Once upon a time (August, 2000 to be exact), a new airline was launched in Australia to challenge the two long standing carriers: Ansett and Qantas.

That airline was Virgin Blue. The name was chosen in a competition playing on the Australian custom of calling a redhead Blue or Bluey. I flew Virgin Blue 12 times around Australia and rated them 4.4 out of 5. They initially used a low cost Southwest/Easyjet model with some quirky Australianisms and the Virgin feel.

In 2003 Virgin Blue started Pacific Blue, a New Zealand based subsidiary which provided services between NZ, Australia, Phuket, Bali and Pacific Islands. They also flew domestically across NZ for a short time. I flew Pacific Blue, a mere four times and rated them 4 out of 5.

Polynesian Blue

This airline was created in 2005 to take over the international part of the Samoan Government’s flag carrier Polynesian Airlines, after its  ill-fated expansion bankrupted the carrier and was costing the government of Samoa half its annual budget to stay afloat! This new airline, a joint venture between the government of Samoa and Virgin Blue gave Samoa international flights to Australia and NZ. I never flew these guys.

V Australia

In 2009, saw the arrival of V Australia flying between Australia and the USA, followed by South Africa, Thailand and Abu Dhabi. The story goes that Singapore airlines with their interest in Virgin Atlantic and control of the Virgin name did not want the Virgin brand on that sector. (There has been intense debate between Singapore Airlines and the Australian government over Singapore’s desire to fly directly between Australia and the USA). So after another public competition, V Australia was the name. I have flown V Australia four times now and I have loved them every single time. I rate them 4.8 put of 5.

So what next in the story up to?

Following a change of CEO in 201o a new strategy was unveiled for the airline moving it from low cost carrier to full service airline. As part of that strategy, Virgin Blue became Virgin Australia in February 2011.  I have now flown Virgin Australia ten times (4.4 out of 5).

Last week

The Virgin Australia name replaced Pacific Blue and V Australia. Polynesian Blue became Virgin Samoa. Consistent branding will take some time to roll out so expect to see Planes, napkins, uniforms and boarding passes in various iterations.I like the uniforms and colour schemes.

Two Questions:

1. Will these changes make money for Virgin?
2. For me, I wonder how I keep on rating Virgin Australia from now on? Do I start again or combine their previous scores into one score? Oh the dilemmas of an airline geek!

Yesterday’s Trip Report covered my recent V Australia’s Business Class trip between Brisbane, Australia and Los Angeles, USA. Today, I compare the various Business Class offerings of all the trans Pacific carriers. I chose a travel date of of 12th October from Sydney to LAX and travel back 19th October to find pricing. Hawaiian had the cheapest business class fares for those dates.

I have ranked the airlines from Best Business Class on the Australian -US route (V Australia) through to the worst on this sector (United). This is based on  both my experience and reviews by others. Happy to be challenged! Or have comments. What have been your long haul Business Class experiences?

So my new friends are V Australia, the international arm of Virgin Australia the “second” mainline Aussie carrier (Qantas being the first). I have now flown in all three V Australia classes between Australia and Los Angeles on their beautiful Boeing 777-300ERs (I really do like V Australia!). Check out my trip report about International Premium Economy Class .

I have now flown with V Australia to LA out of all three of their Australian ports: Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They have been consistently excellent at all of them.

Today’s Trip was actually several months ago. Like this blog post, the flight was significantly delayed! The flight ended up leaving seven hours late. This was due to a V Australia 777 shredding an engine while taking off in LA. The knock on effect of one aircraft out of action had a significant effect on their operations. V made up for the delay by arranging a hotel room, meal vouchers and transportation. Their communication about the delay and options was very good unlike the first time I ever flew out of Brisbane with Virgin Blue in 2000 when the plane was delayed ten hours! (check out post)

	17:10 15:53	BNE	Brisbane Australia International	LAX	Los Angeles USA International	11,546  km 15:43  h	V Australia VA 7	Boeing 777	5D/Aisle Business Passenger Business

Check in at the business line was fast, friendly and fun. A great start to a great trip. Security line and immigration using express line was very zippy.

V uses Air New Zealand’s Koru Lounge at Brisbane. Air New Zealand have some of the best lounges in the world so its always great to get inside them!

On arrival at the gate, I found they had already started boarding. A flash of my Boarding pass and the V Australia staff halted the economy line and pushed me up front. Kind of embarrassing and kind of fun. My friend Andy says the best bit about flying in business is enjoying the envious look of economy passengers! (seeing I spend more of my time down the back than the front I know what that envy feels and looks like!). If he is in business he likes to get there early so that people can see him sitting up front!

On boarding the aircraft, I was invited to turn right which surprised me. I thought I would be going left. I then discovered that V Australia has five rows in Business class. The cabin is split between four rows in front of the main door and one row between that door and the Premium Economy Bar. This Row 5 was where I was spending my flight.  And it has to be the best place on the whole plane. After take off the area is screened off so that you are effectively in your own 7 passenger cabin!

V Australia’s International Business class has a 2-3-2 configuration with fully horizontal flat beds that are 188 cm (6’2″) long and seat pitch of 77″.  This is more than double that of their economy cabin.

The welcome aboard was the best I have ever had on any business class on any airline. The welcome was thorough with a good explanation about the cabin, the seat, bed, entertainment, meals and lavatories.  Business Class have access to three lavatories – one of which is a women’s only lavatory (although I was shown inside it when I got a cabin tour!). There are also the two Premium Economy toilets close to hand. Compare that to the seven available in Economy!

There is a personal workstation with laptop power, USB slot and reading light. Business Class In-Flight entertainment has a 30.7cm (12.1 inches)  touchscreen Personal TV with a Panasonic Audio and Video on demand (AVOD)  system called RED. I have discussed V’s system before.

The 777 has groovy mood lighting that changes from purple to pink to orange over the trip. I love the lighting. In the middle of the night, they even have little stars twinkling overhead! The only disadvantage of it is that every picture of me was too dark so I can’t show you me in my snug seat! I have seen the same lighting on Virgin America. I think Etihad have it. Anyone else?

Now dinner! One word: yum. You can order and eat at any time you want or enjoy meals at the airline’s timing. I chose the airline’s timing.

The serving of the meals was of the same standard as Air New Zealand and Qantas who do this superbly. One of the cute features is that the salt and pepper shakers are in the shape of the Sydney Opera House’s sails!

Ice cream biscuity dessert– very yum

After dessert, determined to switch to US time as soon as possible (one of my tricks for avoiding jetlag), I asked the staff to make my bed up while I changed into the V Australia pyjamas. Unlike Qantas, you  cannot keep the PJs and V take them back to be washed for a future flight. One friend thought the idea of sharing pyjamas was a bit gross! The amenity kit was very nice and came in an amazing mini suitcase I used to carry my laptop into a few meetings! Sleep came quickly and I slept through the night.

Breakfast was magnificent with a good range of fresh choices.

Unlike my first V Australia flight which pulled up in the middle of nowhere at LAX, this flight rolled into a gate.

We were farewelled by the amazing crew and I was genuinely sorry to leave their friendly company and the comfortable plane- even after 15hours!

My rating: 100% Yes even with the delay – 100%. They nudged ahead of Qantas and Air New Zealand*

Got an opportunity to fly V Australia? Do it! They stack up in every class! Tomorrow I compare the business class offerrings on the Pacific sector.

Love the updated Velocity Rewards Frequent Flyer Program unveiled Thursday by Virgin Australia. Already Qantas has responded with media advertisements promising exciting changes to their program. The competition in Australia is starting a new round.

I am currently a Gold flyer with Qantas and Virgin so my focus is on the Gold benefits. At the end of this post, I will paste a table comparing the two programs. Please let me know what I leave out.

The eight immediate features I like about Velocity Rewards:

1. seemingly generous access to award seats
2. Subject to space availability, Velocity Platinum and Gold members are welcome in the Virgin Australia lounge at any time, and do not require a boarding pass. This is a benefit Qantas took away from its Platinum fliers earlier in the year – and boy were we mad! 
3. A family can pool all of your family member’s Points into one account as well as transferring points between family members
4. If you have a baby, you can pause your membership for up to six months-thats impressive
5. For every 100 status credits, you get a free lounge pass
6. Guaranteed Reward Seats for an annual family trip for up to four return Reward Seats for an annual family trip to any Australian destination, for Gold while Platinum members can also international destinations.
7. Gold and Platinum members can take up to two children under the age of 12 into the lounge with them.  (I wonder how many kids will now be screaming through lounges?)
8. Free access to Sentinel who help you find lost keys etc

Getting and Keeping Gold Status
The first comparison between Gold Qantas and Gold Virgin for me is how easy it is to get and keep Gold status. You gain status based on the number of status credits you earn. Every eligible flight gets you status credits. The longer your flight the more status credits you get. The higher your class you reserved your booking with, the more status credits you get. So a Sydney to London flight in business class will get you way more points than a discount economy seat from Sydney to Melbourne.

To get Gold with Qantas requires 700 status credits whereas Virgin gives it to you with 500 status credits. Of course how many you earn at each airline is different. Still its easier to get and keep Gold at Virgin than it is at Qantas.

For me to keep Gold with Qantas at the lowest earning rate possible (eg the Sydney -Melbourne) flight would mean 60 flights in a year. Virgin will give you gold after 40 Syd-Mel flights.

Likewise flying Melbourne to Los Angeles in Premium Economy would need 7 flights a year with Qantas to keep my Gold whereas I only need  4 with Virgin (or 3 plus a few SYD-Mel trips!)

Comparing Qantas Gold and Virgin Gold

Ever noticed how airlines welcome you aboard? As you go down the jetbridge and through the open aeroplane door, what happens. In Australia and New Zealand domestic travel, crew members check your boarding pass and usually greet you. This is generally the case with international flights. Not so  in the USA as passengers wander onto the plane ignored by cabin crew. These have been my experiences with domestic and international cabin crews.

Air Asia-there were flight crew on board?
Air Canada- Calm cheerfulness
Air France- Gallic hospitality-feel like I am coming home
Air New Zealand – Awesome Kiwi friendliness
American- Surly
British- mix of friendliness and British reserve
Cathay Pacific- Refined Charming
Delta-Down to Earth
Emirates-Extremely welcoming
Frontier- Fun and Friendly
JetBlue- some of the friendliest attendants ever
Jetstar- ugh
LAN- Latino politeness and warmth
Lufthansa- Lovely welcomes every time
Malev-Warm
Qantas- Warm and professional
Ryanair- reserved, resentful,
SAS  -uber Scandanavian reserve
Singapore- almost subservient, almost forced greetings
Southwest- Fun, sometimes manic but always Fun with a captal F
United- Usually grumpy
V Australia- warm and groovy
Virgin America – Aloof coolness
Virgin Blue/Australia – Harried friendliness

What do you think? Whats your experience?

Over 10 000 people have now viewed this blog! Thanks everyone. 
The Top Ten Visited posts are:

1. Three Airlines-one plane- comparing the A380    Sep 30, 2010, 7 comments My fave plane compared across 3 airlines!
2. First Korean Air A380 peeks out in Toulouse  Feb 5, 2011- seems there are a lot of A380 geeks
3. Virgin across the Pacific Mar 3, 2011 1 comment – My First V Australia flight from Aust to USA
4. $198 to Europe or $981.80 to Europe Feb 11, 2011 I hate “dishonesty” in ticket pricing
5. The Five Peeve Taxi Journey Sept 11, 2010 Taxis can be very annoying!
6. Delhi Airport Express Feb 26, 2011 Not sure why there is so much interest in the new rail line to Delhi airport?
7. First flights with Royal Jordanian, Mar 26, 2011 
8. I did it! My 747th flight- in a 747! May 25, 2011
9. Martin J’s Top Cities of the World 2010 Jan 4, 2011
10. Almost had $1200 stolen Oct 25, 2010, 9 comments

I would love more comments though so feel free to participate. If blogger makes it hard for you to make a comment let me know: mj_oz3000@yahoo.com.au and tell me what stopped you! Thank you


Thanks again for reading this far! Do stay travelling with me!

Tonight I fly from Los Angeles to Sydney. I desperately hope this flight departs on time. 


Last flight from Australia to Los Angeles, left 11 hours late.


I had flown in from Auckland to connect onto the LA flight and was met at the gate by a V Australia rep. As a result of an engine explosion on a flight out of LA 
all of the V Australia services had been delayed in a roll on effect.


I was very impressed with the way V looked after its transit passengers. They bussed us to a hotel, gave us a $50 spend at the hotel (which I didn’t spend). 


I got a gym workout , a run, some shopping and a lunch with a friend before I flew out.


All in all a nice delay! Thank goodness I made it to my destination in time though.

I am at least eight posts behind having not had a computer for ages…upcoming Blog Posts:
1. Being in Beirut
2. The Uglification of Pattaya
3. Amazing Amman
4. Petra Report
5. Way out Wadi Rum
6. Virgin Blues
7. V Australia Business Class…Stacks up?
8. Survive a Plane Crash

Hope to feed these through in the next weeks…watch this Blog!

Had the longest delay of my life today.
11 hours! (compared to some people’s woes-nothing!)
The delay is out of Brisbane heading to LAX (Flight 007).
The airline is V Australia, the overseas arm of Virgin Blue. They have an “unserviceable” aircraft!
Ironcially, my previous longest delay was with Virgin Blue out of Brisbane- destination: Sydney in 2000. That was an 8 hour delay.
I was so unimpressed with Virgin Blue’s handling of that delay,  that I did not fly them for years! A recent convert back to the Virgin Blue family, this incident has me bemused. ..and a little worried. My connections home are much tighter than going. I have little room for delays! Fingers crossed for May!
V Australia have handled this brilliantly though: meal vouchers, good communications, a hotel for transit passengers (and I got an upgrade! Thanks V)

I was very excited about today’s flight:

• my very first time flying Virgin Blue’s International off shoot V Australia 
• my first flight across the Pacific in one of my favourite aeroplanes the Boeing 777, the world’s largest twin-jet. 
• my first International flight for 2011 
• my tenth flight for 2011
• my 707th flight ever
• Plus I was in Premium Economy! 

For a plane geek lots of virginal experiences!

Check-in at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport was brilliant- very smooth and pleasant. From taxi to lounge via security, customs and duty free,  in a little less than half an hour! Check-in was initially hindered by an inexplicable experience for me of being not able to find V Australia’s Check-in desks! The airport now has a weirdly ordered numbering system for check in counters and V Australia is located right at the back of the check in area. It was aided by the access to priority Check-in and security lines for Gold status passengers. Thanks Virgin!

One major disappointment with check in was that my requested seat had been given to someone else. I know V Australia do not guarantee seat requests but I like it when an airline gives you what you request/choose prior to flying. The new seat I was given didn’t excite me so Check-in staff shifted me to the bulkhead row. I like not having people in front of me and I like aisle access. When you sit on 90 planes a year, you become fussy! Keep watching the seat thing though, because it became weird later on.

My bag (which i normally carry on) weighed in at 10.5kg (22lbs) because of 3kg of gifts I am carrying -so I checked it in which I dont often do!

Lounge: V Australia use the fabulous Air New Zealand lounge for Business and Gold passengers. Showers, food and champagne! Heaven! (I do like my lounges!) My only complaint was that I could not log onto the Internet at all until the Air NZ flight to Auckland emptied the lounge. Suddenly Internet access was available to me but was very slow.

Boarding call came late. At Gate 14, Virgin again had a priority line for business and Gold. But first everyone had to have their passport and boarding pass sighted by security (just in case you have got to this point with false ID?). Then the staff scanned the boarding  passes. When my turn came, the boarding pass machine gave a beep. This beep usually means one of three things:

1. seat change
2. two people in same seat
3. or the magic upgrade

The gate attendant took my pass to the supervisor’s desk and came back saying: “you need to go and see the supervisor“. So back I went, out of the immediate gate area to see the supervisor. When I got there, she brusquely handed me a new Boarding card; “you have been reallocated, as we needed to accommodate a family“.  While I totally understand and respect that situation, l would have appreciated a “sorry” or a “thank you” – or that always hoped for upgrade to Business Class!

To add insult to injury, I then had to line up again to have my boarding pass and passport scanned by a security officer before going past the same check in gate (no beep this time).

Boarding the plane was slow. The on board crew were very friendly and welcoming- something they kept up all night- not easy to do on a 13+ hour shift. The plane for the flight over to the USA was V Australia’s very first plane  Didgeree Blue (this was actually the runner up name in the competition to name the airline). I love the 777 and V Australia have decorated it brilliantly although the Economy seats look a little out of character.

This was where things got a little weird. The gentleman occupying the seat in the Bulkhead row aisle seat that I had just been bumped out of was clearly sans family. He boarded by himself, sat by himself and yes I watched him deplane by himself. So if i was bumped out of my seat for a family, where were the family? If the other gentleman was moved out of his seat for a family, why was he moved into mine for which I had a boarding pass and not the one I eventually ended up in? Weird. Effectively this means I was shifted around the cabin four times.

With Qantas, Air NZ and United, the seat that I request beforehand is always the seat I get at Check-in unless they upgrade me. Likewise the seat I get at Check-in with Air NZ, Qantas and United has always been the seat I have sat in unless I have been upgraded. I have no trust in V Australia that the nice aisle seat that is allocated to me in the exit or bulkhead row, might be traded for a middle seat at the rear of the craft at the last second. And on a journey this long, this could be a disaster for long-legged me! 

Having said, that the Premium Economy seats were comfortable and spacious. The bottle of water and impressive amenities kits were  a delight. V also have a groovy feature in this cabin: a self service bar at the front of the cabin (Qantas have them too on the A380). I felt overall, V Australia’s Premium economy beat Qantas (and easily beat United) Premium Economy offerings on the same sector.

Cabin Crew: Ashley, our very friendly and helpful cabin attendant welcomed each passenger personally with a drink. I chose the sparkling wine as did the passenger seated next to me, a Peruvian woman living in Hobart, Australia.  Ashley and David were assigned to the Premium Economy cabin and looked after the passengers in their cabin very very well. Thanks guys. Nice wine too!

Safety demonstration was thorough which always gives me confidence in a crew. 

Takeoff was brilliant. Boy, those engines are huge!  We rolled slowly down the runway, gathered speed and climbed up over Melbourne’s western suburbs heading toward Port Phillip Bay. We had been warned of a few bumps on climb – and had none. We soared through a bank of fluffy white cloud over a sparkling Bay. Melbourne at its best.

The very second the seat belt sign went off, the woman in front of the woman sitting next to me, reclined her seat to full recline bringing the TV screen centimetres from my new Peruvian friend’s nose! I was glad she was not sitting in front of me until she reclined her child’s seat too. What was funny was that the child was then too far back from the TV screen so the 5 or 6 or 7 year old had to lean forward. In other words the whole recline thing was wasted. I spent the flight wondering whether to ask the mother to un-recline her kid’s seat. Even fully reclined, it wasn’t too squashy for my long legs and I even slept for six hours which is really rare for me on a plane flight.

I noted that passengers were not instructed to bring their seats up for meals which is common practice on  other airlines I have flown on.

Beverage/Meal Service: a full ten out of ten for all of the food served on the flight (except for the banana cake dessert -I hate banana cake so that’s my problem). Take note United Airlines with your appalling food on this sector (see previous blog post on my worst Pacific crossing experience.

Entertainment: I loved the V Australia system: – user friendly with  great selection. Is it the same as Virgin America system? Either way, its got to be my favourite airline entertainment system. I watched 9 episodes of Modern Family (so much for not being a T V watcher!). I noticed the child in front of me was watching the Simpsons and Family Guy. The woman next to me enjoyed movies. 

The flight was smooth the whole way across the Pacific. This is more luck than anything else as it depends on the oceanic weather patterns. I have had some very rough crossings over the Pacific. Two women in the on-board Bar were convinced that it was the 777 that made the trip so smooth. Another reason to love the 777?

Dawn broke not far out of LAX and we landed beautifully into a clear cool Los Angeles day. The greatest disadvantage of V Australia appeared at this point. With Qantas, United and Air New Zealand, their planes roll to a gate in their respective terminals.

Not so with V Australia. We kept rolling on the ground for ages before pulling up at aerobridge in the back blocks of LAX next to an Air Tahiti Nui and El Al plane. The air-bridge also took a long time to connect (so long in fact, that we were invited to sit again). We then climbed down stairs down to the airport tarmac.

Waiting there were buses which completely disinterested LAX employees were hanging around. There was not one of them interested in directing people  to the buses- dreadful welcome (what one expects from LAX). Our very full bus went for a very long drive back to the International terminal. With no directions from ground crew, we got off the  bus and entered a series of corridors. It was then a long walk through horrible LAX to get to immigration. The bright spot was that getting through immigration didn’t take me long as I was near the front of the group. When I was through immigration, I was pleased to find my luggage was waiting. From touchdown to street was about 50 minutes. I have been timing my treks through immigration and have been getting them under 30 minutes so V Australia was much slower for me here and believe me every minute in the LAX terminal after a 13 hour flight is excruciating.

I caught my shuttle bus to the hotel and had a nice 2.5 mile run, shop, and sleep overnight before flying the next day to Dallas (see next blog post).

Now the scoring for the Trans-Pacific route compared to my ratings with the other airlines I have flown that route with:

#1 Air New Zealand   98%
#2 V America            94%
#3 Qantas                  93%
                                                    #4 United                   69%

Overall, I thought V were brilliant with almost everything. Where V mega-failed was the run around with the bizarre seating allocation and the equally frustrating runaround with the bus to the LAX terminal. These were not disasters and I look forward to my next V Australia trip in April.