Key Details

Date: 29th August 2022

Flight No:VA122

Route: Brisbane to Canberra

Aircraft: Boeing 737

Cabin: Business

The Route

Brisbane to Canberra is one of the busiest flight routes into the nation’s capital. There are usually in the vicinity of 7-9 daily departures in each direction with the flight taking approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes in a south-south westerly direction. 3 airlines service the route including Virgin Australia with Boeing 737’s, whilst budget airline Jetstar use there Airbus A320’s. Qantas, the largest operator on the route operates a variety of aircraft type some which are operated by Qantas Link or Alliance Airlines and and include a mixture of Boeing 737, Boeing 717 aircraft and Embraer E190s.

Pricing on the route hasn’t usually been overly competitive but with the arrival of Jetstar on the route it is now possible to get special fares below $100 on all the airlines except Qantas. If flying Qantas or Virgin, this route can be a great value redemption with Qantas offering Classic flight rewards for as low as 8,000pts for economy and 18,400 points for business plus $69 tax. Virgin’s redemption rates are even lower at 7,800pts for economy and or 15,500pts for business plus $49.50 tax if you can snag a reward redemption with them.

Having booked this flight several months in advance i saw a very compelling sale price and paid $299 for this business class flight with Virgin which overall i thought offered outstanding value considering flights on Qantas for the same day were a similar price in economy and significantly more in Business.

Checking in at Brisbane

I arrived at Brisbane Airport very early for this flight – in fact over 5 hours early. Having checked out of my accommodation at 10am and for that fact that it was a rainy day in Brisbane I saw it a great opportunity to spend the afternoon in the Virgin Australia Lounge and get on top of some outstanding work whilst I was at it. Brisbane Airport was very busy this afternoon so priority check in and bag drop came in handy meaning that my bags were tagged and off to my destination within minutes all whilst the economy lines were huge. Security was busy but the wait times were certainly not as bad as published in the media of late and i was through airside within about 10 minutes. There was no priority screening for Virgin Australia Business Class passengers in Brisbane however.

Virgin Australia Lounge at Brisbane

Virgin Australia’s Lounge in Brisbane very much conforms to the uniform design and service standards that one has come to expect of Virgin’s lounges. As Virgin only operate one type of lounge at its major city airports it means they have to cater to a larger pool of travelers ranging from Lounge members, passengers with Gold status and above, those with partner airline status and of course those flying Business. This means Virgin have very much found a sweet spot for their lounges with the standard of service and comfort coming in between that of the Qantas Club which cater primarily to economy passengers at airports where they have a business lounge and that of Qantas’s domestic business lounges themselves.

Virgin’s lounge is unsurprisingly very large at Brisbane and arriving around 2pm it was clear the lounge was busy with most tables and chairs occupied although the crowds did drop off however as the afternoon went by. Virgin have very much the usual assortment of seating arrangements at this lounge as per there other lounges and generally cater well to those both working or relaxing in the lounge although don’t expect to many private spaces in this lounge. Unfortunately at this lounge there is no direct views of the tarmac although there is still some natural light coming in with views of the rear of the airfield parameter which looks onto the Brisbane Airport AirTran platforms

As with other Virgin Lounges food and beverage is strong point especially for a lounge catering to big crowds. Expect a semi-self serve buffet with several pre-plated dishes on offer depending on the time of the day in addition to an all day spread including cold meat, cheeses, soup and breads and snacks such as Red Rock chips and cheese and crackers. Virgin’s famous fried chicken was also on offer which always appears to be a crowd pleaser. The lounge also has a well stocked bar on offer that opens at noon and offers several white and red wines, a selection of local craft beers such as Green Beacon and Balter and of course local Queensland favorite Great Northern and crowd pleaser Asahi. The bar is tendered and not self service.

The lounge also has reasonably good amenities including showers, various charging points and of course reasonably fast free wifi and ticked all the right boxes in this regard.

Seating in Business Class

Today’s flight was on a typical Boeing 737, the same workhorse behind most of Virgin’s jet services between Australia’s capital cities. Unfortunately after Virgin went into receivership and came under control of new owners, the airline no longer operates any of its widebody Airbus A330 aircraft which offered far superior lie flat seating in business although this plane was never used on this route anyway.

Virgin’s Boeing 737 has a 3-3 economy layout with a small 2 row 2-2 Business Cabin at the pointy end of the plane which is one less row or 4 seats less than Qantas’s offering on the Boeing 737. Today I was seated in a 1A which was one of the few remaining seats left that I selected online free of charge prior to checking in. Due to safety considerations all carry on must be stored in the overhead compartments for take-off and landing and can not be stored under the seat in front when in the first row. Row 1 in business class has a bulkhead at the front of the cabin which didn’t noticeably decrease legroom and had the benefit of having no door protruding out affecting the leg room of the seat and shielding the passengers from boarding passengers. The seat also has a small cocktail bench between the two seats offering a convenient way to enjoy a drink without happening to use the tray table. The seat also offers generous recline, albeit be mindful that it may slightly intrude on the space of the passenger seated behind.

Inflight Service and Food and Beverage

Unlike some recent flights especially with Qantas today’s flight was operating far from capacity which naturally meant the crew had far more time to focus on providing excellent service to each passenger. Today’s business class cabin was only around half full meaning i also had the seat next to me free which was a great bonus.

After being amongst the first to board the plane with priority boarding the pre departure service started shortly after taking my seat. Pre departure drinks were offered with a choice of either sparkling water or sparkling wine which was a stark improvement on a recent Qantas Business Class flight between Perth and Sydney where noting was offered!

Service began approximately 20 minutes after take-off with the crew coming around to personally take post departure drink orders. I asked for a beer of which Green Beacon Tropical Pale Ale or Pure Blonde were on offer. For me the former choice was a no brainer. For dinner I was offered two selections of which i selected the Lamb Shank which came with mash and vegetables. On the side i also got cheese and crackers. All in all a tasty and reasonably portioned meal for the short flight down to Canberra this evening . After dinner the crew did a good job of remembering my drink preference and offering another which i gladly accepted. All in all, the crew on this flight were very professional and attentive and helped make a great experience on such a short flight. Unfortunately Virgin do not have seatback IFE or publicly accessible wifi on their flights. They do however offer streaming to your own device where you can watch a reasonable but not overly extensive range of tv shows and movies and also view the inflight map. For me though there was no need to access the streaming aside from the map for such a short flight.

Arriving in Canberra

After just over an hour after taking off we started our descent into a wintry and wet evening in Canberra which meant there was limited views coming in to what would otherwise be providing of some great scenery on daytime arrivals. The plane landed slightly ahead of schedule and bags were at the carousel within around 15 minutes of arriving with my bag one of the first to arrive. It seems on this Virgin flight my bag properly had priority attention given to it so well done to Virgin on this one!

Summing Up

Overall the merits and advantages of flying Business Class on a short Australian domestic sector must be weighed up against a variety of factors – most notably cost, flight duration and possibly most importantly aircraft type. In most cases when flying on a narrow body aircraft such as in this case on a Virgin Boeing 737, passengers should expect something more accustomed to premium economy on an international flag carrier which is certainly a comfortable step up from economy but neither comparable to long haul international business class operated by widebody aircraft. This expectation turned out to very much in line with the experience on this flight.

For us this flight offered the benefit of premium lounge access, more personalized service and improved dining and drinks selection than economy and a more comfortable seat with greater leg room and in line with the very reasonably $299 i had paid i consider it to have been a great value flight. If i had paid over $1000 with Qantas then probably not so! Alternatively redeeming 17,800 Virgin Velocity points and $45 tax to get the same experience in business is also another stellar redemption option considering the length of the flight pushes the boundary for the cheapest miles reward redemption category meaning it would generally be a better value redemption that Sydney to Melbourne which is a shorter and generally cheaper route for example.