Is Virgin Airlines neurodivergent-friendly?

I recently travelled with Virgin airlines for the first time whilst using their diability services and wearing my sunflower lanyard. The sunflower lanyard is a lanyard indicating that the wearer has a hidden disability, and most airline employees in Australia are trained to know this. I was travelling alone, and especially due to not having support persons travelling with me, I relied heavily on my sunflower lanyard and the hope that it would offer me extra support whilst travelling.

I flew from Melbourne to Sydney airport. I made sure to submit my disability accessibility requirements for my flights via the Virgin website before arriving at Melbourne airport. This process was thanfully fairly easy to navigate and gave explicit options as to the accesibility options you may require, for example, options such as "I need a wheelchair for long distances but can walk up stairs", "I need a wheelchair for long distances and cannot take stairs but can self-transfer", "I need a wheelchair full-time and a lift to transfer", etc. It felt nice that I did not have to explain my accessibility needs fully, I could easily choose the options that applied to me (although a text box was provided if you needed different accessibility services that weren't provided).

From the beginning, my experience flying with the sunflower lanyard was great. I recieved help from check-in onwards with the Virgin staff. The most amazing surprise to me was when I arrived at the security checks wearing my ear defenders (to block out noise), and the security staff had their own set of ear defenders ready for me to borrow whilst mine were being scanned. I did not at all expect this and it was such a pleasant surprise to see how accomodating and well educated these staff members were, especially about neurodivergence and associated support needs.

Other pleasant accomodations I received as a result of disclosing my hidden disability and wearing my sunflower lanyard was that I was offered early boarding (I hadn't requested this, a staff member independently came up to me and offered it when they spotted my lanyard), and asked whilst boarding the plane if there was any extra help I needed, as well as being informed that I could ask for help from the airline staff at any time and how to go about getting their attention.

Overall, my experience flying with Virgin airlines and using their disability accomodations was great. I felt accommodated, welcomed and generally looked after.

If you have flown using diability services or the sunflower lanyard, I would love to hear your experience(s). Please share them in the comments section if you feel comfortable doing so.

I was lucky and ended up having a row of seats to myself - an extra bonus! (and especially good when you live with chronic fatigue)

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