January 26, 2005
Perth to Melbourne
Virgin Blue Economy Class
737-800 VH-VOF Seat 15F
600a-1230p Flight time: 3:22
After a good wash up and a change of cloths, I presented myself at Virgin Blue’s ticket counter at 5:20am. Only two people were ahead of me in line and I was on my way up to the gates moments later. Perhaps because today was Australia Day, there weren’t that many people traveling. I bought a fruit salad at the tiny food concession and made a final attempt, via Alaska’s Partner Desk, to move my Melbourne to London flight up a day to the 27th. Alas, it was not to be. As such, I plugged $2.00 into the Internet kiosk and Pricelined me a room at Heathrow Airport for the night of the 27th.
The final boarding announcement was made about ten minutes out, but as I handed my boarding coupon to the gate agent and entered the jetway, I was surprised to find a sizable crowd of people backed up almost to the entryway. I usually try to be amongst the last to board precisely to avoid situations like this!
The aircraft for today’s flight was a 737-800 sporting the new winglets. This was my first ever flight aboard a winglet equipped 737 and from my excellent vantage point over the wing, I could see that the winglets were quite tall relative to the wing – about six or seven feet, I’d say. If a 747-400 had similarly proportioned winglets, it’d look like a Klingon Starfighter!
It’s just plain weird sitting in a single class jetliner, especially one as large as a 737-800. There’s a certain comfort in knowing that there’s a First Class cabin up front, even if my lot is behind the curtain. The seats on this aircraft were upholstered in dark green and beige rather than the usual blue leather. While they were comfortable enough, the recline was minimal. But hey - whaddaya want for $100.00 on a 1,680 mile flight?! I slept most of the way to Melbourne, thoroughly enjoying all the extra legroom of the exit row.
After about two hours, I awoke to bright sun reflecting off the engine cowling into my eyes. The skies beneath us were unfortunately cloudy. Meanwhile, both my seatmates were gathering up their coinage in preparation for the imminent arrival of the beverage cart. I quickly looked over the menu card and decided to get a coffee and a packet of chocolate chip cookies. That’ll be $4.00 please.
And what of Virgin Blue’s onboard service? It’s called you get what you pay for. In each seatback pocket is a
menu detailing the food and beverage offerings. These prices are in Australian currency, so just subtract 25% to get the equivalent price in US currency, or add 50% to get the price in Euros.
Although I’ve only flown Virgin Blue twice so far, I’ve noticed that the Flight Attendants have all been young, female, and quite fit and trim – no prison matron types here (yet). Also, they made frequent forays through the cabin selling beverages, food, souvenirs and collecting trash. Just before landing, passengers were exhorted to dig deep into those seat back pockets in search of any rubbish that could be disposed of. Assuming that most, if not all of the passengers comply with this request, it would certainly help in reducing cleaning time and, by extension, turnaround time between flights.
MELBOURNE
In Melbourne, my backpack was, by my count, the fourth from the last bag to be unloaded. Grrrrrrr! Still, somebody's gotta be fourth from the last and today was my turn, I guess. I headed straightaway to the International Terminal where I grabbed a refreshing shower and a change of clothing before heading over to the domestic
Qantas Club to meet fellow FTer
mwenenzi. For those of you who may not know, mwenenzi means “Traveler” in Swahili. Although
mwenenzi, a.k.a. Allan, is not one to write Trip Reports (How many of us really are?) his FT handle is most appropriate. Easter Island, Africa, Alaska and much, much more – the man has done some serious globe trotting. We had a nice chat over sandwiches and Hahn’s Premiums – the Official Beer of the FT Qantas Qrew.
The Melbourne Qantas Club is huge – amongst the largest lounges I’ve seen anywhere. It’s got a wonderful buffet area offering a variety of small sandwiches, cold cuts, salads and the usual array of snack items. There was also a tureen of hot soup. A service bar provided a nice variety of beers and a couple of wines. I didn’t notice if there was harder liquor available, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were. Allan and I took our food and beers and found a seating area over by the windows.
Ah… the windows – one of the nicest aspects of the Melbourne Qantas Club. Besides flooding the club with plenty of good, natural light, they provide an excellent view of both Qantas Concourses along with a good line of sight to what appears to be the main runway at Tullamarine. I watched as a Malaysian Airlines 747 Freighter climbed into the afternoon sky. Out at the end of the International or D Concourse, we could clearly see the tails of another Malaysian 747 and a Thai MD-11. My British Airways 747 was out there as well, but parked in such a way that it was not easily visible.
Time flies when you’re having fun, but soon I had to bid adieu to mwenenzi and head on over to British Airways for check-in. It was 3:45pm and my flight was scheduled for a 5:25pm departure. Although I could have probably stayed and chatted longer, it’s always been important to me to enjoy every aspect of International First Class. Amongst the finest airlines, the service truly starts on the ground and so a visit to the lounge is an integral part of the First Class experience as a whole.