Virgin Australia Business Class - Meals, Menus & Service

[airbus380]

OMG everyone here is going on about how great DJ is compared to QF.... "forgot to cater"???, how about IFE, daily news, pillows, blankets? wake up people...

 

[brad330]

I was caught out previously when they use to have hot meals on flights over 3 hours in the old PE cabin and you will find the flying time is 2 hours 55 so under three hours. The catch is based on actual flying time not what is time tabled eg OOL SYD shows 1 hour 20 normal flying time is around 1 hour. Sneaky.

I agree with CNS-SYD. I was told by GCC 3 course is on flights with a fliying time ove 2h30m. Cairns-Melbourne duration is 3h25m and flying time of 3h.

 

[Noob]

OMG everyone here is going on about how great DJ is compared to QF.... "forgot to cater"???, how about IFE, daily news, pillows, blankets? wake up people...

Virgin's Business class has all those things....?

 

[lovestotravel]

Okay, another 2 J flights down MEL-OOL-MEL

MEL-OOL
Depart 17:20
Arrive 19:25
Cheese, grapes, crackers and a cold dessert I can't remember...
This flight should really be dinner, there were only 2 others in J, 1 adult and 1 child, he didn't touch much of the cheese
I had the meal and sandwich from Y

OOL-MEL
Depart 21:20
Arrive 23:45
Warm muffin sized meal, with a strawberry type dessert!
Flight was 100% full in J and Y and the service was 10/10

Both were okay, but the 17:20 flight should come with the hot muffin thing!

 

[airbus380]

No noob.. They forget to cater the flight as we read in a previous post.. At least qf have entertanment available all cabins all flights and pillows blankets all flights.. Oh yes and meals aviailable complimentary all flights!!! National nine news played three times a day...

 

[maninblack]

No noob.. They forget to cater the flight as we read in a previous post.. At least qf have entertanment available all cabins all flights and pillows blankets all flights.. Oh yes and meals aviailable complimentary all flights!!! National nine news played three times a day...

Right.

It's like Virgin built a new hotel with a nice reception desk and a bar but neglected to put any furniture or fittings in the rooms :!:

 

[jazza1971]

Thread is kinda going off track, IMHO...maybe a mod can delete posts (including mine) which dont have flights & meals in them....

 

[EuroKick]

I flew J last night CBR-MEL through the half points upgrade. J had 6 passengers in it, all appeared to be paid. I was so utterly dissapointed with the flight.

Hardly welcomed on board, coat was not offered to be hung. Had a welcome drink which was nice, but service from then was not what I honestly expected. There was no welcome announcement on board to any customers, no mention of free food to Y (capital connect) and no offer of a digiplayer (I would have declined, but assumed this was supposed to be offered).

That cheese plate is pathetic. I'm not sure how paying triple the price of a saver fare is worth it. Cheese was good, but seriously, the attendant should've taken the buiscuits out of the plastic packet. No bubbly, and only offered 1 choice of white wine. No bottle presented.

Cabin attendant was nice, but a consistent service needs to be implemented. Comparing this to the fantastic J experience to Perth is very bad.

 

[Moopere]

Again, the above report sounds like mainly CSM failure to me. I've had some shockers too, and in contemplating them the difference between the good and the bad is the CSM. If the lead FA doesn't care, or doesn't appear to know what they are doing then the service across the whole flight collapses.

DJ could do themselves a service, assuming they really are serious about increasing premium customers by:

- Providing more than cheese as a snack. I'm personally against the whole notion of the snack, but if you must do it for some reason and don't feel inclined to giving your customers a price discount at 'snack time', how about warm roast beef rolls, pies, or smaller plates of actual food rather than just bar nibbles? ... something a least a bit substantial that isn't the advertised 3 course meal?

- Weed out some of the under performing CSMs. All businesses, not just DJ, have to do this on a continuous basis. Its hard being a customer facing service leader, really tough, and some folks can't keep it up over the long term.

- Continuous internal audits of your product delivery are the only way, IMHO, to maintain and improve service. You can always tell when a business does this as you _do_ see high levels of service maintained. This nips in the bud typical service slips that creep in over time, like not offering a welcome to customers, or maintaining priority boarding (not a problem in the above example I assume) and a myriad other individually tiny things that collect together and cause problems.

- See if its possible to stock more than a 'white' and a 'red' wine on board the 737. Is space truly so limited that theres no room for anything sparkly? Show customers the bottle. I wonder sometimes if we're just getting cheap flagon wine, you know, the $4 a gallon variety ...

If value drops away (ie, cheese and cheap wine), and service delivery starts to slip as well, then customers naturally start to wonder what they are paying for. Everyone likes more personal space and legroom, but the J ticket has to be more then just that and the price asked indicates that there should be a _lot_ more.

Honestly, I wonder at the difference in cost to the airline in delivering packaged crackers and cheese compared to a plated shepherds pie. Your customer has paid you several hundred to a thousand _more_ than a standard seat ... can this difference not stretch to cover the cost of decent food and drink?

 

[lovestotravel]

Mooper - You are 100% spot on with that post!

On most flights I have had a choice of 3 white wines and 2 reds... Also the exact same ones though!

The other night, I was told they only had chardonnay... I pushed and said they would have Sav Blanc and surprisingly she found it.....

I have left feedback via email on several J flights, both good and bad, not sure it will do anything though

 

[greenfish]

Couldn't agree more with both Moopere and lovestotravel.

My J service has been very very variable, and the snack is derisory. If these weren't redemption seats I'd have been furious with the product - both at an absolute level and for the inconsistencies present. I've had great service on 2 from 6 flights.

A good part of the reason I fly J is for decent food and Virgin really is missing the mark.


.

 

[carpenteria]

As I've only done 2 J flights I guess I have much less chance for things to go wrong, but I didn't see any real problems at all besides some dodgy Digiplayers. FWIW the food on offer:

TSV-BNE
Depart: 17:00
Arrive: 18:45

Cheese/tomato bread scroll and a passionfruit desert thing. Scroll was allright, the dessert was pretty decent. Perpetually topped off glass of Fat Yak, so that's always a good thing.

​

BNE-DRW
Depart: 20:45
Arrive: 00:30

2.5 courses, again a bottle of Fat Yak was in hand the whole way. Started with a cream of cauliflower soup with I belive paprika sprinkled on top, alongside the standard salad with balsamic dressing, a bread roll with dukkah and a pair of choc cloated macadamias. Salad was whatever, though the soup was quite decent, but honestly I wasn't expecting much from a cauliflower soup so I guess I had low expectations to begin with. Round 2 was a bowl of hot nuts. Nice, but lets face it, it is just warmed up nuts! Last was a choice of what I think he said was a green curry with tofu (may of misheard that one) and a chorizo pasta bake. Chose the latter (tofu, really?) which was pretty decent. Came complete with another bread roll and an ice cream sandwhich, which was very nice as well.

​

NOTE: On both flights there was only myself and one other person, may possibly explain the high level of attention/refills I was getting but have heard here that being busy or quiet doesn't seem to make much of a difference in some cases.

 

[eastwest101]

Good stuff carpentaria - the photos are excellent. What do people think about the difference in food between the TSV-BNE and the BNE-DRW legs? I just had a quick look at J class fares in about 2 weeks time:

BNE-TSV (one way) $ 455
BNE-DRW (one way) $ 899-$999

 

[serfty]

Can't really compare in a distinct manner as the he TSV-BNE would have been a 'snack' while the BNE-DRW would be dinner.

However, comparing the BNE-DRW with the CNS-MEL in post #18 is more interesting.

 

[serfty]

Thread is kinda going off track, IMHO...maybe a mod can delete posts (including mine) which dont have flights & meals in them....

We'll keep the posts going for now.

It all helps understand what to expect.

 

[markis10]

No noob.. They forget to cater the flight as we read in a previous post.. At least qf have entertanment available all cabins all flights and pillows blankets all flights.. Oh yes and meals aviailable complimentary all flights!!! National nine news played three times a day...

Qantas dont have meals available all flights complimentary nor do they have entertainment on all flights, dont believe the advertising!

 

[airbus380]

Its very rare they "forget to cater".... heard sooo many of these stories about DJ lately, apparently this is ok or acceptable!? A bird flies into a QF engine and the world ends!!! lol

 

[serfty]

This thread is not about comparing service between different airlines..

Let's try to get a handle on what DJ serve to their Business/premium customers and when they serve it.

Please post your experience of flying business/premium on Velocity Australia

Photos would be good too.

Please stick to how DJ serve their business customers- what, where and when.
​

 

[Gremlin]

I've had ~10 (not quite sure and couldn't be bothered counting exactly) DJ J flights since its launch.

Three were breakfast services where I was served a hot breakfast consisting of frittata (sp?) with spicy beans and sausage with juice and coffee. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the hot food - if I'm heading to a days worth of meetings I don't feel like I'm wanting something that's going to keep on "reminding" me of breakfast all day. I think I slept through another breakfast service but had deliberately filled up at the Lounge prior.

I've had a number of dinner services (and one evening snack service inexplicably served on a six pm departure that I've discussed in another thread). The penne and meatballs have appeared a couple of times, as have the green prawn curry. The curry is a clear favourite to date. All are served with the ubiquitous side salad and breadroll with EVOO and dukkah. The dukkah is quite tasty. All have been served with desserts but I haven't necessarily sampled them all.

 

[Liroquai]

BNE-SYD (approx. 2 weeks ago)
Depart: 11:00
Arrive: 13:35

Served a small chicken and mayonnaise sandwich (I think the FA called them "chicken sandwich fingers"?) and fruit salad with passionfruit dressing. Adequate snack for such a short flight. Fruit salad was great.

Service was brilliant - OJ or water offered pre departure, IFE (albeit terrible) offered almost immediately after take off, addressed by name every time (not that I really care for that). Only criticism was that the FA's intro to every J passenger seemed a little forced/long/repetitive. I think personal intros work in larger J cabins, but in the 738 you can overhear each intro and can basically recite what the FA is going to say by the end of it. Very petty thing to criticize I know, and take nothing away from the FA's flawless service throughout the flight, but I think in smaller J cabin's the "welcome to all our passengers flying in business class" announcement is enough.