Virgin 737 MAX lie-flat seats?

[Lucass]

Does anyone think there is still a possibility that VA could put lie flat business seats on their 737 max 8s for mel/syd to perth and new international routes. I know the previus CEO was contemplating this pre-covid, I wonder if it's still a possibility. Something like the examples below would be awesome to see on VA...

 

[Simon Overall]

Does anyone think there is still a possibility that VA could put lie flat business seats on their 737 max 8s for mel/syd to perth and new international routes. I know the previus CEO was contemplating this pre-covid, I wonder if it's still a possibility. Something like the examples below would be awesome to see on VA...
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No.

There's been no further suggestion of that.

 

[elanshin]

No. VA isn't about to put something in as a value carrier that QF isn't even introducing today.

 

[HS-TQE]

No.

As mentioned many times, Virgin are not a full service carrier.

They are a self described "value carrier", which is basically LCC Plus with a Business J Recliner Cabin and FF program attached.

 

[cove]

We really dislike the 737 product for coast to coast travel. It feel cheap and nasty even in business class for both Virgin and Qantas when you get seats in front of you recline. Seats in row one often have limited overhead bin space.
Five hours on a 737 is not a delight getting back to Perth from Sydney.

 

[pauly7]

Five hours on a 737 is not a delight getting back to Perth from Sydney.

It’s not a delight it’s wonderful

 

[HS-TQE]

No. VA isn't about to put something in as a value carrier that QF isn't even introducing today.

Also to add QF are refurbishing 42 of the younger 737s with similar seats to VA, the QF 737s with in-built IFE installed will be removed in the refurb, replaced with the wireless IFE system.

If QF are refurbing their 737s with seats similar to their A220 or their A321XLR Domestic/Short International Configuration, there's little to no chance of a "lie flat" on any Australian registered 737 (let alone VA!) for the foreseeable future.

 

[Scarlett]

No

 

[Saab34]

Negative. It’s more about cram cram cram these days.

The question will be, how far can they push the envelope to squeeze in as many Y seats as possible whilst still committing to 8 J seats.

 

[mannej]

Also to add QF are refurbishing 42 of the younger 737s with similar seats to VA, the QF 737s with in-built IFE installed will be removed in the refurb, replaced with the wireless IFE system.

If QF are refurbing their 737s with seats similar to their A220 or their A321XLR Domestic/Short International Configuration, there's little to no chance of a "lie flat" on any Australian registered 737 (let alone VA!) for the foreseeable future.

Off topic I know, but don’t these 737’s already have the Q-Streaming already installed?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

To be honest, I suspect there is a higher chance Qantas' luxury airline, JétStar will launch such a product on their narrow body Airbus' than Virgin Australia. As others point out, for any of that to make sense, they would need to be attracting the premium traveller, and nothing about Virgin screams Premium. The other thing to consider is the amount of room such a seat takes up, no doubt considerably more than the First class seats Virgin uses. That means they would be displacing quite a few rows of economy they likely would be able to fill on a normal day.

 

[Lucass]

Negative. It’s more about cram cram cram these days.

The question will be, how far can they push the envelope to squeeze in as many Y seats as possible whilst still committing to 8 J seats.

I wonder if the MAX 10 will have more J seats or still just the 8?

 

[HS-TQE]

If VA does take the MAX 10 it'll probably be just the 8 Recliner J seats plus cramming in the slimline seats in Y (with a few rows of EconomyX), Budget Carrier style.

 

[HS-TQE]

Off topic I know, but don’t these 737’s already have the Q-Streaming already installed?

The QF 737s without seatback IFE already has Q-Streaming.
The QF 737s with seatback IFE will be getting them removed in the refurb with Q-Streaming replacing the seatback IFE.

 

[zainman]

I wish they did it, maybe if QR really wanted to annoy QF (perhaps if Al-Baker was still in charge), they would invest money to really give QF some serious competition but I think it's just wishful thinking.

 

[simmomelb]

NEVER going to happen, more chance of a return of 777's or similar from PER to the East Coast than that happening on a 737 M.

We are speaking about an airline that can't even get its basic "air dividers" installed under the new seating config!

You are quite the comedian, Lucass

 

[Lucass]

I wish they did it, maybe if QR really wanted to annoy QF (perhaps if Al-Baker was still in charge), they would invest money to really give QF some serious competition but I think it's just wishful thinking.

That's what I was thinking as well. It wouldn't be crazy to think QR would want VA to invest more in its' premium product

Post automatically merged: Mar 5, 2025

NEVER going to happen, more chance of a return of 777's or similar from PER to the East Coast than that happening on a 737 M.

We are speaking about an airline that can't even get its basic "air dividers" installed under the new seating config!

You are quite the comedian, Lucass

I would say you are wrong in there being more of a chance of 777's returning to domestic services, that is waaaay more risk than lie flat beds on a narrow-body. Also QR may want them to invest more in their premium product now they have stake.

 

[HS-TQE]

It's early days on the QR stake, it's only 25% and VA's majority owners are still Bain Capital, so they will want to keep finances in check until either Bain gets VA 2.0's first IPO up and running or another off-market trade sale (either to another investment fund and/or a small increase for Qatar Airways themselves) occurs in the short term.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

To be honest, I suspect there is a higher chance Qantas' luxury airline, JétStar will launch such a product on their narrow body Airbus' than Virgin Australia. As others point out, for any of that to make sense, they would need to be attracting the premium traveller, and nothing about Virgin screams Premium. The other thing to consider is the amount of room such a seat takes up, no doubt considerably more than the First class seats Virgin uses. That means they would be displacing quite a few rows of economy they likely would be able to fill on a normal day.

the current VA cabin takes up around 4.5 windows. You could do two rows of 2-2 flat beds with around 5 windows, if you reconfigured the front bulkheads to incorporate footwells.

Space probably isn’t the issue so much as weight, and problems when things go wrong, like electrical faults and the like. Plus on most short flights, who’s going to use the,, or want to climb out over their snoozing seat mate?

They could do it for transcon aircraft. But those seats aren’t cheap to buy.

 

[twinaisle]

If you were to say flat seats on the 737 under Borghetti days then it probably would have happened. As much as it would be a dream to have it unfortunately won't.