Virgin Australia

Flew home from Gold Coast to Melbourne in Business Class and was very impressed. The crew, seat, food and beverages and cabin ambience were excellent. A quiet cabin with only 4 guests on the way home. Seating was incredibly comfortable with nice leather seats and an extra wide adjustable headrest. Dinner was served comprising of a beef pie, cucumber salad and chocolates to finish. The crew came around with snacks and drinks throughout the flight and nothing was a problem. My only concern was of the presentation of the fittings up the front. Some evidence of wear and tear with scuff marks in some areas and the seat next to me had some crumbs left behind from the last passenger. Overall, a comfortable and hospitable flight with excellent cabin crew. I will certainly be back and to sit up the front in the future. Well done Virgin Australia.

Flew Hobart to Melbourne with Virgin Australia. Both flights left early and arrived on time. On outward journey was offered water only on boarding. Meals were not inspiring. On return journey grumpy check in staff neglected to put priority tag on baggage. To me this implies that Virgin is letting standards slip. For such a short journey would not pay for business.

✅ Verified Review | Virgin Australia cancelled flights from Brisbane to Port Vila in January until repairs on the runway were finished. Remedial works were finished some time ago, yet passengers who have already purchased tickets continue to hang in the wind, the company heedless of the effects on the rest of their travel plans and the losses they will accrue. I have tried calling the call center and the social media team repeatedly, they know nothing and the email for complaints doesn't reply. This is very unprofessional. Flights were supposed to recommence May 2nd, now May 23rd "maybe, we can't say". Utter rubbish, avoid like the plague.

✅ Verified Review | Melbourne to Adelaide. I had a previous bad experience with Virgin Australia and it still continues. I made a purchase of two tickets, one ticket had an additional bag so the assumption is 69 kilos accross three bags. Last time I travelled with Virgin Australia I had to transfer weight from a 4th bag into three bags, there was no mention of weight allowances. I assumed 69kg meant 69kg. This customer service agent said that max weight per bag is 23 kilos no matter what. We were 4 kilos over on two bags, but in total we were well and truly under 69kg. They wanted to charge me $140 which was a joke. I asked for a manager, it would be 15 minutes as their manager was in a meeting. There was basically no supervisor on the floor, the one who was assisting with another complaint is not normally a supervisor. I was carrying an injury so the more I was standing the more my foot was in agony, the customer service agent was still firm stating that all baggage must be under 23kg or I would have to pay additional fees regardless of what happened in Adelaide. We managed to repack and change check in bags and transfer weight to be under 23kg on each bag. The customer service agent proceeded to tell me that they will allow my bags onboard on this occasion as it was not a full flight. I had a backpack which basically has my laptop, and I had a shoulder bag. Rules state that a laptop and laptop bag is not included as carry on, except agents tried to tell me my bag was a back pack and not a laptop bag. I showed them the laptop and the compartment, she still said there is stuff in there besides the laptop. I asked what is the policy, she said the bag is not necessarily a carry on, but it could be a carry on so no exact answer. Seems it depends on the mood of the agent, or if they have revenue targets to reach by charging additional baggage. Personally this is one time too many now, if I have international travel I would never ever travel Virgin Australia again. Domestic is not an issue because generally you are flying the one flight so you can handle 23kg easy. International flights have different allowances and always rounded to the last 10 digit, whereas Virgin is rounded to 3. I feel sorry for the flight crew because their customer service is top notch, ground staff are the only ones who stuffed this up. Also the combination of International check in and Domestic check in makes it confusing also which line to line up on.

✅ Verified Review | After having not flown with Virgin Australia for 6 months due to work commitments, I decided to take a quick weekend trip to Sydney and use my free-upgrades (available to VA Platinum members) while doing so. The online booking process was seamless as always and while I had to call up VA to make the upgrade from a Flexi-Economy ticket to Business, it was done in minutes. The flight too was great, I appreciated the friendly service from the FA(s) who were there when you needed them and not when you didn't. Because this was a short trip (1 hour), I was not offered a tablet to watch any IFE content, but that was not a problem since I had the Virgin Australia Entertainment mobile app which I used to stream free content via my iPhone. The food was excellent.

✅ Verified Review | Great flight with Virgin Australia from Melbourne to Brisbane. Wonderful service from lounge to flight to disembarkation. Especially appreciated being able to use the lounge upon arrival while waiting for my pick-up. Even though IFE was in the form of tablets, the pre-dowlnoaded Virgin Entertainment mobile app worked well on the flight and I was able to stream all kinds of content, incl. the latest movies, tv series and songs. The food was great too.

Brisbane to Melbourne on Virgin Australia. A very pleasant check-in experience followed by visit to a well appointed lounge. Boarding was smooth and the FA's were welcoming. The seats were spacious and quite comfortable. The dinner was tasty and the wine selection was good. The IFE was via tablets and the system was unstable requiring a number of reboots. Flight departed on time and landed ahead of schedule. I would definitely fly with them again.

Melbourne to Denpasar, having done a search it appears this route is no longer in operation. Anyhow, I was running badly late - arriving at the airport with less than 90 minutes before my flight was due to leave. The staff were helpful in helping me get the flight and onboard staff were really cheerful too. The food served a little bit later than I'd have liked but I had the veggie pasta and it was really nice. The flight only cost me $30 more than the AirAsia flight to Bali and it was worth paying the extra. The only thing that disappoints me is the entertainment system. I have the Virgin app on my phone and it works intermittently but for a 6+ hour flight I would expect more.

Sydney to Perth with Virgin Australia and excellent seats and service, similar to international business class. The new seats are lie flat seats and the IFE is excellent. Excellent menu and a choice of 3 white and red wines plus 2 dessert wines.This is a big improvement on the Sydney to Perth flights.

✅ Verified Review | Christchurch to Sydney. We applied my United Mileage Plus points to book a trip from Denver to Christchurch, this review is the experience we had with Virgin Australia. We had to purchase that leg from the airline directly even though the mileage points should have covered it but some airlines are stingy about allocating awards program seating. All United flights on this route allowed us each one free check-in baggage. That seemed to be the norm as did the size and weight of an acceptable carry on, except with Virgin Australia. They charged us $87USD to check in one bag and sent us back to repack our carry on items since their acceptable weight was a lot lower than the other airlines. We had to awake at 2am to make a 6am flight and were told agents would arrive three hours earlier and we needed to be there to get seat assignments. We arrived a half hour early but the first agent started a half hour late and other agents arrived about an hour after that. The seat we were assigned was awfully small and at the last row of the plane where a constant line of people awaited toilet use. I had been trying to pre-assign seats since 6 months earlier but they did not allow us to do so all the way up till our flight day in March. I am 6'3" tall and as airlines make seats smaller and afford the people ahead the invasion on an already tight space, while that is a general problem, here it was ridiculous. I think all airlines that have reduced seat sizes should have options for taller people. Where I can, I try to book an aisle seat so I can stretch my leg or even book an economy Plus seat but they neither allowed that or showed any consciousness that this was happening.