Review: Virgin Australia’s Refurbished Boeing 737-800 Business Class

Virgin Australia is now well into a $110 million refurbishment program of its Boeing 737 fleet. As part of this refurbishment, Virgin is installing new Business Class seats.

However, it’s also adding an extra row or two of Economy seats. And to make this possible, it’s had to make a few changes at the front of the plane.

Virgin Australia’s new Business Class cabin is unfortunately a lot less private as the airline has removed the stylish purple cabin divider between Business and Economy in the refurbishments. There’s now less space between Business and Economy, and the first row of Business seems to have a bit less legroom too.

So, what’s it like flying Virgin Australia Business Class on a refurbished Boeing 737-800? And what can you expect in Virgin Australia Business Class in 2025 more generally?

To find out, I booked a Business Class ticket on Virgin’s evening service from Melbourne to Canberra – a flight I’ve taken regularly over the past several years.

Flight Details

Flight number	VA291
Origin	Melbourne (MEL)
Destination	Canberra (CBR)
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-800
Class of travel	Business
Seat number	1A
On-time performance	We arrived 45 minutes late
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I paid $299 for this one-way ticket from Melbourne to Canberra, which I booked several months in advance. (Virgin tends to increase its lead-in Business Class fares closer to departure, but you can get some great deals when booking at least 28 days in advance.)

If you wanted to use Velocity Frequent Flyer points, you could also book this flight in Business for 15,500 Velocity Points + $69 in taxes & carrier charges.

It’s perhaps worth noting that this Virgin Australia Business Class airfare was $150 less than the cheapest Qantas Business Class airfare on the same route!

Airport Experience

Checking in at Melbourne Airport was super easy. It took me about two minutes to print my boarding pass and bag tag using the self-service kiosk, and to drop my suitcase at the priority bag drop machine.

There was also a priority check-in counter available, which had a bit of a line but was moving quickly.

Although there is theoretically a priority security lane at Melbourne Airport for Virgin Australia Business, Platinum and Gold customers, this is only open for a few hours each morning. It was not available when I passed through the airport in the evening.

The lounge

Virgin Australia Lounge access is automatically included when you book a Business Class ticket – assuming you’re on a domestic flight departing from one of the seven airports where Virgin has a lounge.

When I arrived at the lounge around 7.30pm, there was a sign at the entrance advising that access may be restricted due to capacity limitations. When I entered, I found that almost every table in the lounge was occupied – but with dishes, not people! Only around half of the tables actually had people sitting at them, and the other half simply hadn’t been cleared yet.

I do understand that the lounge can get busy during peak periods, but it’s on the airline to have an appropriate level of staffing to meet that demand. It seemed like there simply wasn’t enough staff to clear all the dirty tables.

Other than that, the Virgin Australia Lounge in Melbourne is quite pleasant. It’s a large lounge with nice tarmac views and a variety of different seating areas, including a quiet work area at the back.

The lounge catering on this particular evening was fairly typical for what you’d expect in a Virgin Australia Lounge, and wasn’t bad. The usual wraps, sandwiches and salads were available, along with two hot pasta dishes, chicken & corn soup, a toastie station and Virgin Australia’s excellent New York style cheesecake.

In terms of alcoholic beverages, the lounge has beer, cider and a somewhat cheap selection of wines available – but no spirits.

Overall, this is a perfectly nice lounge. But there’s no dedicated Business Class section, and I don’t think it’s as luxurious as the Qantas domestic Business Lounge at Melbourne Airport.

Boarding

Unfortunately, my flight was delayed by around 45 minutes.

Virgin Australia advertises that its lounge will remain open until the last flight of the day is called for boarding, and it technically did this. However, it cheated a bit as the lounge staff decided to call my flight for boarding before my plane had even arrived at the gate from its previous flight. The staff then immediately announced that the lounge was closed and kicked everyone out, leaving me waiting in the terminal for around 20 minutes.

I’ve written about the lounge closing time in a separate article. For the record, I wrote to Virgin afterwards about this, and they credited some Velocity Points to my account by way of apology.

Once boarding finally got underway, the gate staff called priority boarding first. In true Virgin fashion, it enforced this to a tee. That gets a thumbs-up from me!

The Hard Product

I was a big fan of Virgin Australia’s previous short-haul Business Class product. In the old layout, the cabin was intimate and private with eight spacious recliner seats and clear separation between the cabins. The purple screens and magnetic rope blocking the aisle maintained the exclusivity of the Business cabin brilliantly.

Virgin’s new Boeing 737-800 Business Class seats are a nice evolution, and are probably slightly better than the ones they replace. The Business cabin still has eight leather recliner seats, with adjustable headrests. But the new seats seem to have slightly better padding, and there’s now a legrest that extends out from under the seat.

There’s a small cocktail table between each pair of Business seats, and a small storage space in the side of the seat under the centre armrests.

Overall, I like these new seats. Sure, they’re not lie-flat – but I don’t expect that on a relatively short domestic flight.

I would caveat that comment by saying that Virgin also uses its 737s on overnight flights, including from Perth and Bali to the Australian east coast. On those routes, a lie-flat option would be welcome. But for short hops around the east coast, this product is more than adequate.

Unfortunately, the elephant in the room is the lack of privacy and exclusivity of the new configuration. There’s currently nothing at all separating rows 2 and 3. This may seem like a small thing, and in the grand scheme of things it is – but I really noticed the difference. It also meant that several Economy passengers tried to use the forward toilet, despite the best efforts of the cabin crew.

The good news is that Virgin says it will fix this – eventually. In the meantime, on some aircraft, Virgin has added something resembling a shower curtain between the two cabins. I didn’t get that on my flight, but an AFF forum moderator snapped this photo on another flight:

Row 1 vs 2

I had originally chosen seat 2A, a window seat in the second row of Business. I like this seat as there’s lots of space to stretch my legs out underneath the seat in front. The downside of sitting in the back row is that you don’t get the first meal choice (and the more popular option does sometimes run out).

You no longer get “guilt-free” recline in row 2 as you now recline directly into row 3, rather than a wall.

On this flight, there happened to be a kid sitting in 3A who kept shutting my window blind every time I tried to open it. This wouldn’t have been possible on the old configuration. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it – the kid had a bit of a meltdown before take-off, screaming loudly and refusing to stay in his seat.

The cabin crew handled the situation like absolute pros, and since row 1 happened to be completely empty on this flight, they also offered for me to move there.

The legroom in the first row was OK, and the advantage of sitting here is that you could probably get out of the window seat without disturbing the passenger beside you. But with the wall right in front of you – which I think is even closer now than it used to be – you can’t really stretch your legs out.

In-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi

Virgin Australia hasn’t made any major changes to its in-flight entertainment offering on its refurbished Boeing 737s. You can still stream content to your own device, and there is free Wi-Fi for Business passengers.

Virgin has a moderate selection of TV shows, movies and podcasts that you can stream on board, but most of the movies are not new releases. I don’t usually find much that I’m interested in.

For some reason, Virgin has removed the moving map from its in-flight entertainment portal. (My workaround is to use the free Wi-Fi to access Flightradar24.)

The Soft Product

I consistently find that the on-board service is what makes Virgin Australia Business Class special. This flight was no exception. The flight attendants looking after Business were very friendly and provided great service from the moment I stepped on board.

Before take-off, I was offered the choice of still water, sparkling water or sparkling wine. The pre-departure drinks are even served in proper glasses, which always feels classy. Take note, Qantas!

There were two meal choices, which were both cold options given the relatively short flight time from Melbourne to Canberra:

• Soba noodle salad with chicken, or
• Brown rice and vegetable salad (a vegetarian option, but with optional chicken)

I chose the latter salad, which was fresh and satisfying. This came with the usual cheese and crackers in plastic packaging, and a choice of drinks – but the chocolate on the side seems to have been “enhanced” (i.e. removed).

Virgin offers a reasonably comprehensive drinks list in Business including wine, beer, basic spirits, soft drinks, juice, coffee and tea. The wines available on this flight included a sparkling wine, two whites and two reds (a choice of pinot noir or shiraz).

On other routes, Virgin tends to have at least one hot meal option. There’s an extra dessert item on flights over three hours or so.

In Virgin Australia Business Class, there are always extra snacks available on request from the “pantry menu” as well, including things like chocolates, biscuits and chips.