PE priority disembarking

Hello

The last two times my parents have flown from MAN to MCO they have been PE on upper deck but haven’t been allowed off ahead of the downstairs economy cabin. Once upper class and PE from main deck have disembarked they seem to of been forgotten about? Is this just bad luck or is this common practice now if you sit upstairs in PE?

I think this is just bad luck - my last (and admittedly only time) in the bubble, we disembarked after downstairs PE & Upper.

Definitely bad luck and an error on the cabin crew's part. The normal procedure is Upper Class and downstairs PE first, then upstairs PE and Economy (no particular order with the latter it seems given PE is at the front and the stairs are at the back and difficult to police), then the remainder of Economy downstairs. Mind you, after one flight the bubble was allowed off at the same time as Upper Class and downstairs PE.

I'd have been hacked off if that happened to me given the reputation of the immigration queues at MCO.

I'd say definitely unlucky as well. Disembarking should proceed in the order already described above and in my experience on the 747, it nearly always does in my experience. My last trip home on VS76 the other day is the only example I can think of where it did't happen. As I was exiting from upper, it was a free for all between the remaining upper pax, people coming downstairs and economy downstairs. I'm pretty sure it will have been because there was a crew member taken ill during the flight and so they were 2 or 3 crew members (including 1 or 2 providing the ill crew member assistance) short during disembarkation. I think a slightly disorganised disembarkation procedure is understandable and the least of everyones worries; hopefully the crew member has recovered.

Thanks for the replies I’m going with them next year and we will be selecting our seats next week - my mum wants upstairs and my dad is pushing for downstairs so I’m the deciding vote haha x

From a crew perspective each day is different.

The aim is always to disembark J/W downstairs first followed by the entire upper deck.

Unfortunately during my last few flights the upper deck has been incredibly slow in disembarking presumably whilst people gather bags etc and there's been quite a few gaps and it's not been possible to hold economy any longer so in this instance we filter upstairs and downstairs together but I would always pause downstairs when upstairs are there and ready.

I wouldn't let this affect your decision of where to sit though everyone loves the bubble and it won't be around forever!

Thanks for the reply good to get an inside perspective!

It’s J and W downstairs first then the right hand side of economy are held back so upper deck pax can come down the stairs and disembark with the left hand side of economy at the same time. You can’t hold the while of economy back while you wait for upper deck pax to sort out their bags etc from wardrobe at top of the stairs it would really really slow down disembarkation and delay the return flight. Plus you have economy pax upstairs too. It’s the quickest and fairest way to do it I’m afraid

Only flown once in a Virgin 747 when it was a replacement aircraft some years ago on the Heathrow- Boston route.

Sat in UC on the top deck and our experience was on arrival at Logan, disembarkation was pretty chaotic. The PE cabin behind us were allowed to leave before us and by the time we took the stairs to the lower deck, the Economy passengers were being allowed out through the door. We were a little miffed....but not too much.

On reflection I think it would be darned awkward for the crew to allow the 20 or so UC folks to walk through the PE cabin and insist the PE passengers stayed in their seats. And maybe on this particular flight , when the original AIrbus for our flight had been switched to a 747 only 24 hours before, the crew might not have been fully trained on disembarkation priorities .

As I said previously, it was a slight annoyance. It is nice to get into that Immigration queue....especially at Logan !..... somewhere near the front and it is part of the reason you pay the extra dosh for but not enough to make a fuss in my opinion.