Review: Virgin Australia inflight WiFi

Needing to stay connected above the clouds? Virgin Australia’s inflight WiFi is now available on the majority of its Boeing 737 domestic and international flights, with more to lift off in the near future.

However, while the airline’s main rival Qantas offers WiFi free to every passenger, Virgin’s inflight Internet is only complimentary for business class passengers, Velocity Platinum frequent flyers and members of the invite-only Beyond program.

For everyone else, it’s offered in two “high-speed” packages:

• a 30 Minute Pass, priced at around $10, is obviously good for 30 minutes
• a Flight Pass, costing around $20, lets you stay connected for the flight duration

Payments can be made by Visa, Mastercard and JCB credit and debit cards or American Express. Cash, EFTPOS, Maestro or pre-paid travel cards are not accepted.

Virgin Australia WiFi is free for only a specific set of passengers on any flight.

How fast is Virgin Australia WiFi?

Executive Traveller tested Virgin Australia WiFi on a recent Virgin Australia flight between Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Connecting to Virgin’s inflight Internet was as easy as hooking up to any cafe or airport lounge – you can directly join Virgin Australia’s onboard WiFi at wifi.virginaustralia.com from any laptop, smartphone or tablet, and there’s no need to open the Virgin Australia app.

As a Platinum, business class or Beyond passenger, you simply need to enter your surname and seat number to enjoy WiFi free of charge. 

It's easy to connect to Virgin Australia WiFi.

Download speeds clocked in at around 15Mbps, although the speed test was unable to measure the upload rate.

In practical terms, the connection was stable and on par with the 10-15Mbps of Qantas WiFi – sufficient for emails, general Web browsing and social media.

However, it’s worth noting that you can connect only one device at a time.

How many Virgin Australia aircraft have WiFi?

At the time of writing, Virgin Australia is in the process of retrofitting WiFi to its Boeing 737-800/MAX fleet, using Intelsat’s 2Ku tech – the same found on Japan Airlines.

A spokesperson for Virgin Australia says “The majority of Virgin Australia aircraft are WiFi enabled and we are in the middle of a WiFi enablement program across our fleet. Our new MAX aircraft on order and being delivered all have Inflight Connectivity.”

The rollout does not include Fokker 100, Airbus A320 or Boeing 737-700 aircraft.