Review: Virgin Australia Lounge, Melbourne
With its lighter feel, playful signage and business centre, this ‘same but different’ lounge makes a worthwhile pitstop.
By Chris Ashton, December 14 2023
Country
Australia
City
Melbourne
Airport
Melbourne - Tullamarine
Alliance
None
Airline
Virgin Australia
Cabin-class
Business
Notes
The Good
- Zoned seating and warmer colour palette
The Bad
- Hot menus need a switch-up
X-Factor
- Business zone with bookable meeting rooms
Introduction
When asked to name the best Virgin Australia lounge, chances are many Velocity frequent flyers would reply ‘Melbourne’ or ‘Adelaide’. Both would be reasonable answers too, given the duo are the most recently-renovated in Virgin’s network.
Adelaide opened in February 2021, followed by Melbourne in November the same year. However, while Adelaide was an entirely new look, Melbourne was more of a soft reboot.
The bones of the lounge remained the same but the overall space received a welcome glow-up, from seating to signage and amenities. Here’s how it’s faring.
Location & Impressions
Melbourne’s Virgin Australia lounge is positioned airside in T3 – frequent flyers and business class passengers can take advantage of a Premium Screening security lane between 5am and 10am weekdays.
Once security checks are complete, hang a right and you’ll see the lounge entrance towards the end of the corridor, on the left hand side.
A festive entrance at Christmas time.
You’re presented two paths from reception: the sprawling buffet and bar in one direction, or the Wake Up barista coffee station in the other.
Barista coffee is available throughout the day.
(An automated coffee machine and a self-service tea, soft drinks and sparkling water are also available, if you encounter a crowd at the bar or barista counter.)
With those essential stops out of the way, you’ll need somewhere to sit – and there’s no shortage, with 650 seats spanning armchairs and benches, comfy settees and cushioned bar stools. Many are angled to take in the view.
High windows bathe the lounge in natural light.
An elevated window-side seating area hugged by low walls and perspex screens breaks the space into smaller zones for work, dining and rest, while also making the high volume of guests within less noticeable.
Natural timber is a recurring theme throughout.
Overall, the lounge has a lighter, fresher feel than most Virgin lounges. Soft shades of teal, burgundy and terracotta are favoured over the usual dark greys, purple and black, and the atmosphere is all the better for it.
High tables, stools and benches abound.
The far end of the lounge is home to a Wind Down bar, though it’s currently not in use.
Multiple work benches are located alongside the Wind Down bar.
A steady stream of lounge-worthy visitors come and go – reception staff say peak times are Friday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and Monday morning, though it can fluctuate.
Access
Open daily from 60 minutes before the first and until the last Virgin Australia flight departure, the lounge welcomes a broad guest list including:
- business class passengers on Virgin Australia-operated flights
- Velocity Gold, Platinum and Beyond frequent flyers (the latter also have access to a dedicated Beyond lounge)
- top-tier frequent flyers of select partner airlines
- Virgin Australia lounge members
- holders of select credit cards, such as the American Express Velocity Business Card
Detailed info on Virgin Australia domestic lounge access and guest policy, in addition to which international partner airline members are welcomed inside, can be found here.
Dining
Buffet breakfast kicks off from opening until around 10:30am, after which a rotating all-day menu takes over.
Morning flyers can partake in hot dishes such as scrambled eggs and potato croquettes, in addition to pastries, cereals, fruit salad, Greek yoghurt and granola, and apple purée with sultanas. Red velvet cake is also offered at morning tea.
The last of the breakfast offering.
Lunch will no doubt be familiar to anyone who’s visited a Virgin lounge – it rarely changes. On the rather-tired menu are chicken, lettuce and mayo sandwiches, alongside a soup (chicken and corn is quite common) and pasta dish.
Chicken sandwiches are a fixture in every Virgin lounge.
Where Melbourne breaks from tradition is its salad bar, of which there are two. There’s a much greater spread too: potato and pasta salads, tabouleh, croutons, falafels and hummus, plus all the makings of a garden salad.
Fresh and flavoursome salads.
The falafels aren’t worth your time, in our opinion, but the cold pasta salad is a much tastier option than the hot pasta – a basic tomato ragu, on our visit.
The automatic coffee machine is located at the far end of the bar.
Beers, ciders and Australian wines, including a sparkling option, are available from midday.
Work
Business travellers are in luck with several work desks and benches fitted with AC and USB power outlets, together with a dedicated Business Centre at the far end.
Signage like this was introduced as part of the lounge's soft reboot.
Within, the branded ‘Get Down to Business’ centre houses two meeting rooms for hire: one seating up to 14 guests, the other eight. Bookings can be made at reception or in advance by calling the Guest Contact Centre on 13 67 89.
A meeting venue with a view.
There’s also a horseshoe desk setup housing four socially-distanced recliner chairs and multiple power points.
Power points are conveniently found both above and below the desk.
Complimentary WiFi hits 94Mbps download and 166Mbps upload.
A secondary lounge exit is located alongside the business centre.
Relax
One of the most notable differences between this and other Virgin lounges is the bathrooms, which do away with the usual black and chrome look in favour of a fresh mint green palette and terrazzo-like tile.
Three showers are available on a first come, first served basis: one in the men’s and women’s, plus one in the disabled, with towels supplied at reception.
A seat/bench is also provided within the showers.
Verdict
When compared to other lounges in the network, Melbourne is easily one of the best – the varied seating and zones, cold buffet options and dedicated business centre are all excellent, as are the renovated bathrooms.
However, if there was one drawback on our visit, it was cleaning, with many tables piled high with dirty plates for a good 30 minutes before removal. This may have been due to the changeover from breakfast to lunch, but was quite noticeable.
Overall though, the Melbourne Virgin lounge is definitely worth a visit, and if a similar ‘soft reboot’ refurb was to be rolled out to other lounges, we’d be very happy.
10 Jul 2023
Total posts 4
Just me or does anyone else miss the old DIY toastie bar? Used to get quite creative with that!
07 Feb 2022
Total posts 24
Yes, I felt a bit like a subway 'sandwich artist' when using the old toastie bar. Would love it to make a return.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
The Barista station in Virgin's MEL lounge is world class, as good as any of the institutional baristas in Degraves St & Cente Pl (MEL's equiv. to Ash St & Angel Pl, SYD).
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1204
It is not perfect but it is a definite step-up from the dark Coles Cafeteria that is the Melbourne Qantas Club.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
An easy, big improvement could readily be obtained if they had adequate staff to clean away used plates, cutlery and glassware and wipe down tables after use. This aspect is really bad around peak times in both ADL and MEL (not so in BNE). And I do mean 'bad'.
09 May 2020
Total posts 568
Agreed.
MEL VA lounge can be a shocker for how busy it i with queues for hot food about 15 pax long and hot food can run out by 6pm on weekdays.
MEL barista are fast and efficient, SYD is ok while the staff at BNE will never be hired for work in a slow paced suburban cafe: they can have 2 persons at the coffee station but struggles with 5 to 7 cups over 10 mins, with the queue to place an order can already take at least 5 mins (and probably deliberately by those staff to reduce actual orders waiting to be fulfilled, classic public service trick). I often order as takeaway at BNE (they don’t understand commonly used phrase “coffee to go” so best to be specific) because by the time I get my order it’s close to when they call for boarding at the gates in the 15-20mins I spend at the lounge. If VA at BNE lounge want to revamp anything they got to get rid of the baristas they have right now.
09 May 2020
Total posts 568
Quite a few USB/power points at the workstation desks directly facing the bar/food station doesn’t work so check your device when you plug in.
The “business area” next to the secondary exit (as shown in the supplied picture) have limited PowerPoint (no usb) so obviously there is some business conducted on the high bar stool on batteries only!
05 Nov 2014
Total posts 9
“coffee to go” or "to go coffee" is an American term. Here we always use "Take-a-way"
15 Dec 2023
Total posts 1
Brisbane is fast becoming the worst Virgin lounge...maybe have trouble displacing Sydney. The best was Cairns airport with some of the best staff going above and beyond. Melbourne is definitely one of the top but thinking Adelaide and Perth probably pip it for top spot now.
17 Nov 2023
Total posts 38
Had a number of visit to this lounge recently.
Food is a bit one-dimensional, particularly in the middle of the day. Incredibly frustrating to have to ask for something with meat in it!
What I generally want is meat and a salad of some sort, but instead it's carb-loaded pasta and sandwiches :(
View is lovely and the tiny bikkies that come with your cup of tea are great!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
08 Feb 2014
Total posts 15
Not enough power points to power up your devices. If you are lucky to get a seat at the workstation goodluck. They seem to have taken out a number of PowerPoints underneath the bench seating, this used to be really handy but now you have to go searching for a PowerPoint and hope that no one is sitting there. This is one of the major drawbacks of this lounge. The Barriatet coffee is the best for the lounge and the staff there are awesome. Hope they put some more PowerPoints in
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
08 Feb 2014
Total posts 15
Oops Barista coffee
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
15 Jan 2013
Total posts 456
These sandwiches aren't too bad.I would happily have a couple a day for lunch.what I would love to see though is Melbourne introduce something known as the Double cut roll with Beef or Ham,Egg,Avocado and Onion(No Butter)in conjunction with everything else they have(I know the DC roll is an Adelaide thing but I buy them from Vilis in my home town and they are delicious).
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
. . . you forgot to suggest "fries with that". No harm asking. :-)
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