Virgin Australia

✅ Trip Verified | I over paid for my baggage and was told I would be refunded in full as their app was down at the time. I paid again and it has been three months now. No refund. I have made over 50 calls and had email contact with them and had been told I would get it in 24 hours. Didn’t come. That changed to 48 hours so I waited. Called again was told 5-7 business days. Didn’t come. Called again. Was told farther investigation was needed and would take 21 days. Done all that waiting then for an email saying sorry it will be in your account in two days. Still not in there. Called again and called my bank to see if money was pending. It wasn’t. I have sent more emails to ask where my $380 is and have herd nothing! I would never deal with his airline ever again! They have stolen from my family by not returning my money. I have complained and heard nothing back again! Sent more emails and no one is replying to me now! Got a reference number and have been told I am sorry and you will get your money.

✅ Trip Verified | There was confusion boarding at Ballina, priority sign up but no indication where others go so everyone lined up in priority, no guidance or enforcement. The flight to Sydney was good, no hot drinks as apparently the flight was too short which is odd as flying from Mel to Canberra, 45 mins, hot drinks are served. Loving that Virgin let you know your bags are on board and when you land they arrived. Impressed. Sydney was delayed both boarding and taking off, but normal for Sydney. Flight attendants were nice, plane clean but a little worn inside. Bags took a while to arrive but all in all ok flights.

✅ Trip Verified | Great flight. Check in was easy, bag drop too with a staff member present if you need help. The flights were both on time. Boarding was fast with front air bridge and back stairs. Clean plane. Plane had few seats left. Good flight to Sydney, time for a quick meal in the food court then bonus on the flight to Ballina we had a great view of the harbour, bridge and opera house. The crew were friendly. The moving map is the only entertainment I used but there was a variety of TV shows and movies to watch on your own device. Luggage came quickly after arrival in Ballina. Possibly the only criticism was tight leg room

✅ Trip Verified | The worst decision I ever made was to book flights with Virgin Australia Airlines for a family vacation to Bali from Los Angeles via Australia. Due to the pandemic, VA cancelled our flights and refused to refund our money, unlike most airlines who had no problem refunding their customers. VA went bankrupt and "DUE TO THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT" refused the refund. After numerous phone calls and emails, VA offered a Domestic Travel Credit only. How does that help when we live in California and would need international travel? It is absolutely absurd that the only way to recoup any monies we paid up front, is to travel by way of Australia and by a deadline! The new owners of VA are a mega corporation (I'll leave the name out), with billions of dollars, offered absolutely nothing to the many travelers who lost their flight money. The counter agents/flight attendants were kind and professional. The aircraft itself is bare bones. No in-flight entertainment other than using your personal device. No food/drinks (6+ hours Bali-Sydney) I will never fly with VA and please let this be a lesson to others when choosing VA in the future.

✅ Trip Verified | Both my elderly parents are travelling home today on the above flight. Assistance had been booked which was almost non existent! Their driver took them to the bag drop and left them with other passengers waiting for assistance. My father who is 96 requires a wheelchair which had been requested and did arrive eventually. However, my mother was expected to lift 2 cases at the bag drop which proved very difficult for a lady in her later years! They were eventually helped by an off duty employee who gave them assistance through security. Otherwise my mother would have been expected to push my dad in his wheelchair. There obviously was no preparation for them even though it was requested. To make matters worse my dad was apart from my mother and his wallet and phone were left accidentally at security. Once they were together again in the lounge my mother asked him where his wallet and phone were. A kind Virgin staff member finally tracked them down from security. This was not a one time occurrence. The same treatment was experienced on the flight coming down to Melbourne four weeks ago. Not only are they elderly but business class passengers as well. What kind of airline treats their long time loyal and elderly passengers in this way? Absolutely disgusting Virgin!

Not Verified | Absolutely fantastic flight. New B737 Max is awesome. Flight on both legs, BNE to Cairns and Cairns to Haneda were exceptional. Flight crew were brilliant, friendly and made our trip a delight.

✅ Trip Verified | Originally, I have purchased the tickets before Covid-19 in Jan 2020. They have cancelled my flights so, I’ve received credit voucher. The previous organisation collapsed during the pandemic and the new organisation emailed me that new expiry date is end of Jan 2023. I have noticed that they started operating the flights to Tokyo and I booked just before the expiry date. The price was very higher than original booking but I didn’t want to lose my credit so, I used it all. I had to pay extra $550 to book the return flights. When I book the flights I don’t have any choice to select the fee types. It was only one available for me as I was using the credit. It was unfair that I can’t add any checked bag only allowed 1x 30kg. Anyway, I needed to change the flight so, I contacted Virgin. After couple of phone calls I found that I have to pay over $800 to change the flight or they will take my $550 to the credit if I cancel it. That means $550 is going to be included to the original credit and the expiry date will be back to the original date. Which is end of Jan 23. So, if I cancel it, I’ll just lose whole money to them. They cancelled my flights and I recessed to refund money so many times but they refused. I regrettably booked the flights then I was going lose more money. It is not acceptable. I had to give up my on going flight but used the return flight to go back to Australia. Addition to that; • check in counter people don’t know how to transit my bags. I was told to take the baggage to the bag drop counter but there is no counter at the arrival airport building. I had to push my 30kg suitcase for about 500m and had to wait for about 30min to open the counter. • there is no meal provided on board. Virgin charge me about $700 one way though. And they were going to charge me another $800 but not included any meal or beverages. • there is no screen provided at the seat. Customers have to use their own electric device to access the entertainment. I wasn’t told before boarding. Not many people were using this service. Also, if you want to stop the movie while watching and resume it, it will have to start it again. How annoying. I won’t recommend anyone to fly with Virgin and I will never use them again.

✅ Trip Verified | I enjoyed my flight. Check in was easy and the plane left on time. The staff were very friendly and helpful. Only water, tea and coffee was included - everything else had to be purchased. This was no big deal for such a short flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Having flown with Qantas many times previously I was pleasantly surprised by the Virgin Product if any thing comparing to my last Qantas experience the Virgin was a better product. Checking in while busy was okay. The lounge is comfortable and comparable to the Qantas Club lounge. Boarding was prioritized and you received a beverage prior to take off. The seat was comfortable and larger than the economy seat. The service was very good with a hot meal and multiple beverages offered. The cabin crew were friendly and diligent. On landing my bags came out with priority, something Qantas has been unable to do for a while.

✅ Trip Verified | We were booked for a 5.30 pm flight from Melbourne direct to Denpasar Bali. The day before the flight we got an email saying that our flight has been changed and is leaving one hour earlier We got to the airport and lined up the staff had no idea that the flight has been changed and on their monitor it still showed flight leaving at 5.30. So we got our boarding pass and headed to the departure lounge we sat there for a while and about half an hour before departure. Our name was called to the airline desk and we were told that as I booked 2 seats with extra leg room and I booked the first seats past the business class they said we’re going to put you 2 together, as we have a family that wants to sit together. I assumed that they were going to just put us together but still in the same row I didn’t even bother to look at the boarding pass and the reason I booked these seats was that I’ve just had a back operation and needed access to the isle. As we got on the plane I realized that they moved us to row 5 which I had no access to the isle and the guy on the isle seat was fast asleep so I had to wake him up every half an hour to get out. I tried to complain to virgin and their reply was sorry but basically bad luck.