Virgin 737-8 Max Business Class - No Divider

[SJDOP]

Just experienced Business Class Brisbane to Perth return on VA462 from Brisbane on 31 October 2024 and on 5th November 2024 VA471.

Because there is no partition between Business Class and Economy on this plane, you have economy class passengers using the forward toilet usually reserved for Business and Cabin crew.

On the BNE to Perth route the cabin manager to my horror announced after take off that economy class passengers were welcome to use the forward toilet as well as the 2 at the rear.
On the Perth to Brisbane flight the cabin manager did not allow this, but the crew were constantly hassled by passengers because of this.
What on earth was the idea to not fit a cabin partition between business on these planes?

We had people queuing beside our business seats - we literally had business class seats become the 'seats beside the toilet'.

Idiotic.

 

[Human]

I initially interpreted the title of your post to mean that there is "no partition problem" -- ie there's no problem with not having a partition! Only after I read your post did I see that you meant the opposite.

That said, this has been discussed at great length on AFF, not least on the thread below.

T

Thread 'Virgin Australia to Reconfigure 737 Fleet - Spend $110M'

Jul 7, 2023

In the next two years All 737-800 Y/J seats will be reconfigured to the new seat prototype as seen on the 2 ex silk air and max aircraft.

The divider between J and Y will be removed to allow for another row of 6 seats, totalling 182 seats onboard.

A new sky divider will be installed.

All seats will have USB power once installed.

• twinaisle
• Replies: 306
• Forum: Virgin Australia | Velocity

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[Forg]

Do airlines normally have a divider for short-haul "business" these days (which looks like it just means priority boarding and an unused middle seat and maybe slightly less bad catering)?

 

[SJDOP]

Do airlines normally have a divider for short-haul "business" these days (which looks like it just means priority boarding and an unused middle seat and maybe slightly less bad catering)?

Is 5.5 hours short haul? Perhaps, but doesn't feel like it.

 

[harryhv]

Virgin's old planes had a divider and a little rope across the aisle, as well as 3 rows of extra legroom seats. After this downgrade of the interior to cram in an extra row of seats, extra-legroom is reduced to 2 rows and the divider between economy and business is gone. This means a line of interlopers from economy are buffeting the aisle seats in business class as they wait for the toilet.

So yes, Virgin business class could be renamed "the seats by the toilet"

 

[Forg]

Is 5.5 hours short haul? Perhaps, but doesn't feel like it.

It's not, but that doesn't stop "them" putting short-haul aircraft/cabins on those routes ...

 

[twinaisle]

Just experienced Business Class Brisbane to Perth return on VA462 from Brisbane on 31 October 2024 and on 5th November 2024 VA471.

Because there is no partition between Business Class and Economy on this plane, you have economy class passengers using the forward toilet usually reserved for Business and Cabin crew.

On the BNE to Perth route the cabin manager to my horror announced after take off that economy class passengers were welcome to use the forward toilet as well as the 2 at the rear.
On the Perth to Brisbane flight the cabin manager did not allow this, but the crew were constantly hassled by passengers because of this.
What on earth was the idea to not fit a cabin partition between business on these planes?

We had people queuing beside our business seats - we literally had business class seats become the 'seats beside the toilet'.

Idiotic.

Please complain
Please complain
Please complain
Please complain

We're pretty tired of it and having to monitor the toilet queues!

Please complain
Please complain
Please complain
Please complain

 

[PERLHR]

There has been plenty of convo on the lack of dividers on many of the aircraft and in particular the new ones. Yes it has been debated on how long the expected dividers are going take and look like but VA despite feedback(which they say the FF changes have been also based up...,) they must think we were all born yesterday.. seem not to bother about the onboard Complaints from J pax. However any CSD actively encouraging the use of the forward cabin loo on PA would certainly result on me having a quiet word and asking why I pay lots of money for a J seat if I have to Q to use the J loo. And it is the biz loo...no matter what others say. More regularly it is monitored and announced that the loo for Y is from row 3 back. The issue is Perth has longer sectors and hence issues further back with loo throughout! It is disappointing though as it is yet just another thing that makes J on VA not really even Premier Economy.

 

[SJDOP]

Please complain
Please complain
Please complain
Please complain

We're pretty tired of it and having to monitor the toilet queues!

Please complain
Please complain
Please complain
Please complain

Yes, I have.

 

[daft009]

noticed the same thing on a recent VA flight from SYD to DPS, no dividers.
I was flying Y so did the right thing and went to the rear loos

 

[Saab34]

I would have assumed, that employees who continue to complain to Management over it will have more bearing vs a passenger complaint who often goes as far as a customer team in Head Office who don’t send the thousands of complaints onwards to Management. We have had similar sort of issues in my workplace, after numerous town halls, monthly online meets, employee surveys, it got to the point where this one issue everyone didn’t stop banging on about was dealt with. Cost a few million in capex, but the company couldn’t ignore it for any longer. Bit hard to continue to say we value employee feedback, but we have been talking about this issue for at least a year now…

It probably gets to the point in which the executives don’t really see it as an issue, or don’t care, or don’t have any capital allocated for the project.

Management are often tone deaf when it comes to some front line things, even the tiny things. Bang on long enough and eventually they will wake up.