Virgin Australia to Reconfigure Fleet - Spend $110M

[HeavyElectricity]

Something interesting I noticed - row 2 business class seats don't have the literature pocket high up on the back like those in Row 1. Hopefully this means the future divider will extend down a bit further than the headrests.

Additionally it looks like the middle seats in Row 3 don't have any literature pocket in front of them right now, so no safety card for them etc?

On the PER-MEL VH-VUP flight this morning people were lining up down the aisle to use the front toilet, at least to past row 5/6. No one was being sent back.

I also saw the person seated in the middle of Row 3 taking photos of the business class food through the gap in the seats.

The cabin crew also apologised to a business class guest that asked for his jacket to be hung up as apparently there is now nowhere for them, and it had to be placed in the overhead bins (which are still the smaller kind, haven't been refitted, no sky interior lighting etc too).

 

[jase05]

On the PER-MEL VH-VUP flight this morning people were lining up down the aisle to use the front toilet, at least to past row 5/6. No one was being sent back.

That is a staff issue not an issue of no divider.
Staff need to proactively enforce it and I find VA are mostly very good in this department

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Maybe replace the V in VUP to an F by the sounds of it?

I had one of the ex silkair aircraft last week, no cabin divider, but they were sending everyone to the back lavatory.

 

[PERLHR]

All 737-800s — any idea if that includes the older aircraft still beating around from the Virgin Blue days?

Some of them are looking rather tired, and VOK/L/N/O are about to hit 20 years of service. Will be interesting to see how many years they squeeze out of them.

This is definitely a positive move. Sky divider I’m less sold on.

So still younger than some of the QF machines.

 

[dk4]

I had one of the ex silkair aircraft last week, no cabin divider, but they were sending everyone to the back lavatory.

I had a silkair the other week too, but no one from Y was sent back, small queues formed a few times. The CM was lacklustre in quality J cabin service too.

I think VA management needs to start focusing on driving out those CMs who have lost their drive to provide excellent service.

 

[lovestotravel]

The CM was lacklustre in quality J cabin service too.

I think VA management needs to start focusing on driving out those CMs who have lost their drive to provide excellent service.

They can't even keep staff at the moment, they are not going to drive out any staff

 

[Saab34]

Do you think staff care? They are going through tug of war with management over paying a decent wage, they probably just don’t care. I don’t blame them.

They are just keeping the place together before flogging it off. No investment in service or anything.

Come back in 5 years, will be a vastly different outfit under the next person, for the better or worse, remains to be seen. Find me a Private Equity Pump n Dump that has decent staff morale.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Do you think staff care? They are going through tug of war with management over paying a decent wage, they probably just don’t care. I don’t blame them.

They are just keeping the place together before flogging it off. No investment in service or anything.

Come back in 5 years, will be a vastly different outfit under the next person, for the better or worse, remains to be seen. Find me a Private Equity Pump n Dump that has decent staff morale.

I’m not sure I am ok with the ‘it’s bad for us so we can give poor service’ excuse.

Nurses, teachers, ambulance crews… they all do demanding jobs and deserve more money. But they don’t do half a job while they’re fighting for better conditions.

 

[elanshin]

Do you think staff care? They are going through tug of war with management over paying a decent wage, they probably just don’t care. I don’t blame them.

They are just keeping the place together before flogging it off. No investment in service or anything.

Come back in 5 years, will be a vastly different outfit under the next person, for the better or worse, remains to be seen. Find me a Private Equity Pump n Dump that has decent staff morale.

I suspect its more just new staff without proper training both before being placed on a plane as well as on the job learning.

If you're rushing a revolving door of cabin crew through and have a shortage of experienced crew who can lead by example then it's not surprising that everything falls away to the bare minimum very quickly.

 

[lovestotravel]

Do you think staff care? They are going through tug of war with management over paying a decent wage, they probably just don’t care. I don’t blame them.

They are just keeping the place together before flogging it off. No investment in service or anything.

Come back in 5 years, will be a vastly different outfit under the next person, for the better or worse, remains to be seen. Find me a Private Equity Pump n Dump that has decent staff morale.

Correct

 

[bcworld]

Nurses, teachers, ambulance crews… they all do demanding jobs and deserve more money. But they don’t do half a job while they’re fighting for better conditions.

Because in those cases we're talking about meaningful outcomes for other (vulnerable) people...health, education etc...not the satisfaction levels of someone who is still getting from A to B (well mostly!).

Post automatically merged: Dec 10, 2023

I suspect its more just new staff without proper training both before being placed on a plane as well as on the job learning.

If you're rushing a revolving door of cabin crew through and have a shortage of experienced crew who can lead by example then it's not surprising that everything falls away to the bare minimum very quickly.

I would expect new staff to potentially be more enthusiastic though...whereas we listened to one tell us (during service) for about 10 minutes about how poor their pay and working conditions were.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

Some photos from VH-VUP:

 

[HeavyElectricity]

The seats were pretty comfy, as far as economy seats go, IMHO.

 

[Human]

I've sat in the Business class seats once and they were great -- the footrest and legrest made a lot of difference and the tablet holder in the tray table was great too.

However, if no divider means people from Economy queueing down the aisle to use the front toilet .... I'd choose the old seats with divider, over the new seats without divider, every day of the week.

 

[Saab34]

Some photos from VH-VUP:

Are they new or look reupholstered?

 

[ThatMrBlake]

Are they new or look reupholstered?

New - but looks like that’s the only thing they did. The rest of the aircraft still felt very tired.

 

[Saab34]

Well hopefully new carpet also.

The 737s 5-10 years old are apparently only getting reupholstered according to another site.

 

[HS-TQE]

Are they new or look reupholstered?

There are USB ports on those seats, they never had the room for them on the old Borghetti-era seats.

 

[lovestotravel]

New - but looks like that’s the only thing they did. The rest of the aircraft still felt very tired.

Yep the non BSI looks old

 

[Sprucegoose]

As QF modernises their fleet, VA must think long-term and resist the usual short-termism of private equity-boxed decision-making.