MelbournePaul

Flying on B737s between Australia and New Zealand, at least in Y, isn't a pleasurable experience. Lack of in flight entertainment, tight seating, and awful meals. And with Air New Zealand terminating the points and status earn arrangement you can no longer fly the relative luxury of Air NZ and earn into Velocity.

Apologies if this has been announced anywhere in the media. I don't remember seeing anything. And maybe nothing will be announced until the new Virgin Australia CEO arrives and figures out what direction to take the airline?

serfty

VA provide decent inflight entertainment, all economy flight provide a meal (better than what you describe) with a drink. Also, inflight internet is available.



If you are a frequent flyer with Velocity and subscibe to their emails, you should have received information regarding the end of the VA/NZ alliance.

keitherson

All the times I flew TT with VA, there was no wi-fi available, just their crappy IFE they hand out in J. It's pathetic, honestly.

If you think this is bad in Y, you should try their DPS flights. Yikes. I flew that in Y and it was 7 hours of misery.

serfty

Don't think VA have that on their own with Bali flights; I have come across similar tales of misery in relation to Qantas flights.

As for VA, its trans Tasman service, it has been upgraded since their breakup with AirNZ.

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA UNVEILS NEW ONBOARD OFFER AND WIFI FOR ALL TRANS-TASMAN FLIGHTS

Virgin Australia launches WiFi on trans-Tasman flights

CPMaverick

VA has entertainment 'on your own device'. Not the best maybe, but it is free, as long as you already have a smartphone, etc. VA has EconomyX which gives more legroom than most other Y seat across the TT, so I'm not sure why you say that the seating is so tight. It's certainly worse on other airlines. The food, yes, not great, but OK, and free, unlike on many other airlines on the TT.

So, I'm not sure I agree with your points, especially having flown the NZ A320 a couple times and found the seating tighter, had to pay for movies, and gotten no meal at all! And if they did get new aircraft, I don't think seating or meals will change. Of course it would be great if they put some A330 on this route in the current configuration, especially for J class, but I don't think the competition merits it for the moment.

Sorry to sound like a VA apologist. It is frustrating to have to fly the B737 long distances (just flew BNE-PER, almost 6 hours). But on the TT, I think with EconomyX, free entertainment, meals, checked bag, and wifi, they are the better than the standard competition at the moment (I'm excluding the off EK, SQ flights).

trooper

Which is a choice you make buying Seat or Seat and bag fares...which really should not come as a surprise as you implied with that exclamation mark. Thats what you bought. Right?

CPMaverick

Unfortunately the lack of a meal was a surprise. NZ (and VA when they participated) are indeed very clear about inclusions when you purchase a TT flight on their website. However, I purchased my TT legs as part of an international itinerary from NZ-USA. The fare was not cheap, almost $3k round-trip in Y. Somehow the TT legs didn't get a meal, and this wasn't in any way spelled out on the VA business portal while booking.

From that point on, I vowed to avoid booking these TT legs on my NZ-USA trips, because I couldn't see how to guarantee a meal during booking. I'm happy to say now I fly VA again for these trips, since the changes.

Of course, as you say, this is usually clear during booking, but IMO I prefer to not wade through extras when booking, and trying to remember on the day of the flight what I selected. That's for LCC.