Virgin Australia Business Class - Meals, Menus & Service

[antycbr]

Chicken Shawarma on VA978 last Sunday. Not bad, good dressing and rice.

 

[MooTime]

Chicken Shawarma on VA978 last Sunday. Not bad, good dressing and rice.

Doesn't look very visually appealing.
Flavoursome no doubt though.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Doesn't look very visually appealing.
Flavoursome no doubt though.

Reports from the pax that had it on my flight was that it was excellent.

For me presentation doesn’t matter… food is food! As long as it tastes ok I’m happy

 

[The-Aviator]

16/11/23 | VA878 | SYD to MEL

I was a bit apprehensive about this flight after reading Luke B's post from the same flight the previous night and it turned out I had good reason to be. Probably the worst experience I have had to date on a VA J flight, and that is including the snack box period of 2020!

Scheduled departure was 6.30pm but was delayed, luckily being a Thursday night they were serving Papa Salt Gin coughtails in the lounge which I enjoyed. Unfortunately I missed the burgers by mere seconds. The lounge was packed with the upstairs section also open!



Double parked...



Boarding commenced at 7.30pm and the fun started here, the CM was clearly not happy to be working this flight. His comments summarised below...

• Made an announcement making it clear to everyone he was unhappy about being called in last minute on his DDO (designated day off?) and therefore wanted to get us to Melbourne ASAP so he could get back to Sydney before curfew.
• Complaining to passengers about oversized bags not being caught at the gate and how he wouldn't offload them even though he had a right to because it would delay things further. Blamed this on being severely understaffed.
• His complaints to the other FAs were clearly audible in the J cabin, some of the standouts were "getting abused for 10 days straight" and "it's going to get worse approaching Christmas".
• CM didn't seem to realise that this particular plane was not the one returning to Sydney (it was going to Brisbane) and was instructing the other FAs that when they landed they shouldn't worry about rubbish and do the quickest job possible in turning the plane around. The specific instruction was to grab rubbish you could immediately see but don't go any further than that, like looking in the seat pockets etc.

No jacket service was offered so myself and others grabbed hangers and hung them ourselves. First world problem I am fully aware! But it is on their website as a service so it would be nice to offer it.

Like Luke B experienced, there was no PDB served. What made it more frustrating though was the crew themselves were having PDBs. First two I have no issues with, a soft drink was taken to the coughpit and an FA (one of the two nicer FAs on the flight) had a drink in the galley in a spot that was not visible to passengers, I only saw it because of the direct line of sight from 2A. But old mate CM stood right in the aisle smashing a lemonade! I'm not having a go at anyone fulfilling the human need to hydrate but it was just so awkward drinking right in front of us when we got nothing.

Anyway, let's get on to meal service. Orders were taken in the standard 1AC, 1DF, 2AC, 2DF. Interestingly the CM went pair by pair, both taking and delivering the orders before moving on to the next pair. I think taking all then delivering all is faster?

Choices were braised beef brisket with jasmine rice and bok choy or a pasta with zucchini (apparently the descriptions on their iPads are not great). Three people didn't eat and everyone who did went with the brisket so unfortunately I didn't get to see what the pasta looked like. I got a glass of shiraz and sparkling water to accompany my meal. This by the way was my first drink since boarding, served 71 minutes after boarding at 8:41pm!



Close up of the main given it is a new menu!



The meal was alright but could be better, the rice was quite dry. It is a new menu so perhaps it will improve in the weeks and months to come. To be honest despite having many green curries I still enjoyed it each time, I would try this again but if it doesn't improve I will need to move on to the other options.

Service in the air was better than on the ground, everyone was addressed by name and generous beverage pours were provided. Got myself a second glass of shiraz.



For what it's worth the last flight to Sydney (VA897) was cancelled that night, so unfortunately our friends didn't make it back that night. To be honest I could probably excuse the slack service on the ground if there was a sliver of a chance we would make it to Melbourne in time but when you consider roughly ~90 mins of flying time each way plus time on the ground, it was abundantly clear from the start that there was no chance the crew would make it back.

The overall feeling I got is that the staff seem despondent, morale must be close to an all-time (excluding COVID) low. Sounds like Bain are running as tight an operation as possible. I'm not across all the detail but know the strike talks are ongoing, I do wonder if it would be better they did strike and get this moving forward as it will be better for them and us in the long run.

I'm probably less of a VA fan than I used to be following the incident earlier this year, but still think this was a particularly poor flight. I'm not sure it's complaint-worthy so haven't provided feedback to the airline just yet. Thankfully the flight home was an improvement, will report on that later!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Wonder if it was the same CSM i had a couple weeks ago who was refusing to do PDBs and coat hanging because he’d been in trouble for late departures? Even if the flight was early he said he was refusing all on ground service.

On the ground he was schmoozing the pilots. In the air he was being super nice and schmoozing all the passengers so that no one wrote in to complain.

I think it’s unfair to provide excuses for poor service. Many of the crews are outstanding, and they must all be under the same circumstances. No need to take it out on the pax.

 

[RooFlyer]

Boarding commenced at 7.30pm and the fun started here, the CM was clearly not happy to be working this flight. His comments summarised below...

You might think about sending feedback. That sorry of stuff is just not on and needs to be called out.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You might think about sending feedback. That sorry of stuff is just not on and needs to be called out.

Bin there. Done that.

you’ll get is a ‘sorry we didn’t meet your expectations. We have forwarded your matter to cabin crew management.’

Whether or not it’s forwarded on or even actioned, who knows.

 

[Luke B]

16/11/23 | VA878 | SYD to MEL

I was a bit apprehensive about this flight after reading Luke B's post from the same flight the previous night and it turned out I had good reason to be. Probably the worst experience I have had to date on a VA J flight, and that is including the snack box period of 2020!

Scheduled departure was 6.30pm but was delayed, luckily being a Thursday night they were serving Papa Salt Gin coughtails in the lounge which I enjoyed. Unfortunately I missed the burgers by mere seconds. The lounge was packed with the upstairs section also open!

View attachment 354839

Double parked...

View attachment 354840

Boarding commenced at 7.30pm and the fun started here, the CM was clearly not happy to be working this flight. His comments summarised below...

• Made an announcement making it clear to everyone he was unhappy about being called in last minute on his DDO (designated day off?) and therefore wanted to get us to Melbourne ASAP so he could get back to Sydney before curfew.
• Complaining to passengers about oversized bags not being caught at the gate and how he wouldn't offload them even though he had a right to because it would delay things further. Blamed this on being severely understaffed.
• His complaints to the other FAs were clearly audible in the J cabin, some of the standouts were "getting abused for 10 days straight" and "it's going to get worse approaching Christmas".
• CM didn't seem to realise that this particular plane was not the one returning to Sydney (it was going to Brisbane) and was instructing the other FAs that when they landed they shouldn't worry about rubbish and do the quickest job possible in turning the plane around. The specific instruction was to grab rubbish you could immediately see but don't go any further than that, like looking in the seat pockets etc.

No jacket service was offered so myself and others grabbed hangers and hung them ourselves. First world problem I am fully aware! But it is on their website as a service so it would be nice to offer it.

Like Luke B experienced, there was no PDB served. What made it more frustrating though was the crew themselves were having PDBs. First two I have no issues with, a soft drink was taken to the coughpit and an FA (one of the two nicer FAs on the flight) had a drink in the galley in a spot that was not visible to passengers, I only saw it because of the direct line of sight from 2A. But old mate CM stood right in the aisle smashing a lemonade! I'm not having a go at anyone fulfilling the human need to hydrate but it was just so awkward drinking right in front of us when we got nothing.

Anyway, let's get on to meal service. Orders were taken in the standard 1AC, 1DF, 2AC, 2DF. Interestingly the CM went pair by pair, both taking and delivering the orders before moving on to the next pair. I think taking all then delivering all is faster?

Choices were braised beef brisket with jasmine rice and bok choy or a pasta with zucchini (apparently the descriptions on their iPads are not great). Three people didn't eat and everyone who did went with the brisket so unfortunately I didn't get to see what the pasta looked like. I got a glass of shiraz and sparkling water to accompany my meal. This by the way was my first drink since boarding, served 71 minutes after boarding at 8:41pm!

View attachment 354842

Close up of the main given it is a new menu!

View attachment 354843

The meal was alright but could be better, the rice was quite dry. It is a new menu so perhaps it will improve in the weeks and months to come. To be honest despite having many green curries I still enjoyed it each time, I would try this again but if it doesn't improve I will need to move on to the other options.

Service in the air was better than on the ground, everyone was addressed by name and generous beverage pours were provided. Got myself a second glass of shiraz.

View attachment 354844

For what it's worth the last flight to Sydney (VA897) was cancelled that night, so unfortunately our friends didn't make it back that night. To be honest I could probably excuse the slack service on the ground if there was a sliver of a chance we would make it to Melbourne in time but when you consider roughly ~90 mins of flying time each way plus time on the ground, it was abundantly clear from the start that there was no chance the crew would make it back.

The overall feeling I got is that the staff seem despondent, morale must be close to an all-time (excluding COVID) low. Sounds like Bain are running as tight an operation as possible. I'm not across all the detail but know the strike talks are ongoing, I do wonder if it would be better they did strike and get this moving forward as it will be better for them and us in the long run.

I'm probably less of a VA fan than I used to be following the incident earlier this year, but still think this was a particularly poor flight. I'm not sure it's complaint-worthy so haven't provided feedback to the airline just yet. Thankfully the flight home was an improvement, will report on that later!

Wow... And I couldn't think my experience could have been worse! I left it out of mine but I had the same experience of CM taking 1A/C then preparing, 1D/F then preparing... Definitely agree that really slowed things down.

I submitted feedback that night and still haven't heard back yet.

 

[castingcouchflyer]

Chicken Shawarma on VA978 last Sunday. Not bad, good dressing and rice.

this is really good!!! looks like Cabin Crew overcooked it

 

[Mattg]

Oh dear.
I can’t have any spicy food (disastrous tummy problems).
I might have to starve.

I love spicy food and am usually disappointed that the food served on planes isn’t spicy enough - even when it’s supposed to be!

 

[Mattg]

VA281 MEL-CBR
Delayed 17:05 departure

Two cold options and I was in 2F so got last choice. The only thing left was this chicken salad with salsa, bread and some sort of creamy sauce. It was nice and I was pleased to be offered something I haven’t seen before!



Due to turbulence, we only had about 5 minutes to eat before the crew had to clear away the trays and be seated for (a bumpy) landing.

 

[kerfuffle]

VA555 SYD-PER 27/11

Poached eggs with chorizo, silverbeet, chickpeas and something, or hash browns or something like that, which ran out fast (I was in 2A so had no choice but to take the poached eggs, which I was fine with). Also a small fruit salad and a slice of cake.
Orders served and taken 1A-1F, 2A-2F. Top-ups were offered and The Pantry offered multiple times. (Also, brand new plane woo!)


VA556 PER-SYD 29/11
Thai baked (?) chicken with bok choy, or some eggplant pasta thing with pinenuts (so that's me out; yay allergies). Also a little antipasti plate and a slice of cake, plus a bigger packet of cheese and crackers.
Orders served and taken 1A-1F, 2A-2F. Top-ups were offered and the Pantry wasn't proactively offered, but you could ask for it if you wanted. Good service from the CM and crew on both flights; thanks Tyler and Heidi!

 

[dk4]

the beef pasta one mentioned up thread (as spag bol)....

 

[dairyfloss]

the beef pasta one mentioned up thread (as spag bol)....
View attachment 355465

Ahh… Orecchiette Bolognaise

 

[sudoer]

VA913 SYD-BNE 7:30am departure

Bagel with pumpkin puree, scrambled eggs, chorizo. Alternative was hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash brown, beans and mushrooms.



VA986 BNE-SYD 7:05pm departure

Roast chicken and vegetables. Alternative was a vegetarian pasta salad.

Sneak peek at a few dishes
Roasted soy caramel chicken with spicy potatoes and broccoli

I guess this is what I received above - admittedly I couldn't hear the FA well when they described the menu. The potatoes weren't spicy at all! The chicken (breast) was a tad over, as expected, but it was tasty enough and I would order it again.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Last night’s soy chicken ex MEL was superb! Perfectly cooked and still moist.

 

[twinaisle]

Last night’s soy chicken ex MEL was superb! Perfectly cooked and still moist.

Love a moist chick

 

[dxwell]

First photo is BNE-SYD Dinner was this chicken thing. Bit dry, not a huge amount of flavour and I HATE zucchini. Made me think that I am an ok cook myself in comparison.
Second photo is SYD-BNE vegetarian option on barley. More flavour, more of the dreaded zucchini.
Being objective, I don't think either of these meals were good enough.
Service on both legs was very good - PDB sparkling wine, chardy with top up.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Oh. The chin ken shwarma is supposed to be excellent according to all the reports so far (including my fellow pax last week).

Agree the barley dish is not so good. Mine was below average. One to stay away from in future.

 

[RooFlyer]

more of the dreaded zucchini.

Its zucchini season in Tas - you can't give 'em away (as everyone grows them to excess).