Virgin Australia Passenger Reviews and Virgin Australia Customer Trip Reports

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Never again. They cancelled the flight at the last minute while waiting to board. Had to wait in a cold gale for 45mins for a bus transfer. No communication re onward flight. Told to phone their 0800 number after midnight. Did that and still no answers. Finally got through at 5:30am. Told to hold the line then they hung up on us. When eventually got through they said there would be no room for us for a couple of days. OUTRAGEOUS!! Left stranded for 2 days in very cold Auckland in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. The staff were extremely unhelpful. We were told by the hotel that Virgin often does this. Then had to move hotel room in the middle of all this. What a fiasco. Never again. We booked with another airline.

Our return trip from Melbourne to LA was made all the lore pleasant thanks to the staff on board the Virgin Australia flights. The meals were great, though we ordered special meals (vegetarian) and these were not too flash. Service was excellent and friendly. Well done Virgin. You get your long haul stripes from me.

I am 6'5" and understand having to pay extra for an exit row. When I left Sydney they automatically offered one free of charge - great service to start. Same thing happened on the way back from LAX - perfect! Travelled to USA 3 weeks later and like an entirely different airline. Uniforms changed, attitude changed. Advised on check in of my last fantastic experience and was told point blank 'forget it' if I hadn't paid. I accepted her decision and begged her to not put me in the back. She gave me a seat closer to the front - got to the gate and my seat was changed and was placed in one of the very back rows! On the way back automatically given an exit row, but inflight service was poor.

MEL-LAX I flew with them while on crutches/broken ankle. They had me wait till everyone boarded the plane till they escorted me even though I was super early which they told me over the phone to get there so i could get an isle seat and be wheeled off the the airplane in time. The service was good inside the plane and entertainment. After we landed the flight attendants left me on the plane after everyone had left and they asked me why I was on the plane and I said I can't walk I'm on crutches and they ran to get my stuff and helped me to the exit on the plane. Not a very on top of it kind of crew. They seem a bit out of it or just not that aware or things. I'm not one to complain ever, but was pretty shocked when I was left on the plane arriving in Los Angeles on my own.

Sydney-Perth-Sydney. If the distance between the chairs is 31" I must have grown a couple in the last weeks. If you are taller than 6/2 and a bit, you will have a problem. Both flights delayed. They were still happily boarding people 5 minutes before planned take off.

AKL-BNE. We decided to give Virgin Australia a try after reading lots of good reviews. Since VA is also boasting itself as a "4 Star Airline" on every possible occasion, the expectations were a bit higher - also due to the rather "full fare" price. First of all, the flight was on time. This was to be expected, though: Listing this flight to take more than 3.5 hours, while the trip usually takes less than 3 hours, gives you an idea, how they can "always be on time". There were flight attendants onboard but you had to pay extra for pretty much everything except for using the lavatory. They gave out tea which was free. Besides that, they pretty much didn't do anything. The lavatory itself must have been the smallest I've every seen. It was unbelievably hard for me to stand up at all - at 1.83 meters! The a/c wasn't working properly - resulting in a lack of oxygen and temperatures of 25°C and above. Leg room was limited and sitting was rather uncomfortable in general. The plane itself was fairly old with no entertainment system installed. You were able to rent a tablet-based VOD, though. Altogether, the pricing at VA is just a little too expensive for them to call themselves a "budget" airline. Make it cheaper or become a bit more customer-friendly! Arriving in Brisbane sweaty and tired after a short haul flight like this one was just not what we had expected. But: It was on time!

Sydney - London August 2012. 1st and last time to travel premium economy with Virgin. Seat wider but no extra leg room and seat did not recline back any further than economy. Food awful. We are pensioners who spent $10350 return flights - usually $5000 (at most) in economy. We feel we did not get any value whatsoever for paying double the price and were so disappointed. What was all that extra money for. Also arm rest did not move with resulting bruises trying to get out of seat as we had been given a footrest. There was only room for the footrest which just shows how much extra leg room there was!

MEL-ADL return economy. My best experience of an airline in Australia. Seat pitch was generous for airlines these days, and complimentary water, tea and coffee were offered. No queues at the bag drop at Melbourne, and almost none at Adelaide. Boarding was efficient enough, while the complimentary Foxtel on the old 737-800s add a nice touch, shame they are doing away with them, but really for short flights its not really necessary anyway. Staff were nice at all times as well.

Denpasar to Melbourne, overnight flight, there were 8 'business class' seats up the front, and the rest economy (where we were seated). Business had the front 2 toilets to themselves, and the rest of the aircraft had to share the rear 2 toilets - that's 200 people using 2 toilets! At one stage, my young son desperately needed the toilet and the line was 12 deep. Not only is it annoying for those needing the toilet, but anyone seated in the back 8 or so rows has a constant queue of people lining up next to them. Next issue, water. On the same flight last year you had to purchase water - I was pleased to see they had done away with this ridiculous policy but instead of having small bottles on board, flight attendants would pour you a glass. 2 years in a row the air con was up full blast, and there were no blankets. I understand they need to be cleaned so I'm sure given the sub zero temperatures on board people would be happy to pay a fee but to not offer them at all is again outrageous. To add insult to injury, the cabin crew had blankets and they block off the last row of seats for crew to sleep!

HBT to MEL 17 Sep, 10.25am flight cancelled at short notice, 10 minutes after we arrived at HBT airport at about 9am, mechanical problem in Melbourne - not much we could do! Given 2 options, 1, take a bus ride to Launceston and catch a flight out of there at 3 pm or 2, wait for a replacement flight at 17.55 that afternoon. We took the second option, so went back home until 16.30. Finally made MEL at 19.20, not very happy losing half a day in MEL. This is only our second experience of a flight cancellation in 25+ years of flying worldwide.