744 - Upper Deck

Hi,

Can anyone help me with a few questions...

1) Is U.C. on the upper deck the full service that U.C. pax receive on the lower deck? Does service differ whether west or eastbound? i.e. are you still served meals and drinks to your seat? I understand that upstairs on eastbound flights is considered as a sleep only zone, does this cause any problems? Also is the toilet at the front solely for U.C. pax?

2) Does U.C. upstairs share galley facilities with P.E.? As the menu is so different I wondered if meals were prepared downstairs and brought up...

3) As U.C. pax upstairs have to walk through P.E. to get to the bar, what is to stop P.E. pax walking downstairs themselves to have a sly tipple?

4) Am I right to believe that since the introduction of the Suites, the aisle in U.C. upstairs is now much wider?

5) Is there a divide of any kind between U.C. and P.E. upstairs?

6) Finally What is the procedure for loading and unloading U.C. pax who sit upstairs, do they join P.E. pax?

Sorry for all the questions, thanks for your help...

Autopilot.

[Pete]

quote:
1) Is U.C. on the upper deck the full service that U.C. pax receive on the lower deck? Does service differ whether west or eastbound? i.e. are you still served meals and drinks to your seat? I understand that upstairs on eastbound flights is considered as a sleep only zone, does this cause any problems? Also is the toilet at the front solely for U.C. pax?

Certainly on the eastbound it's the Snooze Zone, so if you want to eat you need to go downstairs and eat at the bar. Never been westbound upstairs, but I understand you can get service in your seat.

The loo at the front of UC is for UC PAX only. PE have their own on the Upper deck.

quote:
2) Does U.C. upstairs share galley facilities with P.E.? As the menu is so different I wondered if meals were prepared downstairs and brought up...

They cook to UC food downstairs, as I understand.

quote:
3) As U.C. pax upstairs have to walk through P.E. to get to the bar, what is to stop P.E. pax walking downstairs themselves to have a sly tipple?

Given the limited number of PAX in UC, it doesn't take long for the FAs to clock who should be there or not. I've seen PE PAX who've tried this and been politely asked to return to their seat

quote:
4) Am I right to believe that since the introduction of the Suites, the aisle in U.C. upstairs is now much wider?

Looks wider to me

quote:
5) Is there a divide of any kind between U.C. and P.E. upstairs?

Yes. There's a back wall to the storage in Upper, and the traditional curtain too.

quote:
6) Finally What is the procedure for loading and unloading U.C. pax who sit upstairs, do they join P.E. pax?

Yes, and they are all held back until the lower deck has de-planed (hate that word, but everyone's using it now...). If you want to get off quick, don't sit upstairs.

Pix

great reply pix
thanks it answered questions i was unsure about too
candyman

steve w hickling

Hi,

A couple of small points;

(1)I think the sleep zone is on the Upper Deck only form the shorter east coast of the US flights (IAD/NYC/JFK) to maximise sleep time.

I have flown SFO & LAX back to the UK on the Upper deck and have recived the full dinner service before retiring.


(2) On my last few flights on the Upper deck the curtain between PE/UC was not there ( assume to enable the flight crew to view the cabin up to the flight deck). However I did not notice any noise coming through from the PE cabin.

Regards

TBS

VS FC Gold

[Bazz]

quote:Originally posted by The_Banking_Scot
...On my last few flights on the Upper deck the curtain between PE/UC was not there ( assume to enable the flight crew to view the cabin up to the flight deck). However I did not notice any noise coming through from the PE cabin.

I agree with TBS, last time we travelled on the UD the curtain had been removed.

I didn't notice any noise coming from the UC cabin though.

Bazz
Still Flying

[RichardMannion]

Yes the curtain has gone. I was originally seated upstairs in J on my return from LAX in March last year, but then got shifted downstairs - right next to the Virgin Atlantic COO

As for snoozezone - I thought it was only the Eastbound flights as per TBS but I think that may have changed: The PR kit has:

'Sleeper service Ð ÒSnoozezoneÓ Ð on certain overnight flights; duvet and complimentary sleep suit; meal in airport lounge in New York (Newark & JFK) and Boston, onboard on longer flights'

It would make sense that the longer (eg West Coast) were not Snoozezone as thats a lot of sleep otherwise!

Thanks,
Richard

1) Is U.C. on the upper deck the full service that U.C. pax receive on the lower deck? Does service differ whether west or eastbound? i.e. are you still served meals and drinks to your seat? I understand that upstairs on eastbound flights is considered as a sleep only zone, does this cause any problems? Also is the toilet at the front solely for U.C. pax?

On all flts ex-London, pax on the U/D receive the full UC service. Snooze service is offered on flts exNYC/BOS/IAD whilst flts ex LAX/SFO get the full service on the U/D. And yes, the toilet at the front is for UC use only.

2) Does U.C. upstairs share galley facilities with P.E.? As the menu is so different I wondered if meals were prepared downstairs and brought up...

Yes UC upstairs shares the U/D galley with PE.

3) As U.C. pax upstairs have to walk through P.E. to get to the bar, what is to stop P.E. pax walking downstairs themselves to have a sly tipple?

You can spot a PE pax trying to sit by the bar from a mile off - they're always looking around to see if anyone has noticed them!!!

4) Am I right to believe that since the introduction of the Suites, the aisle in U.C. upstairs is now much wider?

Yes it is wider

5) Is there a divide of any kind between U.C. and P.E. upstairs?

There's a bulkhead behind the last row in Upper. Most of the curtains were removed to enable the crew to be able to see the flt deck door from the galley. There is still a curtain on a few of the a/c, but it is rarely used.

6) Finally What is the procedure for loading and unloading U.C. pax who sit upstairs, do they join P.E. pax?

Oh boy!!!! As soon as the doors are disarmed, two crew members will stand in each aisle at the PE/Economy divide to stop any economy pax getting off before all the UC/PE pax. The UC pax upstairs disembark at the same time as PE upstairs - it's just a case of who gets to the stairs first. Once all the PE/UC pax are off, the crew members move out the aisles to enable all economy pax to disembark.

Tinkerbelle

Hi

Very nice summary Tinkerbelle.

Welcome to the forum.

Very nice user name too!:)

Regards

TBS

VS FC Gold

[Pete]

Hi Tinkerbelle,

Welcome to VirginFlyer. Sounds like we've got Virgin flight crew in our group. Glad to have you here.

Pix

The curtain between PE and J on the upper deck is being reinstalled it was removed after 9/11 so the crew upstairs had a cleart view of the cabin and flight deck door.

Now that CCTV has been installed the curtain is being put back in!!

Hi,


Thanks for that declansmith.

Some good news.

I'm very glad VS ( and other airlines BA,bmi etc) have not gone the US airlines route of removing all the curtains between cabins .

The thought of no curtains is almost enough to make me break out in a cold sweat.

Regards

TBS

VS FC Gold