Short review
Note: 3 is average
Lounge: 3.5/5 (Virgin Australia Domestic lounge in Sydney – Fairly crowded, decent food and beverage options, good spot for working)
Seat: 3.5/5 (Typical seat on a narrow-body plane)
Entertainment: 3.5/5 (Use your own device from gate to gate, which is the norm for Virgin Australia)
Service: 5/5 (Very good, especially for a full flight)
Food and beverages: 5/5 (Delicious meal on board)
Pros:
- I enjoyed the meal on board
Cons:
- Fairly busy lounge, but I still could find a seat fairly easily
Long review
Virgin Australia (VA846) was scheduled to depart Sydney at 14:00, and to arrive in Melbourne at 15:35, with a scheduled duration of 1 hour and 35 minutes. I arrived about 2 hours before the departure time. I already did my check-in online, so I simply went to one of the self-service kiosks to print out my boarding pass. I only had a backpack with me, so I skipped the checked baggage line and went straight to the security queue, which was quite fast. From there, I went directly to the lounge.
First impression, the lounge seemed busy, maybe because it was lunch time. I grabbed my lunch, gnocchi and mushroom cream soup. They had other dishes, but I purposely did not want to eat too much because I wanted to enjoy the meal on the plane. I did not take many photos either because there were many people around me and I did not want to raise eyebrows. After my light lunch, I found a working space to do a bit of work. This space was handy to charge your devices.
Typical in a narrow-body plane, the business class is arranged in a 2-2 configuration. The seat is leathered and has a decent recline. There are only 8 seats in the business class cabin and there was no separation between the business class and economy class. As far as I know, usually they have a purple divider between the 2 cabins. This flight looked very full as well. A flight attendant came over and offered a welcome drink for the business class passengers. I chose a glass champagne. The plane left the gate 13 minutes late at 14:13.
Once at the cruising altitude, a flight attendant took my meal order. They had 2 options, a salad dish and a Turkish bread with chicken. I chose the second option along with white wine. The dish came with crackers and cheese, and a piece of chocolate. It perhaps looked unassuming, but actually the main dish was tasty. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
While eating, I also watched a movie on my mobile phone. This is the norm in all Virgin Australia’s fleet. Passengers in all classes can enjoy entertainment using their own devices by connecting to the in-flight entertainment system through their browser. This allows passengers to watch movies literally from the departure to the arrival gate. The movie options were limited, but adequate for such a short flight.
The rest of the journey was uneventful. We landed in Melbourne at 15:40, 5 minutes behind schedule. Overall, it was a good experience, particularly the experience during the flight itself.
