Jaunted

One FlyerTalk user was on the first flight from Sydney to Los Angeles and shares some in-flight observations. It seems that this person feels that V Australia can definitely be considered a worthy competitor to Qantas:

V Australia has the "cool" factor common to all Virgin Group airlines, new state of the art aircraft, very enthusiastic if as-yet-inexperienced FA's and perhaps a touch more comfortable seating. An added plus to some is that it's not Qantas -- whose safety record of late hasn't been quite as good as in the past. Virgin Blue's Velocity FF members can earn points on it.

Up in the air things seemed to go pretty well, but fans of Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts may have quickly dismissed the new airline:

The plane is new, resulting in a few glitches like isolated hung seatback entertainment consoles and mood lighting in one cabin not being in sync with the rest of the plane for a while. And the service is new enough that there are still a few kinks, such as no coffee available on that flight due to the supplier having loaded "the wrong kind of coffee", whatever that might mean! I don't think I saw ONE of them taking a break over the entire 12 hour flight, so kudos to them for doing a credible job under demanding, somewhat high-pressure circumstances.

Overall, this line pretty much sums up what we think V Australia is going for:

...if you want the trendiest, "hippest" non-stop flight experience between Australia and the US, V Australia is it, for sure

Over on a Australian Frequent Flyer forum, another user shares yet another pretty positive experience.

This was one of the highlights of the flight. Each seat contained a copy of “View - your V Australia inside guide to inflight entertainment” which introduces you to Red, the easy to use Panasonic touch screen system. With movies, TV releases, music & music video and a great selection of games (both single and multi-players) there is alot to keep even the fussiest passenger entertained. You can also “talk” to other passengers either seat to seat or via a chatroom using the keyboard on the handset control. There’s also and in-seat USB port but unfortunately the computer power available in every seat advertised on V Australia’s website is incorrect as it is only for premium economy and business class passengers.

These long haul flights definitely can make even the most experienced traveler hungry. No matter if you're a window or an aisle, eventually the M&Ms won't cut it, and you are going to need some grub. We're just glad that the plastic forks were easy to use, we hate those tricky ones:

The dinner service was extremely slow and disorganised (but hey, it’s a new airline and they had to iron out the glitches!) Service commenced before 6pm and we were finally served at 6.40pm. I don’t know when the last passengers ate. By the time we were served they had run out of the vegetarian option and the corned beef seemed the least popular. Dinner was surprisingly good with the menu listed on the IFE screen. The plastic cutlery was of good quality and easy to use.

We'll continue to keep our eyes and ears open to keep tabs on V Australia, but we're thinking that there'll only be good news from down under.

Related Stories:
·V Australia to Launch Melbourne Flights on September 15 [Jaunted]
·V Australia coverage [Jaunted]