No more free items from retail menu when flying business

[Plutonus]

According to an instruction circulated to Virgin Australia cabin crew on September 26, and sighted by Executive Traveller, “effective 9 October, complimentary offering of retail items to Business and VIP guests will not be permitted.”

On October 9, the ‘buy on board’ menu will be rolled out in business class, and those passengers – along with members of The Club – will be asked to pull out their credit card for extras that were formerly free.

Virgin Australia clamps down on complimentary business class snacks

Virgin Australia will ask business class passengers to pay for extra meals, snacks and drinks ordered off the economy retail menu.

www.executivetraveller.com

Only saves $780,000 per annum from revenue of $5.3 billion. Seems a little ridiculous considering how much business class tickets cost. Back to cutting their way to profit.

 

[ozstamps]

Welcome to EasyJet/Ryan Air Australia. A race to the bottom. Alan Joyce will be laughing his head off.

Never heard of anything so penny pinching and cheap.

Asking a guy spending $800 a one way ticket to PAY $6 or whatever for a wrap, as the Biz choices he wants are gone? Or he is Vegetarian and the only choice left is chicken etc.

Totally Insane.

We made 2 biz flights last week in full Biz cabins and were in row #1 THANKFULLY.

As the Salmon meal choice was gone - 3 of row #1 pax ordered it, and row #2 did not get that offered. Why they only load 3 meals of that choice for 8 pax only Virgin would know.

 

[Vic]

Interesting comment about the cost of virgin business. I regularly buy it for 60% or less of the cost of qantas business.

 

[oz_mark]

Welcome to EasyJet/Ryan Air Australia. A race to the bottom. Alan Joyce will be laughing his head off.

Never heard of anything so penny pinching and cheap.

Why? Alan's airline doesn't even offer a BOB cart.

 

[alviau]

Why? Alan's airline doesn't even offer a BOB cart.

Or pantry? Do they have one?

 

[Ade]

According to an instruction circulated to Virgin Australia cabin crew on September 26, and sighted by Executive Traveller, “effective 9 October, complimentary offering of retail items to Business and VIP guests will not be permitted.”

On October 9, the ‘buy on board’ menu will be rolled out in business class, and those passengers – along with members of The Club – will be asked to pull out their credit card for extras that were formerly free.

Virgin Australia clamps down on complimentary business class snacks

Virgin Australia will ask business class passengers to pay for extra meals, snacks and drinks ordered off the economy retail menu.

www.executivetraveller.com

Only saves $780,000 per annum from revenue of $5.3 billion. Seems a little ridiculous considering how much business class tickets cost. Back to cutting their way to profit.

I always find it interesting how meals become insufficient on-board.

Either the airline should be loading enough meals/choices to cater to it's passengers (regardless of class of travel) or the passenger should take the effort to pre-select his/her meal in advance, to avoid any disappointment

I'm sure that when booking a ticket with QF/VA, passengers can choose their meal choice/preference. This can be done via their FF profile or they could do it via "Manage Booking"

I think airline should be considerate of how many meals are loaded and passengers should also be pro-active in selecting their meal choices. I think, for the lack of a better word, responsibility, of having the meal of choice rests equally with the airline and the passenger

I don't think it's fair to say that "my meal preference was over by the time the cart rolled to my seat". Well, you'd all the time before the flight to pre-select your meal.

I understand that some of the biz travellers travel on very short notice, and for them, it's always luck that should help Or they could always enjoy the spread at the lounge

 

[Ade]

Or pantry? Do they have one?

There isn't a pantry on Dom flights, but one could always rock up to the galley and ask if there's anything to snack on. Usually the FA's are friendly and offer something, a fruit or a pack of pretzels or sometimes even unused meals.

I once had forgot to pre-order my meal on Intl. Y. Happens when you hang-out with mates all night before an intl. flight

I mentioned this casually to one of the FA on my domestic connection before the intl flight, she immediately returned with a salad and fruit from J which was unused and offered it to me I happily took it to my Intl flight and it saved my day ...

 

[toowongman]

Here come the accountants, putting a ruler over everything. "Pantry Pig" will not be happy.
As an aside an associate of mine has organised to buy almost a floor's worth of office furniture from VA's Brisbane campus. Interesting times ahead.

 

[Tallfont]

From an airline that charged me $120 for having a suitcase that weighed 25kg (even if I was allowed three x 23kg bags) why do I not find this surprising!

 

[Ausbt]

Had no idea you could even do this in the first place. Probably wouldn't have minded the odd choco bar. Oh well.

 

[AIRwin]

From an airline that charged me $120 for having a suitcase that weighed 25kg (even if I was allowed three x 23kg bags) why do I not find this surprising!

Was it an international flight?

 

[Denali]

Had no idea you could even do this in the first place. Probably wouldn't have minded the odd choco bar. Oh well.

Ive requested Y meal or snacks when I didnt like the J options. Ie, I would take cheese and crackers over a curry.

I cant recall being left hungry after a J meal either.

 

[sometime_flyer]

We all want VA in the market place right? Some things are going to have to change to achieve that and I see this as a very small impact in the scheme of things.

 

[Plutonus]

I would take cheese and crackers over a curry.

Now that you mention it, I regularly see people having cheese and crackers in J on my VA flights. FA's must be looking forward to the reaction when they say "that'll be $10 please".

 

[Tallfont]

Was it an international flight?

The flight was PER>BNE>POM

 

[Tallfont]

We all want VA in the market place right? Some things are going to have to change to achieve that and I see this as a very small impact in the scheme of things.

Well, when you are paying something like three times the price to sit in J I think making you pay for something from the Y menu is taking it a bit too far!

 

[kamchatsky]

I have been flying VA J domestic quite a bit, and to be honest I never need to grab any food from the retail item after I had their J meal, as it is usually quite filling. I won't miss it, so I have no problem they are culling it.

 

[justinbrett]

Having never flown VA J (I rarely fly them at all) - it seems surprising they ever did this. It's either over the top and unnecessary, or it shows that their J service doesn't cut it.

Why doesn't J stock the best spirits? I wouldn't be paying $16 for a G&T if I was sitting in business, I'd expect that for free. I kind of get the food aspect but I'd never entertain paying for drinks on Qantas.

I wouldn't be wheeling the cart through J, it's just cheapening your service.

 

[stm1sydney]

VA J is still a better product than QF J.

 

[stm1sydney]

Had a lovely (Gordons) gin in VA J, followed by repeated top ups of a very nice Kirrihill cab sav by our CS Simone, on a recent HIR-BNE flight. Best shorthaul int out of AUS by a long way.