Virgin Australia Perth Lounge
A large light lounge, the Virgin Australia lounge at Perth Airport T1 has been around for a while, but still seems out of the box fresh.A classic Virgin Australia lounge, it features many of the classic wavy white benches, lots of the tall round spindly tables, a good buffet, coffee for the early morning flights, and a great bar for the redeye flights.
Perth Virgin Australia lounge review
The Virgin Australia Perth Lounge feels very similar to Virgin's lounges on the East coast, with identical chairs, benches, even the same dining areas. There's even Virgin Australia's mood lighting, although it doesn't really come into play early in the morning. At 5am, there is just the usual bright stark light. During the rest of the day light streams through the floor to ceiling windows, with an amazing view of the gates.Once past reception there are a few 'touchdown' areas, and one set of bathrooms to your right. Then, into the main body of the lounge, and the dining area is on your right, while on the left are lots and lots of those tall round tables with bar stools so beloved of Virgin. In the main body of the lounge wavy white benches dominate. Not just a few of them, but huge numbers, going almost all the way to the far wall, where there are some more conventional tables.
There are a few lounges and comfortable seats by the window, but these go very quickly.
At the back left of the lounge is the workroom, with desks where you can plug in your own PC.
Food
On the food front, Virgin Australia's lounge in Perth is 'fairly' good, but firmly trumped by the Qantas Business lounge on the other side of the runway.In the morning there is hot food, with bacon, beans, and scrambled egg, plus a pancake machine with fresh fruit and yoghurt. Virgin's Perth lounge features an Espresso Bar, as also seen in the airline's Brisbane lounge, for an early morning coffee. A vast selection of teas are available too.
At 11am, the menu changes, moving onto lunch. There is the usual Virgin salad, and packaged sandwiches. Hot sandwiches also star on the menu, with DIY toasties including pineapple.
Bar
Alcohol is available from noon each day, slightly later than the usual 11am.Beer is well supplied, with many types of bottles, including many from Fremantle's breweries. These are also available on draft.
The selection of Australian wines is also very good, with reds on the worktop and white wine in the chiller cabinet.
Still and sparkling water are on tap, as are soft drinks.
Business Facilities
There are plenty of those wiggle white benches, where you can plug in a laptop and soak up the free wifi.You can also go to the small work room at the back of the lounge, where there are benches all the way around the room, and here there are the largest collection of power and USB power outlets. With Virgin Australia only having some aircraft with inflight power, this is of vital importance.
Bathrooms
There are two bathrooms in the lounge, one in the middle of the lounge, down the corridor with white curtains. You can also use the back of the wall in the reception area where doors open into gents and ladies.Access
Virgin's T1 lounge opens from 60 minutes before the airline's first flight departure until the day's final flight is called for boarding. Typically this is 0430am for the 0530 flights to the mining camps, and this why the lounge is often full of miners in florescent jackets. The lounge used to close at 6pm sharp, leaving all those on the three redeye flights at midnight rather in limbo, and these were the flights where a lounge would be most welcome for dinner and drink before sleep on board. However, that has now changed, and the lounge stays open until all these flights depart, admittedly with heavily reduced catering.Virgin Australia's lounge at Perth Airport gives access to Virgin Australia business class passengers, Velocity Gold and Platinum frequent flyers, and paid up members of 'The Club'.
You can also pay $65 per person at the door, up to two hours prior to departure.
Video: Virgin Australia Lounge
