Airline Review: Virgin Australia Boeing 737–800 Sydney to Sunshine Coast, Australia
The Route
VA479 — Sydney to Sunshine Coast
The Loyalty Scheme
Velocity
The Plane
Boeing 737–800
Class
Economy
Duration
1hr 35min
Frequency
Three flights daily
The Seat
Economy, seat 19D
Virgin Australia employs a standard 3:3 seating layout on their 737–800’s that is typical on domestic flights. The seats themselves are hard wearing, yet comfortable leather and plastic affairs that offer minimal recline but enough legroom for all but the tallest of passengers.
Baggage
23kg of checked luggage and 7kg of carry-on. The flight was full however overhead storage space was no issue.
Service
Being the start of both a long weekend and the school holidays this flight was always going to be full.
Despite this, the Virgin Australia gate lounge at Sydney was clean and tidy with plenty of seating. Boarding commenced about five minutes behind schedule, yet all passengers were boarded and seated quickly and without fuss, allowing the aircraft to push away from the gate right on time.
With four cabin staff serving the 176 passengers onboard, there wasn’t much time for personal service. None-the-less, the staff I spoke with were pleasant and professional and happy to assist with small requests.
Entertainment
There are no seat back entertainment units installed on Virgin Australia’s 737–800’s, however, they do provide access via a free downloadable App to a good, but dated, selection of movies and TV shows; the catch being though that you need to provide your own device. The in-flight magazine, Virgin Australia Voyeur, in the seat back was current yet predictably full of advertisements for a range of high-end watches, jewellery, clothing and cars as well as the usual spattering of travel articles.
Food
No meals were served during this short inter-city hop, just a small snack with a choice of tea, coffee, orange juice and water. Unfortunately, the snack was a ‘Kez’s Kitchen’ naked choc-orange bar, which quite frankly looked far more inviting than it was. As you would expect, a comprehensive range of other food items and drinks was available for purchase, and had the food cart passed by again I’d have be tempted to purchase a can of Coke and a shot of bourbon just to wash away the taste of the ‘Kez’s Kitchen’ snack bar.
The Verdict
Virgin Australia offers a pleasant and efficient domestic flight between Sydney and the Sunshine Coast. They could improve their in-flight snack bars though, as I’m certain more ‘Kez’s Kitchen’ bars end up in the bin than in passenger’s stomachs.
