Following its time in administration, Virgin Australia has been positioning itself as a mid-market carrier. Virgin has now taken the next step, removing the complimentary snack, and replacing it with a new Buy On Board menu.
The changeover happened on Thursday except on some flights within Western Australia. A buy-on-board menu will roll out in Western Australia next week.
Virgin Australia’s buy onboard menu
The new menu is shown below.
Virgin Australia Economy Menu-4Obviously, it is a snack menu, however, Virgin has said that the range of items will be increased later this year.
An interesting feature is a discount available for buying multiple items. And who knows, maybe it is cheaper to buy three drinks than two drinks 🙂
On the plus side Tea, Coffee and Water will continue to be complimentary.
Thoughts
I was always of the view that Virgin should have done the snacks properly, or not bother. It seems I was not alone, apparently few people valued the snacks.
I guess they could have gone two ways – doing proper snacks/meals, or doing away with them. Going for a mid-market position obviously tipped their hand in a particular direction.
Even so, the menu looks as though it could do with more work. A cursory glance reveals it to be quite sparse. There are no real filling options, or what you may view as a proper meal. The options may be ok on short flights, but if you are on a transcontinental flight, you may go quite hungry.
While prices look expensive, there are pretty much on a par with similar items on Jetstar. Maybe one or two items are more expensive, but they look pretty much on par.
