QF Lad
Apr 1, 12, 6:36 am
At the beginning of March I booked my business travel for March and booked 8 Virgin business class sectors as part of this.
I had the following experiences:
1. MEL-SYD, DJ897, 9pm service
This flight had the following issues:
1. No inflight entertainment. The B737 did not seem to have any screens either attached to the seat or overhead, and no inflight entertainment units were handed out by the crew.
2. Only a cheese plate was offered. No choice, a cheese plate is a very unhealthy offering. I was actually hoping for something more substantive, and ended up with one of the New Yorker sandwiches from the economy cabin.
3. No sparking wine or champagne offered. Sparking wine is a standard business class offering.
4. No newspapers offered (Friday evening service);
5. My jacket was overlooked to be hung up. I asked for it to be hung after take off, but then they forgot to give it back to me at the end of the flight. For some reason it was hung up down the back of the plane.
2.SYD-CNS, DJ1429, 7.20pm service
The Virgin website appears to offer some type of extended catering offering on flights over 3 hours. This flight is scheduled for 3 hours 5 minutes. I was the only business class passenger. This flight had the following issues:
1. At the start of the flight, I was told "Catering is not what we had hoped for this flight. We are only able to offer you a snack of Ricecakes." Once in the air this was amended to "We have actually found a meal for you. We are pleased to offer a dinner of meatballs and spaghetti". So I had an offering of Ricecakes or Spaghetti, both unhealthy offerings high in carbohydrate. And spaghetti and meatballs is a typical economy class meal. There was no three course offering. I had booked the flight 4 days in advance, so this was not a last minute booking that may explain such a catering lapse.
2. When I asked for a scotch and dry I was advised "I am sorry, we don't have any dry". On explaining what a scotch and dry was it turned that Virgin does not stock dry ginger ale. Again, mixed drinks like this are standard business class offerings.
3. The Embraer seating is not business class seating, and to be fair to Virgin the dimensions of the Embraer seat is seat out on the Virgin website.
4. The small inflight entertainment package had some offerings, but not a great range.
5. No newspapers or reading material were offered, but as this was a Sunday evening flight perhaps that is ok.
6. The service was a little odd, almost as if the Cabin Supervisor did not know what to do with me and did not feel confident with delivering business class service.
With the economy meal and the economy seating this flight was not differentiated from a economy class product, but Virgin are charging almost an additional $1000 on this route for business class.
The following Sunday night (7 days later) I flew Qantas business on this same route and the business class cabin was full. The business passengers are there, even to a destination like Cairns if Virgin can get the act on their product together.
3. MEL-CNS DJ 331 then DJ 793
I was called by Virgin the day before the flight to explain that a rogue aircraft was operating one or both segments, but that I would receive "everything else", only there would be no business class cabin and refund arrangements would be explained to me at the airport. As I receive everything else already as a platinum, really what was being explained was that I would not recieve business class in the air which is a fairly major component of the business class product.
Although Virgin should be given credit by calling in advance of not being able to provide business class on one or more sectors, taken with the disappointments of the previous two flights, I decided to cancel all remaining 6 Virgin business class bookings for the month, and go back to Qantas until Virgin straighten these issues out.
I hope Virgin sort these things out, I would really like to fly with their business class more regularly, but they have a bit of work to do.
I had the following experiences:
1. MEL-SYD, DJ897, 9pm service
This flight had the following issues:
1. No inflight entertainment. The B737 did not seem to have any screens either attached to the seat or overhead, and no inflight entertainment units were handed out by the crew.
2. Only a cheese plate was offered. No choice, a cheese plate is a very unhealthy offering. I was actually hoping for something more substantive, and ended up with one of the New Yorker sandwiches from the economy cabin.
3. No sparking wine or champagne offered. Sparking wine is a standard business class offering.
4. No newspapers offered (Friday evening service);
5. My jacket was overlooked to be hung up. I asked for it to be hung after take off, but then they forgot to give it back to me at the end of the flight. For some reason it was hung up down the back of the plane.
2.SYD-CNS, DJ1429, 7.20pm service
The Virgin website appears to offer some type of extended catering offering on flights over 3 hours. This flight is scheduled for 3 hours 5 minutes. I was the only business class passenger. This flight had the following issues:
1. At the start of the flight, I was told "Catering is not what we had hoped for this flight. We are only able to offer you a snack of Ricecakes." Once in the air this was amended to "We have actually found a meal for you. We are pleased to offer a dinner of meatballs and spaghetti". So I had an offering of Ricecakes or Spaghetti, both unhealthy offerings high in carbohydrate. And spaghetti and meatballs is a typical economy class meal. There was no three course offering. I had booked the flight 4 days in advance, so this was not a last minute booking that may explain such a catering lapse.
2. When I asked for a scotch and dry I was advised "I am sorry, we don't have any dry". On explaining what a scotch and dry was it turned that Virgin does not stock dry ginger ale. Again, mixed drinks like this are standard business class offerings.
3. The Embraer seating is not business class seating, and to be fair to Virgin the dimensions of the Embraer seat is seat out on the Virgin website.
4. The small inflight entertainment package had some offerings, but not a great range.
5. No newspapers or reading material were offered, but as this was a Sunday evening flight perhaps that is ok.
6. The service was a little odd, almost as if the Cabin Supervisor did not know what to do with me and did not feel confident with delivering business class service.
With the economy meal and the economy seating this flight was not differentiated from a economy class product, but Virgin are charging almost an additional $1000 on this route for business class.
The following Sunday night (7 days later) I flew Qantas business on this same route and the business class cabin was full. The business passengers are there, even to a destination like Cairns if Virgin can get the act on their product together.
3. MEL-CNS DJ 331 then DJ 793
I was called by Virgin the day before the flight to explain that a rogue aircraft was operating one or both segments, but that I would receive "everything else", only there would be no business class cabin and refund arrangements would be explained to me at the airport. As I receive everything else already as a platinum, really what was being explained was that I would not recieve business class in the air which is a fairly major component of the business class product.
Although Virgin should be given credit by calling in advance of not being able to provide business class on one or more sectors, taken with the disappointments of the previous two flights, I decided to cancel all remaining 6 Virgin business class bookings for the month, and go back to Qantas until Virgin straighten these issues out.
I hope Virgin sort these things out, I would really like to fly with their business class more regularly, but they have a bit of work to do.