This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Getting on board felt slightly chaotic as we were a little delayed but eventually we were allowed to board and I was one of the first people to board UC. There was a member of cabin crew in there and while she said hello when I sat down she then ignored me and offered all the men who boarded after me a drink. Eventually realising I was not going to be offered a drink I went to the bar and asked for a Mimosa which was provided.
Once we took off, after another slight delay, the flight was incredibly bumpy. The pilot did give an explanation on the tannoy, and a couple of updates. It was also quite a rocky landing, but obviously Virgin can't be held responsible for the weather.
The next issue occurred when I realised that my seat entertainment was not working. The sound did not work, so I was given a spare headset but that did not work either. Then we realised that quite a few of the other passengers were having the same problem, so the cabin crew found some ipad minis which they said had all the same films and TV on it. This was not quite true as there were some films advertised in the Vera magazine which were not on the ipad including a couple I had earmarked to watch. The ipad mini was also about a third of the size of the proper screen and it was tricky juggling it but I did not want to leave my table out for the whole night. The fact that Virgin have actually provided these ipads means that they know or strongly suspect that there is a fault with the entertainment.
Not only did the seat entertainment not work, but the seat mechanism itself was very shaky and did not raise or lower properly. In fact when I pressed the button to raise it to a more upright position, it went down further. And at least once it randomly raised without me pressing anything. I suspect there is a significant fault with the electrics on the plane that is not being resolved.
The dinner menu was very disappointing - starters were garlic & cauliflower soup, tuna nicoise or a avocado salad. The main courses were beef tips with portobello gnocchi, chicken & mushroom teriyaki, mushroom risotto or gravadlax salad. None of these sounded appealing at the start of a 10 hour flight. There was one type of bread roll on offer, white bread which I declined. I had wanted soup until I saw what type of soup, so opted instead for just a main course of risotto. This was not so much risotto as boiled rice with some fried mushrooms and shaved parmesan on top. I ate the mushrooms and left the rice. One of the cabin crew asked me if the food was OK, and I said it had not appealed but I would really like some cheese and biscuits. The smallest chunk of blue cheese appeared alongside a slightly larger lump of cheddar and brie. I guess there must have been a shortage of cheese that evening.
For breakfast I asked for porridge. It was advertised as maple syrup porridge but there was no plain porridge, so I ordered this and it was excessively sweet. Luckily there was still some fruit on the bar so I had a tangerine instead.
Eventually dinner was cleared and passengers settled down for the night or so I thought. The lights in the cabin kept going on and off then on again. Eventually the senior member of cabin crew came into UC and explained that there was a problem with the lights, just in UC, and she could not switch them off. She had been in touch with engineers on the ground who had sent through some detailed explanations but the problem could not be resolved. Then the captain appeared in person to apologise and said they were still working to resolve it. I am not sure how long it took, it was definitely a while as I was under my bed cover with an eye mask on but that was not really helping. However it did get resolved but then there were no lights at all, not even a night light by the bar area. The individual seat lights are too dim to read successfully by so I could neither read nor enjoy a film once the lights had gone out.
I am not a great sleeper, especially so on planes, but probably had about two hours sleep maximum. I went to the galley a couple of times to ask for a mug of tea but felt all the time as if I was intruding and it was going to be too much trouble. The three members of cabin crew who were most often in the galley were having an intense conversation that seemed to go on for most of the flight, and I felt as if I were intruding on the couple of occasions I asked for tea. And on one occasion I asked for a mug of tea which just never appeared, again I had clearly interrupted their personal conversation. To me, it felt as if the passengers were an annoying irritant rather than customers who may require a little attention.
Throughout the flight the PE passengers were using not only the toilet in their cabin but the two toilets between PE and UC. This was especially problematic in the morning when all three toilets were occupied by PE passengers who were also queuing by the doors of both toilets. I chose the wrong one to queue by as the person in there was still in there 20 minutes after I first stood near the door, and had clearly had a wet shave when I did get in there as the sink etc were filthy.
I have always been a fan of Virgin but now Gatwick is that much further than east from my home than Heathrow and this last flight was just not up to scratch, my next Vegas trip may well be on BA. And my next South Africa flight might also be BA, however I have not yet had such a bad experience on any of the Virgin Heathrow flights.
