We needed to get between Sydney and Melbourne and chose this Virgin Australia 737-700 flight in business class, which was enjoyable.

Booking Virgin Australia business class

I’ve already done a deep dive into the booking process for this flight, but a quick summary:

• I needed a flight to take us from Sydney to Melbourne.
• We were going to have plenty of bags with us and I wanted to prioritize comfort.
• While cheap awards existed with Qantas, the timing of those flights didn’t work for us.

Thus, I settled on purchasing Virgin Australia business class with cash ($2,300 AUD or about $1,600 USD).

Virgin Australia is not part of an airline alliance and the airline retracted quite a bit when it emerged from bankruptcy in 2020. That said, it does have a few airline partners, including Virgin Atlantic, United, and Air Canada.

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club cannot book into Virgin Australia business class. Economy rates would have put the flight at 12,500 points for a one-way journey on this route.
• United MileagePlus charges 15,000 miles for economy or 30,000 miles for business class on this route.
• Air Canada Aeroplan charges 8,000 miles for economy or 20,000 miles for business class on this route.
• Qatar Airways Privilege club charges 6,000 Avios for economy or 12,500 Avios for business class on this route.

Obviously, Qatar Airways offers the best rates for both economy and business class. That said, Virgin Australia doesn’t release more than 2 seats in business class per flight. I could have split up the reservation–two on points and two with cash–but I just wanted to keep everyone on one reservation just in case of irregular operations. But it’s much cheaper to just use points and you’d get 3.2 U.S. cents per Avios redeeming them this way.

First impressions of Virgin Australia business class

We arrived at Terminal 2 at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) to find a rather busy terminal. Virgin Australia mostly handles things on their app and from what we could tell, there was no way to get a paper copy of the boarding pass. Even the bag drop process was self-service. You just need to walk up to these machines, scan your boarding pass, and drop off your bags one at a time.

The machines weren’t perfect and we needed assistance to clear some errors, but it was otherwise efficient.

Somewhat surprisingly, to access the secure area in Australia on a domestic flight, you just need to clear security. No one checked our boarding pass until we boarded our flight. And security never checked our identification. How simple things can be in other countries!

Once on the other side of security, we visited the Virgin Australia lounge at the terminal, which we’ve discussed separately. If you’re looking for better food options, there seemed to be plenty in the food court right below the lounge.

When it was just about our time to fly, we made our way over to Gate 44, our gate for the afternoon.

Next to the gate was a vending machine that sold… underwear. Is this a thing in Australia where you need a refresh of undergarments in the terminal?

Onboard the Virgin Australia 737-700

Seats are arranged in a 2-2 format on the 737-700 aircraft, which is pretty standard. Currently, the airline has a small business class cabin on all its planes. The largest cabin has just 8 seats in business, which was also the case on this flight. Makes sense now why only two seats are released for awards, right?

To help take care of our kids better, we sat four across in row 2. We boarded with the priority grouping and took our seats right away. Sure, the cabin isn’t that large or glamorous, but at least there is no blocked middle seat to worry about like in Europe, right?

The kids also settled in quickly, with Char possessing a rather smug look. I don’t think that was intentional.

The Virgin Australia 737-700 business class seat

Now, I have to admit that I didn’t take a picture of the seat without one of us in it. Apologies! The best I have is the below, where you can see it’s a pretty simple recliner seat. There is an adjustable headrest and no video monitor at the seat. The seat cushion is good enough for the short flight, but I can’t comment much on how it will be for longer flights.

You’ll get good legroom in business class, which felt like it was consistent with extra legroom seats with other airlines. But the thing that tends to annoy me is how little under-seat storage there is for the aisle seat. These seats are bolted down in between where my legs would go, and thus there is very little you can realistically store. If traveling alone, hopefully the person sitting in the window seat doesn’t mind you storing items in the space between your seats.

Inside the armrest at this seat is some extra storage and an electrical outlet.

And near where your legs would be, the seat controls can be found here. The good news is that you do get a footrest in business class. You might not think too much of it, but it helps relax the legs quite a bit.

Since there is no entertainment screen on the back of the seat in front of you, it might be relevant to talk about the tray table. If you take out the tray table, one of the flaps can flip up to use as a rest for your personal tablet or phone.

And of course, the tray table can lie fully flat but then you lose the stand for your personal device.

Pre-departure beverage

There were officially just two choices for a pre-departure beverage: sparkling wine and water. However, the flight attendant preemptively asked if our kids would instead want some juice. I went with the sparkling wine and the flight attendant remarked, almost relieved, with “good, you can’t really pour it back into the bottle”. Just doing my part to reduce waste!

The food in Virgin Australia business class

On a ~90 minute flight, you might not expect much of a meal service, but you’d be mistaken. Even on these short domestic routes, business class passengers get a full meal. There are two options to choose from: mac and cheese and butter chicken.

…But hold on a minute. Those were the same two options you get at the Virgin Australia Lounge in SYD. That’s right–either because they’re cutting back on costs or they’re keeping things simple or we were just unlucky, the food in the lounge has the same choices as what you get in flight. Well, except for not having any toasties on the plane.

On the plus side, the food on the plane was actually superior to what you get in the lounge. There’s more flavor and somehow the texture seemed better too.

The kids ordered the mac and cheese. Unfortunately for them, there was a truffle oil taste in the mac and cheese. It wasn’t strong, but it was enough to deter them from wanting to eat too much of it. Good thing they already ate in the lounge!

The butter chicken was superior to what you get in the lounge. It tasted a bit bland in the lounge, but up in the air, it had more flavor. I can’t just say it’s because things on the ground taste differently than in the air. The appearance of the food also seemed more attractive up here too.

Generalizing a bit, adults should wait to eat a meal until in the air. Meanwhile, children might want to eat in the lounge if they prefer a bit blander food. And getting a hot meal on such a short flight puts the US-based airlines to shame.

Wi-Fi and Entertainment

If you’re looking to access the inflight entertainment, the good news is that it seemed like it was available even before the boarding door closed. Sweet! Just connect to the VirginAustralia access point and you’ll be online in a jiffy.

I didn’t find a way to access the internet outside of their entertainment system. That said, there was enough entertainment to keep us occupied on the short ~90 minute flight.

There is a small assortment of movies to choose from, which would be very difficult to finish for the duration of this flight.

As for TV shows, there is a decent variety of options. There is also enough kids programming for your children to enjoy on the short flight.

However, don’t expect too many episodes per series. Just take Friends as an example: there were only 3 episodes to choose from. Other series similarly had a small number of episodes available.

Service

I just wanted to briefly mention the service on this flight. We found the crew working this flight to be charming. It’s nice to have a short chat with the crew, and they seemed thrilled to see our kids on the flight. Perhaps the flight attendants don’t see children in the 8-seat business class cabin often, but we frequently get comments about how great they are at flying.

Service was genuinely great, with efficient service and flight attendants that checked in on us frequently even during the short flight. I’ve been on flights with other airlines where the flight attendants disappear on a short flight but that wasn’t the case here. No qualms at all about the service!

Arrival to Melbourne, Australia (MEL)

Before we knew it, we were landing in Melbourne, Australia. As we were flying business class, we had the ability to enter the Virgin Australia Lounge at MEL on landing for an hour. However, we just wanted to collect our bags and make our way over to the hotel.

Our bags were delivered at baggage carousel #1, which was a little bit hectic when we arrived.

From there, if you just head right outside, you’ll see this sign to help direct you to where you might want to go.

To the right of this sign is the bus that will take you into town. This is your cheapest way into the city (roundtrip tickets are cheaper than one-ways). However, some of the value of the ticket goes away if you have a family to transport. You can just buy your tickets here.

Just to the left of the sign is the Uber pickup line. Uber is huge in Australia and there is an added benefit of not needing to worry about walking or taking connections.

Recommendation: Yes, if you use points

To reiterate the best award pricing from above, use Qatar Avios to book your flights in Virgin Australia business class. But, you’re going to need to adhere to their new rules if you’re looking to book for anyone other than yourself. Spending only 12,500 Avios on the flight can easily be considered a great value.

Now, with that mind, I wouldn’t recommend paying with cash if you can avoid it. While it is a comfortable way to travel, if I’m being frank, it’s not worth $400 USD for the short flight. Service is great and it’s nice to have both food and lounge access, along with a good baggage allowance. But it’s expensive for such a short flight.

Perhaps I should have broken us up into two with awards and two with cash, but hindsight is always 20/20. We hit some minor delays getting out of Sydney based on crew availability and feeling the stress of a delayed flight on separate itineraries isn’t exactly comforting. Not when part of a Secret Trip journey with many flights and destinations where I ended up more risk adverse than normal.

Are you looking to fly between Sydney and Melbourne?

View other posts in this series:

• A Brief Programming Note: Secret Trip 2.0 Is Here
• Trip Introduction: Secret Trip 2.0 is Back with New Players
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #1
  • Another Great Meal at the Delta One Lounge LAX
  • Air France Lounge LAX Review: Great Food, Poor Location
  • Delta One A350-900 LAX-SYD Review: A Long But Great Flight
  • Four Seasons Sydney Review: One of the Best Luxury Hotels for Children
  • Excellent Views and Plenty of Fun: Taronga Zoo Sydney
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #2
  • Virgin Australia Lounge SYD: Simple But Easy to Access
  • Virgin Australia 737-700 Business Class Review: Short And Sweet (this post)
  • Intercontinental Melbourne Review: A Good Location But Not Luxury
  • Penguin Parade & Moonlit Sanctuary: The Best Melbourne Day Trip
  • Melbourne Day Trip: Puffing Billy & Healesville Sanctuary Review and Highlights
  • Supernormal Melbourne: What We Liked At This Fusion Spot
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #3
  • Marhaba Lounge MEL: It’s A Priority Pass Lounge, What More Can You Say?
  • Garuda Indonesia A330-300 Business Class: Excellent Service And The Best Price
  • Andaz Bali Review Part 1: Why We Didn’t Want To Leave This Beautiful Room
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #4
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #5