Rumour: Next phase of VA "meals for all" to start tomorrow [14-Apr-2015]

[Phillippe M]

Flights to DRW are now getting boxed hot meals, some of the crew told me. Maybe ASP or AYQ too...?

Depends on what you define as a "boxed hot meal". Last Sunday on the SYD-DRW flight, I got the tub of yogurt, muffin and a hot quiche that was just a little bigger then a 50c piece. The time of the meal for this service needs to be sorted out though, currently it leaves SYD at 9:50am and arrives in DRW at 2pm, they serve this "meal" around 30mins into the flight, for me personally, I would rather have it after 90mins or so, which brings it closer to lunch time.

I think they still have a long way to go. Although if they are still more then $30 cheaper then QF, I guess I will fly them.

 

[MH_fan]

Update: I got a lovely small pack of the fruit & nut mix on ROK-BNE with wine and it was the cheese & crackers with the usual water/juice/tea/coffee on BNE-SYD. Actually, even the food offerings in the BNE lounge was very disappointing!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Update: I got a lovely small pack of the fruit & nut mix on ROK-BNE with wine and it was the cheese & crackers with the usual water/juice/tea/coffee on BNE-SYD. Actually, even the food offerings in the BNE lounge was very disappointing!

I suspected your expectations may have been set just a wee bit too high when you suggested you'd have something "substantial" in the BNE lounge.

 

[strtrek]

SYD-OOL...anzac cookie and glass of water
OOL-MEL...tomato and cheese mini sandwich and glass of water (shame I'm dairy intolerant)
MEL-SYD...anzac cookie and glass of water

didnt we always get these, so where are the enhancements???

and after doing SYD/OOL & MEL lounges in one day....lounge food is very...how do I put it....blah.

 

[MH_fan]

I suspected your expectations may have been set just a wee bit too high when you suggested you'd have something "substantial" in the BNE lounge.

I guess it must've been! I'd been there at the same time the week before and there was a nice chicken pasta pesto salad, which was reasonably substantial. I miss their chicken and kale caesar salad. That is so yummy! Haven't seen that in a while. But my most recent visit has been the most disappointing for food offerings in the VA lounge for quite some time. The Thai pumpkin soup was very nice though.

 

[morfergus]

A very small packet of rice crackers and almonds in the 5:15pm NTL-BNE on Thu. Quite underwhelming after the in-flight announcement of complimentary snacks. I would have preferred cheese and biscuits and a glass of wine. Also no lounge at NTL to fill up in prior.

I really dont know why they bothered.

 

[Revolio]

I really dont know why they bothered.

I have a really remote feeling it might have something to do with adding $30 to the fare. Just an outsiders type guess.

 

[toowongman]

A very small packet of rice crackers and almonds in the 5:15pm NTL-BNE on Thu. Quite underwhelming after the in-flight announcement of complimentary snacks. I would have preferred cheese and biscuits and a glass of wine. Also no lounge at NTL to fill up in prior.

I really dont know why they bothered.

True. I used to joke that NTL's lounge was the sports bar, which has unfortunately gone due to the renovations.
VA should really go back to a decent BOB menu or go full ahead and have proper meals/snack boxes.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

BNE-CNS 4.50pm - I think it may have been a slice of banana bread but I admit I didn't have it so I could be mistaken.

I did however ask to purchase a glass of wine and was told only water, juice, tea, coffee. That was my first flexi on that route this year, but can someone tell me if that's a (QF style) enhancement? I'm sure we used to be able to purchase grog on the that flight.

Also, what are they thinking with regard to dinner times. BNE-CNS 4.50pm - 7.20pm. Am I very different to most people or does that straddle dinner time? Also the plane into BNE went tech so they had to find another so we didn't leave until after 5.30pm and had (according to the pilot) 100knot headwinds which meant we only arrived into CNS after 8pm. Couldn't even grab a bite at the Exec lounge at the Hilton. (I did however survive )

 

[alviau]

Hi all, first time posting on AFF tho I've been reading for a while and using the handy tips and advice not only for VFF, but QFF and the other programs. I'm currently Gold on VFF but sadly will go down to Silver in a couple of months as I haven't had much travel, which it's mostly self funded and thanks to long-haul travel.

Let me preface by saying that this is not to agree/disagree with what is being offered in terms of portion size, quality or otherwise. But I feel that what is being expressed on this thread is different to what I've seen officially come from VA. As pointed out by someone else, the official communication from VA and that reported on the media doesn't actually mention the word "meals", or bigger portions, brand new food offerings, etc. And even the images used (I first came across the news on their Facebook page which linked to their blog) simply reflected the snack offerings we've all seen previously. So to be fair to them, they haven't promised more than what they have delivered (from what I can see).

What I got from their media release is that now all domestic flights get some kind of food tailored to the time of the day and flight length. And baggage. And that's pretty much it. The word "meal" mentioned first here sent everyone on a frenzy of imaginary possibilities (and we love that).

I haven't been yet on the flights that previously didn't include anything so can't comment on that, but BNE-SYD this Wednesday offered crackers and dip as previously. At least now all flights include something without trying to guess what flights get what, which was a gripe expressed on AFF previously many times.

Anyway, that's my first contribution (somewhat lenghty).

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Anyway, that's my first contribution (somewhat lenghty).

Welcome to AFF alviau!

I made a post on this thread a while back which pretty accurately sums up my assessment. That is that there are winners and losers with recent changes. The winners are saver flyers only but that seems to be tempered with what I recently discovered to be no drinks at all for sale on a CNS-BNE flight. The word "meal" I'm fairly sure was the term used to describe the flexi food offering back a few years when those changes were made (maybe someone might be able to confirm that) and they definitely provided better offerings than the measly snack now offered (ie pie at one point, a wrap etc) and that has definitely been razed so it's not so much the word in question, it's the decimation of the offering (whilst increasing the fare for the case of flexis).

I'm still curious to know if other routes that definitely did sell drinks (soft and hard drinks) have gone the way of CNS-BNE and not doing that. The non J regional routes removed drink sales many months ago (which I assumed was to provide consistancy with the ATR product where space is a limitation) but CNS was never in that realm and the removal of 'buy on board" drinks is not in keeping with their press release where they state that "buy on board" will continue.

 

[jpk]

I'm still curious to know if other routes that definitely did sell drinks (soft and hard drinks) have gone the way of CNS-BNE and not doing that.

Bought wine on a 1pm flight MEL-SYD the other day. Potentially could have been a catering mixup, or more likely the usual VA crew inconsistency.. I'm sure VA still want to make money from drink sales.

 

[yohy?!]

haven't seen any change on my weekly golden triangle commute or on a SYD-OOL return on the weekend, that being said the lounge offerings for dinner have really stepped up and 'filled' the gap so to speak. have enjoyed the addition of scrambled eggs at breakfast and the chicken pies and thai curries that are appearing on both weekday and weekend meal times - QF QPs and J lounges by comparison looking very weak - last Thurs in MEL Dom J the hot dinner offering was some kind of burnt McCain's pizza slice.

 

[warpspeed]

I'm flying Virgin for the first time in a long time next week, PER-ADL, right on dinner time. 4:55pm-9:15pm. Wonder what I'll get, sounds like two tenths of bugger all. Better have a big lunch.

 

[RickyT84]

haven't seen any change on my weekly golden triangle commute or on a SYD-OOL return on the weekend, that being said the lounge offerings for dinner have really stepped up and 'filled' the gap so to speak. have enjoyed the addition of scrambled eggs at breakfast and the chicken pies and thai curries that are appearing on both weekday and weekend meal times - QF QPs and J lounges by comparison looking very weak - last Thurs in MEL Dom J the hot dinner offering was some kind of burnt McCain's pizza slice.

Funny how VA has stepped up its lounge offerings for dinner but hasn't done the same to its inflight 'dinner' service whilst QF is completely opposite where the lounge offerings has been downgraded (vegetarian fried rice with soy sauce) but has improved its inflight dinner service.

 

[Justinf]

Receieved a Tim Tam on both directions MEL-HBA-MEL on the weekend. Tim Tam and a plastic glass of water...mmmm!

 

[Aussie_flyer]

OOL-MEL on Sunday night, small piece of cheese and 4 crackers.

 

[jpk]

MEL-CNS last week, 9am dep 12pm arr. Someone else upthread got this on SYD-DRW also. Banana muffin (expiry date in mid 2016!), yoghurt, dried fruit mix, and a warm quiche that was very small. That said, it was more than I was expecting outside of mealtimes, so I was actually pleasantly surprised.

 

[bullerdude]

Well that's certainly better than a tim tam I guess.

 

[medhead]

I've been collecting my 6:15am VA muffin to have for morning tea at work for the last few weeks. I've just realised what's wrong with these muffins. Anyone who remembers their Seinfeld will understand, the muffin top has no taste.