Rex to fly between Australian capital cities

[henrus]

Are these '33 return trips' etc. or just 16 one way, 17 the other and so on?

Oops, should have put that in, they're return flights. So it's an extra 33 return flights per week

The full press released that outlines all changes here:

Virgin Australia Group to create new jobs as part of domestic growth plans to connect communities with more flights

Brisbane, 20 May 2021: Virgin Australia Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka was today joined by the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Michael McCormack MP to outline Virgin Australia’s exciting next p

newsroom.virginaustralia.com

 

[Fortunatecrow]

I'm flying to ADL on Monday. Couldn't get a Rex promo fare on the midday flight when I looked, could get the lower price on VA's midday flight

 

[Saab34]

Fares still avail 6 mins prior to departure?

 

[Fortunatecrow]

Posted with Rex in-flight wifi...

 

[henrus]

Posted with Rex in-flight wifi

I take it you're joking?

 

[Fortunatecrow]

Nope. On the plane now, they announced it, I'm using it. A big step forward....

 

[henrus]

Nope. On the plane now, they announced it, I'm using it. A big step forward....

That's epic. Can you take some screenshots of the login portal, speed tests, pricing, etc?

 

[Fortunatecrow]

We are still on the ground, clearing an engineering fault. Speedtest above. No cost. Pretty simple to access. Provided by gogoinflight.com

 

[henrus]

View attachment 248831

We are still on the ground, clearing an engineering fault. Speedtest above. No cost. Pretty simple to access. Provided by gogoinflight.com

Wow that's fast. Did you have to enter any details to login? Was the login page Rex branded?

Apologies, I have soooo many questions but I think it's a big deal rolling out wifi. I've started picking flights with it and it might even pressure Virgin to bring back their wifi.

 

[Fortunatecrow]

Nope. Find the network and click the link. Add a "captcha" style five digit code and accept the conditions but nothing more, no name or seat number as QF requires.

 

[henrus]

Nope. Find the network and click the link. Add a "captcha" style five digit code and accept the conditions but nothing more, no name or seat number as QF requires.

It's weird they haven't really publicised it yet, it's very unlike Rex to do something without a press release.

 

[Fortunatecrow]

I'm sitting next to a flight attendant. It was news to her, so very new, and not announced. Soft launch maybe to test it before they announce it?

 

[henrus]

I'm sitting next to a flight attendant. It was news to her, so very new, and not announced. Soft launch maybe to test it before they announce it?

I wonder if they've also got the wifi entertainment working with a plan to launch it soon as well?

Does the moving map at the link https://map.boardconnect.aero connect to anything?

 

[Fortunatecrow]

Does the moving map at the link https://map.boardconnect.aero connect to anything?

not for me

 

[henrus]

not for me

Very interesting, thanks for investigating.

It seems like they've gone out and signed a deal directly with gogo to provide wifi and haven't bothered doing something with Lufthansa boardconnect to get the wireless entertainment working.

Obviously someone at Rex decided that wifi was more important than entertainment (and I'd agree with that). Hopefully this might push Virgin to get their wifi working again.

 

[jakeseven7]

View attachment 248831

We are still on the ground, clearing an engineering fault. Speedtest above. No cost. Pretty simple to access. Provided by gogoinflight.com

VA1’s internet was never that fast or stable when I used it.

 

[flyingfan]

Nope. Find the network and click the link. Add a "captcha" style five digit code and accept the conditions but nothing more, no name or seat number as QF requires.

Nice. FWIW QF doesn’t need name/seat any more.

 

[Fortunatecrow]

Nice. FWIW QF doesn’t need name/seat any more.

I'm lifetime gold, but haven't flown QF since the lockdown ended. JQ, coupla VA, dozen times on Rex now, but no QF.

 

[henrus]

VA1’s internet was never that fast or stable when I used it.

Domestically you were always rather limited on the free package, purchasing the paid option made it work quite well with reasonable speeds.

Trans Tasman was an odd one, it worked really well when overland in Australia or New Zealand but crossing the Tasman was always quite slow. It was however paid on these routes from memory about $13 per flight (but the first 15 minutes was free).

Obviously, this Rex wifi is a trial and speeds of over 60mbps are unlikely to remain. Rex did say wifi would be free for business class but it remains to be seen if they make it paid in economy (or a free slower option).

 

[Fortunatecrow]

20 minutes after take-off (finally)