VS009 LHR-JFK 24 Oct 05 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Return leg of the trip Id been hoping might convert the husband to VS.

Started extremely well. Limo was on time and traffic to Heathrow much lighter than expected so arrived really early, which turned out to be a good thing as it gave us more time in the new lounge. This was my first visit since phase one of the renovation opened and I absolutely loved it.

Wasnt too busy and service was incredibly attentive. Our server was fabulous and checked back with us regularly, seemingly determined to keep my wineglass full. Which is probably why I cant remember exactly what it was I ate, other than it was delicious. Husband had some gravlax from the deli counter and a grilled chicken sandwich, which was apparently good.

Id pre-booked a haircut for husband and a facial for me, which was a good thing as a lot of guests were being turned away at the appointments desk. Recognised the therapist from previous visits. Great facial and she took me on a little tour around the new spa. Id thought the jacuzzi was a cute idea but something Id never use, but its tucked away and private enough that I would have considered it if Id had a swimsuit with me.

Lounge was now quite busy, theres definitely a lack of seating at peak times. The coat check is a nice idea but when the flight was called a huge queue immediately formed to retrieve stuff and it took the two harried staff quite a while to clear the traffic jam.

By the time wed hiked to the gate there was no line to board so straight on and quickly settled into 6 & 7 K.

Took off on time and crew started making the rounds. Not keen on the new bags, they seem to have removed most of the useful stuff ie moisturiser or maybe thats just a girl thing. Didnt see the CSD or Carlos.

No work to do on flight so settled in for V:Port marathon. TV choices looked exactly the same as my last flight, back in June, but can never watch too much Alan Partridge.

Menu seemed pretty limited soup or salad and then chicken, steak or lasagne. I dont expect much from plane food but this was pretty dire. The soup was a lukewarm and flavourless green sludge and the chicken was so dry it was virtually inedible. Husband ordered steak, which was equally bad. Skipped dessert as neither of the two options looked interesting. No sparkling water available after the first drinks service but had several refills of the sauvignon blanc, which was really good.

There was no second service round. I recalled from previous flights an afternoon tea being served prior to arrival but the crew just came round about an hour before landing to ask if we wanted anything else.

The idea of a Freedom menu is great in theory but when that question is asked by crew in such a way that implies they expect the answer to be no it doesnt really feel like Freedom. Much the same as the Goodnight flights where the service seems to be set up to encourage you to go to sleep as soon as possible.

Anyway, having skipped most of dinner some sort of tea would have been nice at that point, but nothing really snackish on the menu and nothing left out on the bar.

Hadnt expected an in-flight treatment having already had a facial in the lounge. Even though flight was busy was called for a massage a few hours in, which was nice.

Im a longstanding Virgin fan but it does feel like they really are letting themselves down with the increasingly dire catering. Overall could see little difference between the variety and quality of catering offered to that in a typical Y cabin. Seems others felt the same - as we stood in the aisles preparing to disembark I overheard a conversation spring up amongst passengers about the dreadfulness of the inflight food. Overnight it doesnt really matter but when youre stuck in a seat for eight hours on a daytime flight the quality of things like entertainment and food become more important than they probably should.

Overall, a bit of a disappointment. Lounge and UCS were both great but the rest of the inflight service was all a bit blah and didnt do anything to convince my husband not to favour BA.

Very odd that they did not serve a snack prior to landing in NYC.
Was it on the menu ? Maybe you just had to ask for it.

Lots of complaints about VS food even in UC to the extent that I am fairly used to it that I now eat in the lounge prior to flight. Ex-LHR, the food is normally good though. Ex-LAX, its not worth bothering. However, I would expect the other in-flight service to be above average. Even when the CSD did not have time to come around to chat to everyone in UC, she took to the trouble to introduce herself while serving the wine. CSD was handing out Carlos to those she had spoken to but left a stack of the booklets at the bar for others to take a copy themselves.

The interesting concept of VS UC is that I think they are trying to replicate the business lounge concept - help yourself or ask the FAs not the table service you would expect from a traditional business class service.

Don't recall exactly what the options were addition to the dinner menu, but they were pretty limited - maybe three other items at most, one of which was a baked potato (!). But they all looked like alternatives to dinner rather than snacks/afternoon tea. Odd there was nothing on the bar either.

Food in the LHR Clubhouse was excellent though, so best option would certainly be to eat there if you had the time. Different story at the JFK lounge. Bit of a fiasco last time we were there, with most things 'off'. Server explained that kitchen often runs out for the last flight. Probably shouldn't have shared that with us but he was obviously embarrassed that they had so little to offer.

Didn't realise until after flight that we hadn't been offered Carlos, which was a shame as there's usually something interesting in there.

Forgot to mention amusing scene at the FastTrack security gate. Bunch of guys in suits tried to cut the line whilst barking into cellphones. Bit of a fuss when they were turned away by the guard, as apparently not eligible. Turned up in the Clubhouse later though. What status/ticket combo would get you into the lounge but not through FastTrack?

Ah, the VS9 is one of the shorter length VS sectors where you do get the 'lighter bites' selection - usually a sandwich of some sort, sometimes a baked potato, and other hot snacks. They can be used as a substitute in the main meal, or as midflight snacks. It's sometimes a bone of contention among V-Flyers that these don't get loaded on all flights!

The VS53 (the 2010 LHR-BOS flight which operated last summer) also carried this type of menu as well, though I could have sworn there was a 'before landing' service as well when I last flew it - but it wasn't afternoon tea (because it wasn't afternoon)!

Occasionally I've had to ask for the fruit or snack selection to be brought out to the bar, or replenished, but the VS crew don't seem to mind being asked/reminded. As for the chocolate selection, it's really taken a nosedive recently, you're not missing much.

Cheers,
Mike

To be honest, from what I've read in this thread and others regarding UC food, I'd be more inclined to request a Y meal. At least there you generally guaranteed to get a hot dish of pasta/chicken etc without all these fancy bits that UC meals seem to come with. I couldn't see myself ordering something and then finding out I'm wasting 3/4 of it due to it being some salad covered in oil or whatever.
Everyone here should get together and mass mail Virgin about their UC
food quality...perhaps a load of emails/letters in one go rather than one or two every month may make them sit up and take notice.

Probably not too bad an idea, xenole. From what we're reading in the majority of TRs, something really does need to be done to get UC food back up to standard.

And let's not forget - it used to be so damn good, didn't it? I remember my first experience of UC when we were upgraded coming back from BGI back in '99 (when UC was upstairs!). Had one of the best ever fillet steaks, medium-rare and delish. And the lamb shanks from last year(ish)? Wonderful fall-off-the-bone hunk of carnivore's delight. We pay enough for it when flying UC and I for one what the good stuff back!

Originally posted by mdvipond
Had one of the best ever fillet steaks, medium-rare and delish. And the lamb shanks from last year(ish)? Wonderful fall-off-the-bone hunk of carnivore's delight. We pay enough for it when flying UC and I for one what the good stuff back!

Indeed! I've had 2 fantastic steaks in Upper before - both medium and the last one with a lovely blue cheese sauce which was heavenly. Very sad to hear that the present experiences are so bad [:#] I'm concerned that after my good experiences my next Upper experience will be a real let down.... I've bought my parents Upper tickets to Barbados next January and have been getting more and more worried that it's not going to be a patch on my previous experiences which made me buy them tickets on Virgin in the first place.

I certainly think that Virgin would listen more to a group than to individuals - although there have been many TR's where people have complained, the 'boilerplate' response being issued when people complain suggest this doesn't presently register on VS managements radar as a problem.

To be honest, from what I've read in this thread and others regarding UC food, I'd be more inclined to request a Y meal

Imagine the shock on the faces of the crew!



Regards,

David.

This is why I am concerend about our trip in three weeks time, as unlike a few on here I pay for my UC tix myself. If the food/service has gone down, then there are other airlines which fly the UK-USA route who I will choose to spend my own cash on, especially as at least one other now has bed seats and an excellent food reputation regardless of their catering problems of this year. [:#][:(!]

COME ON VS< DON'T LET ME DOWN!! [V][V]

Alan: Are we talking BA Club re. beds 'n' good grub?

Back in May Pix did a service level reviewthat analysed the scores that V-Flyers give VS in their TR's. For UC food this showed the score decending from an average of 77% to 71% in the previous 6 months. Even this small drop caused some concern amongst members, and a hope was expressed that VS would take note.

The current trends are analysed here. For UC food the 3 month average rating is 57% - only just above average and down 20% on where it was a year ago. Or in other words the food has gone from quite [:p] to pretty much [:$] according to flyers here.

For the VS lurkers here, Hello!

Originally posted by sailor99
Back in May Pix did a service level reviewthat analysed the scores that V-Flyers give VS in their TR's. For UC food this showed the score decending from an average of 77% to 71% in the previous 6 months. Even this small drop caused some concern amongst members, and a hope was expressed that VS would take note.

The current trends are analysed here. For UC food the 3 month average rating is 57% - only just above average and down 20% on where it was a year ago. Or in other words the food has gone from quite [:p] to pretty much [:$] according to flyers here.

For the VS lurkers here, Hello!

I think another Service Level Reviews thread in General would be in order then - 6 months of data up to May 2005, and we've had another 6 months since then. The previous data is in the thread so I'll do a comparison of todays data.

David.

Originally posted by mdvipond
Alan: Are we talking BA Club re. beds 'n' good grub?

I don't like toadvertise 'the Dark (Green) Side' but, yes.

I've compiled the 12 month statistics on Upper Class and posted them in General Discussion here.

David.

[Scrooge]

Thanks for that Dave,this was one of the topic's that was discused in length during the recent Vegas trip,as a whole the food was found to be good,to very good,so maybe VS is getting it's act toegether.

One thing that is not considered very often on here is using Air New Zealand (before I get flammed to death I know it been raised but just not as mush as going over to BA)yes you do have to be on the right route,but you get a UCS,great food and good staff,for the same cost a VS,you also get mileage and TP's.It's something we are looking as with Alan we pay for most of our trips out of our on pockets,so I guess we are more likely to say not again after one bad flight.

Let's hope VS is fixing it's food problem,it a shame they picked a time when BA was having it's own food issues to cut back,they had a chance to show alot of people what they had been missing,but,well frankly,they screwed the pooch and figured saving a couple of $$ was better idea than winning over a bunch of new pax..way to go bean counters[n]

I do agree that the UC food is DIRE based on my LHR-JNB-LHR trip this last week. Outbound we ate in the Club House due to the 9pm departure - excellent service, food and drink - UCS seats are great for sleep but, well, take getting used to.
We limited the food post take-off to cheese and wine which was fine BUT the breakfast was DIRE. A v.v. small fruit plate and a totally inedible 'warm bagel' had to be sent back. Foul!
Returning to LHR we had no time for Dinner in the Club House so ate on the plane. Big mistake but no choice! Chicken, dauphenoise potatoes and greens were basically Economy standard on a china plate! V.v. poor. Breakfast was limited to a bcon roll, which was fine and a proper breakfast in Revivals, which was excellent. It HAS put me off VS UC for now and I long for the true quality of, say, Continental's BusinessFirst catering - inflight meals like they should be - an event! But I suppose time will heal?? Let's see.

Originally posted by AlanA
This is why I am concerend about our trip in three weeks time, as unlike a few on here I pay for my UC tix myself. If the food/service has gone down, then there are other airlines which fly the UK-USA route who I will choose to spend my own cash on, especially as at least one other now has bed seats and an excellent food reputation regardless of their catering problems of this year. [:#][:(!]

COME ON VS< DON'T LET ME DOWN!! [V][V]

I also paid for my recent Upper Class Ticket to Orlando and after the experience would think twice about doing it again.

The suite aside there seemed very little difference between Upper Class service & Premium Economy service upstairs.

No Carlos, No FSM visit, IFE not working correctly, and long periods of having to move to the Galley to get water etc ... due to no staff around in the cabin.

If you read Ade99's recent trip report it seems to be a familar tale out of Gatwick, and not just restricted to my flight.

As Alan says Virgin Atlantic take note : There's more than one way to across the atlantic these days. If you don't look after you're passengers, another airline will.

After this flight I wrote what I thought was a quite constructive letter about the lapses on this flight and submitted it through the website.

I've today received a standard 'apologise for any disappointment' form email. No attempt to address any of the issues I'd raised and no bonus miles, which runs contrary to others experiences from other postings on this site.

As a longstanding gold I'm a little irritated that Virgin seem so unconcerned about customer service. Could it be that the US customer service team are less responsive than those in the UK?

Never had a deal of joy with feedback submitted online I have found a real letter works wonders, most of the time.

That's sad news Penelope.

What is the point of being a Gold customer if you don't get great service from ALL areas of the airline? I would have been highly miffed not to get a decent response after giving them my business.

What is going on at Virgin these days?

Will you be flying BA from now on or giving VS another chance (which is, possibly, what they rely on?)

Originally posted by penelope
Could it be that the US customer service team are less responsive than those in the UK?

TBH, I've had very few dealings with the US team post-flight (and on the couple of occasions I've dealt with them pre-flight they've been good) - but I can say that (in my experience/opinion) the UK Premier Team is outstanding. That said, sometimes I've found that a 'standard' reply via email can be followed up a little while later with a 'proper' response (or reply via letter) - even though there's no mention that it'll be followed up....[ii]

Suggestions? Well, like JP says, maybe put your concerns via snail-mail - or alternatively ring the Au line when the UK will be working rather than the US?

Hope you have better success - let us know how you get on.

Cheers

Michael

I also paid for my recent Upper Class Ticket to Orlando and after the experience would think twice about doing it again.

The suite aside there seemed very little difference between Upper Class service & Premium Economy service upstairs.

No Carlos, No FSM visit, IFE not working correctly, and long periods of having to move to the Galley to get water etc ... due to no staff around in the cabin.

After normally flying in Premium, I took the leap and flew Upper to MCO recently. I have to say that I found the service to be superb and the Cabin Crew were constantly topping up our drinks. They didn't disappear at all!! The service was so good, I would definately want to fly this way all the time and would now struggle to go back to the Premium cabin

Penelope, this is exactly what happened when we complained about our flight in October. I think as suggested you should write via snail-mail summarising the major problems and more importantly that you're really upset with the blanket response.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I resent my letter to UK customer services and also replied to the sender of the form letter expressing my disappointment in the paucity of the response.

Got an e-mail today from the US address telling me 10,000 miles had been credited to my account as a 'customer service gesture'. Still no attempt to address any of the issues I'd raised but better than a poke in the eye. Be interesting to see if the UK end respond differently.

In answer to Daisy's question I'll be sticking with VS for now - on an overnight flight the bed is just too damn comfortable not to. But on day flights I'd happily switch. I flew Continental recently and was quite shocked at how good their inflight service was - really great food and excellent staff.