for J working on 4 x AeroMexico flight max flights.

 

[RooFlyer]

Wondering if it is a max issue generally. I couldn’t get free wifi for J working on 4 x AeroMexico flight max flights.

Doesn’t seem to be. Two of my last flights out of my past six VA successes were on Maxes.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

Onboard VH-YIG at the moment, wifi hasn't skipped a beat. Have had wifi for most of my VA services so far this year, so not complaining.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Have found video streaming to be hit & miss but generally better in 2024 than 2023. I mostly fly MEL-PER though so the extent of the southerly track probably has a significant effect on coverage.

 

[henrus]

Does anyone know what percentage of the fleet is now fitted?

 

[twinaisle]

Does anyone know what percentage of the fleet is now fitted?

30 aircraft yet to be fitted out of the entire 737 fleet which include -700

 

[PerryPl]

Anyone noticed that the Moving Map is not available anymore on certain aircraft that seem to have updated IFE? Just a duration to destination countdown, and thats it? Are there plans to bring this back?