Virgin Australia: On arrival lounge access is back!

If you travel domestically for business, then you may value the ability to access an airport lounge on arrival. I’ve certainly used the facility when I’m early for a meeting or needed to complete some work before heading off to an office.

Eligibility

This ‘lounge entry on arrival’ suspended since Bain took the airline over, is being re-introduced as of 25 April, ( limited to 60 minutes) for business class passengers and Velocity Gold and Platinum and members of the new Beyond VIP (formerly invite-only The Club) members, and anyone who has paid to be a member of the Virgin Australia Lounge program.

What’s missing? WiFi and Premium Entry

This is great news and will be appreciated, especially if you take up one of those cheap business class airfares Virgin is now hawking about. However, Virgin has still not re-activated its onboard WiFi, which gives the business advantage to Qantas, who never turned theirs off during the pandemic. Virgin needs to sort this pronto. They also need to re-activate their curb-side premium entry facilities which would allow premium Velocity members and Business class passengers to avoid the hell of Virgin Terminals in Sydney and Brisbane, pass security and get straight into the airline’s lounges.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

Virgin is taking a little longer than expected to get up to speed under its new Bain ownership. WiFi and Premium Entry should have been top of the list in my view, ahead of a Small Business loyalty program refresh and the replacement for The Club membership perks with the exclusive Beyond VIP invitation-only membership tier.