Virgin Australia

✅ Trip Verified | Melbourne to Los Angeles. I'm a regular flyer to the USA and have tried all the major carriers on the route. More recently I've been using Virgin Australia and have been overall very pleased with their offering. I am now Platinum status but this doesn't really seem to make much difference internationally, whereas at home it ensures priority. On my most recent flight I was particularly impressed with the crew who were very attentive and I can confirm that 'The Business' is one of the best J class offerings. The menu is very good, although the servings are modest. Improvements could be made in boarding in LA where they ask you to be at the gate one hour prior to departure only to wait half an hour to board with little or no priority. All flights were full and the crews did pretty well. VA has a good product, but is still limited internationally because of lack of metal. Let's hope this improves as they are definitely worth a try.

Not Verified | Brisbane to Sydney. People usually only leave a review if they had a bad experience. Its uncommon to hear of the positive experiences such as the one I had. The biggest compliment I can give is to the staff working for Virgin. They were incredibly helpful, polite and professional . Absolutely great service and will continue to fly with Virgin.

✅ Trip Verified | Melbourne to Hobart. We arrive at airport as requested (1 hr prior to flight) due to maintenance at Virgin checkin. We wait for flight, time passes and then announcement after dep time that flight is delayed. Another 30 min passes then informed flight will board at 4:30 to depart at 4:50. This passes, then another announcement saying flight cancelled - no other information given!! 15 mins later people still waiting and now lining up to find out what is going on. No announcement. After 30 min I line up in long queue (no communication at all from ground staff - extremely poor customer service) I ask flight desk attendant what is happening and she was very RUDE not only to me but to previous customer. Told we would NOT get a refund or any compensation it is not the airlines fault. No info about what will happen to customers! I then get email saying I am booked on 9:40 flight, sitting away from my daughter. I had paid premium. I had to physically go into site and change seats ( enough available to sit together) We were not offered any vouchers for inconvenience. I went back 30 mins later and had to request a voucher which we received to value $32.... I’m told can use any where. Cafe said I had to use it in one go or I’d lose $ amount. We are here to 9:40 and have been here since 2:15! Absolutely ridiculous. I am a frequent flyer member, try to fly Virgin but will no longer! Worst service ever received and no I was not rude nor were any other customers in front of me.

✅ Trip Verified | Sydney to Broome via Perth. Airline staff are lovely. The flight from Perth to Sydney seat didn’t recline. Flight from cairns to Sydney, seat did not recline. Telephone customer service / velocity service is absolutely appalling. Dreadful. Just unbelievable.

Not Verified | Melbourne to Auckland. Had a morning flight at 9:30am. Airport wasn't busy and flights were taking off as planned. Well, our flight we didn't board until 9:50 and didn't take off until 10:15. I had a connection to get to my regional town at 5:00 so we were on a deadline. Virgin Australia had no explanation as to why the flight was suddenly delayed because our plane was sitting there for an hour, which in that hour we could've gone. Positive though is they made up time of 10 minutes but if i didnt have that 10 minutes i would've missed my other flight. Unreliable, already flew to Melbourne with them last month and another 1 and a half long delay lucky i had no connections. Very unprofessional. Only good if you don't have a deadline.

✅ Trip Verified | Auckland to Adelaide via Melbourne. Previous (first) flight i had my bag left behind. Returned to me at a later date. Flight delays, missed flights, no information that flights were delayed, no apologies. Helpful man when needing to rebook missed connection. Every flight delayed. Not impressed. Will endeavour never to fly with them again. Not recommend. Some staff were lovely; most staff not apologetic or understanding. Definitely by far the worst service and organization I've experienced with any airline. It's worth it to pay more for another airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Sydney. Now Virgin has no alliance partners, at LAX airport travelling back to Sydney only allowed 1 guest if you are gold status. Meant for my family I could either have my 8 year old daughter join me in the lounge or husband but not both. This is really bad customer service and poor by Virgin. If you cannot get better deals than this for FF flyers you should have stayed in an alliance. I need to shift airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | Brisbane to Melbourne. After waiting for 1 hour to check our luggage in we were informed the flight was cancelled, we had purchased our tickets through princess cruise ships , who at that time informed us they were guaranteed flights virgin had to re book us or find an alternate airline. Virgin just said sorry no can do we can get you there after your boat has left not sooner. Time line Brisbane airport we arrived at 430 am we needed to be in Melbourne by 5pm 12.5 hours later. We went to Qantas, same location, same weather, same destination, they could and did sell us tickets to arrive in time.

✅ Trip Verified | I booked a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Melbourne and Hong Kong to Melbourne was with Virgin Australia. My only gripe with Virgin Australia is the seat pitch and it was dreadful. I am 6ft and knees wedged against seat in front all the whole journey and made worse on Return Leg when seat in front reclined as took out my drink. Asked on both legs to upgrade to Extra Legroom seats and told none available. I sat in Row 29 and Row 28 all seats with extra legroom on Outbound were empty!!! It was my birthday when I travelled so played this card to Cabin Crew once airborne and guess what, still spent journey looking at empty/roomy seats in front of me. I will never travel Virgin Australia again and made a point of booking internal flights once in Australia with Jetstar where legroom was 2 inches more and cheaper. Well done Virgin Australia, lost another customer for making your aircraft like cattle pens in Economy.

✅ Trip Verified | This was the first time I had flown VA business since they had retro fitted new business seats. First up, the cabin service was excellent. The food was okay to good - the lunch service was okay (fish was overcooked and hard), the breakfast service was delicious. They have on board coffee machines that serve ground coffee. My seat, 5A, was in the main business class cabin. It was a full business class flight. Unfortunately, the seat design is flawed, especially for tall people (I am 192cm tall). Although the bed fully reclines, the fixed position of the tray table that cannot be stowed means you are in the equivalent of a sleeping straight jacket. You cannot turn over as your hips bang against the tray table. Also, it is annoying how the only way you can exit the pod is if the seat is in the upright position, and even then, the clearance to exit makes it awkward. If there is a plus to the set up, it is privacy. The configuration is certainly more private that the prior version, but it comes at the cost of space. Now you feel like you are in a pen like a cow. I'm a frequent business traveler, and in my opinion, what I pay for is space, convenience, and service. Unfortunately, although the service was high class, because of the flawed seat design I will not be rebooking my next flight across the Pacific using Virgin Australia. It's a conundrum, how do you rate the flight when the service was a 9 (lost a point of the lunch), but the seat was a 1? I guess you have to average it out. Hence a 5. I would not recommend this seat configuration for: a. Tall people, unless you can sleep and get comfortable on your back. b. Elderly or those with mobility issues. It is difficult to get in and out of the seat. c. Those that like to rest on their side. The position of the tray table will make that difficult. I would recommend it for: a. Those like value privacy b. Those that can get comfortable in any position, or those who don't want to sleep c. The quality of the service. Finally, Wi Fi was good. There was about 2 hours with no service, but otherwise browsing and downloading was fine. Uploading was patchy and not particularly good.