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#237969 by xenole
18 Sep 2005, 04:48
First time I've flown Virgin on a non-package holiday - just booked the flight through their website and got my e-ticket details minutes later.

Got the tube from King's Cross though to T3 at Heathrow......nice and easy to find the check-in desks especially as Virgin are right next to the door. A woman showed me how to use self-check-in - just a matter of sticking my passport in the machine and a few seconds later up came my details. The seat I had originally being given was shown rather than the seat I'd changed it to at the time of booking. A quick change and 42a for me......would have prefered 45a but that was already booked to someone else.
Queued up to get my luggage tagged and weighed and the man immediately noticed and commented on the V-Flyer tag on my case :) He said he'd heard of it but didn't know that it actually exisited.

Few hour wait after that wandering around what isn't exactly an exciting place. The gate number appeared an hour and a half before the flight but I waited a bit before wandering the long distance through to the boarding gate. Ticket got checked, and didn't get pulled aside for my hand luggage to be checked or no 'we're going to upgrade you' either :(

Usual procedure of letting those with PE tickets etc on first.....got to walk past them all on the plane with a small glass of wine in their hands. Naturally, the two people sitting next to me were already there and turned out to be the oldest and slowest moving people on the plane.

We took off a few minutes late after queuing a bit, but a nice smooth take-off.
Started playing with the V-Port system as soon as possible, but found those messages that pop up and lock out the control a bit annoying. Would be nice if these films etc got paused, but it just continues playing. Managed to watch a few minutes of Mr & Mrs Smith before the screen went off and the usual safety things and loads of adverts ame on. Not overly keen on the control to be honest. Far too easy to press the coloured buttons instead of the arrows and the i button instead of OK.
Food was the beef, mushroom and chicken menu again - I had the chicken which was rather good. I do enjoy aircraft food. Nice chocolate profiterole as well ,although not easy to get the top off -had to stick the tea spoon through the lid.

Drinks came around 2-3 times, with a choice of alcoholic, fruit juice, or soft drinks.
Got a Cadbury wafer as a snack.
Had the afternoon tea meal of those slightly chilly rolls, crackers (with no cheese - some people seemed to have cheese, others didn't - not sure if there were slightly different options here)etc

Was quite suprised that the amenity kits weren't already out. Last time I flew Virgin, they were on the seats but this time they brought them and around a bit into the flight and gave you a random coloured one. No headphones though, although these were supplied later, and collected before the flight ended - got to keep these last time as well and they were in the amenity kits then.

Seats weren't that bad. Far more cramped looking than I remembered though and didn't bother reclining mine as I couldn't find how - did discover later that the silver button on the side does that - I though it was to call the cabin crew so didn't touch it. Think I see the advantage of PE now.

Little bit of turbulence on the flight but nothing major. Pleasant cabin crew too, though still prefer those on the LGW-MCO route.

Glad to see that I could watch the aircraft's progress as well......39,998ft at one point and around 600mph.

Nice having a window seat too so that I could look down on Nova Scotia, and all the yachts etc as we approached JFK.

We were supposed to touch down at 16:10 EST yet the pilot announced we were going to be 45 minutes early - we arrived 5 minutes early or thereabouts.

Straight off the aircraft into a 45 minute queue for immigration. Passport check, two index finger scans and a digital photo was taken.
Then to pick up my luggage.......went to the carousel and waited for ages until I figured out that the tags on the bags said AMS (Amsterdam) and I was waiting at the wrong place....picked my bag up, and a quick passport check again before the exit and straight outside to the taxi rank...about an hour in total.

Quite suprised how different internal US flights are.....people were coming on board with everything but the kitchen sink as hand luggage and nothing was being weighed in this respect. There seemed to be a little more seat room on my AA flight as well.....drinks came round 3 times, and we were given a packet of crisps to eat and you could pay $3 for a sandwich etc if you wanted - loads of people had brought food to eat for the 6 hour flight. $2 charge for headphones if you didn't have any although most people had laptops, iPods etc - movie started nearly an hour in the flight on projector screens and/or tv monitors every few rows. No security checks whatsoever on landing.

Shows that Virgin aren't the only airline cutting back in certain areas to save a few \$$$....

One major difference is the age of the cabin crew - all Virgin's seemed to be 20ish year old women, whereas not one on the AA flight was below 40 in my opinion.
#312452 by paul_a142
18 Sep 2005, 09:06
Excellent report xenole.

I'm sure thats the main reason they board PE first, so that when you board they are all sat there drinking the bubbly or bucks fizz, makes you think hmmmmmm I ought to give that a try NEXT time.

Your comment regarding the AA crews age, seems to be the same on all US airlines. They certainly do seem a lot older. One trip we took with AA over the pond, which I would assume is sort of classed as senior rostering, half looked old enough to be my mother[:0][:0][:0]

Regards

Paul
#312453 by n/a
18 Sep 2005, 09:22
Originally posted by xenole

One major difference is the age of the cabin crew - all Virgin's seemed to be 20ish year old women, whereas not one on the AA flight was below 40 in my opinion.


Welcome aboard Air Battleaxe. Please act like a terrified 12-year-old because that's hpw we plan yo treat you...

Ughhh...USA domestic is the last vestige of both the wizened old crone and the fake-tanned fellow in terms of cabin crew...

Oi. It drives one crazy.
#312482 by buns
18 Sep 2005, 20:39
xenole

Thanks for the TR[y][y]

the man immediately noticed and commented on the V-Flyer tag on my case


It is nice to be noticed isn't it[;)]
#312491 by JO5H777
18 Sep 2005, 22:10
thanks for the TR and as previously noted in other treads the cost cutting is becoming more and more apparant.
#312602 by xenole
20 Sep 2005, 07:04
As long as the food isn't too bad, the seats are comfy and we get there in one piece, I'm pretty happy......can't say the amenity kits mean much to me. Still got all of them from when I've flown with Virgin in the past. Sort of collectable, the same as my bagged blanket that accidently fell into my hand luggage along with a Virgin wine glas etc.
#312697 by ChuckC
20 Sep 2005, 14:56
Welcome to the Forum, xenole. We're glad you're here.

Thanks for the TR. Overall, coach was a good experience for you, it seems.

As far as AA and the other US carriers are concerned, the older carriers still employ a good number of 25+ year employees. They can range the gamut from wonderful to sour (that's my scale, at least). On four recent AA flights (3 in J and 1 in Y) I found the older flight attendants to be excellent, highly trained professionals.

Regards,
Chuck-
#312819 by andrewjh009
20 Sep 2005, 23:29
Are you xenole from the dvd forums, Kryten linked me to these forums and these trip reports make for good reading, yours included[:)]
#312854 by xenole
21 Sep 2005, 04:25
Originally posted by andrewjh009
Are you xenole from the dvd forums, Kryten linked me to these forums and these trip reports make for good reading, yours included[:)]


Yes that's me :)
#312962 by Tigger
22 Sep 2005, 05:06
Great TR Xenole![:D]

Have to say though, when I travel Y I try not to use VS. Its a GREAT airline on PE and UC but I think it falls short on Y. I don't really care much for amenity kits etc on Y, just comfort and I thought the seats were waaaaay too cramped. I remembered my knees almost touched the seat in front of me and I'm only 5' 11'. Despite the Air Battleaxe hostesses on AA and UA, their Y classes are much roomier. Other airlines I feel have good Y classes, SQ, MH and yes, BA! [:I]
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