In mid-April I wrote about Virgin Australia’s new business class product, which is finally being rolled out on their 777-300ER aircraft. This new product was first announced in 2014, though unfortunately there have been significant rollout delays due to issues with getting the seats certified. As of a couple of months ago, Virgin Australia's first…
Continue reading: Update On Virgin Australia’s New Business Class Installation
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
That's great if you can fly next week, otherwise the next reward VA flight to Australia is not until April 2017, and then only 1 seat. While VA has good domestic reward availability, planning for long haul is impossible from my experience, which is too bad as it looks like a great way to go down under.
Hi!
The award availability you are showing here is through a partner airline's website (Delta). Does it mean that I need to transfer points from my SPG account to Delta in order to book these award seats?
Just wondering as Virgin Australia quotes a R/T at more or less 1 million points on their own website... As opposed to the 45K shown here :T
I'd rather pay 45K points for business R/T on Virgin Australia than 80K points on Delta for a one way seat...
Thank you!
Julien, call Virgin America, ask to see if the flights you want are available. If so transfer the SPG points to Elevate then call back to ticket it. The Delta site is simply showing availability. You aren't booking with them.
The same product is installed on their A330's as well, which they operate on some domestic routes. I tried it earlier in the year from Perth to Sydney. Excellent hard product - definitely one of the most eye-catching cabins I've experienced.
@Julien:
Prices are one way:
80k with Delta points
45k with Virgin AMERICA points
102k with Virgin AUSTRALIA points (only for flights where Business Reward space is available. Will probably match Delta and Virgin America availability)
There are taxes and fees with all of the above and the amounts may vary.
@ Tom and MarkS
Thanks guys! It is indeed for on-way, my bad.
Still 90K R/T through Virgin America sounds like a good deal to me! 😉
I travelled on Virgin Australia to LAX a couple of times about 5 years ago on their old business class product. Loved it. It was when completely flat, horizontal beds in business out of Australia to the USA were rare. The hard product was very good for the time, but the soft product put many others, including Qantas to shame. In the two or three return trips I have done with them - there was only one where the service let them down. It wasn't bad, just not as good as we had come to expect.
They were also amazing when my partner got ill on a return flight to Sydney. They constantly checked in with him or me to make sure he was comfortable, and had what he needed. We also had a brush-with-fame meeting Dot Jones, who was charming, and joined us for drinks at the bar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_Jones
When they initiated this route, award availability was phenomenal. We did 2 trips, booking about award flights about 3 months out - now, I agree with @MarkS above - availability mid-term is crap. Pity as I would love to sample their product again.
Looks nice but room is tight in the foot cubby. Much prefer the new Qantas biz suite for hard product. And when it comes to soft product and service as well as lounges etc ... Well Qantas kills Virgin in those areas.
I flew this last month. Hard to believe but I enjoyed it more than ANA First Class shortly after...
The hard product is B/E Aerospace Super Diamond, which is what Qatar installs on their A350/B787. Also Air Canada on the 787's which I've flown and are really nice. The seat is great for sleeping and has more room, in my opinion, than the Cirrus reverse herringbone seat that Cathay introduced. I believe American has announced they will be installing the B/E product on their 787-9 series as well as being the new business class product for remaining 777 and 350's next year.
As far as Qantas A330, they have the Vantage XL. Flew that seat on SAS the other day. It was fantastic! Liked even better than the B/E Aerospace super diamond. It has more leg room for sure. So later this year flying VA A330 SYD-PER and QF A330 PER-SYD. Would love to take VA down to Australia but only departure from LAX negates the 45K SPG point advantage for me.
So @DavidCreak, I take your word, but really?
@MarkS Just on the Vantage XL ? seat.... I've been on it many times recently (over 50!) a few middle distance flights to Singapore and Perth but it's also used for the Melb-Syd rat run and I've been catching a Qantas A330 between Sydney and Melbourne 2-3 times a week and it's got to be the best short haul domestic seat in history. I think I actually prefer it to any other business class seat I've been on except maybe Etihad suites. Where Qantas falls short is their first class which is getting really tired.
@Paul Pope Yes, SAS installed the same product on their A340 and A330. https://scandinaviantraveler.com/en/newcabin
However SAS soft product wasn't up to the same standards. The XL has far more legroom than the standard Vantage that airlines like Swiss and Austrian fly. As long as you get the seat with the table against the aisle I think the XL is my favorite business class seat so far. Trying SAS again next month.