Business class on all Virgin jet flights nationwide from January

All domestic Virgin Australia jet flights will see business class from 18 January 2012, with the airline's A330, Boeing 737 and Embraer planes losing premium economy in favour of domestic business class seats by then.

The move excludes New Zealand and Pacific Island flights on Virgin's Pacific Blue subsidiary, as well as the ATR 72 turboprop planes that run on some regional Queensland routes and on the Capital Connect Canberra flights.

It's the latest move in Virgin's attempts to woo Australian business travellers away from Qantas, and follows news last week that all "triangle" flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane would have business class from January.

Virgin Australia's CEO John Borghetti is certainly keen to spruik his airline's business travel offerings in the wake of the Qantas strikes. "Our new Business Class product is a key part of our strategy to reposition Virgin Australia as the airline of choice," Borghetti said.

For in-depth information on Virgin's seats and cabins, don't miss our article outlining Virgin Australia's Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 planes. 

On board the 737, there are two rows of business class in a 2-2 configuration, with a standard domestic business 38 inch seat pitch. (Pitch is the distance between your seat back and the one in front: the space that's yours during the flight.)

Here's what business class on Virgin's 737s looks like: business-like, with a funky purple divider inspired by sister airline Virgin America.

The A330, however, sees a more spacious seating arrangement, with a 2-3-2 layout and 62 inches of pitch.

The A330 cabin is larger and wider, with more seats and more legroom.

We've reviewed the A330 seats on the Perth-Sydney route, but they'll also be seen on the Triangle from January.

Introductory fares will start at $359 (Brisbane-Newcastle flights are the cheapest on the network), making it a little easier for frequent flyers to persuade their travel departments to cough up for business class on the routes.

Keen-eyed frequent flyers thinking about requalifying for Platinum or Gold status will also have noticed that the dates of the introductory fares also coincide with Virgin's Velocity Frequent Flyer double status credits promotion, which lasts until 31 January 2012.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.