The Virgin Australia Newbie Questions Thread

[avennbrown]

Hi there

I'm new here. New to using my velocity points as well. I have enough points to fly Business Class to LA and returrn. At 73 it's the only way I can do long-haul.

I need to go over towards the end of October.

On the Virgin website, there are only economy reward seats available.

Do BC reward seats only become available closer to the date of departpure?

I guess another option is to get premium and use points to upgrade. I've done this before and didn't get up high enough on the waiting list so really don't want to risk it

Has anyone been through this process before and can give me some advice/suggetions?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Mwenenzi]

avennbrown Welcome to AFF

I'm new here. New to using my velocity points as well. I have enough points to fly Business Class to LA and return. At 73 it's the only way I can do long-haul.
I need to go over towards the end of October.
On the Virgin website, there are only economy reward seats available.
Do BC reward seats only become available closer to the date of departure?
I guess another option is to get premium and use points to upgrade. I've done this before and didn't get up high enough on the waiting list so really don't want to risk it
Has anyone been through this process before and can give me some advice/suggestions.

Virgin no longer fly to LAX. Pre CV19 they did. So Velocity will be offering a flight on a partner airline: probably UA
You cannot use VA Velocity points to upgrade a cash or award flight on UA
Business class awards AU<---->USA are very hard to get, Far from guaranteed.
Looking from all main east coast airports to main USA west coast airports may offer something different to you xx_-LAX search. No need to book as return. Two one ways to/from different airports may show something.

Be prepared to fly in a lower class than business. Just a fact of life with frequent flyer programs!

 

[TMP]

Welcome! Yes, United is only releasing business class (J class) seats to Virgin Australia/ Velocity within a month of departure. Of course, there is no guarantee they will be released for a flight / date / time that you want. Good luck!

 

[Brizz]

You can use Seats.Aero to search for flights effectively.

I have provided a link below which looks at Velocity reward seats over the next 60 days between Oz and the US.

You can see that there are plenty of business class seats available over the next month - but that they dry up the further out you look.

By the time you are looking a month out they are all gone. This is because UA mainly release seats within a month of departure.

https://seats.aero/velocity?originRegion=Oceania&destinationRegion=North%20America

You can subscribe to Seats.Aero and refine the search, but the view above is generally enough.

No guarantees of course but you will probably find something suitable closer to the date.

GL!

 

[SJDOP]

Does anyone know what the signs are that your flight will be changed to an Alliance rather than Virgin? I have just received an email saying in-flight entertainment won't be available on my Boeing 737-700, which makes me suspicious this is about to be booted from Virgin Business Class seat to a no-thrills Alliance seat.
I phoned Virgin and waited 30 minutes to be told they have no further insight or information on the email I got sent, and that it currently hasn't changed carrier, but the guy said if it was changed I might get an email tomorrow, the day before the flight!
I'm really getting annoyed with Virgin, as I have been booted to Alliance on the ADL route half a dozen times now, always last minute.
Always a really tired looking plane. Last time there was tissue paper jammed in the panels above the seats in about 6 places. I asked the Flight Attendant why, and she said that it was to catch the a/c drips. The fabric interior are always yellowed and worn out by age.
I would say I'm getting close to waving goodbye to VA if this continues.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Dont think Alliance flies the 737-700, that is VARA.
Embraer E190 I think is it.
Or the Fokker 70/Fokker 100.

 

[SJDOP]

Don think Alliance flies the 737-700, that is VARA.
Embraer E190 I think is it.

They have always booted me to a Fokker in the past, so hoping it's still VA.

 

[simmomelb]

They have always booted me to a Fokker in the past, so hoping it's still VA.

Yep as mentioned above, if you are on a 737-700 or Fokker, that is not Alliance but VA / VARA

What is your flight number and departure date?

 

[clare1991]

Do all 737-700’s not have entertainment?

They have downgraded the aircraft for my flight BNE-PER VA466 today

It seems to now be one of the all economy 737-700 VH-NQI

 

[simmomelb]

Do all 737-700’s not have entertainment?

They have downgraded the aircraft for my flight BNE-PER VA466 today

It seems to now be one of the all economy 737-700 VH-NQI

It's not about it being a 737-700, it's that VH-NQI was primarily a FIFO plane for WA mining (which it still does some of this work), however, it's now spending a lot of time on the east coast. It was never configured for regular passenger services. It will likely get configured for regular passenger services next year, is my guess.

 

[clare1991]

It's not about it being a 737-700, it's that VH-NQI was primarily a FIFO plane for WA mining (which it still does some of this work), however, it's now spending a lot of time on the east coast. It was never configured for regular passenger services. It will likely get configured for regular passenger services next year, is my guess.

That wasn’t even my question.
But going by that I’ll assume that there is NO entertainment available.

 

[simmomelb]

That wasn’t even my question.
But going by that I’ll assume that there is NO entertainment available.

As it's a FIFO configured aircraft it doesn't have IFE or WiFi internet, that's what I was alluding to
No FIFO-configured planes have this.
You asked, "Do all 737-700’s not have entertainment?" I was trying to point out that this has nothing to do with it, it's because it is a FIFO aircraft, hence no entertainment (IFE) or WiFi internet (yet).
This will likely change once/if reconfigured next year.

 

[Harrison_133]

Do all 737-700’s not have entertainment?

They have downgraded the aircraft for my flight BNE-PER VA466 today

It seems to now be one of the all economy 737-700 VH-NQI

They have started to install the IFE on the all economy 700s. Unsure though if NQI has been done yet.

 

[SJDOP]

Yep as mentioned above, if you are on a 737-700 or Fokker, that is not Alliance but VA / VARA

What is your flight number and departure date?

Today VA1388. All good, VA operated it. J class but no in-flight entertainment/wi-fi. 737-700.

 

[Harrison_133]

Today VA1388. All good, VA operated it. J class but no in-flight entertainment/wi-fi. 737-700.

You would have been on the first all-Y 700 to have business class fitted.

Out of interest, did you catch a glimpse of the Y cabin? Were the Y seats new too?

 

[SJDOP]

You would have been on the first all-Y 700 to have business class fitted.

Out of interest, did you catch a glimpse of the Y cabin? Were the Y seats new too?

The seats from row 3 back looked to be new from a glance though couldn't be sure. There was no partition between Y and J.

 

[avennbrown]

avennbrown Welcome to AFF


Virgin no longer fly to LAX. Pre CV19 they did. So Velocity will be offering a flight on a partner airline: probably UA
You cannot use VA Velocity points to upgrade a cash or award flight on UA
Business class awards AU<---->USA are very hard to get, Far from guaranteed.
Looking from all main east coast airports to main USA west coast airports may offer something different to you xx_-LAX search. No need to book as return. Two one ways to/from different airports may show something.

Be prepared to fly in a lower class than business. Just a fact of life with frequent flyer programs!

thanks for the reply and information. I see going via Singapore could be an option on premium reward seat. Much longer time travelling but the flights would be comfortable and I think you get access to the lounges on business class as well.

 

[travelislife]

thanks for the reply and information. I see going via Singapore could be an option on premium reward seat. Much longer time travelling but the flights would be comfortable and I think you get access to the lounges on business class as well.

October should be pretty good chance of the flights on UA I reckon. Whilst there are no guarantees, you can monitor and watch the general pattern of when they release availability. If you only need 1 ticket and are flexible +/- a couple of days I reckon you will be fine getting a business seat, even if it is in to SFO instead of LAX.

 

[zeruassiul]

Hi there,

I was exploring some options to book reward flights from Europe to India on my way back to Sydney using velocity points. Lufthansa flies to BOM, DEL, BLR, MAA, and Air India as well. Any of those destinations work for me. However, when I search the velocity site and toggle use velocity points, I am able to select Frankfurt in the fly from section but no Indian destination shows in the fly to section. Am I missing something? I can see flights to Singapore and Tokyo in the "To" selection box though.

Thanks.

 

[ols]

Hi there,

I was exploring some options to book reward flights from Europe to India on my way back to Sydney using velocity points. Lufthansa flies to BOM, DEL, BLR, MAA, and Air India as well. Any of those destinations work for me. However, when I search the velocity site and toggle use velocity points, I am able to select Frankfurt in the fly from section but no Indian destination shows in the fly to section. Am I missing something? I can see flights to Singapore and Tokyo in the "To" selection box though.

Thanks.

Lufthansa is not a Virgin partner.

You will definitely find flights on Qatar/Etihad but will need to fly via Doha/Abu Dhabi hub.