Virgin Australia Velocity - Embraer 190 business class

Hi,

I'm soon to be on a trip up the coast on business class on a newly refurbished Embraer 190. As you probably know, the seat configuration is a 2-1 (as the plane is so small), just wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to which seat is the best?

Cheers!

How did you know yours is a refurbed E190?

Anyways, 2A is the safest choice in case 1A offers narrower leg room like on the 738s.

Hey lowihg,

I thought my plane was a refurb'd one as it offered business class in the ticket selection, whereas the ones without (the non refurb'd ones) don't.

However I have just tried to assign myself a seat and the seating config is that of a 737-800 (2-2, 8 business seats in total) and not the 2-1 of an embraer that I was expecting. Perhaps this a administration error?

DJ sells business on E190 operated flights but you get the same old 2-2 configuration with the aisle seats blocked. That's what you're getting. (And what I am getting in 2 weeks CBR-SYD).

I read somewhere the first refurbished plane isn't due until late July/ early August with the subsequent planes by Q2 2013.

oh really...
So DJ sells business class on a plane which doesn't really offer business class... great.

I take it that the old 2-2 config is an un-refurbished plane?

It will be the old premium economy seats are sold as business class. I will be flying them in a week and have selected 1A as it has much more leg room.

They changed the 737-800/700 ticketing so that the old premium economy style couldn't be bought at business class prices (blanked out in ticket selection), as it was unfair as Virgin could not offer the full service of business class in comparison with their new or refurbished aircraft.

So if the 737 ticketing has been changed, why hasn't the same been done on the embraer 190's? DJ needs to pick their game up, I'm sick and tired of having to double check that I'm going to get a decent aircraft when I've paid for business class.

Virgin sell the Embraers as Business with seating 1x1 (however it is in an old Premium seat, generally recovered in grey with the aisle seat empty).
Food and Bev service like the 737-800.

If you want a new biz seat just avoid the Embraers.
Am flying in 1A tomorrow in an Embraer.

I just did SYD-CBR-HBA-SYD on the E190 in J and it was very disappointing. The seat is the same as in Y but just a little more legroom. The service was equally unimpressive with my wife having her first DJ J experiencing commenting that any other airline wouldn't have hired them. Specifically my wife was unimpressed that she wasn't offered a drink until her meal service and then only a single top up after. Our 5pm departure out of HBA was just a snack service, not a dinner service which considering the sector time to SYD meant for a late dinner on our arrival. Finally the SYD lounge was very full on Friday evening and no HBA lounge left me wishing for a change that I had booked QF. Overall I would not bother with J on the E190 again, it isn't worth it and Y would have been better as we could have selected a meal from the menue rather than the very light weight snack offered out of HBA. I would rate it 2 out of 5 (and I have flown short haul J/ F in the US and EU so feel I have a base to compare against).

The only fun thing on the flight was I managed to crash the digiplayer after running out of content to watch and managed to get a shell on the device.

I just did SYD-CBR-HBA-SYD on the E190 in J and it was very disappointing.

Do you remember what was offered on CBR-HBA? And during the 40 minute stop in CBR, did you make use of the lounge in CBR?

CBR-HBA was a dinner service with a single drink, two if you asked the FA nicely like my wife did. Used the CBR "lounge" but it too was very busy, the only seats were in the kids zone by the emergency exit. Got the feeling the lounge is just a sectioned off not currently in use gate area. DJ are clearly waiting for CBR airport to finish the renovations, their side of the terminal is showing its age.

The CBR is the old Ansett Golden wing.

The Embraers are getting rows 1 and 2 converted to 1x2 business seating by the end of the year.

Unless the flight is over 3 hours, DJ will generally give snack services when out of core meal departure times. e.g. a 5:55pm Departure, say BNE-SYD will only have a snack.

More on meal times here in this AFF thread: Virgin Australia Business Class Catering - Service, Meal times, Menus (http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/virgin-australia-velocity/virgin-australia-business-class-catering-38257.html)