Virgin Australia

Flight 482 MCY-SYD. 27th March 2014. Flight was cancelled over an hour after scheduled departure. Poor communication. No food vouchers. After the diverted flight had gone to an alternate airport we were told we had to take a flight the following day. No compensation at all. Had to find a hotel at great expense. Jetstar flights continued to arrive and take off. I was told that was due to superior airbus Aircraft Apparently 737s can't operate into airports in bad weather. Their communication with passengers was poor. Well we will now will go back to Qantas/Jetstar.

LAX-MEL Boeing 777-300ER JET. In the airport they said we were flying out of Terminal 3 but it turned out we were leaving from Tom Bradley International Terminal. At the gate they put us on a bus and when it got moving they turned off the lights which made the bus completely dark. The bus took us to Terminal 3 were we had to wait in a line for 30 minutes on a concrete ramp with no were to sit down. Then we went in the thing that takes you onto the plane. The crew was very friendly the set quality good and free in-flight entertainment. They served dinner very soon but I didn't have any. They had a self service snack bar with water soda and chips. Then they dimmed the lights so everyone could sleep which lasted until breakfast time. I didn't have the hot breakfast but I saw it looked terrible. It was some cakey thing with baked beans. The rest of the breakfast was good though. When we landed everything was fine. I would rather fly Qantas because of the thing in LAX but would fly with Virgin Australia if I had to. I have to admit I liked Virgin Australia's cabin quality better than Qantas's cabin.

BNE-PER. A330-200. Seat 1K. Travelled in the newer 2x2x2 seating configuration with the upgraded seats. Everything top notch great selection on the IFE. Business cabin half full - service was pretty exceptional.

NAN-BNE-NAN was a pleasant experience indeed. Clean aircraft great service and excellent food out of NAN. Friendly crew and safety before OTP.

SYD-MEL (VA 834). The flight was great from the attentive service to the comfortable seating to the on-time arrival. Even though we flew in an Embraer 190 which is smaller than the commonly used 737-800 for this route the service was not compromised.

Melbourne-Hobart return on B737s. Both flights were smooth and pleasant. The online check-in and airport bag drop were easy and quick; the seat was comfortable (a little tighter on the return flight) and the service was friendly. The flight to Hobart left 20 mins late and arrived 10 mins late; the return flight left 15 mins late and arrived 5 mins late. Our case appeared on the carousel quite quickly at both ends.

Melb-Adel-Melb-Brisbane-Melb. 3 flights on 737-800 aircraft and 1 flight on Embraer 190. All flights on time and very comfortable. Service was great with very good cabin crew. Snack served in flight was either cheese and biscuits or a spicy salsa dip with chips. Offered juice or water on all flights. Embraer 190 remains a favourite as I was allocated front row of economy which almost has as much leg room as business class. Overall another very satisfactory series of flights and the streaming wifi on the 737 aircraft is great.

SYD-PER. 21st Feb. Plane used was probably the oldest and dirtiest 737 I had ever seen. Plane completely packed why was an Airbus not used instead? No point boasting about coast-to-coast A330 services when we had to spend 5 very long hours in packed plane with no working seatback IFE. Luckily I had downloaded the wireless streaming app but plenty of other disgruntled passengers did not. Could not upgrade to Business cabin despite the load being 4/8. Sydney lounge was very nice however.

Flying from Launceston to Canberra connecting via Melbourne we were very surprised at not being able to purchase any food on the flight - only option was chic chip cookies which when arriving in Canberra for meetings so after lunch time was not considered a suitable option! Why are healthy substantive food choices not available for purchase?

I am a platinum member and travel frequently - mainly between Gold Coast to Melb return and Byron - Sydney - Gold Coast - although I travelled to NT / Adelaide too. Last year I took approximately 50 flights with Virgin. I mostly travel in economy (row 3) but did manage about 8-10 upgrades into business class. I would say out of 50 flights 45 were good if not great. I would say only 5 caused problems - I had one cancelled (but put on the next flight) and a few staff members over the year that perhaps shouldn't have a job. The vast majority of staff are very good - friendly professional and seem to enjoy their jobs. So my experience has been very positive (I do think it helps when you are platinum / gold).