My latest flight was between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia on Richard Branson’s newest airline V Australia (www.vaustralia.com), which recently entered this lucrative route once dominated by Qantas and United. Along with Delta (who began flying to Sydney on July 1), its new route has ruffled all kinds of feathers and fares have been slashed as the competition heats up.
What’s So Special?
For years I was a 1K (a very frequent flier) on United Airlines. But when United started getting into financial trouble, I began to spread my love to other carriers. But even if I was still a United Airlines mileage junkie, why would I fly its dated 747s to Australia? Likewise, why fly Qantas for double the price when I can get on one of the newest and hippest planes out there — as well as the friendliest flight crews around?
Why Go Now?
If you haven’t been to Australia, now is the time to go: Prices have been slashed by 50% or more and they have round-trip deals from the U.S. west coast for around $700 (inclusive of taxes and fees). The sale ends soon but the tickets are good until December 15th. (The first day of summer for Australia is December 1, so it’s only going to be getting warmer there.)
Your Choices
V Australia offers three classes of service: International Business Class, which has 33 seats and features fully horizontal flat beds (six-foot-two long) and 77 inches (1.95 metres) of legroom in a 2-3-2 configuration. Premium Economy has 40 seats with 38 inches (96.5cm) of legroom and a nine-inch (22.9-centimeter) recline. These seats are set up 2-4-2 while the 288 economy seat section is 3-3-3 and has 32 inches (81 centimeters) of legroom and a six-inch (a 15-centimeter) recline.
Entertainment Systems
All seats come with the same Virgin America entertainment system called RED. This one doesn’t have live TV or Internet (yet) but it has movies, popular TV shows, games, music, flight mapping and seat-to-seat chat on a 10.6-inch screen. In business, the screen was bigger than my laptop (14 inches). In business there are power outlets that fit U.S. and Australian-type plugs and a USB slot. There are no power ports in economy, just USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports to charge your iPod or similar low-wattage devices.
Coach Class
There are 288 ergonomically-designed seats in economy which are configured 3-3-3 and are the Trans Pacific’s widest at 32 inches (81cm) of legroom and a 6 inch (15cm) recline. For those who want to score the exit row it will cost an extra $100 each way but one of my tall friends who wasn’t able to snatch it (sold out) said he was relieved because the regular seat was comfortable.Dinner, breakfast, and all non-alcoholic drinks are included in the price of your fare. In addition they even give passengers one alcoholic beverage for free with the main meal — after that they are available for purchase (credit card only). Like Virgin America there is mood lighting which matches the phases of your flight.
Premium Economy
Premium Economy on V Australia is like business class on most airlines. V Australia’s premium economy class has 40 seats with 38 inches (96.5cm) of legroom and a nine-inch (22.9-centimeter) recline. These seats are set up 2-4-2 so it makes the flight easy as can be. It’s like first class on most U.S. carriers’ two-class domestic planes. There’s no built in leg rest but they have hassocks that they bring out after takeoff. They also have clean, comfortable blankets, amenity kits, a pillow and a bottle of water is on your seat. They even serve welcome aboard drinks — champagne, OJ, and water, and have the same semi-noise canceling headsets as their business class.
Business Class
The second thing I noticed was how fantastic the seats in business were. They have so much legroom that I couldn’t even touch the seat in front of me with my toes, with my legs fully outstretched; I was a good two feet short. The seats are pods so they don’t go back on the person in back of you. Instead, they slide down to form the bed. The seats have normal overhead lighting and a snake mag light so you can read without disturbing the whole cabin. In one of the seat’s storage areas were noise canceling headsets and another had a bottle of water. The flight attendants passed out Bulgari amenity kits with lotion, perfume, toothbrush, earplugs and the most comfortable eye mask I’ve seen in kits.
In Flight
We pushed back from the gate at 11:30pm and just before we started, the pilot got on the PA and said that flight time was going to be a quick 13 hours and 20 minutes (it was supposed to be 14 hours). While taxiing, I saw Qantas’ A380 (the world’s largest commercial aircraft) take off, which got me all pumped up for the trip across the Pacific. The safety demonstration was an entertaining cartoon that featured Richard Branson as one of the passengers. It was the first time I’d seen a safety video where they rolled the credits of those involved.
All the bathrooms have a full-length mirror, automatic faucets and music. They don’t play music in the cabin except on takeoff and landing but the moment you shut the bathroom door, it’s pumping and all bathroom themed music like “Shake That Ass” and “You Shook Me All Night Long”.
In all classes, they offer a self-service bar. In coach it’s just one little cubby hole with some snacks. In Premium Economy, it’s supposedly everything in business class except space to move around. Business Class’ has a bar with bolted in stools attached to it. Actually, the bar was disappointing in terms of offerings — maybe I just got there late but the Premium Economy Bar was more stocked than Business. Either way, it’s not as elaborate as Emirates, with their flat screen TVs and bartender, but it’s still a great place to work or chat.
Last Thoughts
The only improvement V Australia needs to make is to get a better functioning website. They don’t have a place to manage bookings, change seats, or even show flight arrival and departure times (for this see FlightAware, below). You have to dial their call center (from the U.S. tel. 800/444-0260) and they put you on hold for a bit (four minutes for me but it felt longer). But their agents are like their flight crew — super friendly and they quickly assigned my seats and informed me that I needed to get a visa. You can do this online in a matter of minutes and it costs A$20 unless you book through a travel agent. And, it’s free.
Links
Each year, John E. DiScala (a.k.a. Johnny Jet) travels around 150,000 miles and visits over 20 countries. He has flown well over a million miles and holds elite status with at least one carrier in each of the three major airline alliances. Along with praise from and appearances on major media outlets such as USA Today, Time, New York Times, CNN, FOX News Channel,and PBS, John was touted by Outside Magazine as having one of the world’s best “dream jobs.” Sign up today for his free weekly travel newsletter at JohnnyJet.com.