VA COVID Service

[Freqy Flyer]

What’s the VA onboard service looking like currently in light of COVID? Would really like to know what is happening with:
1. Food and Beverages
2. Inflight Entertainment
3. Onboard Wifi

I’m about to book a few flights and so any experiences/comments/observations would be really appreciated

 

[henrus]

Have had a few BNE-CNS flights recently (including one today).

Boarding is the same process as normal with none of the flights called by rows and priority remaining unchanged. Amazingly none of the crew wore a mask (something that QF/JQ must make their FA's do because they're all wearing one). Similar to QF/JQ you do get a mask/sanitising wipes at the gate if you wish.

The announcements and everything else remains unchanged with a couple of additions obviously read of a script saying to limit movement around the cabin and not to wait for the loos. Unlike QF/JQ there isn't an announcement about re-enabling Bluetooth after flight mode to ensure the COVID safe app works, however, the similar announcement about having to remove face masks before applying an oxygen mask is read on all airlines JQ/QF/VA.

The 'snack' regardless of time of day is a breakfast granola bar with two flavours (you don't really get a choice - one has blueberry the other doesn't). The only drink is water poured from a large bottle into a cup.

In Business class the 'snack' is the same with the additional option of a two-minute cup noodles. Business-class also has the option of beer, wine (in small bottles) and whole cans of soft drink.

All of the aircraft still have the inflight wireless-based entertainment running however it wouldn't surprise me if the selection hasn't been changed in months. The inflight wifi doesn't work and whilst no announcements were made about it inflight, VA has confirmed this to be the case via their twitter.

 

[Muppet501st]

Have had a few BNE-CNS flights recently (including one today).

Boarding is the same process as normal with none of the flights called by rows and priority remaining unchanged. Amazingly none of the crew wore a mask (something that QF/JQ must make their FA's do because they're all wearing one). Similar to QF/JQ you do get a mask/sanitising wipes at the gate if you wish.

The announcements and everything else remains unchanged with a couple of additions obviously read of a script saying to limit movement around the cabin and not to wait for the loos. Unlike QF/JQ there isn't an announcement about re-enabling Bluetooth after flight mode to ensure the COVID safe app works, however, the similar announcement about having to remove face masks before applying an oxygen mask is read on all airlines JQ/QF/VA.

The 'snack' regardless of time of day is a breakfast granola bar with two flavours (you don't really get a choice - one has blueberry the other doesn't). The only drink is water poured from a large bottle into a cup.

In Business class the 'snack' is the same with the additional option of a two-minute cup noodles. Business-class also has the option of beer, wine (in small bottles) and whole cans of soft drink.

All of the aircraft still have the inflight wireless-based entertainment running however it wouldn't surprise me if the selection hasn't been changed in months. The inflight wifi doesn't work and whilst no announcements were made about it inflight, VA has confirmed this to be the case via their twitter.

Dont think QF/JQ make all FA's wear a mask. Most recent flights, some are, some arent.
Flew BNE-TSV on Sunday, row 4, and the 2 J FA's didnt wear masks, but the 2 FA's in Y were
Make of that as you will Though there were maybe 20 pax in Y at best.

 

[Mattg]

In Business class the 'snack' is the same with the additional option of a two-minute cup noodles. Business-class also has the option of beer, wine (in small bottles) and whole cans of soft drink.

All of the aircraft still have the inflight wireless-based entertainment running however it wouldn't surprise me if the selection hasn't been changed in months. The inflight wifi doesn't work and whilst no announcements were made about it inflight, VA has confirmed this to be the case via their twitter.

I would have been quite happy if they'd at least offered noodles in J on my last VA flight. I was starving when I got off the flight. We weren't even given that (or wine/beer). Looks like things have slightly improved, but still a long way off QF.

 

[henrus]

Looks like things have slightly improved, but still a long way off QF.

Yep, in the two weeks I've flown QF once, JQ three times, and VA twice. I'd almost argue that in economy JQ and VA are now about equal (minus the granola bar + wifi entertainment with content from February).

QF had a heated option on a flight to Adelaide plus a normal bar service in the evening. It's still weird that the IFE only works with the moving map but at least the wifi is fast and free.

Virgin's moving map still does work and can even be accessed without the app by visiting http://map.boardconnect.aero (obviously this link only works when onboard a VA 737 connected to the "VirginAustralia" wifi network).

 

[TheInsider]

QF had a heated option on a flight to Adelaide plus a normal bar service in the evening. It's still weird that the IFE only works with the moving map but at least the wifi is fast and free.

Virgin's moving map still does work and can even be accessed without the app by visiting http://map.boardconnect.aero (obviously this link only works when onboard a VA 737 connected to the "VirginAustralia" wifi network).

QF's IFE has been put on hold until the end of the year at the moment, but they have re-enabled all the Wi-Fi for internet usage.

 

[henrus]

QF's IFE has been put on hold until the end of the year at the moment, but they have re-enabled all the Wi-Fi for internet usage.

Ah ok it's good to know that they've put a date on the IFE possibly coming back at the end of the year.

I've used the inflight wifi in the last couple of weeks at it worked well, I got pings around 650ms, 15mbps download, and 1mpbs upload which is about standard.

The other thing to note is that Qantas only has three 737's without wifi and all of those three are in storage therefore right now if you're booked on a 737 then it's a 100% guarantee the flight will have wifi (unless the equipment doesn't work).

 

[Mattg]

Ah ok it's good to know that they've put a date on the IFE possibly coming back at the end of the year.

I had heard that the plan last month was to bring the IFE back in September (i.e. now). Looks like this has been delayed. So I wouldn't count on "end of the year" being a firm date either.

 

[Freqy Flyer]

All of the aircraft still have the inflight wireless-based entertainment running however it wouldn't surprise me if the selection hasn't been changed in months. The inflight wifi doesn't work and whilst no announcements were made about it inflight, VA has confirmed this to be the case via their twitter.

Thanks for the reply. I’ll need to work on my upcoming flight so was really hoping to have the wifi, but will have to make do if not. Do you know when VA posted about this? I might try calling them to see if this has changed but often the call centre has no idea

 

[henrus]

I might try calling them to see if this has changed but often the call centre has no idea

The easiest way is to just use twitter. That's how I got it confirmed (can't find the tweet I sent) and they responded in under a day. I can't see the inflight wifi coming back anytime soon so if you're after a flight with wifi then make sure it's a Qantas 737 instead.

 

[AIRwin]

WiFi and IFE under review:

Ready for take-off: Virgin Australia Group soars out of administration, unveils future direction

• New Virgin Australia Group CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka, announces future direction • Targets mid-market • Lounges to re-open from today

newsroom.virginaustralia.com

 

[oz_mark]

WiFi and IFE under review:

Ready for take-off: Virgin Australia Group soars out of administration, unveils future direction

• New Virgin Australia Group CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka, announces future direction • Targets mid-market • Lounges to re-open from today

newsroom.virginaustralia.com

"Under Review" is code for "We're still tightening the screws on suppliers"

 

[henrus]

"Under Review" is code for "We're still tightening the screws on suppliers"

The wifi one seems quite straight forward. Most aircraft have got a Ku band antenna on the roof so in theory, any satellite provider with ku-band capacity would work however Optus has a lot of capacity over Australia so this makes them the main option and the VA antennas aren't compatible with the NBN (which Qantas uses) or Inmarsat Global Express (which Air NZ uses) as both of these are Ka-band.

The other moving part is then the support and onboard portal service. Previously gogo did all of this but I can't imagine they'll come back so Virgin will need to get either the satellite provider (likely Optus), do it themselves or find someone else to manage the portal and customer-facing support. For Optus it could be a benefit if they did it and could even provide a free hour or messaging pack for post-paid customers similar to the T-Mobile and Gogo agreement in the US.

The IFE is a more interesting one because it's unclear what type of deal VA initially did with Lufthansa for their board connect system. Because the app is still "offered by" Lufthansa in the app store I assume they'd charge a monthly fee so they might have to renegotiate a contract to keep it otherwise I could see it being quite costly to switch.

Whilst the content on the VA entertainment app hasn't been updated for a while, it's much easier to sort out the content and in many cases, things like TV can be quite cheap. The ABC used to post a list of what it cost airlines to license their programs and it was surprisingly cheap so perhaps they need to go down the path of getting cheaper content given the movies apparently a big cost especially new releases.