Virgin 737-8 Max Business Class - No Divider

[eastwest101]

That was the experience outbound: the comments from the cabin manager inbound to me was that some cabin managers have just given up because management don't back them. Actually the second cabin manager on the inbound J class, came around the 8 business passengers and briefed us individually about how we was going to try and manage the toilet and lack of partition. They made a great effort I have to say. He did warn us though that on many occasions he has been barged out the way and stuff like that from passengers from Y class, and that there was only so much they could do. He strongly suggested to us all that we should leave feedback with a and gave us all a business card with QR code to facilitate.

Yeah obviously some disconnect between Virgin management and Virgin cabin crew about this, the original dividers with magnetic ropes did work well and was intentional in design, I am sure that cabin crew would have brought this up when the first dividerless aircraft turned up and then as the cabin densification and removal of dividers rolled out the issue has snowballed, especially on long sectors like flight to Perth and Bali from the east coast.

I wonder why the Virgin Cabin crew haven't simply got the Business catering/drinks carts out as soon as seatbelt lights go out and just parked them at the rear of the J cabin for the duration of the flight? I think there would be room for Row 3 Y passengers to still get in and out of their seatss if they did it that way?

 

[HS-TQE]

I wonder why the Virgin Cabin crew haven't simply got the Business catering/drinks carts out as soon as seatbelt lights go out and just parked them at the rear of the J cabin for the duration of the flight? I think there would be room for Row 3 Y passengers to still get in and out of their seatss if they did it that way?

OH&S reasons I'd be guessing should the FAs leave the cart between Row 2 and Row 3, especially in the occasional event of medium/heavy turbulence.

 

[Bajar]

No divider BNE-TSV on Sunday evening. Briefing mentioned bathrooms at both end of the aircraft, however I didn't see any econ folk come down the pointy end.

A tactic that I think the cabin crew used to help mitigate this was that a crew member would stand at the barrier between the two cabins with their back turned to econ for significant periods of the flight.

 

[PERLHR]

No divider BNE-TSV on Sunday evening. Briefing mentioned bathrooms at both end of the aircraft, however I didn't see any econ folk come down the pointy end.

A tactic that I think the cabin crew used to help mitigate this was that a crew member would stand at the barrier between the two cabins with their back turned to econ for significant periods of the flight.

Yes nothing like a good glare...,

 

[MEL_Traveller]

No divider BNE-TSV on Sunday evening. Briefing mentioned bathrooms at both end of the aircraft, however I didn't see any econ folk come down the pointy end.

A tactic that I think the cabin crew used to help mitigate this was that a crew member would stand at the barrier between the two cabins with their back turned to econ for significant periods of the flight.

Errr… that sounds very odd!! It is not a usual service pattern, and the the crew member would not be wasting their time as a human barrier I would hope!

Speaking of WC use… VA still plants a cabin crew member ‘on guard’ when a pilot needs to use the forward WC. Don’t believe they do that on Qantas. Perhaps a flow over from procedure in the US?

 

[Brittany]

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.

Agreed! I very much disagree with removing the partition. I was J SYD to LST on Nov 6 and people in Y were told to use the toilets at the rear of the plane, but due to lack of any barrier, we had people coming up and using the bathrooms for the whole trip. It felt like “business” was now premium economy and the plane was standard economy seating.

 

[jakeseven7]

Sorry to say for the couple of J class passengers on todays VA2 flight economy had free rein over the forward toilets, I even walked forward to use them as the cart was blocking the aisle to go back (I did try ).

 

[SJDOP]

It does raise the question on what does a J class experience mean? Just a bigger seat? If so, why not buy Economy X and splurge on the menu. Certainly much cheaper and less of a disappointment!

 

[PERLHR]

No divider BNE-TSV on Sunday evening. Briefing mentioned bathrooms at both end of the aircraft, however I didn't see any econ folk come down the pointy end.

A tactic that I think the cabin crew used to help mitigate this was that a crew member would stand at the barrier between the two cabins with their back turned to econ for significant periods of the flight.

Yes nothing like a good glare...,

Sorry to say for the couple of J class passengers on todays VA2 flight economy had free rein over the forward toilets, I even walked forward to use them as the cart was blocking the aisle to go back (I did try ).

Should have held on until you were back in the terminal building ..,

 

[PERLHR]

It does raise the question on what does a J class experience mean? Just a bigger seat? If so, why not buy Economy X and splurge on the menu. Certainly much cheaper and less of a disappointment!

I think it's a fair comment certainly regarding the seat and ambience. . Hence need to keep on asking crew why and also get where we complain to. VA are ofcourse are notthe only one with issues on this front but the more complaints received or walking with wallet the better. Noticed on QF the other day same carry on even with divider. Crew need to enforce more. They are not always that busy!

 

[HS-TQE]

It does raise the question on what does a J class experience mean? Just a bigger seat? If so, why not buy Economy X and splurge on the menu. Certainly much cheaper and less of a disappointment!

J usually provides a hot meal on most flights, whereas YX and standard Y is LCC+ BoB service with a choice of complimentary water or tea.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

J usually provides a hot meal on most flights, whereas YX and standard Y is LCC+ BoB service with a choice of complimentary water or tea.

You’re lucky to get tea and coffee on all flights! Several times MEL to SYD and vv have been deemed ‘too short’ to offer hot drinks on the flights I was on

 

[p--and--t]

You’re lucky to get tea and coffee on all flights! Several times MEL to SYD and vv have been deemed ‘too short’ to offer hot drinks on the flights I was on

2023 flew ADL-BNE and only water offered in Y. Surely that flight was long enough for no BS excuses.

 

[PERLHR]

Not

You’re lucky to get tea and coffee on all flights! Several times MEL to SYD and vv have been deemed ‘too short’ to offer hot drinks on the flights I was on

Not very good is it? Max of 8 pax and not even offering tea or coffee after food. I remember back in the day on a BCal Bac 1.11 all in Y class, hot dinners and booze plus tea and coffee...all in one hour fifteen between Gatwick and Glasgow and back for everyone. Changed days!!

 

[Harrison_133]

You’re lucky to get tea and coffee on all flights! Several times MEL to SYD and vv have been deemed ‘too short’ to offer hot drinks on the flights I was on

You seem to have bad luck when it comes to VA. I fly between Melbourne and Sydney very regularly and cannot recall an instance where tea and coffee hasn't been served, apart from the odd flight with bad turbulence. Outside of the ultra short sectors like MEL-LST, in my 90-100 VA sectors per year, they're pretty consistent with the tea and coffee.

Not very good is it? Max of 8 pax and not even offering tea or coffee after food.

IME, you can still get tea and coffee in J on the shorter sectors (probably depends on the CM). In Y though, there are no hot beverages with flight times of under 55 minutes.

 

[SJDOP]

You seem to have bad luck when it comes to VA. I fly between Melbourne and Sydney very regularly and cannot recall an instance where tea and coffee hasn't been served, apart from the odd flight with bad turbulence. Outside of the ultra short sectors like MEL-LST, in my 90-100 VA sectors per year, they're pretty consistent with the tea and coffee.

IME, you can still get tea and coffee in J on the shorter sectors (probably depends on the CM). In Y though, there are no hot beverages with flight times of under 55 minutes.

My consistent hot beverage drought only seems to happen in my VA flights that are booted out to Alliance. I'm most nervous flying in those tired rust buckets.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You seem to have bad luck when it comes to VA. I fly between Melbourne and Sydney very regularly and cannot recall an instance where tea and coffee hasn't been served, apart from the odd flight with bad turbulence. Outside of the ultra short sectors like MEL-LST, in my 90-100 VA sectors per year, they're pretty consistent with the tea and coffee.

IME, you can still get tea and coffee in J on the shorter sectors (probably depends on the CM). In Y though, there are no hot beverages with flight times of under 55 minutes.

I don’t think i’ve been ‘unlucky’, it’s just an outcome of the sheer number of flights. I used to always fly in the late afternoon/evening, when any problems earlier in the day were likely to be compounded. Last year wasn’t a particularly good one for VA in terms of reliability or punctuality.

Not very good is it? Max of 8 pax and not even offering tea or coffee after food. I remember back in the day on a BCal Bac 1.11 all in Y class, hot dinners and booze plus tea and coffee...all in one hour fifteen between Gatwick and Glasgow and back for everyone. Changed days!!

Still available in business class. Just the announcement that tea and coffee wasn’t going to be served in the main cabin due to the flight time. It reminds me of the US where flight time is a common reason not to provide service anymore where they historically they used to.

 

[Brittany]

Ironically, flew DOH to AUH (Qatar) and MCT to AUH (Etihad) a few weeks ago and both were under an hour. They seemed to be fine with delivering not just hot drinks and booze but also a hot food snack to our entire plane. I commented to my companions that maybe they can “show Virgin how to do it with such efficiency”

 

[twinaisle]

I think it's a fair comment certainly regarding the seat and ambience. . Hence need to keep on asking crew why and also get where we complain to. VA are ofcourse are notthe only one with issues on this front but the more complaints received or walking with wallet the better. Noticed on QF the other day same carry on even with divider. Crew need to enforce more. They are not always that busy!

Stop asking the crew. We're tired of it, really.

Complaint here please.

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[twinaisle]

Ironically, flew DOH to AUH (Qatar) and MCT to AUH (Etihad) a few weeks ago and both were under an hour. They seemed to be fine with delivering not just hot drinks and booze but also a hot food snack to our entire plane. I commented to my companions that maybe they can “show Virgin how to do it with such efficiency”

1. They have the maximum compliment of crew which is usually 6.

2. They serve everything complimentary so it's easier and faster service wise, hand it out and cya.