Virgin Australia has reappropriated some old Boeing 737 bar carts and kitted them out with features like disco balls, TV projectors, popcorn machines, and other gadgets to up the stakes for its current Middle Seat Lottery. That is, a $237,000 lottery that is only offered to passengers who fly in the middle seat between now and April 23, 2023, with the pimped-up Virgin Australia bar carts serving as the major prizes.
The four limited-edition Virgin bar carts are each themed and presented as fully refurbished collector’s items with a projected value of $10,000 per cart. As most airlines do with unique collector’s items like this, Virgin could have just created them for fun and auctioned these bad boys off but instead, they will be given away free as part of the major prize pool for the Virgin Australia Middle Seat Lottery.
All four Virgin Australia bar carts are different and have been themed as follows:
- “Disco Fever” bar cart
Complete with a shiny exterior and spinning mirror ball, there’s a cocktail shaker, Bluetooth speaker, and smoke machine attached to the bar cart.
- “The Day Spa” bar cart
Decked out in stylish rattan and contains premium spa accessories like plush robes, silk eye masks and squishy slippers. The aromatherapy diffuser and luxury candles are designed to instantly refresh and relax the mind and body.
- “At Home Cinema” bar cart
Upholstered in rich red velvet with a completely customisable cinema-style letter board, this bar cart comes complete with a popcorn maker, candy bar and movie projector.
- “The Sports Bar” bar cart
With removable esky and Yeti coolers to keep drinks ice cold, the bar cart comes complete with a Marshall speaker plus an AFL Sherrin and pop-out basketball hoop.
The Virgin Middle Seat Lottery has been running with a total of $237,000 worth of prizes to give away to any middle seat passenger, an initiative to encourage more people to book the middle seat rather than having to put up with it because they haven’t selected their seats well in advance. Other prizes as part of the pool include a Virgin Voyages from Mexico to the Bahamas, a helicopter pub crawl in Darwin with return flights, AFL Grand Final tickets and a few others including instant top-tier membership and a generous amount of Velocity points.
Do note that you’d need to have flown the middle seat within the following date range applicable to each cart. Flying the middle seat outside of March 20 to March 26, for example, won’t throw you in the running to win the Sports Cart.
- ‘Disco Fever’ bar cart: November 14 – November 20, 2022
- ‘The Day Spa’ bar cart: December 5 – December 11, 2022
- ‘At Home Cinema’ bar cart: February 20 – February 26, 2023
- ‘The Sports bar’ cart: March 20 – March 26, 2023
“The bar cart is synonymous with aviation and we have never before given our guests the opportunity to own a piece of our operation,” said Virgin Australia Group Chief Marketing Officer Libby Minogue.
“The carts have been refurbished by hand in Australia and I can guarantee you won’t have seen anything like them before – we have playfully transformed the life of a humble bar cart beyond imagination.”
