Virgin Australia Reviews 

Avoid Virgin Australia – Terrible Experience Ruined Our Christmas

My partner and I were flying from Gold Coast to Sydney for Christmas, excited for a holiday away from the UK. Unfortunately, our experience with Virgin Australia was incredibly disappointing and downright embarrassing.

We moved to an empty row at the back of the plane after takeoff, thinking we could enjoy a movie together. After settling in, we found an air hostess’s small bag on a middle seat, which I moved slightly to the window to make space for us. At this point, the air hostess began aggressively confronting us, loudly accusing us of being rude for touching her bag (which was not in accordance with the rules). She didn’t just address us privately; she went on to announce to the entire plane, in an incredibly loud voice, how "rude" we were. It was mortifying.

Even though we apologized and offered to return to our seats immediately, the situation escalated unnecessarily. She continued to call us rude in front of the entire cabin, and when I asked if she could kindly take my empty paper cup and dispose of it (as we were already at the back of the plane), she snapped, “NO, now go back to your seat.”

As if that wasn’t enough, a few minutes later, she approached us again, accusing my partner of stealing and saying they needed to check if anything had gone missing. At no point did we do anything to warrant this level of hostility or embarrassment.

Other passengers noticed the poor treatment and even commented that the air hostess’s behavior was uncalled for. This entire interaction left us feeling humiliated and upset, especially as it was our first Christmas away from our families. This experience completely ruined the start of our holiday, and I can’t imagine ever flying with Virgin Australia again after such appalling customer service.

Virgin Australia should seriously reconsider the attitudes and professionalism of their staff. I’ve never been treated with such disrespect, and it’s left me with no confidence in flying with them again.

I’ve never been so dissatisfied and disappointed with an airline before and that’s including another budget airline that lost my bags twice in the same trip.
The flight over to Haneda airport from Cairns, I had paid for Economy X as both my partner and I are over 6ft. When boarding the full flight we were not in economy X and spent a very uncomfortable 8hr flight with our knees digging into the seat infront. My partner pinched a nerve in his leg that lasted 4 days into our trip and I ended up with multiple bruises on my legs ( we were given a refund of what we paid only for Economy X for that flight).
Our flight back was no better. I booked return layover in Cairns with 2.5hrs to give enough time but the flight from Haneda to Carins was delayed so much that 140 of the 150 people on the flight who had connecting flights ended being told too bad and that we should now run from Cairns international to domestic in 30 degree heat and humidity. We were stressing we would miss our flight and what added to the stress and anxiety was having our names called over the intercom and being called personally on my phone as were waiting, sweating and extremely uncomfortable in the line for security check.
We finally got on our flight to Melbourne and could feel and see the staff’s frustration with us.
This caused so much stress and anxiety for me I ended up in tears as we took off.
I’m sorry but after this experience we will never be flying with Virgin again. I’m extremely upset, disappointed and it both experiences ended up negatively affected the beginning and end to our holiday that has left a very sour taste in our mouths.

We paid for business class to Fiji which was expensive. From the moment we arrived at Melbourne airport the experience was terrible. Chaos at the check in they have tried to automate but it didn’t work. You then queue for service desk, once we had navigated that we were told you could try auto bag checking but told it might not work! So then had to queue in the priority queue no real business class service at all. Last time flying with this terrible airline.

I was standing in OOL airport, watching out the window at my baggage standing in the rain for one hour, next to my flight. They didn’t do anything to cover it! Now all my stuff is soaked and some of it destroyed. Nobody from the company has contacted or helped me.

Merry Christmas.

Useless - offer PayID (with BankWest) that failed twice almost equalling AU$5000 which is held for 24hours to determine that it failed. VirginAustralia (like JetStars PayID) is a failure. Don't give people 'false hope' of a zero % card fee payment option, via PayID, and it fails...MULTIPLE TIMES! Remove it or make it work.
When I called up about the failure they said they've been having technical difficulty, try again and have $2,500 put on hold potentially OR use a credit card and incur the fee. The phone respondent insisted using a card and only after explaining multiple times that Im trying to avoid the fee was a suggestion to try in an hour.
Couldn't try a third time to use PayID as theres a $5000/day limit. A joke or are they trying to 'ahead of the game'? It would make sense if there are instructions to make payments in $1000 increments (the same rules PayID transactions are beholden to) but there is nothing. Fix it or get rid of it! Or add crypto payments - fast, guaranteed and the 'future' Richard

Just horrendous customer service. Not only do they change the direct flight to one with a layover but they also change the date. There is absolutely no way to ask for a payment refund online. Probably the only airline without a chat feature. For overseas visitors this is a huge inconvenience and added cost as your only option is to call a long distance number in Australia. God forbid they would mention the customer service hours in the email!!

Update. I was able to find a direct email address for Reservations through PayPal and got an answer after 4 days with a couple of follow up questions. I gave them an extra star for this. I will continue to update once the refund is issued.

We got to the airport to find our flight was already cancelled. Staff at the airport said we would get email to explain what to do next. We didn't. We tried for 24 hours to get through to customerservices but no-one picked up. We had to spend over a thousand pounds to fly with another airline and pay for hotels. We applied for compensation with all our receipts (as advised by virgin staff at airport) and today receives email to say we wouldn't be paid and not even flight refunded. They advise us to contact our insurer. The worst customer service the world. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Flight was ok. But my checked baggage did not arrive at my destination airport nor did many other bags. No communication from airline after I left airport. Bag was delivered to my hotel 27 hours later. I received no compensation. This is the first time my luggage has not arrived at an overseas destination with my flight and I travel overseas extensively.

Always late. For some reason we had to go to the "oversize baggage" desk to check in for our international flight - no signage. I've flown with them multiple times and they have never been on time.

Flight cancellations too often. Lost a business due to the flight cancellation. Terrible customer care.

We are at the airport waiting for our flight that has been delayed so far one and a half hours.between us we have caught six flights with virgin in the last six weeks everyone delayed. No explanation no communication. So much for lifting their game. Avoid them where possible.

I ordered a window seat for my wife who had never travelled by air with me. Our flight from Perth to Launceston was the beginning of our honeymoon, and she has seen very little of Australia, given that she is Ukrainian and a displaced person due to the Russian invasion and war against Ukraine,

Instead, my wife could barely see at most one third of the window from the passenger seat in the row in front of us. We had no window seat adjacent to us, despite a number of phone calls I made to Virgin Australia requesting a window seat.

Additionally, I made numerous requests regarding checked-in baggage via telephone calls and appearing in person at Perth airport in the weeks before the flight, only to receive contradictory advice.
The voices of Virgin staff representatives were barely understandable at best and otherwise, incomprehensible. All together, their quality of service was pathetic. Were it possible, I would give Virgin Australia zero stars.

My flight was cancelled last minute because they over booked my flight. I was placed on a flight that flew me 3hrs in the wrong direction only to wait at that airport for another 3hrs before getting on a 2.5hr flight to original destination. No compensation, so inflight money for food or entertainment was given and nothing other than an apology and the company line given to me by the company. No offers to change to the following day, or fly to a closer destination. I only give two stars because I did end up at the destination….. eventually. What an absolute mess, I’ve been treated like a Queen in comparison by Jetstar when similar issues have arisen, shame on you Virgin.

Absolutely a sham, I purchased my tickets via Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Queenstown and was assigned Virgin Australia as a transfer flight in Sydney. On the day of arrival in Queenstown they lost 2 out of 3 of my 3 luggages (on the first day of my holiday). Called their customer service to sort it out multiple times, got hung up on by their customer service and everyone days a different thing! After all these, we finally received our luggage damaged 😡

Just when we thought our nightmare with them is over, on the final day of our trip, we arrived at Queenstown airport ready to check in and head home, arrived at the counter and was told our flight is cancelled and moved till the next day (a 24hours delay) without prior notice. Check in counter asked us to call their customer service and once again, extremely lousy communication skills, lousy attitude, lousy ethics, with no help/support provided to a paying customer. My family and I were stranded at Queenstown airport for over 3 hours trying to sort the accommodation out only to realize that our accommodations were already assigned to us when they got the news we were delayed 24hours but they did not even do their job by sending us proper information to follow instead just left us at the airport with no help until we kept poking. Trust me, you don't want to have to go through these on you supposely relaxing holiday so DON'T DON'T DON'T every fly with them. Like some say, I'd rather walk

Absolute mess around. Flight delayed an hour before departure. Re booked for midday the next day with no earlier options. Got to the airport the next day and was told as I was checking in that they had a smaller plane so I didn’t make the flight. Ended up leaving that evening, over 24 hours past original departure time. Absolute joke

Won’t let you bring items that you bought in duty free on board so you have to buy there overpriced stuff on board and make you chuck it away or drink it before you board. Staff are rude and act like you as a guest are an inconvenience to their day. Flights were nearly 2 hours delayed. The only positive is that the plane took off and landed.

now i have had 3 different flights with Virgin within 6 days. All 3 have been delayed by a minimum of 1 hour and made every single arrival happen past midnight making it a nightmare getting to my accommodation and getting little sleep for the next day. Would not recommend it to anyone, just use Qantas instead.

I was on a trip when I had an accident. I had to reschedule my ticket because I needed to return earlier. Even though I didn't have a fully flexible ticket, since it was an emergency, they allowed me to change the ticket without any penalty. The process was smooth and fast, and they were really helpful throughout the entire process. I would definitely buy a ticket with them again because they are trustworthy.

As usual late taking off again. Same poor reason as always

I was taking flight from Brisbane to Sydney .
The ground crew was really rude ( I have never encountered such a rude crew ) . And she pushed me on my back in order to make me move faster to clear the line . This type of physical treatment is totally not acceptable .