You Can Now Experience Virgin Australia's New Business Class

Are there any trends or general knowledge on Virgin Australia business availability using VX points? I have 100K+ Elevate points and would LOVE to use them on this product.

@Matt try checking using Delta's search tool. If VA awards are available, I think you just call VX and book the flights

Other than Virgin Australia, "only" United, American, Delta and Qantas serve LAX-Australia, Ben? 😉

I'm actually surprised with five (!) airlines competing for the same routes, there isn't more innovation with the hard product, but excited to try (Delta partner!) Virgin Australia someday soon!

I flew the new business class from PER-MEL in Jan. and everything about it was great. Would be more than happy to fly from the US to OZ if they open up availability.

@Matt, I tried a couple weeks ago to use VX points. No luck, even though Delta showed low-level award availability on dates I requested. The VX agent said they were having trouble getting access to VA awards seats, but said to keep trying. I'm going to try again soon myself.

"I’ve been wanting to review Virgin Australia for a while, though figured I might as well wait until the new product is installed, since the old product would soon be outdated."

Too bad you feel that way. The best business class product I've flown, by far, and yes, that includes EY, EK, SQ, CX, JL, OZ, is VA J in seats 5A/C and 5H/K. More privacy than most airlines in F.

That said, I agree this is the prettiest iteration of the reverse herringbone seat.

Is there a way to check availability short of calling Virgin? This sounds like an excellent redemption for TY points, especially when transfer bonuses creep up.

I flew their old business class product. The seats were outdated, but they had really good food and service and I did get a decent amount of rest. I found the ultimate "sweet spot" award ATL all the way to Queenstown, NZ on Virgin Australia for 80,000 Skymiles one way. I can't wait to try to earn enough Skymiles for another trip so that I can try the new VA biz product!

Speaking of which- Delta doesn't appear to be displaying award space from Virgin Australia. I know they've had issues in the past, but if you were to search for a Skymiles award to Australia right now, the lowest one-way you'll find is 215,000 Skymiles and none of the seats are on VA planes.

It's a bit different to the normal reverse herringbone seats, looks more like the AC and CI new business class products.

Any news about the new PE/W/PY?

I recently used one of my free Platinum Velocity upgrades from a Flexi fare to this seat on a PER-MEL flight (and will be doing so on MEL-PER in a couple of week's time.

Really really comfortable product. Screen right in front of you (not a fold away screen like some other Bus seats, great food and service (surely another level when International) and a good range of seat movement. Also, I'm 6'2 and there was an abundance of space.

Great product and I'm sure it would be super comfortable on the Pacific route.

I've flown the refurbished VA A330s from MEL-PER recently. While the finishes may look good in the promotional photos, theyve gone with some really cheap finishes which don't make it feel luxurious at all. The fabric on the seats feels quite cheap (and shows every crumb possible) but the thing I liked the least was the purple divider and the silver 'shuttered' thing next to the divider. These are really cheap plastic, feel very flimsy and the purple perspex shows lots of fingerprints. While its undoubtedly better than the previous seats I think the CX finishes are more luxe.

Can i book a SYD-LAX-IAH on the same award?

As @Reine says, no VA award availability to be found on Delta at the moment.

I'm surprised at poster Ben's comments, as I've flown VA's refurbished A330s fairly often (especially since you can encounter them outside of the Perth run too, with clockwork regularity with regards to a certain early morning MEL-SYD flight I regularly take).

The CX and VA finishes are on par, with VA avoiding the biege look CX has by adding flourishes. I also find the VA seat far more ergonomical comfortable (the CX seat has limited space for your arm on the console side, which really annoys me - VA's seat doesn't have this problem).

If there are any things I'd like improved with VA's A330 seat, it that the the aisle side gap (at floor level) between the seat and the curve of the forward frame can be somewhat narrow, and that I wish the first bin was a bit deeper, but these are all fairly minor issues.

My interest is what design differences will there be between the A330 seats and the 777 seats. I'm hoping the 777s are just not carbon copies, but offer just a few small enhancements given the much longer flight times involved.

I'm flying it SYD-LAX but not until August... Looking forward to trying it out

Looks like the first flight is 4/23, not 4/19.
I'll be flying them in December. Looking forward to reading some reviews before then, though!

Lucky -- can you advise the best way to book DAL-LAX-SYD on a single business award ticket (meaning Virgin American and then Virgin Australia without separate itineraries)? I don't think I can do it with Virgin America or SQ.

Thanks!

Another delay...4/29 is now listed as the start date for new interior.

My flights end of May and early June show the new config. Hopefully I get the new config. Booked these last year at Delta low level.

Rob