Things Virgin Australia Does & Doesn’t Do Well

[kevinmanderson]

Agree with mostof that. Food selection in lounge is boring and I often see fast food bought in. Some do dumplings at 5ish some days, nice change.

I’m Hobart based so lack of a lounge there is a pain. The recently made redundant security screening area must be an easy consideration although a bit tight.

 

[stevenwr175]

* There is free wifi for Biz, Plat and Gold, if I remember correctly..

That free wifi depends on the airframe you’re flying on and out of the last 10 flights on the east coast and to Adelaide 5 have had it with the last one not even on board entertainment on board. They need to fix this as it yet again just says we don’t value our frequent flyers especially those that need to catch up with business via an internet connection when they can.

 

[ben95]

Maybe that silver mobile boarding pass is for an Economy X row

Not in the cases I’ve witnesses.

 

[AIRwin]

* There is free wifi for Biz, Plat and Gold, if I remember correctly..

Not for Gold

 

[Flyingwombat]

Disagree on service - we find them disinterested at best and downright rude at worst. The fares are generally more expensive out of Hobart, and family pooling is now useless with the new status rules. We’ve pretty much stopped flying virgin for these reasons and the loss of international partners like Etihad and Delta. Qantas is not great by any means but virgin just don’t compete anymore… and I used to be a fan and even got to platinum… now red again and happy never to have status with them again.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That free wifi depends on the airframe you’re flying on and out of the last 10 flights on the east coast and to Adelaide 5 have had it with the last one not even on board entertainment on board. They need to fix this as it yet again just says we don’t value our frequent flyers especially those that need to catch up with business via an internet connection when they can.

I wrote to VA after 6/8 flights in a row didnt have wifi and or entertainment working.

The response was ‘inflight entertainment is only available on selected routes and on selected aircraft types’

I wrote back that Sydney to Melbourne should be one of those routes and the 737-800 one of those aircraft types.

They just wrote back and said entertainment is complimentary so there’s no reason to complain if it’s not offered.

 

[prelude]

Priority Boarding is an interesting one, overall, I've found it to be good in general, but in some ports (e.g., HBA and ADL), I can't tell if it's being poorly enforced or I happen to take flights with high premium loading. In SYD/MEL/BNE, I've found that I can gather my things in the lounge when boarding is called, and more often than not I just walk straight on in before general boarding starts. There was a recent instance where a dozen of us or so got final called on a delayed flight out of MEL though... was graciously allowed to put my luggage in the Business overhead (was in Econ X) but others behind me weren't as lucky...

One thing not covered in the original article is the baggage check-in experience which I've found to be wildly inconsistent. Terrible at MEL, I think the only port where I've had generally good experiences with was in SYD? Priority tagging hit and miss, although the in-app baggage notifications are great (I believe QF might have their own system but I've had not personal experience with it).

Another 'negative' is the lack of ways to earn status credits on the ground. Aside from the marginal Coles earn, there really aren't really any other opportunities (there was a credit card one I think two years ago?). It may be just a one-off from QF, but I will have 'accidentally' reached Bronze from 4 flights this membership year from random status promotions and Green tier.

 

[serfty]

It may be just a one-off from QF, but I will have 'accidentally' reached Bronze from 4 flights this membership year from random status promotions and Green tier.

You mean Silver?