Bluesky

I'm flying to overseas with foreign airlines and Virgin Australia (domestic flights). I booked an economy class ticket. After I got an itnerary, I noticed that Virgin Australia (domestic flights) offer "meals". Doesn't it mean that I will get free meals?

qwertyuiop

If you book a flexi or premium ticket you will get free food, drink and IFE if available. Whether it's a meal or a snack will depend on the time of day i think. The cheapest saver fares still require you to pay for food, drink, checked baggage etc.

antycbr

A lot of codeshare flight sectors on Etihad (e.g. your flight is EY6321 but is Virgin Australia) include a basic catering option, I have been on flights from Canberra to Sydney both before and after the change to catering and the Etihad passengers had included catering.

I think it depends on whether you're booked on a codeshare or whether your Travel Agent has just booked some connecting flights into the itinerary?

Virgin Australia

As per qwertyuiop says, on board food & beverages are included within our new 'flexi' and 'premium' fares, while 'saver' fares are 'pay-as-you-go'.

You would need to speak to the partner airline as to whether the ticket you purchased through them has f&b included.

wyvern

It would be great if inclusive catering became a Platinum/Gold benefit. If it is being paid for to be provided in the lounge already, the marginal cost of one extra drink or sandwich on the plane for Plats/Golds when the plane is already catered cannot be that much. Now that would really cement my current tendency to choose Virgin Australia over Qantas on a domestic flight.

Virgin Australia

If you are already a Gold/Platinum Velocity member then it would be highly likely that you are flying on a Flexi or Premium fare - where food is included

qwertyuiop

Not sure that's true!

I have flown on a lot of cheap fares and have been gold for quite some years now. Admittedly now the prices for flexi fares are more reasonable than the older comparable fares and the benefits are better i'm far more likely to pay for a flexi (or even a premium in some cases) but there are plenty of golds on the cheap tix. Would be a great platinum benefit IMHO.

kamchatsky

It would be great to have this, but most DJ/VA flights are pretty short (exception for flights from PER) anyway so most people ate at the lounge where they can load in bulk at cheaper cost. It would cost them more to do so on air, as they are trying to gain profits by selling food on flight and they only have small areas of storage for food.

In a way it is similar to NZ flying Trans-Tasman Y on Seat or Seat + Bag where Gold/Gold Elites can eat as much as they want at the lounge, but don't get free food on flight.

For me I don't mind this, as long as they are cheaper than QF after all costs is taken into account (and they don't have much margin on this).

colmc

To be fair, the staff of another airline are hardly going to know what service DJ gives/doesn't give. All they could tell you is the booking class and what their GDS says and it may not be intelligent enough to distinguish who gets free catering or not.

wyvern

I would be happy to settle for a complimentary drink inflight as I would probably not take the food. But it seems a bit incongruous (and LCC) to get free drink in the lounge and not on the plane. I am also never sure what the cabin crew mean when they say 'would you like anything to eat or drink' to you when you are sitting in row 3 - do they mean 'it's free' or do they mean 'would you like to purchase anything?' It is is a bit unclear to be honest.

There is some precedence elsewhere in the world for airlines which charge for drinks/food in Y not charging their status members. BD did it when they switched to charging in Y, then dropped it. As a result I have virtually stopped flying BD unless they offer a cheaper fare.

At the moment my motivation to fly Virgin Australia, if the fare is roughly the same as Qantas, is primarily to keep my status on Virgin Australia (as sometimes I am booked on airlines without being given a choice). Qantas has a lot lacking, but three things it does offer which Virgin Australia does not are lifetime status credits, free newspapers to take away, and a free drink/snack on the plane. And if I were not concerned to maintain my status on Virgin Australia, if the fares were similar those three factors might tip the balance for me.

So I think this is worth Virgin Australia taking a serious think about. The cost would not be that much considering how many golds are likely to be on a plane and how many have already had a drink in the lounge, but it would be a good benefit to offer and I think would result in a load of frequent flyers who are even more likely to chose Virgin Australia.

wyvern

When booking Etihad Y I asked about f&b on VA and was told that it is included, as the codeshare arrangement provides for the full Etihad service standards to apply to codeshare pax. They seemed quite clued up about it (more so than other things, actually). This was on VA international not DJ domestic.

colmc

Food and (some) drink is free anyway on VA international routes.

qwertyuiop

Actually food and all drink is free on VA. They got rid of the only the first drink is free on Y rule a while ago i'm pretty sure. i haven't checked it myself but i have seen it reported in quite a few places.

wyvern

That's a step in the right direction, definitely.

On my flights since the recent changes the crew have been pretty good about giving the right pax the food trays - it all seems to be pretty organised and well thought through.

And EY seemed pretty certain 'their' service standards would apply on VA - although in fact the VA flight had better service than the EY one. The EY one ran out of white wine after one pre-dinner drink, and I have never experienced a full service airline running out of white wine before!

Virgin Australia

just to be clear here - food is not "free" but built into the ticket price for our flexi and premium fares for domestic flights and as you say, also apart of our international fares.

Yes, was a highly generalised comment. Apologies.