Virgin Australia 2015 Trip Report
Going to Australia seems to be an annual affair, and with a stronger US dollar, it made this trip a bit more affordable and has given me a chance to experience more interesting domestic routes and regional airlines. Other than non-sense rule that passengers are not allowed to use the mobile phone to take photo in tarmac (while the gate agents are using walkie-talkie to communicate and sure everyone of them had a mobile in their pockets, not to mention many passengers in nearby planes and terminal are actively surfing the net and texting), Australians are very friendly and welcoming, and most regional airlines have really friendly crews. I really got a bit more than I have bargained for during this trip, and hope you will enjoy this upcoming series of trip reports:
First Stop: Virgin Australia
Full album:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...straliaOCT2015
October 6, 2015
VA 8 LAX to BNE Lv2350 Arr0650+1 Boeing 777-300ER VH-VPE “Noosa Heads Beach”
Booking: I decided to use up the rest of my Delta Sky Pesos for this trip and will argue that issuing a Virgin Australia award ticket is the best use of it. I don’t need to call anything and book everything on line. I managed to do a crazy LAX-BNE-SYD-PER routing, and despite Delta.com showed seat map, you still needed to call Virgin Australia to reserve seats, which was a very easy and pleasant experience. I was able to pull up my booking on Virgin Australia’s website, which displayed all my seat assignments correctly.
Check-in:
Virgin Australia has a rather peculiar arrangement, in terms of check-in. It uses Terminal Three for check-in and also less crowded space than Tom Bradley International Terminal and closer to its partner, Virgin America. However, you still need to walk to TBIT for boarding and security.
Check-in was a breeze, as I arrived a bit later than I wanted due to a busy day in office and very busy traffic inside LAX. There was only one person ahead of me in the premium queue, and the friendly agent checked me through to Perth and gave me all the boarding passes, and a transfer jacket, which had tickets for SkyTrain in Brisbane or T-BUS at Sydney for transference from international to domestic terminal.
On the other hand, TBIT was a nightmare, just like every other day, and even priority lane did not buy you too much time. I could not wait till the day when passengers flying foreign airlines could use TSA Pre. It took me almost 30 minutes to pass through security.
Lounge:
Sorry no pictures here, as I only briefly stopped by the Star Alliance lounge to use the bathroom! But I am sure you can find plenty of Star Alliance LAX lounge’s pictures in the Internet. The lounge was very busy this evening, as there were plenty of late night transpacific flight.
Boarding:
Some poor shots of VH-VPE
Its name is “Noosa Heads Beach” and I believe that Virgin Australia names all their planes with beaches all across Australia.
Boarding began at 11:08pm and there were separate lanes for business, premium economy, and economy passengers. Boarding was pretty orderly, and a couple cabin shots before the rest of the cabin arrived. Business class was 100% full tonight.
Going to Australia seems to be an annual affair, and with a stronger US dollar, it made this trip a bit more affordable and has given me a chance to experience more interesting domestic routes and regional airlines. Other than non-sense rule that passengers are not allowed to use the mobile phone to take photo in tarmac (while the gate agents are using walkie-talkie to communicate and sure everyone of them had a mobile in their pockets, not to mention many passengers in nearby planes and terminal are actively surfing the net and texting), Australians are very friendly and welcoming, and most regional airlines have really friendly crews. I really got a bit more than I have bargained for during this trip, and hope you will enjoy this upcoming series of trip reports:
First Stop: Virgin Australia
Full album:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...straliaOCT2015
October 6, 2015
VA 8 LAX to BNE Lv2350 Arr0650+1 Boeing 777-300ER VH-VPE “Noosa Heads Beach”
Booking: I decided to use up the rest of my Delta Sky Pesos for this trip and will argue that issuing a Virgin Australia award ticket is the best use of it. I don’t need to call anything and book everything on line. I managed to do a crazy LAX-BNE-SYD-PER routing, and despite Delta.com showed seat map, you still needed to call Virgin Australia to reserve seats, which was a very easy and pleasant experience. I was able to pull up my booking on Virgin Australia’s website, which displayed all my seat assignments correctly.
Check-in:
Virgin Australia has a rather peculiar arrangement, in terms of check-in. It uses Terminal Three for check-in and also less crowded space than Tom Bradley International Terminal and closer to its partner, Virgin America. However, you still need to walk to TBIT for boarding and security.
Check-in was a breeze, as I arrived a bit later than I wanted due to a busy day in office and very busy traffic inside LAX. There was only one person ahead of me in the premium queue, and the friendly agent checked me through to Perth and gave me all the boarding passes, and a transfer jacket, which had tickets for SkyTrain in Brisbane or T-BUS at Sydney for transference from international to domestic terminal.
On the other hand, TBIT was a nightmare, just like every other day, and even priority lane did not buy you too much time. I could not wait till the day when passengers flying foreign airlines could use TSA Pre. It took me almost 30 minutes to pass through security.
Lounge:
Sorry no pictures here, as I only briefly stopped by the Star Alliance lounge to use the bathroom! But I am sure you can find plenty of Star Alliance LAX lounge’s pictures in the Internet. The lounge was very busy this evening, as there were plenty of late night transpacific flight.
Boarding:
Some poor shots of VH-VPE
Its name is “Noosa Heads Beach” and I believe that Virgin Australia names all their planes with beaches all across Australia.
Boarding began at 11:08pm and there were separate lanes for business, premium economy, and economy passengers. Boarding was pretty orderly, and a couple cabin shots before the rest of the cabin arrived. Business class was 100% full tonight.
Comment