Boarding/onboard
Priority boarding worked well, but I generally don’t find too many issues on Qantas anyway. The CSM was attentive and I liked that I was offered water, juice or sparkling wine – far better than choosing between still and sparkling water on QF. That said, we were then told he’d explain the snacks offered after takeoff (perhaps I chose a non-main-meal service) and we had a menu in the seat pocket to purchase additional items. Not sure about you, but when I pay for Business I don’t expect to then be charged for additional food.
Also, VA has 2 rows of Business compared to Qantas’ 3 rows. Despite there only being 4 Business customers who were all travelling solo, they all chose row 1. When I booked the flight I was the first to select a seat, so I’m not sure why someone chose to sit next to me when all of row 2 was vacant. I find that an odd mentality. Are these the people who choose to sit in the middle seats in economy?
The crockery appeared to be custom for VA as there was a ‘V’ etched into the bottom of my glass. Perhaps they could save money instead by promoting another iconic brand onboard (
Finnair comes to mind) instead of making Business passengers pay for meals. Qantas does the same I guess, but they're not losing money.
The CSM came to take orders promptly after the seatbelt sign went off. It felt more polished, like the QF international service, where the crew takes an order on a pad and then fetches it. Much preferred than setting up a cart and moving it up and down the aisle.
Tonight’s beers were 4 Pines, Great Northern and something as equally bland. So I went with the 4 Pines. Food was essentially a sausage roll (but it was described as ‘pork & fennel... something something... with tomato relish’ or an Asian noodle salad. I went for the sausage roll. Some almonds were delivered with the drink.
Despite my meal looking like what I would imagine the NPPP version of a sausage roll would look like, it tasted good. I noticed every other person ordered the same, giving the salad a miss.
So, let’s address the inflight wifi. Choosing the network and typing in the web address to connect is virtually the same between airlines (wifi.qantas.com vs wifi.virginaustralia.com). Different is that VA wants to charge me for high speed wifi – seemingly even in Business. I am not aware of this limitation when I connect on QF.
Additionally, why do I need to enter a security code? This isn’t user friendly.
In the end, I wanted to stream some Apple Music that I hadn't downloaded before the flight and it wouldn’t load for me... audio streaming can’t hurt that much, can it?
I was under the impression that much like priority boarding, the crew polices the Business bathroom. Not in my experience on this flight. Granted, it wasn’t busy, but I was expecting leaps and bounds over QF from what I’d read and it’s simply the same experience onboard.
The last point I’d like to make is that on landing/arrival when we got to the gate one of the cabin crew from the front made their way the the last row of J/front of Y to hold back passengers. I thought this was a nice touch that I do not see them doing on QF, and wouldn't be hard to implement. Again, it is reminiscent of QF international service.