Virgin Australia Business Class - Meals, Menus & Service

[Fiches Mouser]

Oooh !! That reminds me about the best VA FA I've ever had. She's MEL based and does the Trans-con J services. Helen is her name (I may be spelling it incorrectly, Greek ? maybe). I've flown several flights with her and VA should clone her. I once witnessed her literally tucking in an elderly couple who were on their first VA J flight to PER, late night connecting to JNB. Adorable stuff

My apologies for wandering way OT, but I so wish (ignoring the crew safety implications for a minute) there was a way to pick your flights based on the crew working them.

It'd have to be last minute, but it'd be so good to know which flights my favs are rostered on to and travel accordingly.

 

[JessicaTam]

Oooh !! That reminds me about the best VA FA I've ever had. She's MEL based and does the Trans-con J services. Helen is her name (I may be spelling it incorrectly, Greek ? maybe). I've flown several flights with her and VA should clone her. I once witnessed her literally tucking in an elderly couple who were on their first VA J flight to PER, late night connecting to JNB. Adorable stuff

I once spotted a TK FA doing just that on a BKK-IST flight. Definitely the standard to aspire to.

 

[serfty]

That's really poor... I thought the snack services were already well under lunch/dinner services.

Qantas can muster 2 or 3 options in a snack servers so there is no question they are better for those services now.

Yeah - three options for my 1PM SYD-MEL.... on Tuesday.

Soup ...

Goat Cheese Salad ... (beans and broccoli and pine nuts)

Toasted cheese and beef sanger ...

---

I picked at the salad ...

 

[Princess Fiona]

One sector down and one to go today.
NTL-BNE I was the only J pax. CSM Justin was fantastic, back to the polished VA service when J began. Newspapers and PDB offered. 1240 departure and was a snack service. The snack was a fruit platter. I've lived long enough now to know that I don't really like fruit as a menu choice so I passed. Asked for cheese and crackers and a glass of wine instead. Was served promptly.
What I found really interesting is that the wine selection onboard is identical to that in the BNE lounge :?:
Will VA be standardizing the lounge and onboard offerings?
What do people think of this ?
Personally I think the wine in J should be a fair few notches above that served in the lounge.

 

[bullerdude]

One sector down and one to go today.
NTL-BNE I was the only J pax. CSM Justin was fantastic, back to the polished VA service when J began. Newspapers and PDB offered. 1240 departure and was a snack service. The snack was a fruit platter. I've lived long enough now to know that I don't really like fruit as a menu choice so I passed. Asked for cheese and crackers and a glass of wine instead. Was served promptly.
What I found really interesting is that the wine selection onboard is identical to that in the BNE lounge :?:
Will VA be standardizing the lounge and onboard offerings?
What do people think of this ?
Personally I think the wine in J should be a fair few notches above that served in the lounge.

This basically confirms that several for the shorter routes (less than 1hr) are moving to snack only services with a single option.

Quite poor in my view as they still charge significantly for these services.

As the plane would catered as BNE i'm not surprise the Wine is the same... easier for VA go just buy in Bulk.

 

[PDog]

One sector down and one to go today.
NTL-BNE I was the only J pax. CSM Justin was fantastic, back to the polished VA service when J began. Newspapers and PDB offered. 1240 departure and was a snack service. The snack was a fruit platter. I've lived long enough now to know that I don't really like fruit as a menu choice so I passed. Asked for cheese and crackers and a glass of wine instead. Was served promptly.
What I found really interesting is that the wine selection onboard is identical to that in the BNE lounge :?:
Will VA be standardizing the lounge and onboard offerings?
What do people think of this ?
Personally I think the wine in J should be a fair few notches above that served in the lounge.

glad to hear the service was back to how it should be.

Totally agree the wine should be better than the lounge! And regardless of 'snack' service (12.40 sounds like lunch time to me...) there should be a choice.

Thanks for the update!

 

[Milefest]

This basically confirms that several for the shorter routes (less than 1hr) are moving to snack only services with a single option.

Quite poor in my view as they still charge significantly for these services.

As the plane would catered as BNE i'm not surprise the Wine is the same... easier for VA go just buy in Bulk.

They definitely should cater properly, even on 1 hour flights.

Sometimes at the end of the day I have to travel interstate and between all my commuting, on-board is the best time to eat. It's also when I'm least productive because there's no internet access up there..

In reply to the standardization.. I'd like to have the same experience in the lounge as well as on the plane (when travelling on a J fare). I believe the business class experience should start when you arrive at the airport until you leave the plane. This includes decent meal & drink options in the lounge (including spirits). Although I know this is difficult as VA doesn't have any J lounges, nor do I believe we'll see any anytime soon..

Maybe there's a middle ground they haven't met?

 

[scottz95]

Dropping in my foodie critique. Flight 721 ADL-PER on Friday 1/4/2016
Choice of a Thai Vegetable Soup (which based off the Thai Spice Soup in the lounge was well worth skipping or a beef slice with carrots and potatoes. Nice but the beef was chewy and needed more gravy, I mean, rule one of beef is gravy.

It was served with a shredded lettuce, carrot, spring onion and seaseme seed salad covered in what I assume was a mayo with basically no flavour. The raspberry brownie was amazing though.

 

[Pleb Status]

Menu from VA468 BNE-PER this evening. The various versions of the roulade have been retired in favour of a vanilla slice. Another pretty good effort.....

 

[infinity]

Flew SYD PER a couple of days ago. Menu great food and too wines. Well done VA beats QF on that route
I do get s lot I F flying around the world so nice to see some Aussie competition

 

[Princess Fiona]

BNE-ADL
Snack service of empanada.

Tried the wine but again it was the same range as the lounge. Empanada was ok, not a fan of the side salad.
ADL-MEL
Snack service of fruit platter, declined and had coffee
MEL-NTL
Lunch, only one option Beef short rib


Didn't have anything other than coffee, water and Diet Coke on the last two flights but I asked what wines were available and they were again exactly the same as those offered in the lounge.
The service on all sectors was attentive. I'm thinking there is some pretty savage cost cutting going on in VA J catering with the exception of the Trans-cons.
Will have a couple next month and looking forward to them.

 

[anat0l]

Lunch, only one option Beef short rib

Did lunch normally have two options?

I seem to remember some time ago that the non-transcon lunch option was limited to one... or it was only one option and another smaller, more snack like option. Or was it one "standard" option and one vegetarian option (e.g. seared salmon or chickpea curry)?

One port gets mere sliced roast beef, the other is short rib beef. Wow, what a difference!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Did lunch normally have two options?

I seem to remember some time ago that the non-transcon lunch option was limited to one... or it was only one option and another smaller, more snack like option. Or was it one "standard" option and one vegetarian option (e.g. seared salmon or chickpea curry)?

One port gets mere sliced roast beef, the other is short rib beef. Wow, what a difference!

Yes lunch definitely had options, in fact all meal services had choices. Recently that's been cut to no choice on lunch or snack for short sectors. Don't know what's defined as short but BNE-ADL isn't that short in my book.
Lunch used to be a hot dish or a salad type thing.

There is definitely cost-cutting going on in Domestic J.

 

[bullerdude]

Wow the single option services are extending to Lunch as well!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Wow the single option services are extending to Lunch as well!

Looks as though that might be the case

 

[henleybeach]

I'm flying business PER-ADL this Saturday departing at 0910, it will be interesting to see what I get offered . I'll report back !

 

[henleybeach]

0910 dep , per - adl ,
E-190
pleased to report the service on Saturday was excellent. 2 breakfast choices , I got the scrambled egg burrito with chorizo , haloumi and cherry tomatoes . A side crossiant with jam with fruit salad and yoghurt . Finished that and had a coffee with a Anzac cookie . A hour before landing in Adel CSM brought a basket out with chips, popcorn , chocolates and offered snacks.

 

[ICUDr]

One sector down and one to go today.
NTL-BNE I was the only J pax. CSM Justin was fantastic, back to the polished VA service when J began. Newspapers and PDB offered. 1240 departure and was a snack service. The snack was a fruit platter. I've lived long enough now to know that I don't really like fruit as a menu choice so I passed. Asked for cheese and crackers and a glass of wine instead. Was served promptly.
What I found really interesting is that the wine selection onboard is identical to that in the BNE lounge :?:
Will VA be standardizing the lounge and onboard offerings?
What do people think of this ?
Personally I think the wine in J should be a fair few notches above that served in the lounge.

Bit OT but I was on the same flight too.. I was one of the last PAX on board (almost missed my flight!) and was seating on row 4 I think. I did see you.. if I had known I'd said hi!

 

[donovan301]

One sector down and one to go today.
NTL-BNE I was the only J pax. CSM Justin was fantastic, back to the polished VA service when J began. Newspapers and PDB offered. 1240 departure and was a snack service. The snack was a fruit platter. I've lived long enough now to know that I don't really like fruit as a menu choice so I passed. Asked for cheese and crackers and a glass of wine instead. Was served promptly.
What I found really interesting is that the wine selection onboard is identical to that in the BNE lounge :?:
Will VA be standardizing the lounge and onboard offerings?
What do people think of this ?
Personally I think the wine in J should be a fair few notches above that served in the lounge.

I'm in complete agreement with you.
In my opinion, the Lounge is the 'Teaser' and "J" should upstage the Lounge by a noticeable degree.

Lounge can be accessed by many and should cater to the masses.

Biz and beyond should always provide a more premium product.

It often leaves me in despair when I'm offered an aged red wine that is younger than the Metal I am travelling in.

In regards to VA vs QF, then I will more often than not give QF the nod on vintage product over VA.

 

[smit0847]

I'm in complete agreement with you.
In my opinion, the Lounge is the 'Teaser' and "J" should upstage the Lounge by a noticeable degree.

Lounge can be accessed by many and should cater to the masses.

Biz and beyond should always provide a more premium product.

It often leaves me in despair when I'm offered an aged red wine that is younger than the Metal I am travelling in.

In regards to VA vs QF, then I will more often than not give QF the nod on vintage product over VA.

Agree on all this.