Flying in a Middle Seat Could Nab You Your Very Own Limited-Edition Virgin Bar Cart
Fancy a disco-, day spa-, cinema- or sports-themed — and money-can't-buy — bar cart to use at home? Fly in everyone's least-favourite seat.
How do you solve a problem like the dreaded middle seat, everyone's least-favourite spot to sit on a plane? While Qantas is letting customers pay extra to have no one next to them, Virgin has taken a different approach: hosting a Middle Seat Lottery to encourage passengers to nestle in, with a heap of prizes on offer as incentives.
One such reward for slotting into the middle? Limited-edition Virgin bar carts. If you've always wanted your own at home — and, based on how quickly Qantas' fully stocked versions sold when it put them up for grabs during the pandemic's early days, you do — you just have to agree to sit somewhere you usually wouldn't by choice to go in the running.
There are four money-can't-buy Virgin bar carts on offer, all with a different theme. These ones don't just come stocked with booze, either, with each hand-refurbished cart filled with goodies focused around either disco, day spas, watching flicks at home and sports.
The first cart, which is the prize for whoever wins the lottery for flights between November 14–20, includes a spinning mirror ball, cocktail shaker, Bluetooth speaker and smoke machine. That'd be the disco fever cart, clearly, and it's all shimmery on the outside as well
Exactly when the other carts will slot into the Middle Seat Lottery's prize pool hasn't yet been revealed, but they're all similarly packed. The day spa cart comes covered in rattan, and features a robe, eye mask, slippers, aromatherapy diffuser and candles, while the at-home cinema cart includes a customisable cinema-style letter board, a popcorn maker, candy bar and movie projector (and it's upholstered in red velvet).
Or, sports fans can enjoy a cart with a removable esky, drinks coolers, a Marshall speaker, an AFL Sherrin and a pop-out basketball hoop.
Running since late October until Sunday, April 23, 2023, the Middle Seat Lottery is as self-explanatory as it sounds. Plonk yourself down in the abhorred seat — with a ticket, of course — and you could score goodies for your trouble. The freebies change each week, but there's more than $230,000 in prizes on offer across the six-month competition — only if you either select the middle seat or you're assigned it.
As well as the bar carts, those prizes span Caribbean cruises with Virgin Voyages, complete with flights to and from the USA; a helicopter pub crawl in Darwin, again with flights there and back included; and a Cairns adventure package, which covers flights, accommodation, bungy jumping, river rafting and other activities
There's also flights and tickets to your AFL team's away games in 2023 — and, still on Aussie rules, an AFL Grand Final package, covering a lunch, tickets to the game, being on the boundary line before the match, merch and an after party.
One prize will be given out each week, with 26 prizes in total across the competition's duration. And if your week doesn't coincide with a holiday giveaway, platinum Velocity Frequent Flyer status with one million points is also on the freebies list.
An hour or so in a seat you wouldn't normally pick for the chance to win holidays, heaps of footy or frequent flyer points to book more holidays? Worth it, probably.
To go in the running to win any of the above, you do need to be a Velocity Frequent Flyer member over the age of 18. And, you'll have to fly somewhere within Australia, on a Virgin Australia-operated domestic flight, during the competition period — in a middle seat, obviously.
Also, to enter, you then need to use the Virgin Australia app within 48 hours of your flight's scheduled departure time, tapping on the Middle Seat Lottery tile, finding your flight and entering your details.
From there, winners will be drawn each week and contacted if they're successful.
Virgin Australia's Middle Seat Lottery runs until Sunday, April 23, 2023. For more information, head to the Virgin website.
Images: Carly Ravenhall.
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