PE Catering on Virgin Australia NZ (Pacific Blue)

[pmdg7444]

We all know that sometimes, economy class catering can be a case of cheap reheated frozen TV meal dinners.

And of course, hot breakfasts are often a dry, spongy, dark and murky combo of eggs, sausages and inedible accompaniments.

Hence, when we are travelling in a cabin ABOVE economy, we often have somewhat higher expectations.

However, a recent PE tasman return trip on VA NZ (Pacific Blue) quickly diluted those expectations, in that, we should not expect anything more than substandard from VA in terms of catering:

Dinner was a tray of large tasteless and dry chicken breast with cheap frozen vegetables and something that resembled powdered mash. Whoever the catering supplier was, (I think Alpha Inflight Catering), it seems their stock for this meal came entirely from the frozen and sauce aisles of Coles.





The hot breakfast was worse:

A gooey bacon and egg spinach quiche, with an immaculately presented chicken sausage drenched in tomato sauce that was definitely not a Heinz brand. Again, their supplier probably shopped at Coles, or possibly Aldi for this meal. Clearly not edible.



Apologies if I spoiled anyone's appetite. Hopefully, the standards will improve in the not too distant future. Until then, here's what partner Air NZ provides as an alternative: A clean, crisp and fresh Thai beef and glass noodle salad for dinner. After the VA hot breakfast experience, I opted for the cold breakfast this time, and was very happy with what I was given. By the way, this was in Economy of AirNZ trans tasman on a Works fare.




I'm interested in hearing reader's opinions or experiences. Upload any pics. Hopefully by raising the issue (yes done the feedback form) it will grab their attention and possibly prompt some changes.

 

[totd]

I've posted about this before, although my requirements and expectations are a little more specific. I require gluten free & dairy free. Virgin are currently only able to accommodate this request on Long-Haul international flights. I find it a joke that I can get a suitable meal in economy from VA (when flying to LAX) but they cannot accommodate me, even with advanced warning when traveling in business. I've done several J sectors SYD-CBR and SYD-OOL. The best they can do is make a note on the ticket. Fat lot of good that does. I also did AirNZ J and VA PE on the TT hop in April. Just skipped the catering because (surprise, surprise) there was nothing loaded that I could eat.

I would certainly agree with your thesis that VA catering is a waste of space. I can't comment on The Club, but in the lounge, in Y, PE & J the offerings (my dietary requirements not withstanding) are very lackluster.