We wondered who you were, our crew googled you.

[dzinh]

Date: 17th July 2013
Route: MEL - PER
Flight Number: VA 679

Airline: Virgin Australia
Aircraft Type: Airbus 332
Aircraft Rego: VH - XFB
Travel Class: J

Seat: 3A

What can I say, This would be my 2nd and 3rd time on the VA 332's as my 332 virginity had been broken 5 weeks ago on XFE. I needed to get my 332 J fix and a a bit of coaxing with Chris and we were on our way to PER, little did we know this flight would be mischievous and forever indent VA into my mind.


3 weeks ago I was chatting with Chris who was from SYD at that time and he said he had never tried out the 332, I was in a state of adrenaline and asked him if he wanted to go to PER, he thought I was talking about flying in Y so he hesitantly agreed and away I booked. I sent Chris the itinerary and he went cray cray when he saw it was in J.

The weeks leading up to Wednesday was fantastic as the seating selection showed 6 seats across as that indicates it's one of the newer birds and I even got guaranteed it was the newer birds via the Platinum call center... (you know you fly quite a bit when Sebastian from the Platinum line prompted "Mr Le, I can see you've been flying a lot with us and I can assure you the seating arrangement for your next 6 flights on the 332 are showing 6 across, did you want me to assign you 2A for all of your bookings?")

I was excited and happy... until Monday. I decided to check Expert Flyer and saw that luck had ran out, the seating selection was now displaying 7 across meaning it would either be XFA or XFB (one of the ex EK birds).

Wednesday morning arrived and I was in the lounge by 7:30AM, I could see the section behind the service desk next to the meeting rooms had been closed for renovations, little bird says there will be "The Club" facilities once refurbishment is completed as well as featuring premium lounge entry for MEL. I had a browse to see if VA changed their menu items for breakfast but I could see the offerings were the same.

View of MEL lounge renovations, its going to be pretty big once done!

View of XFB from the lounge

Trying to mimic the VA tail adds!


I met up with Chris and we sat chatting away on the upper level of the lounge overseeing the even gate’s until it was time to head off to gate 4. Boarding had already commenced once we arrived at the gate and we boarded through door 1L and turned right into J. It was my first time sampling the "retro" J seats and what struck me at first was a very spacious cabin, plenty of legroom, friendly crew but not even a Botox or intense tummy tuck could hide the age of the old girl.

"Retro" seats on XFB

 

[dzinh]

Matthew would be our flight attendant for the duration of the flight and made his way to our seats to introduce himself as well as offer us an option between apple and orange juice or water. I decided for the orange juice as I’m use to having that on my daily breakfast routine.
I had nothing to do except watching passengers board so decided to play around with the seating arrangement and that’s when things started to go wrong. 2A leg rest wouldn't go down so we had to rely on Tania, the friendly csm to manually reset the seat. I commented that the old bird was living up to it’s nickname Broken. Tania giggled and cheekily told me to hush and asked me how did I know of the nickname.

If your ever “stuck” in a similar situation here’s how to manually reset the seat if you’re ever on XFA/XFB.

Open the arm rest compartment up and pull the levers upwards and bam, the seat should fall back into it’s original position, it can also be quite entertaining and a great way to wake the SWMBO in the recline position.

Plenty of legroom

Michael who was based in the J cabin came and introduced himself to us after he heard what I commented to Tania regarding the nickname and asked us what our intent was with the journey to PER.

Your luck depends on where you want to sit.


Matthew returned with amenity kit as well as distributed the menus and did a fantastic job at looking after us and was very flamboyant. His personality changed after entree, and a valid reason for the change was that he had to be professional, as he didn't want other passengers complaining that we were getting extra love and attention. I understood that he couldn’t be flamboyant and told Chris to settle down and to stop being cheeky.

Adelaide behind, its time to face the great Australian Bight.

Matthew offered the fruits and yoghurt for Breakfast accompanied by a croissant, he suggested I should try the croissant with vegemite in which I did take up his offer. The croissant was fantastic, it wasn't oily as I have previously encountered and was soft on the inside and crispy outside. I must admit, croissant with butter and vegemite did indeed go well together and I told Matt about this, he giggled and commented, "I'm glad you did enjoy it, as I've never tried it" with a cheeky grin on his face.

Matthew proceeded to clear the empty fruit bowl and swiftly topped up our water’s as well as deliver me a warm glass of hot chocolate. I asked Chris if he wanted to check out e-con-e-may (that’s what the FA’s call it) and explore. I found the Y seating arrangements on the old bird’s quite bulky causing the cabin to have a sense of claustrophobia.

I was underwhelmed and decided to make my way back to the business cabin. It was until I reached the gallery separating both cabins that cause me to bump into Emile who greeted me and proceeded to hold the curtain open so I could return to my seat.

 

[dzinh]

We got back just in time for the main Breakfast option. We both chose the Ricotta pancakes with banana, sultana's, walnuts with lemon and mint ricotta as I heard this was a good dish to try. I found the topping very nice and not too sweet although the pancakes were hard and dry.

Lovely meal although pancakes were hard and dry.

Matthew cleared our trays and topped up drinks and it was 2.5 hours until we reached PER, Matthew offered us cookies and tea, he hinted that only 3 had been loaded for 5 passengers so it would be a shame not to try the cookie. Matthew also commented that he would bake spotted cow cookies for the remaining 2 passengers if they agreed for cookies. It was the first time I had the chocolate brownie cookie and it was delicious, warm and doughy which stuck to my teeth and gum that saw me rely on my white tea to help wash down the cookie.


The thing I try to forget about when flying is the unnecessary calorie intake, flying does a lot of things to you and your mind but I guess I can never say no to a charming and service minded flight attendant.

Delicious warm cookie and glass of tea.

We're full and ready to explore.

Trying to get a bit of sleep.

I tried to get a bit of shut eye but was feeling restless so decided to wander back into the Y gallery and saw Emile sitting in his jump seat looking “bored”. Emile and I sparked up a lengthy conversation regarding VA, staff travel on its partner's airlines, the 2 new 332's lined up for VA which were suppose to be Kingfisher's and what seemed to excite him was how it would have proper crew resting facilities. Ding, ding, Emile excused himself to attend to a passenger in Y and a quick peek through the curtain I saw Chris was also engaging in a conversation with Matthew.

Emile returned and asked if I knew that there were 2 ghosts who reside onboard XFB. What did you say Emile??? Yes, there are 2 ghosts on XFB! The ghost of a girl resides in the forward left toilet and makes noises time to time which caused a FA to burst into tears, the other ghost of a old man resides in row 28 which sets off the call bell once the plane takes off, I asked him was he sure it wasn't just XFB being broken and he assured me that if there was a next time on XFB to make sure and listen for call bell’s going off once we take off.

The captain announced we were approaching PER and it was time to prepare the cabin for landing, I bid farewell to Emile and returned to my seat where Matthew was still conversing with Chris. Matt thanked us for flying with VA and a 10 minutes later the captain ensured a smooth touchdown in sunny PER.

We decided to explore the remaining 2 terminals in PER and We made it back in the lounge in time only to see our flight to MEL was delayed by 30 minutes as XFD was late getting in from BNE. What originally was suppose to be a 13:30 departure turned into a 14:00 flight.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

thanks for your report dzinh. looks good!

nice self shot there.

 

[dzinh]

Date: 17th July 2013
Route: PER - MEL
Flight Number: VA 688
Airline: Virgin Australia
Aircraft Type: Airbus 332
Aircraft Rego: VH - XFD
Travel Class: J
Seat: 2A


Chris was worried that if we got delayed any further we would miss his MEL - SYD flight at 21:00 as he needed to be home for another work trip the following day so he asked the angels in case of any further delays if he could be put on the PER - SYD which was a yes.

Chris was worried which caused me to get a tad nervous until the angel informed us flight VA 688 was boarding. I wanted to get to the gate ahead of boarding to try to encounter any DYKWIA moments but as we got to gate 24 boarding had already commenced in the PB lane and a snake was forming for the general lane. There was a couple in front of me who tried to block me off from handing my BP to the gate agent so I nudged and excused myself past which had no effect on the couple.
Slightly agitated I graciously pushed passed and handed my BP to the agent who was manning the general lane. It was great to see they were boarding by section as I overheard gate agent call for boarding from rows 25 to 30.

The couple who blocked me off happened to be walking very slowly in front of and I had no intent to push past, I handed my BP to David the csm who was positioned at the door and he took us to our seats. A sigh of relief as it was wonderful feeling being back in the new cabin.

David told us that Matthew from the previous flight had told the crew all about asked if and us he could get us anything. What was happening, were we getting “extra love and attention” I was confused yet amused and humbly smiled.

Relaxing with my glass of Lanson
Our flight attendant for this journey was Dave. I selected 3A and Chris in 3C, as you can see by my seating arrangements I have a thing for the left side of the. Dave proceeded to introduce himself and offered us a choice between water and champagne. A couple of minutes passed and I had the Champagne in hand, menu in the seat pocket and another amenity kit in my bag it was finally time to push back. We didn’t take off until 14:30, after 7 other planes had taken off it was time for XFD to roll down the runway and penetrate the clear blue sky.

Debbie who was looking after the right side of the business cabin came and offered us hot towels and it’s something I could definitely get use to on VA. Dave came round to ask for pre lunch drinks and I thought it was time for a coughtail. I asked for a Bloody Mary and Chris stuck to his cheeky surprise me coughtail saw him getting a Singapore Sling from Tess.

With 2 Sips of my coughtail the ramekin of dukkah nuts were gone as I frantically searched for a bottle of water, I’m guessing Tess was feeling generous that day as the amount of Tabasco in my drink could of taken down a horse. The crew forgot to load bottles of water into our seats and I wasn’t in a state of getting up so I sat there and embraced the burning sensation in my mouth like a man.

Dave proceeded to take our lunch order and offer us some more water as we patiently waited for lunch.

I’m a lover of crustacean so the King Prawn with watercress, fennel, capsicum and almond salad really hit the spot for my Entrée.

I decided to go with the Duck and porcini mushroom ragu with salsa verde for mains accompanied by a glass of Mojo Sav Blanc and Lanson Champagne.

Thats a lot of glasses on the tray you have there Mr Le.
I found the main dish delicious although it’s a small serving. We had a copious time before dessert so I commented to Chris that we should check out economy. A quick walk to the rear gallery and walk back via the other aisle we found ourselves back in the middle gallery where we bumped into Belinda and Holly.

Chris and I decided to “stretch” our legs and go for a slow “walk” back down to the rear gallery.

I'll follow the purple mood lighting down the aisles, no passengers were harmed on this journey.

Meals had been served and trays have been cleared the crew were having their lunch while we "bothered" Mike and Michelle. David popped down the back and I apologized that we were terrorizing the plane and his crew, he smiled and commented that we could terrorize all we want.

The crew were very talkative and friendly, we conversed in the gallery. I laughed ... It seemed legit though, as we did do the 9:00AM MEL - PER then got back on the 13:30 PER – MEL… I mean, who does that kind of thing, damn crazy flyers.

 

[dzinh]

Snacking on a lemon and yoghurt slice in econemay.

Holly then let it slip that the crew who were taking care of us in the business cabin googled us and we came up as bloggers. "The girls at the front even googled you guys before the flight."

Apple and blueberry crumble.

We made our way down the aisles up to business class and paused briefly in the middle gallery to chat with Belinda. Dessert had truly been served a while ago so David and Debbie came into the gallery with the dessert trolley.

Why sit at your seat for dessert when you can be in the jump seat enjoying some Apple and Blueberry layered crumble as well as a glass of dessert wine while having some fun in the gallery. m

Debbie, Belinda, Chris and myself.

We literally had a coughtail party in the forward gallery and what made my heart melt was when Belinda came up with 2 slices of home made almond cake for Chris and myself. We thanked Belinda for her generosity and quickly scoffed down the delicious slice of sweetness. No FA had ever offered me something so personal and friendly in flight and this is why I love VA.

Special surprise from Tess, 3F even joined us in he gallery for our coughtail party.

The pilot’s announcement came on once again and our flight was coming to an end, we were approaching MEL 30 minutes after schedule and made our way back to our seats so the crew could finish off their duties. David greeted us at our seats and asked if there was anything else that could be improved service wise and suggested as WP's our emails and opinions would get looked into a lot faster than crew feedback. I thanked him and his staff for a lovely and very memorable and personal flight. We arrived in MEL followed by a short taxi to gate 12. The gate operators had a hard time positioning the gate so there was a further delay of 10 minutes.

Final shot of the business cabin.

We asked Holly why the flight was originally delayed and Holly commented that it was because of catering issues; they didn't load enough food as the food ratio in business is for every passenger to have 2 options. There was miscommunication and it was the pilot’s call to pushback to avoid any further delays.

On approach to MEL.

Looking back, I can say the 2 flights on Wednesday really topped off all my previous flights with VA, It was personal, cheeky, funny and safe. Personality does come a long way and exceeds when it goes hand in hand with fantastic service from the crew.g

 

[pmdg7444]

Enjoyable read. good to see ur living up ur new WP status...hehe


...

 

[serfty]

A very enjoyable trip report; those crew that VA assign to their coast-to-coast flights are among the best around.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Loved it, even the selfies

 

[dzinh]

A very enjoyable trip report; those crew that VA assign to their coast-to-coast flights are among the best around.

Thanks Serfty, I try to spare time and write up TR's for worthwhile experiences!

Loved it, even the selfies

Thank you Princess Fiona

 

[Must...Fly!]

Great trip report and an even better way to spend the day dzinh!

A very enjoyable trip report; those crew that VA assign to their coast-to-coast flights are among the best around.

I agree they are better than the normal crew, although I am yet to feel the love in a big way. Perhaps I need to try harder. The two last journeys C2C were a little underwhelming. Including witnessing a male F/A chatting up some backpacker which left a bad taste of sorts.

 

[Tuddy]

Great trip report and an even better way to spend the day dzinh!


I agree they are better than the normal crew, although I am yet to feel the love in a big way. Perhaps I need to try harder. The two last journeys C2C were a little underwhelming. Including witnessing a male F/A chatting up some backpacker which left a bad taste of sorts.

Whilst I'm no backpacker, that could have been me being chatted up

 

[erkpod]

Whilst I'm no backpacker, that could have been me being chatted up

Did it work?

 

[JohnK]

Very nice trip report.

 

[dzinh]

Very nice trip report.

Thank you JohnK

 

[turtlemichael]

Very enjoyable report. Many thanks.