Review of Virgin Australia flight from Ayers Rock to Melbourne in Economy

There weren't too many options for Uluru to Perth. I wanted to fly Airnorth from Alice Springs but the dates didn't match up well, so Virgin to Melbourne was the best option.

At the time of booking it was meant to be a 737-800, but I checked the flight status the day before and it was a -700, and other -700s all week. After having entertainment issues on my last VA 737-700 flight from Perth to Cairns and no in-seat power unlike on some 737-800s, I'd been wanting an -800… but it was not to be.
There was a bus from the Ayers Rock Resort to the airport which I used. It left at around 2:30 PM which was much earlier than required for a domestic flight in such a tiny airport. As I mentioned in the last flight-report the name of the airport is a bit confusing since it has several different names. On the outside, it says "conellan airport".

Arrivals is right next to departures.

No Qantas or Jetstar flights today, so their side of the airport is empty.

Since everyone had come on the bus, the Virgin side was not.

Still, not too much of a wait.

Busy day in AYQ today!
It doesn't say Ayers Rock Airport, it says Ayers Rock Resort. The resort seems to manage everything.

I waited for a little while before going through security, sitting next to arrivals.

The check-in area cleared out pretty quickly.

When I did go through there was no wait for security. The staff were cheerful and friendly.
The gate area is right next to the parking lot.

There were just two gates, and a cafe and gift shop.

Only the Virgin gate was being used.

And there's our plane, Noosa Heads Beach (which is on the Sunshine Coast). A 13.7 year old ex-KLM 737-700, registered VH-NQI.

Even though I'd waited before going through, I still had to wait a little while longer until boarding started.

From the gate it was a short walk across to the plane, with great views of Noosa Heads Beach. 

The crew were friendly with their welcome and I made my way to my seat, 9A.

The headrest was adjustable.

The good thing about the -700s is the seatback, which includes device holders and also just looks nicer than the -800s.

And it turns out there are USB-A and USB-C charging ports. I must have gotten unlucky on my last flight.

Personal air vents and lights as well.

There's Uluru, right out the window.

The seatback literature pocket had a sickness bag, menu and safety card. The menu also included some extra information about the flight experience.

There was a decent selection but Virgin prices are ridiculously high, other than the combos. Still not worth getting anything especially on a short flight.

Before too long we pushed back.

There's Kata Tjuta, which I'll put in the bonus at the end.

And, desert.

Thankfully the streaming entertainment was working, again better than my last -700 flight. Unfortunately there was no flight information or moving map available.

Decent selection of movies, shows and podcasts. Nothing incredible and miniscule compared to Qantas, but enough.

There was the same very minor annoyance with the IFE system as there was with Qantas. When I opened something to look at the description and then closed it, I had to scroll down and across from the top again. But it was less of an issue than with Qantas, since there was a lot less to go through.

Around 20 minutes after take-off the service began. Virgin Australia offers free tea, coffee, and water plus the buy-on-board options.

There were some decent views, but the window was incredibly dirty so it was hard to get good pictures.

There was a water run around an hour after take-off, followed by a full service just 10 minutes later. I got some water both times.

For some reason after the frequent service on the first half of the flight, there was nothing at all for the second half.

Around this time, the sun started setting.

And soon it was night.

After all the water I had to use the bathroom, which had a clogged sink and a lock that didn't want to lock.
And this is the cabin, much more full than the Qantas flight.

The charging port was extremely slow. I plugged it in at the beginning of the flight when the battery was on 74% and it didn't go up for over an hour (to be fair, I was using the phone the whole time). I took it off for a couple of minutes for the sunset pictures and put it back on at 73% and it soon went down to 72%. I unplugged it again to go to the back and plugged it in again at 71% and it stayed at 71% for the rest of the flight.
Soon we were flying over Melbourne.

There were lots of lights and of course the dirty window so I couldn't get any good pictures of the many international aircraft in Melbourne.

While thanking us for flying with them the announcement used Uluru rather than Ayers Rock or any of the other numerous names of the airport we flew over from.
The plane parked at Terminal 4 and the baggage claim was at Terminal 3, but it didn't matter too much since they're both connected and basically one big terminal.
First one bag went around twice alone, then Brisbane bags started coming, and then finally AYQ bags after another five minutes or so.

That concludes this flight report, though there is a bonus with a few pictures from Kata Tjuta (Uluru pictures are in the previous flight report).
Thanks for reading.