New Virgin Check-in Perth

[samas]

How are the showers in the new lounge? This always drove me crazy when I had an overnight flight from SIN into PER (before heading onwards to MEL) and needed to freshen up.

Just after you enter the lounge there are two ensuite style unisex shower/toilet. Much like SYD. Here you will also find ladies toilets and a middle sized mens toilets. However if you go deeper into the lounge there is an additional very large mens toilets, but no ladies or showers, despite the sign saying there are mens/ladies/disabled/baby change/showers. It is ONLY mens further into the lounge. I asked a hospitality staff member this and he said he had only been here 15 minutes and knew nothing... poor training, he should know the answers when guests ask.

 

[samas]

That is very impressive. So if they fix that little bug, you could probably check bags and fly ahead pretty easily then (not that it can't be done now).

Chatting to my colleague who used the red kiosk he completely missed the "add" bags tiny button and checked in without getting his bag tags and needed staff intervention also. I think they also completely missed the plot for accessibility standards. I'm guessing they are going to quickly learn from this. Apologies I didn't take a photo of this as it had all my personal details. I should have grabbed a photo and blocked out my details.

 

[samas]

 

[samas]

I thought the WCE/Dockers signed guernseys by the meeting rooms was a nice touch!

 

[aaronm]

Initial impressions - new check-in worked fine, my bag made it to MEL which is the main thing anyway. Lounge is as good as any other VA lounge, perhaps a little bit of a barn - could do with some more visual barriers to help break the areas up (similar to MEL, BNE lounges). Lounge staff were playing around with the lighting a little while I was in there - default setting is fairly bright and harsh, but from what they were doing it seems like the options are either that or nightclub purple.

 

[im.daniel]

Thank you for the update samas.

I wonder how the priority kiosks discriminate between SG/WP etc members, and non-tiered members ... can anyone rock up to them and use it? (apologies if this has been covered)

 

[Mondo]

Thank you for the update samas.

I wonder how the priority kiosks discriminate between SG/WP etc members, and non-tiered members ... can anyone rock up to them and use it? (apologies if this has been covered)

A very good question indeed. By the same logic, what's to stop a non SG/WP from going to the priority bag drop and putting their own priority tag(s) on. If it's all self service, no one would ever know......

 

[esseeeayeenn]

A very good question indeed. By the same logic, what's to stop a non SG/WP from going to the priority bag drop and putting their own priority tag(s) on. If it's all self service, no one would ever know......

Presumably they look up your status and only allow you to use them if you are entitled to, just like the scanners at the lounge entry.

 

[serfty]

Cancelled ex SYD? That's pretty poor as it's their hub and they should have crew on standby.

Their HQ is in Brisbane ... not really sure about which is the 'hub'.

 

[bubblyguy]

Cancelled ex SYD? That's pretty poor as it's their hub and they should have crew on standby.

The flight I believe was delayed due to engineering and by the time the problem was resolved the crew had no more hours and it was not possible to get another crew before the curfew. While there are some cabin crew on airport standby (probably not an entire 9 Airbus crew though) for events like this pilots do not have airport standbys and they need at least 2 hours notice along with any cabin crew that need to be called in off home reserve.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Their HQ is in Brisbane ... not really sure about which is the 'hub'.

Although their corporate headquarters is in Brisbane Sydney is certainly a hub and they have a lot of staff there including cabin crew on airport standby.
However I am not sure of the numbers and what the situation is with pilots.
The curfew is an added complication.
I still think it's poor because it's basically their job to manage these factors.
It would be more understandable in a port where they don't have crew based.
However like everything else the final outcome is, at the end of the day, a result of a combination of operational circumstances and any number of commercial decisions.

 

[samas]

Just a quick update on the boarding process from Monday morning. They announced for special assistance guests to board, then for gold/platinum, however they didn't say which lane gold/platinum should use. As status pax started heading down the priority boarding lane staff directed them to walk around to general boarding. after the general boarding had about 30 people already in the queue more status pax walked up to the gate (probably straight from the lounge) and headed down the priority lane, I'd jumped in the normal queue by this point which was being processed by the staff on both sides of the queue, however the one that sits between priority and normal (and can process pax from both queues) were all being manually checked with two staff, one looking at and stating the seat number on the boarding pass whilst the other marked them as boarded on the computer. It appeared the ticket scanner wasn't working.

The normal queue moved much faster than the priority queue.

My estimate was at least 80% of pax on this flight to Karratha were status pax so I am withholding judgement on this one till I board an interstate flight in a few weeks time.

 

[Dee#]

I'm not very impressed with Virgin relocating the domestic terminal. It is making me reconsider which loyalty program I belong to. The Qantas (& former Virgin)domestic terminal is 20mins from my home and the International (new Virgin domestic and regional) 30mins. Which adds to the taxi fares and makes it 1hr picking up and dropping friends off. I don't care if it is nice and shiny and modern.
I have heard various things about what is happening to Qantas domestic. One rumour that they are moving too. But the fact that they are renovating and they own their domestic building doesn't seem lightly.

I can't understand why the Airports authority didn't put a tunnel in under the runways (instead of having to drive around them) like Heathrow. Surely they are going to have to tunnel one day for the train. Its not going to weave around like the road,. Is it?

 

[Moopere]

I thought the long range plan was to close the current domestic airport altogether? We'd end up with an ADL like scenario where all flights, domestic or international all operate out of the same terminal. The savings from deduplication of effort would be significant I suspect. Goodness only knows if this will ever happen though and, as you say, with QF doing renovations it doesn't seem very likely that they will be moving in the next 2-5 years.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

The Perth Airport Corporation determines the airport's long term strategic plan and carriers have to work within it.
Virgin may have had the option of remaining in severely inadequate facilities at T4, although I am not certain for how long that option would have been available to them.
I am certain that they did not have the option of building a new terminal adjacent to T3/T4.
And it would be very difficult to add a significant number of new aerobridges (for example) to the existing T3/T4 buildings even if you removated them.
The combined T3/T4 is only a short term solution for the Qantas group because they gain access to all the gates VA formerly used.
So unless you're a dedicated fan of walking across the tarmac or catching buses across the apron to a stand-off bay, I'd be happy they've moved.

 

[mavrick9]

I can't understand why the Airports authority didn't put a tunnel in under the runways (instead of having to drive around them) like Heathrow. Surely they are going to have to tunnel one day for the train. Its not going to weave around like the road,. Is it?

.. But at least now there is a but to the new Virgin / International Terminal -

Perth Airport Bus - $4.50 for 40 mins, that's pretty good. Takes about 30 mins in a taxi anyway to the CBD.

https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov....ort-bus-direct-to-international-terminal.aspx
Direct bus route from city to Perth Airport to start in two weeks

and then, in 2020 the train :
New Perth Airport link parking restricted to daily commuters, WA Govt confirms - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

[esseeeayeenn]

.. But at least now there is a but to the new Virgin / International Terminal -

Perth Airport Bus - $4.50 for 40 mins, that's pretty good. Takes about 30 mins in a taxi anyway to the CBD.

https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov....ort-bus-direct-to-international-terminal.aspx
Direct bus route from city to Perth Airport to start in two weeks

and then, in 2020 the train :
New Perth Airport link parking restricted to daily commuters, WA Govt confirms - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

In keeping with the long term strategic plan for the airport the train service will not have a station directly under the current domestic terminal.
There will be a station north-west of that terminal to service the surrounding residential area. A bus will operate from there to the current T3/T4.

My understanding is that T3/T4 will eventually become a charter flight / general aviation terminal.

 

[cory]

I'm not very impressed with Virgin relocating the domestic terminal. It is making me reconsider which loyalty program I belong to. The Qantas (& former Virgin)domestic terminal is 20mins from my home and the International (new Virgin domestic and regional) 30mins. Which adds to the taxi fares and makes it 1hr picking up and dropping friends off. I don't care if it is nice and shiny and modern.
I have heard various things about what is happening to Qantas domestic. One rumour that they are moving too. But the fact that they are renovating and they own their domestic building doesn't seem lightly.

I can't understand why the Airports authority didn't put a tunnel in under the runways (instead of having to drive around them) like Heathrow. Surely they are going to have to tunnel one day for the train. Its not going to weave around like the road,. Is it?

Those of us that live in the southern suburbs before the roadworks were done always had an additional 15-20mins to get to the domestic terminal, even more in peak hour. Which added significantly more to the taxi ride than yourself.

 

[serfty]

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[samas]

This is a photo of the new kiosk I referred to a few weeks ago. Have a nice big screen and put a tiny box in the middle of it.
Again I went to the next screen mistakenly whilst I still had zero bags. Managed to select 1 bag the second time around.

Also I could not figure out how to review my seat assignment.

Of the three priority bag drops this morning one was out of service, the next was operator managed with a queue of two people, the third had it's interface facing the operator position with no operator which was unusable. Next to that was a regular bag drop which I used and it moved my bag forward but then rejected it and brought it back to me. So I joined the queue for the operator assisted bag drop.