13 January 2010 – DJ966 – Brisbane-Sydney – B737-800 – VH-VUS
I had just landed in Brisbane from Emerald (there is a Trip Report HERE), and I was due to fly out to Sydney at 5pm. As I only had carry-on baggage (my camera bag), I tried my luck and managed to sweet talk Virgin Blue into getting me a seat on the 4.30pm flight – free of charge – for this time only!! Cool I thought – more spotting time in Sydney!
I managed to fly on one of Virgin’s newer planes, and was assigned an isle seat towards to back (Row 23). The flight was just about full with a few spare seats here and there. Took off on time and climbed to 39000 feet for the journey South. In flight service trolley came out and I purchased a coffee and crackers and cheese – total $6. A nice afternoon snack.
Unfortunately, the weather in Sydney was deteriorating – storms and rain showers over the airport which meant 30mins holding over Scone (NSW). Seatbelt sign came on, and after all the orbits, we headed to Sydney and landed Runway 16L. Very cloudy and showery outside, but a smooth enough descent and landing. After the long taxi back to the Virgin Blue terminal, I grabbed some food and drink inside the terminal and then checked the arrival screens and discovered that this flight ended up landing only 9 minutes ahead my original scheduled 5pm flight which, by that time, had already landed!!
Overall a pretty good fight with Virgin Blue – it left me looking forward to my other flights over the next few days!!
14 January 2010 – DJ565 – Sydney-Perth – B737-700 – VH-VBR
After a good day’s spotting in Sydney from the Domestic Terminals, I proceeded to the Virgin Blue check-in area in T2 and had a boarding pass in about 30 seconds! The automatic check-in booths are great – first time I had used them – punched in the confirmation number – picked my seat – viola! Although, I did then go to the check-in supervisor’s desk to enquire about an exit row seat and was pleasantly surprised to have the choice of all six in our B737-700. Chose the window at 12A.
Flight left on time – departed from Sydney’s Runway 16R with a right turn over the Blue Mountain – some lovely views! Flight attendants made two passes with the food and drink cart – I decided on a couple of snacks and coffee and water. Live-to-air was up and running – swipe your credit card and over 20 channels from Foxtel are avilable. I settled for some cricket from overseas! Overall, it was a great flight but for the live-to-air mucking up about 20 minutes out of Perth with only half the channels working.
Virgin operate from Terminal 3 at Perth, which is also where Skywest, Tiger Airways and Alliance fly from. Facilities on the domestic side of the airport have been improved since I was there last, with a walkway joining T3 to the Qantas Terminal (T2). I got my hire car and straight off to the Formule One Hotel – Perth Airport for the night, where a review can be found HERE.
15 January 2010 – DJ473 – Perth-Brisbane – B737-700 – VH-VBR
After a big day at Perth Airport where spotting is pretty easy from the International and Domestic terminals, I returned the hire car and proceeded to the Virgin Blue check-in area. With no counters open, I tried the check-in booth again, and again, it was easy to retrieve my details and boarding pass! Finally, the supervisor’s desk was attended and I asked the lovely supervisor about an exit row seat and was given one - she actually advised me that CASA requires Virgin Blue to fill these seats despite Virgin not selling any at all for this flight.
Through security and to the waiting area, which was quite busy with frustrated passengers waiting for a delayed Tiger Airways flight… which wasn’t coming any time soon!! Through the window I noted 14 Virgin ground crew working on their inbound EMB190 flights - it took them about 20 minutes to have all passengers and bags off followed by daily engineering then it was towed away to parking for the night – impressive turnaround!!
VH-VBR turned up and this would be the second time in two days that I was in the same seat of 12A. A fast turnaround from the Perth ground crew has us on the plane and pushing back on schedule. Take-off from Perth’s Runway 21.
I noted a few other people must have also asked about sitting in the exit row as row 12 was now FULL!! It was also amazing to see how many people on both these Virgin flights asked about being re-seated in the empty premium economy seats - all received the same answer - "no sorry not today"
Unfortunately soon after take-off it was noted that VH-VBR’s live-to-air was still broken - still only half the channels available. I advised a flight attendant and was told this was the *first* anyone had advised the crews of problems during the day. The crew tried two resets on the system but it was still not fixed. As per Virgin Blue policy, a broken live-to-air system meant all passengers got those available channels free for the entire flight.
The night owl flight to Brisbane was reasonably full, and the Virgin Blue service was fantastic – not only trying to get the live-to-air working, but the food and drinks service was very thorough and professional – they did two passes again – one for ‘dinner’ and then another about 45 minutes out of Brisbane.
The flight arrived into Brisbane about 10 minutes early – got to love tailwinds – and we disembarked about 5.35am. Off to have some breakfast before I fly back to Emerald about 10am (a Trip Report for this flight can be found HERE)
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