VS027 LGW-MCO 1 Oct 05 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Hardly worth the wait....

How disappointing - I would be annoyed to receive such bland platitudes. It's like they haven't listened to a thing you said. [V]

'Never mind, try another flight and it'll all be better....'

Not good.[:(]

Originally posted by ade99
Executive Assistant to Richard Branson

I think a career in politics beckons. A very poor response to a genuine complaint. I hope you get something more than that. Perhaps you should have thrown a lack of M & Ms into the equation[;)]

Phil

[buns]

Ade 99

Oh dear[:(][:(]

Perhaps VS wish to achieve a decline in loyalty, sending a letter like that[:(!]

Originally posted by daisy
Hardly worth the wait....

How disappointing - I would be annoyed to receive such bland platitudes. It's like they haven't listened to a thing you said. [V]

'Never mind, try another flight and it'll all be better....'

Not good.[:(]

Thanks for your views everyone, the boyfriends livid saying their complete discourteousness on the flight is simply extended to the letter as well. He's going to write to SRB office this weekend and tell him exactly what he thinks of their response. (And for someone who is normally completely mild and level headed I haven't seen him this angry for a long time)

What a dreadful boilerplate reply, but to be honest, many of us hardened travellers could see it coming, having recieved almost identical missives ourselves.

It took me another two letters to get VS off the boilerplates and onto specifics last time I had to open a customer service case about the food, by which time I'd taken more VS flights, and therefore included some additional grist to the mill, such as lousy aircraft presentation.

I'm flying VS this Saturday, and I'm already steeling myself up to the indifferent food, dirty and late aircraft, the risk of a crap crew, ads on the IFE (bring back the blobs!), and that loathesome 'welcome video' with the 'faceless nurse'.

I guess, if I set my expectations so low, I'm more likely to be impressed.

Cheers!
Mike

Crikey, after reading all this lot I'm exhausted.

I have always flown VS so I'm not familiar with what is on offer from other airlines and have always aspired to fly UC, it all sounds so posh and lovely but alas I have to fly with the cattle in economy every time (funds will not allow for anything else [:#])

That said, after reading this TR I can honestly say that I'm not sure I'm too bothered about joining the high flyers so to speak. I'll sit myself at the back of the aircraft as usual, don't generally have any gripes about the crew as they just do their job as quickly as they can and then go and hide behind the curtains, which sounds pretty much what's now on offer in UC.

Hope your return flight is markedly better. I'm still looking forward to my good old economy flight hard narrow scruffy seats and all [;)]

thelaceys

Originally posted by mike-smashing

Originally posted by kkempton
This report seemed way too negative.

Like I say, not exactly sure what Virgin's problem is with food on the move. I went to a party held at the Roof Gardens (Branson's private club) a couple of months back, and the barbeque provided there was first rate, and we were just treated so well. Maybe the kitchen team at the Roof Gardens should help plan the menus for the airline and the trains?

SRB really needs to wake up, smell the coffee and take an interest in his businesses, as this sort of thing is devaluing the Virgin brand.

Cheers,
Mike

Mike ... isn't that because he sold the roof gardens?

Oh and like others' where did the lovely chocolate assortment on the bar go ... another cut.

ADE, I agree with all the comments and I think you should write back for further clarification on detail. All my recent flights have been characterised by excellent crew but poor detail on things beyond the crew's control ... I fear soon that these details will dent the attitude of the crews I've met.

SRB really needs to re-engage with his business and stop glamming up on TV and other. It takes a lot to make a brand good, and a little to trash it. Why give up all that hard work?

i'd got a bit fed up with this site ( too much back slapping ) but I had to reply to this.
I've had good flights and bad flights, on BA and on VS and on many others. Its just life.
How you can blame the galley for the on board catering escapes me. The product is pre-prepared and supplied with instructions on how it should be re-assembled ( after reheating in a galley oven).
The problem is on the ground, not in the air!
And as for crew variations - me personally, having observed all around me I'm begining to wonder whether the problem might be the passenger. I think there are a few around who if they behaved the same in restaurants as they do in the air might be shown the door ( or invited to try the chef's special soup.)

Dom - for the catering yes it is all pre-prepared with details on heating, obviously the details had not been passed on correctly for our crew on how to heat up the vegatables.

Originally posted by dom

And as for crew variations - me personally, having observed all around me I'm begining to wonder whether the problem might be the passenger. I think there are a few around who if they behaved the same in restaurants as they do in the air might be shown the door ( or invited to try the chef's special soup.)

I don't think the problem was me or the boyfriend's - I think he would have said if it was me just being a drama queen (probably would have launched into some Anna Freud analysis on me - instead given the things that he normally sees on a day to day basis it was he who was so shocked {and that takes some doing})

This may well be the case with some passengers, but even the cheapest greasy spoon would normally draw the line at the server eating a chip off a customers plate - similar to the FA helping himself to crisps from a plate prior to giving them to us.

And believe me as a student we drank in some dodgy pubs but even those landlords and punters would be taken back by ice in the beer!!!

Dom - This site is directed towards people who choose to fly VS, and particularly at people who choose to fly VS regularly. It is hardly suprising that people here, having expressed a pro-VS choice with their money, tend to be pro-VS. But to extend that to saying there is too much back slapping I think is wrong. There are many threads here about how poor VS customer service dept is, how VS sends out useless boilerplate responses, how behind the market the VS Y offering is, how VS seems to be cutting back on their premium products (aka GNF)- the list of smacks-in-the-face VS gets rather than back slaps almost seems excessive rather than surpressed.

As to your final paragraph , not sure what you are getting at to be honest. Are you saying that members of V-flyer should eat a better quality of soup for some reason?[:D]

Ade99 - Clearly the problems you and your partner suffered were pretty wide. To have the standard fob off (with out even the standard 5000 miles!) just adds insult to injury. I have to say regular flyers with VS are having to get used to these responses, which really is not good enough. I say SouthernBelle should be put in charge of VS CS [oo] - the earlier posting she made here reflects that she knows how to listen to the customer, analyse what they have said, then respond appropriately. I am afraid the only thing that seems to work. having received the same letter myself, is to contact them again and tell them their response is totally unsatisfactory. I think it would be worth sticking to the main points of your complaint - the things that really got up your nose. Once a few things go wrong, I find I start picking fault with everything in sight. It may be that some of the points you bring out maybe like this. Eg the film choice is pretty wide and the quality of the line up is very much a personal opinion. If nothing else had gone wrong on the flight you may well have said, 'oh well, they just don't happen to be to my taste'. Of course I am reading between the lines, and may well be wrong; in which case please let me apologise[:#]. But if your letter looks like you are just slagging off anything and everything, then it would start to look like a rant, which would not help.

Ade99 - any chance of a return trip report, or did I miss it?

( Hoping it was better than this )

Thanks,

David.

I agree with you sailor99, I do read the trip reports and am impressed by their objectivity.
I too am a vs fan ( just booked miami in upper ) but all i was trying to say is i.cabin crew seem to get it in the neck for things completely outside their control and ii. this site used to have a host of contributors who passed on lots of useful information.
Maybe i'm being a little prickly. sorry.
back on topic, i know how the catering is set up in the galley and there is very little the cabin crew can do to either cock it up or turn it into 'haute cusine' ( showing my age ).

[Scrooge]

Dom,could it be that since you've been on this site you've been able to learn stuff that you used to have to ask questions about,I know thats how it was for me.

Yes your right,the crew do and will get blamed for stuff thats out of their control,it's a sad fact of life that when dealing with the public the front line staff get the blame for everything,trust me I know this.

Well he wrote back very upset with the first response not wanting anything just to get the point across. Still a very boiler plate response plus have 15K miles.

Originally posted by ade99


Further more several glasses of champagne were filled and drunk by crew in premium economy and economy.

Edited - preiffer : removed name as per T's & C's

Please can someone confirm that this was friends of crew and not the crew that were operating the flight! [?]

Neil.