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#923002 by stuart_f
21 Jun 2016, 16:58
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Havana Airport

We took a car to the airport and were dropped outside “Door 1” of the international terminal which is exactly in front of the Virgin check-in desks. This probably had more to do with our driver reading the luggage tags on our bags and applying some thought than our broken attempts to explain we were flying Virgin in Spanish. Goodness only knows what we actually said to him…

Once inside the airport we were slightly taken aback to discover 16 people in the Upper Class queue. This was particularly perplexing as there are only 14 seats and we had 2 of them! Eventually it transpired that a Saga coach had just unloaded and every single one of them (they were flying PE) had decided to join that queue since it was shorter. A ground agent dressed in Virgin uniform was doing nothing at all to sort it out despite it being obvious they were in the wrong place. It might sound really petty for me to get annoyed about this but if you are going to advertise a separate Upper Class check-in desk as part of the product then you should provide it!

Once we finally checked-in there’s a serious lack of signs to point you towards the departure gates, you sort of have to take a leap of faith and assume it’s somewhere behind the check-in area. Only once you are within sight of the passport check itself does a sign appear. This area is also jammed with whole families congregating in front of and blocking the entry to departures - not moving at all. I have absolutely no idea why. It was as if they were waiting for someone to arrive through departures - very odd behaviour.

After passport control (have your exit visa ready) you pass though security where the whole process seemed very lax. No electronics had to be removed from bags and no mention of liquids needing to be taken out either. I had a laptop, 2 kindles, an iPad, 2 sets of headphones and changing cables for all of the above stuffed into my rucksack. It must have looked like a total mess on x-ray but nothing was said and off I went.
Down a short staircase after “security” and the entry to the VIP Salon is on the left. This differs from the main concourse area in that the air conditioning actually works.

There’s a reasonable selection of comfortable armchairs, free-pour spirits and a self-service fridge with a selection of beer, fruit juice, water and mixers in it. Dotted around the lounge were quite a few flat-screen TVs that had been tuned to the Euro 2016 matches giving the whole place quite a lively atmosphere.
That’s where the good points ended.

The food selection was just downright weird: sliced ham, dates, pineapple chunks and cream pastries. The bathroom was awful, let’s just say it looked and smelt like the entire crew of a drunken pirate ship had visited it in a force 9 storm. There wasn’t a clean surface anywhere. Urgh. >-(

I rate this as the second worst lounge I’ve ever been in – the number 1 spot goes to the lounge in Cancun (though I’ve yet to experience some of the Chinese airport horrors).

Boarding

Since the lounge wasn’t floating our boat we decided to head to the gate rather early in the hope of securing a glass of fizz on board. Outside the lounge the heat was oppressive and the gate had been divided into 2 lanes – Economy and Priority boarding which included Upper, Premium and Gold Card Holders. The line for Priority boarding was significantly longer than the Economy line. Either there were 100+ Gold card holders on this flight or something was amiss. Surreptitious glances at the boarding cards of those around us showed they were all in Economy. It seems that once people got wind that queues were not going to be enforced they just self-upgraded. This prompted a total DYKWIA moment and as we marched to the head of the line (skipping about 50 people), presented our boarding passes to the Virgin staffer and just said “Upper” We were on board in moments and thankfully out of the crazy heat of the gate area – unsurprisingly, we had the entire cabin to ourselves for a significant amount of time. Come on Virgin, it doesn’t cost anything extra to get a queue right, sort out your ground staff! >-(

Flight

Push-back was on time and the Captain reported stronger than expected tail winds that would have us reach Gatwick in a touch over 8 hours – nearly 90 minutes ahead of schedule. Once airborne drinks orders were taken – champagne please (naturally). Drinks were served to the entire cabin except Mrs F and I. 15 minutes later when G+T refills were offered to others in the cabin I got a bit miffed and headed to the bar to ask for 2 glasses of champagne assuming we had been forgotten. It turned out that they hadn’t forgotten but the inbound flight had ‘over-indulged’ and they were waiting for new bottles to chill. Fair enough, but it would only have taken 2 seconds to come over and tell us this rather than leaving us hanging.

When the bubbles arrived they were rich and toasty with a hint of vanilla (and still a little warm). Perhaps I had been too harsh on the Gardet in the past – this wasn’t half bad. The second glass was every bit as good and it was only when another top-up was offered did I discover that the outbound flight really had ‘over-indulged’ and every single bottle of Gardet had been drunk – we were being served Veuve Clicquot raided from the duty free trolley – no wonder it tasted so good!

Menus were distributed and orders taken. I did notice 2 people being given the ‘sorry we’ve run out’ talk a little later on. I still can’t understand why Virgin don’t introduce pre-ordering to sort this out.

With a much shorter flight than expected the crew did a good job in getting the food out quite quickly. I had the carrot and coriander soup which was ok, a little bland and could have been warmer.

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And the beef for the main. At some point this piece of beef had probably been a really excellent cut but it had been totally overcooked and was dry. The cabbage was very average but the tomato ragout was really excellent, plenty of punch to the flavours in there.

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It was cheese and crackers for me once again but this time my request for no stilton was ignored and the port was never offered.

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With dinner over the seats were converted to beds all though the cabin. Once again I struggle to understand the thin ‘mattress’. I get that it’s there for hygiene but it’s not fixed to the bed in any way and after you turn over once you end up wrapped in it. There must be a better design out there. The duvet, on the other hand, was great. Missing from this flight was any offer of a bottle of water – this is normally in the elastic storage strap but not today. Glasses of water were available but these are impractical for a quick drink if you wake up during the dark hours.

A short time later there was a crew announcement looking for, “Any passengers with medical qualifications to make themselves known to the FSM.” Mrs F sprang into action. Well, I say sprang. It was more like a corkscrew manoeuvre and she sought to detangle herself from the mattress before heading off to offer help.

The rest of flight was uneventful until breakfast time. Service started around 40 minutes before top-of-drop, rather later than normal and the whole service seemed very rushed as a result. This looks to be the result of losing the extra cabin crew member and having to serve the Premium Economy breakfast too.

The breakfast was, in a word, awful. Mrs F’s porridge was cold and her pain au raisin stale and hard. The coffee that had been requested on the breakfast card never materialised either. I had the corn flakes which were good (hard to get that wrong though) a croissant – crunchy outer and it disintegrated when you tried to cut it and cooked breakfast which was tasteless and very wet. I know it’s hard to do breakfast on an aircraft but with no arrivals lounge I really would hope VS could do better than this.

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It was also quite noticeable that a few of the crew were not particularly well turned out. One lady had the seam of her red skirt held together with a 4 inch length of white cotton stitching in the style of Frankenstein’s monster. Even if she ripped it on the outbound and didn’t have a spare she would have had 4 days in Havana to try and source a better fix than that! Standards do, sadly, seem to be on the decline.

Full Menus

This menu specifically says VS064 Jun Cycle on it so it may not correspond with any other inbound menu. Cheese and Port is also available on the menu I just didn't scan that page as it never changes.

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Last edited by stuart_f on 21 Jun 2016, 21:00, edited 2 times in total.
#923005 by whiterose
21 Jun 2016, 17:49
Stuart, thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed and interesting TR and with photos too, but what a disaster from start to finish. I assume you will have reported all this to Crawley Towers? Please let us know what they have to say.
#923008 by stuart_f
21 Jun 2016, 20:57
I filled in the KPMG Nunwood survey.

Edit to add:

They asked 3 questions in the post flight survey:
1. How was checkin?
2. How was the signage in the airport?
3. How was the lounge?

Given the suspiciously close alignment of the questions in the Nunwood survey and the the comments in my TR I'd suggest that nothing I've written is news to Crawly Towers.

Last month I was invited to visit Crawly Towers for a session with the KPMG Nunwood people about business travel. It was a lot of fun and they really seemed to want to act on the feedback. Can't wait to see if they implement any of the ideas our group came up with!
Last edited by stuart_f on 21 Jun 2016, 21:42, edited 2 times in total.
#923009 by ScoobySu
21 Jun 2016, 21:33
As white rose says thank you for the detailed review and photos but oh what a shame :-( It's worth doing the on-line feedback as well though
#923019 by buns
22 Jun 2016, 06:26
Stuart

Thanks you for such an engaging TR.

I suspect as Cuba hauls itself (with US involvement of course) into the 21st Century, some the quirky aspects of the Airport will soon disappear :-(

It does seem like the crew reductons are hitting the 747 Fleet hardest - Good Luck with making Crawley Towers understand

buns
#923020 by MoJoJo
22 Jun 2016, 07:32
Thanks for the review.

Your experience of Havana airport is one of the reasons I'm glad that VS have a new route into Varadero next year.

Make sure that feedback regards the crew gets to VS direct
#923056 by Tallguy
23 Jun 2016, 12:37
I'm flying to Havana with Virgin in December. I'll be in PE rather than UC sadly.

A couple of people have mentioned that Havana airport isn't up to much, however from your description it sounds worse than Luton.

Is there much to do in the airport? Do you know if the pay for use lounge still open? How bad is the temperature?

Any help or comments appreciated.

TIA.
#923061 by MoJoJo
23 Jun 2016, 13:44
THere is really not much at all to do in Havana airport departures area. There is a couple of shops, bars that offer snacks and drinks but it is basically one big area all the gates are in.

I think you can pay to access the lounge however as stuart_f noted it really is not up to much other than has aircon, a fridge with cold drinks, some weird snacks and very stinky toilets. Oh, and its own smoking room

Some photos of the lounge here http://www.loungeguide.net/Elegante-VIP-Salon-Havana-_aa_-?id=b00f1b5e6afcdd1342f8db74ceb7cbbe
#923062 by stuart_f
23 Jun 2016, 14:03
There's nothing in the airport pre-security (that I saw).

Post-security there's a small restaurant and a snack place, several souvenir stands that double up as duty free, the all-too-predictable rum shop and a cigar shop. Next to those is the money changing booth which, curiously, will change your leftover CUC into either USD or Euros but NOT into GBP despite them changing it the other way round! The shops in the airport all take USD and Euros in addition to card payments if you need.

Heat in the gate area was pretty much the same temperature as it was outside - there was no noticeable air con. Air con in the lounge worked and was a great relief.

The lounge is called the Elegante Salon VIP, if you are searching for it online be sure you are reading reviews for the one in T3. A lot of the reviews are showing pictures from the lounge in T2 which is for the US Charter flights. This is the right one http://www.loungeguide.net/Elegante-VIP ... 74ceb7cbbe if you see pictures of a curved bar that's T2.

No idea if you can pay to enter but the "invite" we had was just the letters VIP written on the boarding card in ballpoint pen!

Edit: Beaten to it by MoJoJo, at least we seem to be in agreement!
#923068 by MoJoJo
23 Jun 2016, 16:19
stuart_f wrote:
Edit: Beaten to it by MoJoJo, at least we seem to be in agreement!



And Havana airport, and how worse it is going to get with 20 additional flights a day from the US, is the other reason I am glad VS start a weekly flight into Varadero next April! Guess who has switched their flights they had already booked? Only have to endure it this October for hopefully the last time :cool:
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