Two reasons I can't take Virgin & Velocity seriously

[Denali]

....Superior domestic business class availability on the A330 does make it a winner.

Problem is you book the A330 and then spend your time from booking to boarding, checking to see if they have changed the plane on you.

 

[cove]

Hasn't happened to us. I don't think it is easy to put more passengers off an A330 into a 737-800 on a Perth to Sydney or Melbourne run. If it was a 60 minute flight I wouldn't get upset about it.

 

[Jurahn]

Problem is you book the A330 and then spend your time from booking to boarding, checking to see if they have changed the plane on you.

+1 to this.

Hasn't happened to us. I don't think it is easy to put more passengers off an A330 into a 737-800 on a Perth to Sydney or Melbourne run. If it was a 60 minute flight I wouldn't get upset about it.

Has happened to both myself (once) and Mr Jurahn (twice) in the past 12 months, no notification of the aircraft change received on any of those 3 occasions, despite being booked in J.

 

[Pleb Status]

For interest, over the past two years, I have had five QF J flights change from an A330 to a 73H and only one VA flight change from an A330 to a 73H. For full disclosure, I did have one VA flight change from an A330 to 73H and then back to an A330 (so this does not count).

As I have flown in VA J approximately twice as much as QF J over the past two years, in my experience, it is therefore TEN times more likely that QF will swap an A330 to a 73H than VA....

Do I believe this is a true indication of the likelihood of change... No I do not. However, it does give an idea based on a reasonable sample size (~40 J sectors).

 

[pauly7]

Can someone clarify which time slots exactly on VA are not 'fun size snack time'? Reason I ask is that it's a reason our Procurement team are 'not taking VA seriously' because people have started expensing meals on VA due to the thimble of water and fun sized muesli bar for breakfast offering. I am actually not clear myself?

 

[pauly7]

Problem is you book the A330 and then spend your time from booking to boarding, checking to see if they have changed the plane on you.

Feel your pain - I tend to find VA sub about 4-7 days out BUT I have been caught twice at check in with a lovely 737 trans con 'surprise'

 

[basso]

Can someone clarify which time slots exactly on VA are not 'fun size snack time'? Reason I ask is that it's a reason our Procurement team are 'not taking VA seriously' because people have started expensing meals on VA due to the thimble of water and fun sized muesli bar for breakfast offering. I am actually not clear myself?

It is not a time of day thing. It's a sector length thing.

 

[pauly7]

It is not a time of day thing. It's a sector length thing.
View attachment 99860

Oh this is brilliant thanks, Procurement will love this! Mel-Bne is a key route we fly and seeing the expenses roll in.

 

[Lemon_Party]

Oh this is brilliant thanks, Procurement will love this! Mel-Bne is a key route we fly and seeing the expenses roll in.

The "snack" from BNE-MEL last week was a 20g lemon filled JAMZ.

 

[andyhui01]

My experience of MEL-SYD and MEL-BNE gets the same snack. I have never seen that table before.

I fly MEL-SYD more often and bite is generally cookie, muffin or pack of pretzels. What is a snack?

 

[Tassieoptom]

My experience of MEL-SYD and MEL-BNE gets the same snack. I have never seen that table before.

I fly MEL-SYD more often and bite is generally cookie, muffin or pack of pretzels. What is a snack?

Yes, was thinking the same, what is definition of each, Cafe snack etc.

 

[Mattg]

The food I got on my last "Snack" length flight was literally enough for one bite. How is this possibly better than the food given on a "Bite" flight?!

On a slightly unrelated note... now that Virgin no longer gives out free (proper) food to customers on flexi fares, I wonder if they would consider providing a food & beverage credit (say, $15) to customers on Freedom and/or Elevate fares?

 

[Jack_OC]

It is not a time of day thing. It's a sector length thing.
View attachment 99860

If you take the information in this table literally, then the longest duration it mentions is 6.3 minutes (i.e. 6 minutes, 18 seconds)! Yet another example of VA being unable to get the simplest things right!

Despite what the heading says, are these durations supposed to be hours and minutes - e.g. up to 1 hour 20 mins in the first row? Or are there just random decimal points in the numbers for no reason - e.g. is the first row supposed to be zero to 120 minutes?

EDIT: if it's meant to be hours and minutes, then both MEL-SYD and MEL-BNE would fit into the second category ("snack"). So I'm assuming that's what it's supposed to mean.

 

[Mr Pumblechook]

Mel-Bne is a key route we fly and seeing the expenses roll in.

I fly BNE-MEL-BNE fortnightly and at all hours. I haven't been keeping strict records but I think the catering is something like this:

First flight until 1200: Gourmet free-range grain and tropical fruit breakfast delight (pejoratively also known as the muesli bite or 'Oh I couldn't eat a whole one') with tea, coffee, juice or water
1200-1300 or maybe 1400: High tea-inspired delicate finger sandwiches (you might know it as the unfairly maligned 'wait so it's one sandwich between four of us?' quarter-sandwich) with tea, coffee, juice or spring water
1400-1700: The dreaded Jamz (an abortion of two small biscuits stuck together with some kind of fruit spread that will outlast time itself) or the oatmeal biscuit (same thing but make the biscuits with oatmeal and don't stick them together with jam. Is that an improvement? Hmm hard to say...) and of course your choice of tea, coffee, juice or spring water
1700-1900: Happy Hour! The one good snack of the day! It could be the tasty salt and vinegar chickpea snacks! Or maybe the pretzels and almonds! No matter, the punters love them and they come with soft drink or beer or wine so you're bound to be back for more*^ (*there isn't any more. ^Weekdays only, otherwise it's your choice of tea, coffee, juice or water)
1900 until last flight: Happy Hour is over and the free drinks have been locked away. To make up for the pain of missing out, you'll receive the salt and vinegar chickpea snacks or similar but only with your choice of tea, coffee, juice or water

 

[andyhui01]

You are correct. Just looked at it again and MEL-SYD is eligible for a snack. I don't fly any shorter sectors so now I am curious what is a bite.

 

[Lemon_Party]

The dreaded Jamz (an abortion of two small biscuits stuck together with some kind of fruit spread that will outlast time itself)

I idly read the back of the packet (twice the size of the actual bounty inside, to give the illusion of merely a small snack, rather than minuscule) and was pleased to see that it was both 25% sugar and margarine was the second largest ingredient. Tasty.

 

[ozmille]

It is not a time of day thing. It's a sector length thing.
View attachment 99860

looking forward to my Cafe Plus experience next week!

 

[JohnK]

The "snack" from BNE-MEL last week was a 20g lemon filled JAMZ.

Oh dear.

looking forward to my Cafe Plus experience next week!

Cafe Plus on BNE-PER was only a wrap.

 

[Justchecking]

I fly BNE-MEL-BNE fortnightly and at all hours. I haven't been keeping strict records but I think the catering is something like this:

First flight until 1200: Gourmet free-range grain and tropical fruit breakfast delight (pejoratively also known as the muesli bite or 'Oh I couldn't eat a whole one') with tea, coffee, juice or water
1200-1300 or maybe 1400: High tea-inspired delicate finger sandwiches (you might know it as the unfairly maligned 'wait so it's one sandwich between four of us?' quarter-sandwich) with tea, coffee, juice or spring water
1400-1700: The dreaded Jamz (an abortion of two small biscuits stuck together with some kind of fruit spread that will outlast time itself) or the oatmeal biscuit (same thing but make the biscuits with oatmeal and don't stick them together with jam. Is that an improvement? Hmm hard to say...) and of course your choice of tea, coffee, juice or spring water
1700-1900: Happy Hour! The one good snack of the day! It could be the tasty salt and vinegar chickpea snacks! Or maybe the pretzels and almonds! No matter, the punters love them and they come with soft drink or beer or wine so you're bound to be back for more*^ (*there isn't any more. ^Weekdays only, otherwise it's your choice of tea, coffee, juice or water)
1900 until last flight: Happy Hour is over and the free drinks have been locked away. To make up for the pain of missing out, you'll receive the salt and vinegar chickpea snacks or similar but only with your choice of tea, coffee, juice or water

This almost sounds like culinary torture. Rather than give you nothing we'll give you just enough food to make you hungry then you can sit there for the next 45mins+ with your mouth watering and locked in a tube at 25,000ft.

 

[Tassieoptom]

This almost sounds like culinary torture. Rather than give you nothing we'll give you just enough food to make you hungry then you can sit there for the next 45mins+ with your mouth watering and locked in a tube at 25,000ft.

Great comment. Tend to agree but have to be realistic, the food available on nearly all flights in Y is suspect, and certainly not 'good' food. I have 2-3 cups of tea/coffee through my working day and almost never get a lunch break let alone lunch. I am pretty happy with some quiet time in the air and do not really need the food, and any food that i would like in the air will certainly be not good for me. So with most flights, as with most movies i eat before not during. Would be much happier if they got rid of the food all together and gave a better drink. just my 2 cents.