Happy new on-board service today

As someone who regularly flies Economy (or Premium), I think this is fantastic.

I regularly keep hold of my desert past the point when they collect the trays - now I have one less thing to juggle.

For years, VS was different and innovative and a lot of the complaints on here over the past two years have been about the missing sparkle. Well they have tried something different and I really hope it works.

I agree, Moley, I love to fly VS and look forward to the extra special sparkle coming back

I'm on the CPT run in UC on the 27th....I'll see if I can do a TR with a special emphasis on the meal service if no one else does it before me, although it will be my 1st. UC experience so I have nothing to compare it with.

Well, other than new crockery/different salt and pepper, you won't be seeing much difference in J - the major changes are in the economy cabin...

New equipment came in today - new seats and dining experience will come in from Spring next year

A huge well done to VS for bringing back the sparkle in economy. I agree with Neil, let's give this a chance. I welcome these creative, fresh changes to the service delivery and indeed with more improvements coming over the next six months or so in UC - these are exciting times for us VS fans.

All the best VS with this and thank you for listening.

Jon

[honey lamb]

It sounds a bit like the service I experienced on my first VS flight in economy way back in 1997 but with plenty of add-ons. That flight was an overnight to JNB so there wasn't an ice cream run as the flight left after 9pm but I do remember having menus on board and a drinks run - although the latter might have been a sop to us since BD with whom we had flown on a connecting flight had screwed up right royally. To cut a long story short we took off from LHR minus our tickets which had been taken by the VS ground staff to check our baggage tags and, even in those early days and without the benefit of VF, the crew quickly realised that a restorative G&T was in order and of course they couldn't ignore my sister who was travelling with us. ):

Not sure how much more it adds, but I certainly appreciated the break down

http://blog.vtravelled.com/virgin-atlantics-fresh-new-take-on-plane-dining/

If the economy meal trays are being reduced in size because the desserts are bulk loaded and served separately, then there must be quite a fuel saving if the number of catering trollies will be reduced.

Admittedly I flew under some rather sad circumstances from LAX to LHR today but I wasn't impressed at all. In Economy...

It all seems to be for show - there is certainly no improvement in the meals - indeed I think it was worse. The cost of the menus, fancy cart cloths would be better spent on the food!

The salad was smaller and with no dressing. Main course seemed smaller too. Pudding was separate and by the time the poor crew had managed to serve it I no longer wanted it. No ice cream either but I can't recall if that used to be on night flights? Breakfast looks like a McD take out in a box - cold, OJ, croissant, yoghurt. The hot ones weren't great but much better than the new offering.

The crew were also saying that they really couldn't do it consistently in the menu order so some people were getting there dinner with no drinks and others drinks but no dinner - seemed to take much longer overall. On finals 2 crew sat near me were discussing the best way to resolve the issue - for the passengers benefit rather than making their life easier.

I have to say that the crew I encountered today were great - one picked up very quickly that I was upset (I was spending a lot of time stood in the aft galley area as feeling rather restless) and obviously passed on the reason to the others all very very supportive. If you read this thank you. (VS8).

W.

Consider my appetite "wheted"....

Be ready to have your whelm to be undered though !

Lets give it a chance before we start bashing it.

Neil - twas simply a reflection that VS often over promise and under-deliver.

Something borne out in PilotWolf's comments from experiencing the service

I'm not sure if this new arrangement was partially implemented on the VS19 to SFO today. (I was in PE)

- No menu (even in PE!)
- Lunch was still the same (3 courses on one tray). The crew remembered to do the hot rolls at the same time as serving the meal, not half an hour later, which was good
- The ice cream service was proper ice cream tubs of Haagen Daaz, like VS flights of old (not the horrid Asda Value choc-ices, which will hopefully never return)
- "high tea" was on a tray not in a box, and was a sandwich and scone (with jam and clotted cream) - alas only a tiny plastic spoon was supplied, and you cannot slice a scone with a spoon...

My first thought on reading they were going to serve the meals in two courses was "oh no, even longer trapped beneath a tray table", but if it can be done in the same time I don't see a big issue. I have a sneaky suspicion cabin crew occasionally deliberately go-slow on collecting meal trays to keep the self-loading cargo in its place...

Oh, and we had a go-around on approach to SFO today, allegedly due to an aircraft ahead going too slow...

Mike

[Neil]

The new meal service is only in Y so far, your PE experience is the old standard PE service. There are likely to be changes in the next few months to the meal service in all cabins, but they have been announced yet for W/J classes.

Thanks,
Neil

Is that pretzels I see at 00:21?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GJ7iqsu ... _embedded#!

Is that pretzels I see at 00:21?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GJ7iqsu ... _embedded#!

pretzels have been back for a while now

No pretzels on my last 4 or 5 flights unless I asked for them and then got several bags!

W.

No pretzels on my last 4 or 5 flights unless I asked for them and then got several bags!

W.

So they better have pretzels on our flight tomorrow otherwise the wife will not be happy v(

my last 2 flights to Boston in Aug & Sept we got them

Yeh, we got pretzels on Orlando flight in Feb (PE) and Vegas flight in March (PE).

We didn't get them in UC on Vegas flights in October - but my wife asked if they had any, and not only did CC get some - they opened about 10 packets into a dish! WIN!

Not bad with olives and crisps....



Flying on Sunday to Orlando in PE - will see what's up then...

Cas

Can you make sure that you don't run out of beer on the upper deck on to LAS flights too please?

Pretzels are still available in both PE and Y.

Upper have their own snacks which at the moment is a choice of crisps or olives.

[preiffer]

Pretzels are still available in both PE and Y.

Upper have their own snacks which at the moment is a choice of crisps or olives.

Just a shame they're not Monster Munch. That's a quality crisp

Pretzels are still available in both PE and Y.

Upper have their own snacks which at the moment is a choice of crisps or olives.

Just a shame they're not Monster Munch. That's a quality crisp

Pickled onion flavour? That's the only flavour of Monster Munch worth having!

Pretzels are still available in both PE and Y.

Upper have their own snacks which at the moment is a choice of crisps or olives.

Just a shame they're not Monster Munch. That's a quality crisp

Pickled onion flavour? That's the only flavour of Monster Munch worth having!

Isn't the quality of the air after an eleven hour flight bad enough already :0

I'm doing Y to BGI in Dec - let's see if it's implemented by then!!!

Had Prezels in PE to MCO 27 Oct - I love those things, can't explain why!

At Easter, asked for some in UC and got a huge bowl as well!!!!

I got pretzels on my PE flight here on October 11th - still got them if anyone wants them

Katie

Had Prezels in PE to MCO 27 Oct - I love those things, can't explain why!

You can buy them in supermarkets in giant bags!

Plenty of pretzels available on my flight to St Lucia on Sunday. I must say though, I was very underwhelmed with the whole Y meal service, it seems to be all spin and no substance.

Half of the Y cabin were given out the evening menus by mistake and the CC didn't pick up on this until they actually started serving. The meal itself was ok, but in my view no better than any other Y meal I've had on recent flights. By the time the dessert was served i didnt really want it - they're so small it would make far more sense to have them on the tray with the meal, although I do like the fact that the tray is smaller and doesn't take up your whole table.

The High Tea served in a box consisted of a cheese and onion sandwich and scone with cream and jam which was actually quite good.

At the end of the day I know this is Y, but from the way VS have marketed it I was expecting something a bit more. I hope the improvements to PE and UC are more noticeable.

Matt