It's really disappointing to hear about the bad experience in the lounge. I agree that it's quite offensive that they asked if you actually allowed to be in there. Well clearly you've been through their check-in... Incredibly poor service on their behalf. It's such a pity as VA were traditionally the fun and friendly airline.
It is absolutely mind boggling that this airline is not offering the absolute best customer service possible. With the increased competition and their future survival dependent on winning and keeping customers, there is no room for poor service.
You received Economy service for the price of Business class. On Rex you got Business class service for the price of Premium Economy. I hope Rex is successful on its first inter-city routes and quickly extends its service to us in Perth.
Everyone needs to realise that we now have a new Virgin Australia business. It will be interesting to see if your disappointing experience becomes the normal feedback from future Virgin Australia customers. No booze, warm soft drinks without ice & an uninspiring snack box, most definitely cause for the customer service alarm bells to start ringing. 👍
Loved your review Rory! Sounds like the staff need more training on how to treat customers, especially their premium clients. Looks like I’ll be going Rex for my next trip.
U deserve so many more subscribers! U produce high-class content and I love it! Please keep it up! Btw do some more rail reviews if u can. It’s ok if u can’t
Thank you! I’d love to do some more too but we don’t have many affordable passenger train services in this country 😅 I’ll catch the overland in early April and try spirit of Queensland Railbed in late June
We fly Dec 22nd (hopefully) to Perth from Brisbane. A 5 1/2 hour flight. Will also be interesting to see how this airline fares compared to, say, trans-US flights on American, Delta, etc. My guess is not much difference. Lounges in the US do not generally allow domestic flyers into the lounge unless you join for what is now becoming a significant cost. Even on business class now, the airlines are desperately trying to recoup huge losses built up during the shutdown, so what you get is (still perhaps) the biggest benefit - that of room! Legs and sideways!
Great review thanks...I hope REX “benefit” from this factual overview of VA’s “business class “...odd they could behave that way at this challenging time in the industry, I’d definitely choose REX.
I really like your style. Keep up the great vids! Having recently flown Virgin Biz I completely agree with your review. The staff I dealt with had attitude too, the food was abysmal (who doesn't serve cheese with crackers and relish??) and half the facilities on the seat were broken. Virgin used to be quirky and fun but now they are just painful and seemingly don't really care. Filming drinks a security risk?? Seriously? Historically, Australia can only support two domestic airlines. . I reckon the two survivors will be Rex and Qantas...
Unbelievable. Very disappointed in their food for their passengers. Cheap. I would rather fly with Red business class. Thank u for your terrific videos. I really enjoy them
Definitely grumpy Management, but you did the right thing to ask.... the lounge did look very good and great to see so many aircraft movements, something we’re lacking atm here in the UK. Onboard looked comfortable too, would love to try VA on my next trip to Australia.... 👌
I flew Virgin at the Start of January 2021. I got an upgrade to business class. The snack box was identical to yours on both flights, but surprisingly I still found it filling. We were offered pre departure drink of water and during the flight , red or white wine, soft drinks, juice, tea or coffee. Gold coast lounge hadn't reopened at that stage, but Melbourne lounge had similar food to what you showed in Sydney. Although Melbourne's main lounge was closed for renovations at the time. My understanding from staff was, as covid-19 restrictions eased, and Virgin started to recover from 2020, meals will improve in business class
Their hard products are pretty good, they just need to improve their meal service, i know they’re planning to relaunch it in April, I will try them again when that happens. I just didn’t really like the attitude of the managers in Sydney lounge that kinda affected my whole flight experience.
We’re should be supporting Rex and Rex the Aussie and the management know the business. My next flight ✈️ would be Rex. The competition must go on and Rex the one that starting.
I've spent plenty of time in Virgin lounges across Australia and have found the SYD lounge staff to be the only unfriendly staff in the network. ADL and BNE lounge staff are wonderful.
I'm glad that Virgin Australia is still alive, but very disappointed as a loyal passenger. I have chosen to fly VA business class with points upgrades for many years, and have maintained that loyalty for good reason. If this is the new product in the new VA era, then it looks like a switch to Qantas is inevitable. :(
I agree, going off both reviews Rex is definitely the better choice for business class. But that was day 1 of their services. Would be interested to do the same trip in 6 to 12 months to see if the standard was the same
That’s true Will try rex’s business class again after a few months. Most of the Rex crew were hired after they were grounded by virgin/tiger so I guess they’re really excited to be back in the air again and they put their heart in their job Whereas for virgin crew I reckon they just treat it as an everyday job. That’s just my own opinion 😂
@@RoryDing I flew a number of times between Sydney and Perth via both Virgin and Tiger. I found Tiger was always much better from their customer service perspective
Totally agree with you so l hit that 👍. Dissapointed in the cost cutting in the name of Covid. Snack box at meal time was a poor choice, l never understand how there is anymore "contact" with that choice over a full service. Great review, appreciate your honesty. Thanks.
Had similar experience flying business with Virgin (pre Bain) at Perth. Got questioned at the checkin, lounge then again at priority boarding. I hope you got the lounge manager’s name. Virgin was really good at dealing with my complaint. Anyways... have not flown virgin since.
I flew with Virgin few years ago,. For possible employment with them.. I didn't like the general vibe I got whilst on their property.. Worst thing was on my flight back to Melbourne from Auckland.. The flight was full, I was considered a staff traveler so I was not given any priority.. The staff in Auckland weren't really helpful I was almost booking my own flight back to Melbourne with another airline. Another thing I didn't like, flying in economy you aren't allowed to use the toilet at the front of the aircraft. All economy pax were limited to use the 2 only lavatories at the rear of the aircraft. The flight attendant was also a bit rude when I walked to the front of the aircraft with the intention of using the lavatory..
I remember flying on virgin blue a long time ago to Adelaide. & virgin was a good airline.it used to be my second time flying & it was all good. & look at that nice menu.it sounds good.in the virgin lounge.
Great trip report! Some of the staffs in the lounge were so disappointing, especially the one who asked you if you allowed to be in their, which was quite offensive. Their inflight service was also not as good as their opponents'.
Our company was a V/A customer flying up & down the east coast of Aust but as usual once an airline has gone bust & been brought out by a money hungry investment Co. They never return to their once greatness. We'll be trying REX where we can & Q for the other routes, as for what to do with the 100's of 1000's of V/A Velocity points we have no idea. Love your videos keep up the great work.
Wow! That was such a disappointment for you Rory! I’m so sorry you had to endure that. I’ve never flown virgin but have often wondered what they were like. I now know. Thanks Rory 🙏🏽
I just wanna teach virgin a lesson to treat every customer equally Whether he’s wearing casual or wearing a suit I don’t think either manager thought that I actually had a TH-cam channel of almost 4K subscribers. Hopefully my channel is big enough to make an influence
@@RoryDing Totally, if they knew you had the channel and you were going to share to almost 4 thousand people that you experience was bad with them and great with REX, they might have treated you better. So sorry this has happened to you.
I am appalled on what I saw with the customer service! I mean a “security risk?” come on? And the fact that the manager followed you was absolutely disgusting behaviour from the manager. Rory, you are an absolute pro at handling situations like these, keep up your excellent work! I’m sorry that you got treated like that. Thank you for that review, I will stay with Qantas and will never go with virgin. #photographyisnotacrime
You should have asked for the instant boodles :) Seriously though Virgin don't get it when it comes to food. For business travel, which is largely paid for by the employer, people will opt for Qantas because of the better food options. Even if the employer mandates that the cheapest airline be chosen, employees will find an excuse to book Qantas (i.e. flights not available at a particular time). That aside I have always found the Virgin staff to be efficient and friendly.
I flew with VA international and domestic before, domestic business class was good before COVID. International economy was horrible, I bought ticket from Delta but travel on VA, I chose the exit raw from Delta app but VA did not honor it. As VA corporate with SQ and DL before COVID, it was good to travel them on international route. But now it is the time to exit velocity lol
I booked an e170 service from Darwin to Alice last September but they downgraded it to Emb120 last minute 😅🙁 ive been on the e170 before tho, loved the square shaped windows and comfortable seats!
This is really disappointing, i was considering flying business with virgin next year, but it looks as though i’d receive the same in economy. This really isn’t good service.
I guess we were all dealt with filming issues lately. I was very audibly told not to film on my Jetstar flight last week. Was told what I was doing is illegal. The cabin manager said she was observing me since the beginning of the flight and that its time for me to stop. It was PER-ADL and she stopped me at the end of the flight. So it was a very long observation!
Nah, flying in economy I'm always seated at the rear so no... It was always the rear of people's heads. But she was clearly very upset by what I was doing. I had all the footage I needed by then anyway so I stopped.
That’s very disappointing to hear, this is sort of the reason why I fly Qantas so my loyalty is accepted everywhere I go. I was just wondering if you decided to file a complaint to Virgin and if you did what was the response? That’s clearly not the way to treat your passengers especially when they are your most loyal and paying good money to fly in business. I emphasise your frustration and feel you mate, don’t feel too down about yourself, maybe the lounge staff haven’t heard of “TH-cam”. All the best!
Yeah I’m flying on Wednesday with them and I don’t expect much at all, I usually fly Qantas but on this occasion I wanted to use all my velocity points and get a cheap return ticket
These videos are a year old, but I think the information is still valid Virgin business: th-cam.com/video/AQN4ET32tbw/w-d-xo.html Rex business: th-cam.com/video/8sp2ifpoeZs/w-d-xo.html Qantas business: th-cam.com/video/IyMm1T_DVws/w-d-xo.html
Insider Tip: I can guarantee that the staff couldn't give a shit with you filming, all the complaints come from other snooty customers in the lounge that don't like youtubers / influencers walking around filming everything. They complain to management and they tend to be the loudest so the staff have to say no.
Yeah, Virgin have lost the plot recently. I had business class flights today. From Melbourne was sent to the wrong lounge to begin with. In lounge food was very very basic. Fine of you're not paying for access, but you'd expect more for business class. Both flights were very uneventful with service border line cold. Food was average. Bit of a shame really. Guess cost cutting is taking its toll. Shutting down the filming just reinforces how bad the service had gotten.
If the flight is only 65 minutes long, maybe to provide in-flight hot meals was rather impractical. The rudeness of the lounge staff was uncalled for. However, had you been clothed in a suit and tie, maybe their attitude would have been quite different. Who knows.
Yeah, I dont fly Virgin and from this review it will definitely be one of the last options for me. Jetstar are cheaper but the always had delays. Qantas prices are through the roof.
Hi Alfred, this is actually the old virgin product, they have now significantly improved the meals in business class and the price has become a lot more affordable. I would recommend you to fly them 😊
Bad experience mate, really shows how much of a waste of money flying business is in Australia.. keep up the good work.. Rex look like they at least want your business.. I had a strange experience on a code share with Etihad where they tried to charge me for luggage before my transit flight to Sydney after a long flight from Dublin to Melbourne..
Great review and completely agree. Only thing is... VA has always been an 80% airline. Virgin America was so much better in terms of service and customer experience. Virgin Aust has never been on par with Virgin Atlantic. It just always feels cheaper. For example, when they got rid of head back TVs, they didn't think to put USB power in seats. People dont want to use their device for two hours and have no charge at the end. Excellence is in the details, and unfortunately VA has never done the details very well. Not even offering a glass of champagne is unbelievable. Qantas runs rings around them without even trying. It's sad.
My Qantas status enabled me to be matched to the United Platinum for 120 days, and the process took 2 minutes to lodge online and request approved within hours. Planned to purchase a VA flight after 23 May just for the sake of seeing the inside of its lounges. Then I came across your video - what I have seen was absolutely a big no no. Last time I checked it’s already 2022, right? What you’ve been through were more like in the 90s if you know what I mean. I’ll stick with Qantas for the time being just to make a point. What you have experienced was simply appalling and unacceptable. I’m never interested in apologies, and always voted with my feet, except for Qantas. Qantas used to be a terrible airlines to fly with, lots of grumpy and fed up employees. Joyce managed to kick them all out. Now it’s almost a 4 star airlines with semi-inferior product offerings and an impeccable reputation. That said, I still feel very relaxed when flying with Qantas, enjoy its old & saggy SYD lounge and its ageing 737s for some peculiar reasons. VA on the other hand is a typical “forgets the pain after the wound is barely healing” type of entity, they haven’t learnt from their past ill judgement, and are highly likely to repeat it again.
I've flown Virgin numerous times in the past in Economy, (once in business class to Perth but thats a different story). This type of service shown in the review is something I would've expected for Economy but not Business. Although asking for Champagne was a bit much. Wine seems more appropriate...
That’s my first time flying in virgin business Rex offered champagne so I thought virgin had it too Well the crew just expect me to know what they have 😅🤷🏻♂️ if she told me what they got I would’ve just got a wine
The best part of Business on Virgin and Rex flights is the comfortable seat and not having to put up with screaming kids, stuff the food! If you booked that Virgin flight in Feb you would have paid only $200 about the cost of a normal economy ticket anyway
Great work Rory. Just sounds like a unhappy in general person. Great that you hold them to account mate. True saying is If it wern't for you and others paying to fly. they wouldnt have a job.
Sorry to hear you had such a poor experience at the lounge. I've only been in the Sydney lounge twice and both my experiences with the service desk weren't very memorable either (lounge staff were actually wonderful). Weirdly enough, on one of these occasions, I was asked a very similar thing - I had never been into the lounge at this point so I was a little lost. I checked in, and later on came back to the entrance to find a friend. Suddenly, I was asked (by the person who checked me in at the desk) whether I had notified any staff before I walked in? On clarifying, they actually didn't remember me and thought I'd somehow wandered in by mistake. Didn't really ever think back to this until your experience triggered a memory. It's not a great feeling, so I'm sorry for your experience.
@@RoryDing It'd be interesting if it was the same person. Pretty much forgot about this entire interaction until now... I'm flying SYD>BNE in a few weeks (first flight in 12 months!) so I'll report back.
@@RoryDing Hey Rory, reporting back that the flight was great both ways. I feel like a number of Sydney staff (at the lounge desk) have a chip on their shoulders - again, there was attitude but more like a "I-don't-want-to-be-here" rather than "you-shouldn't-be-here". Brisbane staff were an absolute riot and hilarious as always. The food was quite nice! Had the turkey brie sandwich there and the lamb pie on the way home. Really generous with the alcohol top-ups... not a bad thing. :P
Hi Liam Yeah i flew with virgin again on Sunday evening from Adelaide to Melbourne the Adelaide lounge staff were amazing, the overall onboard service and food offering have improved a lot But I didn’t get pie they ran out :( You’ll see this flight review next week if you’re interested Thank you for sharing your experience with me 😊
@@mga71 yeah they do. you are still getting a better seat and access to the lounge. it seems that for now, they are just getting an economy class service on the plane
I have been flying V/A for the last 12 years to Melbourne & Adelaide in both the economy and business class. Never had a problem and business class was always a enjoyable flight.NOT ANYMORE , what they offered you Rory and the customer service was disgraceful. I am flying to Melbourne in September with Qantas, I won't be using V/A again.Thanks Rory.
I can stand with everything such as shitty customer service, manager's attitude, meals and etc. BUT One thing I can't stand with is a can of fkn room temperature coke!! Absolutely, Virgin treats their customers like dogs!!
What a disappointing experience for you. I have had several less than happy flight experiences with Virgin Australia and will never willingly fly with them again.
Its not as good as it used to be. Economy X is better value. But bring your own food as they don't offer on board food to buy. Not even tea and coffee. This must change if they are to survive.
Economy X costs like $35 more than economy? I think I’d rather fly in Qantas A330 economy and drink red wine 😅 (Virgin economy $79, Qantas economy $117) I wish virgin could bring back its onboard menu in April, I don’t mind spending $5 to get a cup noodles or something
@@RoryDing Qantas does not seem to offer a form premium domestic economy product like virgin. It would be great if international premium economy was introduced to all domestic flights on both Qantas and Virgin as a far cheaper product than business class. But economy X is best if seated in row 3. So much legroom and you can even get out of the window seat to the bathroom without anyone else needing to move.
Virgin Australia is going through a massive upheaval, but I do agree with your opinion on how your lounge experience was. Not good. But like many other travellers, I find "TH-cam" bloggers, especially Zders, with a self entitled right to film whenever they like annoying. Remember that you are now marked by management as well as security. It's a privilege to be allowed access to a lounge, even if you paid for the right to enter.
Virgin relaunched its business class on 25 March, to check out my review on its new business class, please click here: th-cam.com/video/AQN4ET32tbw/w-d-xo.html
Really dissapointed with what you experienced with your flight, meal and rude staff in the lounge. I Myself and a friend when from Sydney to Brisbane Buisness class, had a good time in the lounge and got a hot meal, peri peri burger with two free sparkling wines each and an additonal coke each. this was around June 2022. So i hope this was a temperory thing they did and have reverted back to real buisness class expereicne, or perhaps we got lucky and what you got is the new normal. We also got our tickets for $250 each, it was my first time in buisness class so for 60 dollars more then economy at the time, we easily drank and ate that much in the 5 hours we were in the lounge!
Had mixed experiences with Virgin on domestic business class before the pandemic. Had grandparents with us from Melbourne to Sydney for a cruise so booked everyone on business. Went to business check in and I haven’t even finish saying we have 6 business class booking the lady just told us to use the self check in or the economy line. Feels quite offended. Then told her we had 6 BUSINESS CLASS booking and she changed her altitude and even walked us to the lounge. Lounge and onboard experience is exceptionally excellent. However looking at this review I won’t be booking Virgin business in any near future, Qantas and Rex looks much better on value of the service.
I have a bit of an opposite opinion to you. Virgin Australia has only recently been bailed out of bankruptcy by the QLD government. You can’t expect perfection while the company is still trying to recover. But that doesn’t excuse the poor customer service.
It's really disappointing to hear about the bad experience in the lounge. I agree that it's quite offensive that they asked if you actually allowed to be in there. Well clearly you've been through their check-in... Incredibly poor service on their behalf. It's such a pity as VA were traditionally the fun and friendly airline.
How TF does filming pose a security risk?
@@Jbscddnz she is probably talking about job security risk
Maybe they are just pouring all their money into rockets, not training their staff.
It is absolutely mind boggling that this airline is not offering the absolute best customer service possible. With the increased competition and their future survival dependent on winning and keeping customers, there is no room for poor service.
Ever since Covid hit their chain it seems they lost passion and down spiralled from there.
Amen
The airlines intention is to provide that, but it’s just a few bad eggs in their staff team
I find your reviews so entertaining! I don't travel much but can live vicariously through these reviews
Thank you 😊
You received Economy service for the price of Business class. On Rex you got Business class service for the price of Premium Economy. I hope Rex is successful on its first inter-city routes and quickly extends its service to us in Perth.
I hope so too!
Everyone needs to realise that we now have a new Virgin Australia business. It will be interesting to see if your disappointing experience becomes the normal feedback from future Virgin Australia customers. No booze, warm soft drinks without ice & an uninspiring snack box, most definitely cause for the customer service alarm bells to start ringing. 👍
Couldn't agree more. Very poor service for Virgin business class !! Doesn't make you want to go & fly with them does it !
Even the business class seats are barely better than Economy X.
Loved your review Rory! Sounds like the staff need more training on how to treat customers, especially their premium clients. Looks like I’ll be going Rex for my next trip.
U deserve so many more subscribers! U produce high-class content and I love it! Please keep it up! Btw do some more rail reviews if u can. It’s ok if u can’t
Thank you!
I’d love to do some more too but we don’t have many affordable passenger train services in this country 😅
I’ll catch the overland in early April and try spirit of Queensland Railbed in late June
I’m only 1/2 way through and am loving it. Wishing it were longer. These videos really are good and mesmerizing. You do a good job at your niche here.
Thank you 😊
We fly Dec 22nd (hopefully) to Perth from Brisbane. A 5 1/2 hour flight. Will also be interesting to see how this airline fares compared to, say, trans-US flights on American, Delta, etc. My guess is not much difference. Lounges in the US do not generally allow domestic flyers into the lounge unless you join for what is now becoming a significant cost. Even on business class now, the airlines are desperately trying to recoup huge losses built up during the shutdown, so what you get is (still perhaps) the biggest benefit - that of room! Legs and sideways!
Great review thanks...I hope REX “benefit” from this factual overview of VA’s “business class “...odd they could behave that way at this challenging time in the industry, I’d definitely choose REX.
I flown once with them and had a bad experience and never again. Qantas and Jetstar have never been an issue.
Thank you for this review. It is very informative. I hope you get more subscribers :)
Thank you!
I really like your style. Keep up the great vids! Having recently flown Virgin Biz I completely agree with your review. The staff I dealt with had attitude too, the food was abysmal (who doesn't serve cheese with crackers and relish??) and half the facilities on the seat were broken. Virgin used to be quirky and fun but now they are just painful and seemingly don't really care. Filming drinks a security risk?? Seriously? Historically, Australia can only support two domestic airlines. . I reckon the two survivors will be Rex and Qantas...
Unbelievable. Very disappointed in their food for their passengers. Cheap. I would rather fly with Red business class. Thank u for your terrific videos. I really enjoy them
your videos are the best thank you. disguisting service in every respect really .
Thank you for the reviews Rory! You've definitely convinced me to give Rex a go the next time I fly.
haha love how you researched how much each of the snack item cost! Our Rex flight in economy was so much nicer in this instance haha!!
Absolutely
The snack box was dreadful so glad they’re gone now
Definitely grumpy Management, but you did the right thing to ask.... the lounge did look very good and great to see so many aircraft movements, something we’re lacking atm here in the UK. Onboard looked comfortable too, would love to try VA on my next trip to Australia.... 👌
I flew Virgin at the Start of January 2021. I got an upgrade to business class.
The snack box was identical to yours on both flights, but surprisingly I still found it filling. We were offered pre departure drink of water and during the flight , red or white wine, soft drinks, juice, tea or coffee.
Gold coast lounge hadn't reopened at that stage, but Melbourne lounge had similar food to what you showed in Sydney. Although Melbourne's main lounge was closed for renovations at the time.
My understanding from staff was, as covid-19 restrictions eased, and Virgin started to recover from 2020, meals will improve in business class
Their hard products are pretty good, they just need to improve their meal service, i know they’re planning to relaunch it in April, I will try them again when that happens.
I just didn’t really like the attitude of the managers in Sydney lounge that kinda affected my whole flight experience.
@@RoryDing
Agreed.
That can happen with any airline. Sad that it was the day you reviewed them.
@@RoryDing After rewatching I totally agree.
We’re should be supporting Rex and Rex the Aussie and the management know the business. My next flight ✈️ would be Rex. The competition must go on and Rex the one that starting.
I agree
I've spent plenty of time in Virgin lounges across Australia and have found the SYD lounge staff to be the only unfriendly staff in the network. ADL and BNE lounge staff are wonderful.
Great review :) thanks for always being honest with your experiences.
I'm glad that Virgin Australia is still alive, but very disappointed as a loyal passenger. I have chosen to fly VA business class with points upgrades for many years, and have maintained that loyalty for good reason. If this is the new product in the new VA era, then it looks like a switch to Qantas is inevitable. :(
Wow good job on this honest review, I think Rex is a better choice.
Thanks!
I agree, going off both reviews Rex is definitely the better choice for business class. But that was day 1 of their services. Would be interested to do the same trip in 6 to 12 months to see if the standard was the same
That’s true
Will try rex’s business class again after a few months.
Most of the Rex crew were hired after they were grounded by virgin/tiger so I guess they’re really excited to be back in the air again and they put their heart in their job
Whereas for virgin crew I reckon they just treat it as an everyday job.
That’s just my own opinion 😂
@@RoryDing I flew a number of times between Sydney and Perth via both Virgin and Tiger. I found Tiger was always much better from their customer service perspective
Taking some negatively away, congrats on 4K subscribers!
Thank you ☺️☺️
Totally agree with you so l hit that 👍. Dissapointed in the cost cutting in the name of Covid. Snack box at meal time was a poor choice, l never understand how there is anymore "contact" with that choice over a full service. Great review, appreciate your honesty. Thanks.
Had similar experience flying business with Virgin (pre Bain) at Perth. Got questioned at the checkin, lounge then again at priority boarding. I hope you got the lounge manager’s name. Virgin was really good at dealing with my complaint. Anyways... have not flown virgin since.
I bet that they'll be offering you something nice real soon.
I flew with Virgin few years ago,. For possible employment with them.. I didn't like the general vibe I got whilst on their property.. Worst thing was on my flight back to Melbourne from Auckland.. The flight was full, I was considered a staff traveler so I was not given any priority.. The staff in Auckland weren't really helpful I was almost booking my own flight back to Melbourne with another airline. Another thing I didn't like, flying in economy you aren't allowed to use the toilet at the front of the aircraft. All economy pax were limited to use the 2 only lavatories at the rear of the aircraft. The flight attendant was also a bit rude when I walked to the front of the aircraft with the intention of using the lavatory..
@@milehightv6077 i suppose yeah... Glad im not working there... much happier where i am now
I’m not a real fan of virgin but quantas and Jetstar are very good airline companies
Virgin Australia Lounge Sydney Airport, well noted mate
I'm from Indonesia btw as your new subscriber :)
Thank you for subscribing!
The lounge has actually improved a bit now 😊
I remember flying on virgin blue a long time ago to Adelaide. & virgin was a good airline.it used to be my second time flying & it was all good.
& look at that nice menu.it sounds good.in the virgin lounge.
Just need to try QANTAS now for the triple crown of all 3 Australian business classes.
I couldn’t afford the QF j class so I flew back in economy haha 😅
@@RoryDing ahahaha i agree, only fly QF J when work pays for it. To expensive. Maybe with new competition there might be a drop.
@@RoryDing Love the review though, been binging them.
Great trip report! Some of the staffs in the lounge were so disappointing, especially the one who asked you if you allowed to be in their, which was quite offensive. Their inflight service was also not as good as their opponents'.
They have improved their meals now so that’s good
Thanks for the review was about too book with business class but with that service ill just take economy
Seems some of their Staff need to use their own Points to upgrade on some Manners.
Our company was a V/A customer flying up & down the east coast of Aust but as usual once an airline has gone bust & been brought out by a money hungry investment Co. They never return to their once greatness.
We'll be trying REX where we can & Q for the other routes, as for what to do with the 100's of 1000's of V/A Velocity points we have no idea.
Love your videos keep up the great work.
The lounge service here was horrible, when I went with them back in 2019 from Cairns to Melbourne and back it was much better
You've just experienced why I only fly Qantas.
Wow! That was such a disappointment for you Rory! I’m so sorry you had to endure that.
I’ve never flown virgin but have often wondered what they were like. I now know.
Thanks Rory 🙏🏽
I love how the comment section of this video has became a review of Virgin Australia's Review. haha :)
😂😂😂
How dare they. They treat you like someone who's got no money. I am sorry and the staff need to get their act together. #REXforlife
I just wanna teach virgin a lesson to treat every customer equally
Whether he’s wearing casual or wearing a suit
I don’t think either manager thought that I actually had a TH-cam channel of almost 4K subscribers.
Hopefully my channel is big enough to make an influence
@@RoryDing Totally, if they knew you had the channel and you were going to share to almost 4 thousand people that you experience was bad with them and great with REX, they might have treated you better. So sorry this has happened to you.
I am appalled on what I saw with the customer service! I mean a “security risk?” come on? And the fact that the manager followed you was absolutely disgusting behaviour from the manager. Rory, you are an absolute pro at handling situations like these, keep up your excellent work! I’m sorry that you got treated like that. Thank you for that review, I will stay with Qantas and will never go with virgin. #photographyisnotacrime
You should have asked for the instant boodles :)
Seriously though Virgin don't get it when it comes to food. For business travel, which is largely paid for by the employer, people will opt for Qantas because of the better food options. Even if the employer mandates that the cheapest airline be chosen, employees will find an excuse to book Qantas (i.e. flights not available at a particular time). That aside I have always found the Virgin staff to be efficient and friendly.
I think we can kiss the old virgin goodbye the foundation that makes us love virgin in the first place
I really miss flying.
I flew with VA international and domestic before, domestic business class was good before COVID. International economy was horrible, I bought ticket from Delta but travel on VA, I chose the exit raw from Delta app but VA did not honor it. As VA corporate with SQ and DL before COVID, it was good to travel them on international route. But now it is the time to exit velocity lol
Hello Rory, amazing review, you earned yourself another subscriber (me) 😀👍
Thank you so much!!
Appreciate your support! 🍋
If you are looking for an amazing review, try Air North onboard E170. The Embraer Jets are very cool. Just a suggestion : ) Keep up the good work!
I booked an e170 service from Darwin to Alice last September but they downgraded it to Emb120 last minute 😅🙁 ive been on the e170 before tho, loved the square shaped windows and comfortable seats!
This is really disappointing, i was considering flying business with virgin next year, but it looks as though i’d receive the same in economy. This really isn’t good service.
How rude of the management! I hope Virgin Australia sees this and deals with that employee.
I travelled with Virgin to OOL in Business and I had a similar experience. I guess Virgin Australia has to work on customer service.
I hope they reinstate points transfers to SQ soon. I'll take my thousands of points and run. lol
I guess we were all dealt with filming issues lately. I was very audibly told not to film on my Jetstar flight last week. Was told what I was doing is illegal. The cabin manager said she was observing me since the beginning of the flight and that its time for me to stop. It was PER-ADL and she stopped me at the end of the flight. So it was a very long observation!
Did you film the cabin crew and other passengers?
Nah, flying in economy I'm always seated at the rear so no... It was always the rear of people's heads. But she was clearly very upset by what I was doing. I had all the footage I needed by then anyway so I stopped.
That’s very disappointing to hear, this is sort of the reason why I fly Qantas so my loyalty is accepted everywhere I go. I was just wondering if you decided to file a complaint to Virgin and if you did what was the response? That’s clearly not the way to treat your passengers especially when they are your most loyal and paying good money to fly in business. I emphasise your frustration and feel you mate, don’t feel too down about yourself, maybe the lounge staff haven’t heard of “TH-cam”. All the best!
Yeah I’m flying on Wednesday with them and I don’t expect much at all, I usually fly Qantas but on this occasion I wanted to use all my velocity points and get a cheap return ticket
I know u posted a year ago can you give me an update how was your experience, im 50/50 if i should travel in business with virgin
Virgin has improved so much since this video, if the price is good, fly virgin business!
@@RoryDingnoted thanks, have you ever flew with rex before if you have how was the experience
These videos are a year old, but I think the information is still valid
Virgin business: th-cam.com/video/AQN4ET32tbw/w-d-xo.html
Rex business: th-cam.com/video/8sp2ifpoeZs/w-d-xo.html
Qantas business: th-cam.com/video/IyMm1T_DVws/w-d-xo.html
Subscribing to support the channel
Virgin Australia is good and the lounge is also good! 😜😚
Insider Tip: I can guarantee that the staff couldn't give a shit with you filming, all the complaints come from other snooty customers in the lounge that don't like youtubers / influencers walking around filming everything. They complain to management and they tend to be the loudest so the staff have to say no.
Yeah, Virgin have lost the plot recently. I had business class flights today. From Melbourne was sent to the wrong lounge to begin with. In lounge food was very very basic. Fine of you're not paying for access, but you'd expect more for business class.
Both flights were very uneventful with service border line cold. Food was average. Bit of a shame really. Guess cost cutting is taking its toll.
Shutting down the filming just reinforces how bad the service had gotten.
How filming an 'ordinary' lounge can pose security issue? or may be it just detering the customer from purchasing VA's tickets. LOL
2000$ ticket 5$ meal.
Welcome to Crooks Airlines
If the flight is only 65 minutes long, maybe to provide in-flight hot meals was rather impractical. The rudeness of the lounge staff was uncalled for. However, had you been clothed in a suit and tie, maybe their attitude would have been quite different. Who knows.
Yeah, I dont fly Virgin and from this review it will definitely be one of the last options for me. Jetstar are cheaper but the always had delays. Qantas prices are through the roof.
Hi Alfred, this is actually the old virgin product, they have now significantly improved the meals in business class and the price has become a lot more affordable. I would recommend you to fly them 😊
Bad experience mate, really shows how much of a waste of money flying business is in Australia.. keep up the good work.. Rex look like they at least want your business.. I had a strange experience on a code share with Etihad where they tried to charge me for luggage before my transit flight to Sydney after a long flight from Dublin to Melbourne..
Great review and completely agree. Only thing is... VA has always been an 80% airline. Virgin America was so much better in terms of service and customer experience. Virgin Aust has never been on par with Virgin Atlantic. It just always feels cheaper.
For example, when they got rid of head back TVs, they didn't think to put USB power in seats. People dont want to use their device for two hours and have no charge at the end. Excellence is in the details, and unfortunately VA has never done the details very well.
Not even offering a glass of champagne is unbelievable.
Qantas runs rings around them without even trying. It's sad.
My Qantas status enabled me to be matched to the United Platinum for 120 days, and the process took 2 minutes to lodge online and request approved within hours. Planned to purchase a VA flight after 23 May just for the sake of seeing the inside of its lounges. Then I came across your video - what I have seen was absolutely a big no no. Last time I checked it’s already 2022, right? What you’ve been through were more like in the 90s if you know what I mean. I’ll stick with Qantas for the time being just to make a point. What you have experienced was simply appalling and unacceptable. I’m never interested in apologies, and always voted with my feet, except for Qantas. Qantas used to be a terrible airlines to fly with, lots of grumpy and fed up employees. Joyce managed to kick them all out. Now it’s almost a 4 star airlines with semi-inferior product offerings and an impeccable reputation. That said, I still feel very relaxed when flying with Qantas, enjoy its old & saggy SYD lounge and its ageing 737s for some peculiar reasons. VA on the other hand is a typical “forgets the pain after the wound is barely healing” type of entity, they haven’t learnt from their past ill judgement, and are highly likely to repeat it again.
4:42 Coffe for your head. We are in the era where real music is being taken over by tiktok songs.
I've flown Virgin numerous times in the past in Economy, (once in business class to Perth but thats a different story). This type of service shown in the review is something I would've expected for Economy but not Business.
Although asking for Champagne was a bit much. Wine seems more appropriate...
That’s my first time flying in virgin business
Rex offered champagne so I thought virgin had it too
Well the crew just expect me to know what they have 😅🤷🏻♂️ if she told me what they got I would’ve just got a wine
One could argue that champagne is just wine with bubbles, it is called sparkling wine after all outside of France.
Some staff have a special ability to make their customers feel like second class citizens.Happened to me as well.
The best part of Business on Virgin and Rex flights is the comfortable seat and not having to put up with screaming kids, stuff the food!
If you booked that Virgin flight in Feb you would have paid only $200 about the cost of a normal economy ticket anyway
lovely flight i enjoyed flying with you greetings from the netherlands
Great work Rory. Just sounds like a unhappy in general person. Great that you hold them to account mate. True saying is If it wern't for you and others paying to fly. they wouldnt have a job.
Sorry to hear you had such a poor experience at the lounge.
I've only been in the Sydney lounge twice and both my experiences with the service desk weren't very memorable either (lounge staff were actually wonderful). Weirdly enough, on one of these occasions, I was asked a very similar thing - I had never been into the lounge at this point so I was a little lost. I checked in, and later on came back to the entrance to find a friend. Suddenly, I was asked (by the person who checked me in at the desk) whether I had notified any staff before I walked in?
On clarifying, they actually didn't remember me and thought I'd somehow wandered in by mistake. Didn't really ever think back to this until your experience triggered a memory. It's not a great feeling, so I'm sorry for your experience.
Wow your experience sounds very similar to mine!!!!
Sounds like this is how they treat their elite customers everyday then!!
@@RoryDing It'd be interesting if it was the same person. Pretty much forgot about this entire interaction until now... I'm flying SYD>BNE in a few weeks (first flight in 12 months!) so I'll report back.
@@liamnguyen2206 wow that must be very exciting!!
Hopefully they’d have relaunched their business class meal when you fly them
@@RoryDing Hey Rory, reporting back that the flight was great both ways. I feel like a number of Sydney staff (at the lounge desk) have a chip on their shoulders - again, there was attitude but more like a "I-don't-want-to-be-here" rather than "you-shouldn't-be-here". Brisbane staff were an absolute riot and hilarious as always.
The food was quite nice! Had the turkey brie sandwich there and the lamb pie on the way home. Really generous with the alcohol top-ups... not a bad thing. :P
Hi Liam
Yeah i flew with virgin again on Sunday evening from Adelaide to Melbourne the Adelaide lounge staff were amazing, the overall onboard service and food offering have improved a lot
But I didn’t get pie they ran out :(
You’ll see this flight review next week if you’re interested
Thank you for sharing your experience with me 😊
It turns out that they haven’t fully relaunched business class yet. That’s why your service was so terrible
Did they charge for it though?
@@mga71 yeah they do. you are still getting a better seat and access to the lounge. it seems that for now, they are just getting an economy class service on the plane
I have been flying V/A for the last 12 years to Melbourne & Adelaide in both the economy and business class. Never had a problem and business class was always a enjoyable flight.NOT ANYMORE , what they offered you Rory and the customer service was disgraceful. I am flying to Melbourne in September with Qantas, I won't be using V/A again.Thanks Rory.
"Did you get premission to..." Terrible customer service.
Yes.
I can stand with everything such as shitty customer service, manager's attitude, meals and etc. BUT One thing I can't stand with is a can of fkn room temperature coke!! Absolutely, Virgin treats their customers like dogs!!
Wow that’’s dreadful. I will probably avoid Virgin from now on. I can’t see how their new model will be successful.
Well Rory I won’t be going with them
Same
Thanks Rory well virgin is off my list next time i,visit AUS,,,,,crap all round
"Security risk" LOL. Geeze, these people are utterly stupid. I would have filmed anyway. I have never seen any signs stating it is prohibited.
Smashed
What a disappointing experience for you. I have had several less than happy flight experiences with Virgin Australia and will never willingly fly with them again.
Wow. Flying VA Business to Perth in a few weeks. Complimentary Platinum upgrade - would not want to paying for this!
Maybe they’ll relaunch their business class by then 😂
@@RoryDing LOL!
That looked dreadful. A total waste of money. Odd the lounge was packed yet business class not full on the flight?
The business class was full
There was a person sitting next to me
Its not as good as it used to be. Economy X is better value. But bring your own food as they don't offer on board food to buy. Not even tea and coffee. This must change if they are to survive.
Economy X costs like $35 more than economy?
I think I’d rather fly in Qantas A330 economy and drink red wine 😅
(Virgin economy $79, Qantas economy $117)
I wish virgin could bring back its onboard menu in April, I don’t mind spending $5 to get a cup noodles or something
@@RoryDing Qantas does not seem to offer a form premium domestic economy product like virgin. It would be great if international premium economy was introduced to all domestic flights on both Qantas and Virgin as a far cheaper product than business class.
But economy X is best if seated in row 3. So much legroom and you can even get out of the window seat to the bathroom without anyone else needing to move.
Virgin Australia is going through a massive upheaval, but I do agree with your opinion on how your lounge experience was. Not good.
But like many other travellers, I find "TH-cam" bloggers, especially Zders, with a self entitled right to film whenever they like annoying. Remember that you are now marked by management as well as security. It's a privilege to be allowed access to a lounge, even if you paid for the right to enter.
Only ever fly Economy on any Domestic Flight in Australia.
Virgin relaunched its business class on 25 March, to check out my review on its new business class, please click here: th-cam.com/video/AQN4ET32tbw/w-d-xo.html
Really dissapointed with what you experienced with your flight, meal and rude staff in the lounge. I Myself and a friend when from Sydney to Brisbane Buisness class, had a good time in the lounge and got a hot meal, peri peri burger with two free sparkling wines each and an additonal coke each. this was around June 2022. So i hope this was a temperory thing they did and have reverted back to real buisness class expereicne, or perhaps we got lucky and what you got is the new normal. We also got our tickets for $250 each, it was my first time in buisness class so for 60 dollars more then economy at the time, we easily drank and ate that much in the 5 hours we were in the lounge!
Lame service, from Virgin. Looks like the financial issues have left them short, of ice.
😆😆
Had mixed experiences with Virgin on domestic business class before the pandemic. Had grandparents with us from Melbourne to Sydney for a cruise so booked everyone on business. Went to business check in and I haven’t even finish saying we have 6 business class booking the lady just told us to use the self check in or the economy line. Feels quite offended. Then told her we had 6 BUSINESS CLASS booking and she changed her altitude and even walked us to the lounge. Lounge and onboard experience is exceptionally excellent. However looking at this review I won’t be booking Virgin business in any near future, Qantas and Rex looks much better on value of the service.
That snack box was loaded with processed salt and sugary snacks.
At least they could have packed a hot sandwich.
Thank you for this video. Is it possible to make a business class review on Sydney-Perth flights?
Flying Qantas a330 biz to Perth would cost a fortune 😂😂 I’ll consider that in the future
@@RoryDing I really want you to fly to Perth, Economy or Business.
Coke is room temperature 😱OMG unbelievable
Ikr!
After watching this review now I know that Virgin will not be on my list to fly domestic or international in the near future.
I have a bit of an opposite opinion to you. Virgin Australia has only recently been bailed out of bankruptcy by the QLD government. You can’t expect perfection while the company is still trying to recover. But that doesn’t excuse the poor customer service.
yeah mate...You
defintley you got ripped off.
Thats economy food in business class. Disappointing.
Wow. Such a bad service. It is such a shame, and the staff being so unhappy.