Review: Virgin Australia business class from Brisbane to Sydney

Virgin Australia is the nation’s second largest carrier. As a formerly devoted oneworld frequent flyer, I had no use for them as I wouldn’t earn any points. Things have changed, so it was time to finally try Virgin Australia business class.

The flight cost around AU$350.00 which I thought was quite reasonable. Interestingly I was also able to earn Avios on the flight by crediting it to the Qatar Airways programme, so that was also a nice additional bonus.

Virgin Australia Business Class

Due to my late running Malaysia Airlines service, I thought I was going to miss this separately booked flight. In the end I made it to the gate minutes before boarding started, after one of the most remarkable connecting flight experiences of my life.

VA932 – Brisbane to Sydney (BNE-SYD)
8 March 2026
Boeing 737-800 – VH-YWE – Dreamtime Beach
Seat: Business Class 1A
Departure: 09:05 Arrival: 11:40

Cheerily greeted at the door to the aircraft, I quickly stowed my cabin bag and took my seat in the front row. There are just two rows of business class offered on the Boeing 737 at Virgin Australia.

Seats are a dark grey colour and are quite comfortable. I would recommend the front row for short people, but taller people would not be able to stretch their legs right out. I’m 170cm (5’7″) and my feet touched the divider when stretched out.

A Welcome Drink and Safety

While people were boarding, I had a look at the safety card. Everything is presented in rather large graphics, meaning it spread over four pages, rather than the more common one sheet that you flip.

Pleasingly the airline offers a welcome drink for passengers at the pointy end. Given a choice of water or juice, I went with the latter. It was a breakfast service so that seemed appropriate.

Time for Breakfast

Once everyone was on board, we had the safety demonstration and took to the sky. It seemed the crew member took breakfast orders by status, as she went to people in an unusual order. I elected to have the breakfast, which comprised of scrambled egg, baked beans, potato and bacon, with a coffee to wash it down.

Breakfast was absolutely delicious! The scrambled eggs were lovely and it all worked well together as a dish. I also rather liked the presentation, as well as the plates and mugs. After finishing it all, I asked for a green tea for me to sip for the remainder of the flight.

Overall Thoughts

Colour me impressed! Virgin Australia business class is very good. With me being a lover of the food, the whole breakfast presentation was elevated to my eyes, and luckily also very tasty.

Cabin crew are very informal, particularly in their use of language. Whenever the lead was speaking to passengers (some of which are regulars as she recognised them from a previous flight) it was pretty amusing – just the words being used and so on. Far different to the overly formal style I am used to hearing. I’ll be flying with them again, for sure!

What do you think of Virgin Australia? How do they compare to the competition? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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