Aussie Flyer

I have flown VA business a couple of times across the pacific but earlier this year was my first time in the new 'suite' style seat. Here is my experience... After arriving on a connecting service from Melbourne I took the Virgin Australia shuttle bus over to the international terminal. My bags were checked through so there was no need to stop by the check-in desks but this is what they looked like:

My next series of flight reports will be from a trip I did early this year to the USA and Mexico.  Here's a quick look at the first leg of the trip.  I was flying Virgin Australia via Sydney to Los Angeles. To get to Sydney I took VA811, the 7am flight featuring breakfast service. Here's how it went! FLIGHT: VA811 AIRLINE: Virgin Australia AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-800 VH-VUO (9 years old) ROUTE: Melbourne to Sydney DEPARTURE: 7.00AM ARRIVAL: 8.25AM GATE TO GATE TIME: 1 hour 25 minutes I checked in at the business class counters where I received my boarding pass for both the MEL-SYD and the SYD-LAX sectors, my bags were checked right through to LAX. I was given my boarding passes in a wallet with a bus ticket for the transfer in Sydney and my international departures card. Then it was onto the lounge... Time for a juice and a macch...

FLIGHT Virgin Australia VA7 AIRCRAFT Boeing 777-300ER VH-VOZ (7 years old) ROUTE Brisbane to Los Angeles CLASS Business Class seat 4A DEPARTURE 10.50AM ARRIVAL 6.55AM DURATION 13 hours 05 minutes So, this review is already out of date because the seats have been replaced but here is a quick look at a flight I took in April this year with Virgin Australia from Brisbane to Los Angeles.  Virgin Australia operate a small fleet of 5 B777-300ER's, serving Los Angeles from both Brisbane and Sydney, along with the Sydney to Abu Dhabi route. This is flight VA7, the daily flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles. Virgin compete with Qantas on this route who fly a daily B747-400. Brisbane International Checkin

Virgin have had short haul business class on domestic for a few years now. I have read mixed reviews on the product with some experiencing great service and others being almost ignored. Here is my experience on a recent trip. FLIGHT: Virgin Australia VA309 ROUTE: Melbourne to Brisbane AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-800 VH-VUJ (almost 10 years old) DEPARTURE: 7.00AM ARRIVAL: 8.10AM DURATION: 2 hrs 10 min My flight this morning was operated by VH-VUJ. This aircraft is almost 10 years old, delivered to Virgin Blue in 2006 and later repainted to the current Virgin Australia livery. The aircraft, like all the other VA 737-800's, has 8 business seats and 168 economy. I was in seat 1A for this sector. Upon arrival at the terminal I headed to the Virgin Australia lounge and snapped a pic of my aircraft which was parked right nearby:

This post follows on from Part 1 . This second report was for my return to Perth from Albany, on the Virgin Australia (Skywest) Fokker 50. FLIGHT 2: VA2526 ~ PERTH to ALBANY ~ 1525/1640  ~ Fokker 50 VH-FNH  ~ SEAT 9G I arrived at the airport a bit over an hour before departure and checked in for my flight to Perth, I was continuing on to Geraldton so I got the boarding pass for both sectors. Then it was through security where I was amazed to see that it took 3 security staff to process this small flight. It must be a costly process, and is something REX manages to avoid with it's smaller Saab 340 aircraft since they took over the route earlier this year. Albany Airport Terminal

I have very fond memories as a teenager of flying between Sydney and Wagga Wagga on Ansett Fokker 50's. I believe I did 2 return trips before the Saab 340's took over the run with Kendall Airlines back in the mid 1990s.  A number of the ex-Ansett Fokker's saw themselves transferred to Western Australia in the Skywest fleet which was later taken over by Virgin Australia. Late in 2015 it was announced that the Skywest Fokker 50 fleet was to be retired and routes to Albany, Esperance and Ravensthorpe terminated. Since I had an emotional connection to the aircraft type and it's operation in Australia I decided I had to go over to Perth and fly on them before they went. So, in December 2015, and about 20 years since I had last been in a Fokker aircraft I found myself at Perth Airport in the recently built 'regional' terminal. My routing on the Fokker 50 was booked Perth-Albany-Perth-Esperance. All 3 sectors were scheduled to be flown by the Fokker 50. FLIGHT 1: V...

After arriving from Brisbane  I headed to the Virgin Australia lounge which is conveniently located airside within the terminal. I stayed in the downstairs section. It was around 6pm so people were having dinner. I ended up with some fairly tasty nachos and a glass of white wine.

Following on from my first two articles detailing Qantas' short haul domestic business class offering, let's have a look now at what the competition is doing. Virgin Australia only went 'premium' a few years ago and I was yet to try their offering in business class on short haul. With that in mind I booked an award ticket Brisbane to Melbourne (via Sydney). This article covers the first sector, flight VA960, the 3.30pm service from Brisbane to Sydney on a Boeing 737-800. I arrived at the airport a little after 2pm and headed to the kiosk to print my boarding pass, I had pre-selected seat 1F, a bulkhead window in the first row. Virgin Australia only offer 8 business seats on the B737, 2 rows of 4. This compares to Qantas who offer 3 rows of 4 totaling 12 seats.  Both Qantas and Virgin seats are quite similar in terms of width and pitch, however Virgin do not offer a foot/leg rest. We will look at the seat later but for now it was off through security and to the Virg...

Recently over a period of a couple of days had the opportunity to try 2 short haul Qantas business class flights, followed by 2 short haul Virgin Australia business class flights.  I thought I  would do a bit of a comparison  series of articles on both products. First up I flew on Qantas from Melbourne to Sydney and then on to the Gold Coast. Flight QF438 from Melbourne to Sydney is the 2pm departure and currently an A330-200 service on most days of the week. I arrived at the terminal and proceeded straight through security, making use of the Qantas business class dedicated priority security queue. Once through there I had lunch in the Business/Platinum lounge with good views of the tarmac. I grabbed my boarding pass at the customer service desk and headed in. A hot beef pie was on offer along with various salads, soups, sandwiches etc, I took the pie and I had a white wine with it (yes, I know it's not a good match!).

It is probably obvious to my readers that I am more of a Qantas/Jetstar flyer domestically in Australia, but in the interests of  fairness here is a look at a short flight I took recently on Virgin Australia between Sydney and Melbourne. The flight is VA878, the 6.30pm departure from Sydney with an arrival time of 8.05pm. The flight I took was being operated by VH-VUN which is still in it's red Pacific Blue colour scheme. I assume it will be repainted fairly soon into the much more stylish and modern Virgin Australia scheme. Here is what VH-VUN looks like at the moment:

After my recent experiment of flying both Virgin Australia and Qantas in business class on the trans-continental run between Melbourne and Perth I am going to discuss a few of the pros and cons of each. SEATS Winner: Virgin Australia Despite Qantas offering some flights with their international skybeds, the vast majority of services are operated by A330's with recliners with very poor pitch and some have seven abreast seating with a middle seat blocked for extra space. So this one is a very easy win to Virgin who offer either an angled lie flat seat or a very deep reclining international style business class seat with fabulous pitch. SCHEDULE Winner: Qantas Qantas have more options with more daily flights and almost all are A330s. On weekends Virgin has been putting in quite a few B737-800's with much lower standard seating. CATERING Winner: Qantas The overall catering experience with Qantas was better. I much prefer the proper table service with table cl...

INTRODUCTION The days of Qantas' monopoly of the business and premium travel market between the east and west coast of Australia are now well and truly over. Since Virgin Australia's introduction of their domestic Airbus A330 in 2011 it has been an increasingly intense competition between the 2 carriers as to who can offer the best product, not only in business class but also in economy. Virgin have moved away from a low cost offering to a full service product in economy on its trans-con flights with meals and drinks included in direct competition with Qantas. Virgin have branded the new product the 'Coast to Coast' service Both carriers now also operate the majority of their flights between Perth and Sydney or Melbourne with widebody Airbus A330s. However, depending on which aircraft you get on the day both airlines have wildly varying configurations on the seats! At this stage Qantas is operating with at least 3 different seat types in business and Virgin ha...