V-Flyer

Just been served sparkling wine on boarding the VS7 and told that champagne is not on board any flights anymore, OK it's the English one but it's sweet and sickly not biscuit dry! Did I miss something or is this a fib?

Boo -- surely cant be true?

I had champagne earlier this month on the 250/251, did they say when this kicked in?

Enjoy LA

Hi Slinky

Champagne was available on VS23 last week & VS20 on Wednesday.

To quote from the menu (please excuse slight paraphrasing)

"Champagne (Gardet Brut) available on all aircraft except our 787s ......

Sparkling Wine (Meonhill from Hampshire) available exclusively on our 787 aircraft"

Hope this helps!

ScoobySu

OK, who wants to open a book on the first post - other than this one - to refer to "bean counter"

Thanks ScoobySu I am very familiar with what has been said - I have however just been specifically told that it was a trial on the 787s and is now being rolled out on all flights.

It's icky ... Too sweet and sickly for my tastes!

No problem Slinky - I agree that it will be too sweet. Hopefully it's not true

Hope you have a good flight

slinky09 wrote:Thanks ScoobySu I am very familiar with what has been said - I have however just been specifically told that it was a trial on the 787s and is now being rolled out on all flights.

It's icky ... Too sweet and sickly for my tastes!

Trial as in customer feedback or trial as in monetary savings? [presumably nobody asked for a second glass] --- sounds very much like bean counters to me [ref pjh ]

Wow, VS manages to move Upper down to PE... Does PE now lose their sparkling wine as well?

There was me thinking that they'd not cut things recently.

There has been no notice to suggest this to anyone internallyand I was user the impression Gardet was to replace the english sparkling when stocks are finished.

As a bean counter myself I should point out not all of us are penny pinchers! It's all about the ROI not the cost.....

A very odd decision. There is no sparkling anything that is a substitute for champagne as any fule kno.

I do prefer Prosecco... but will slum it with Champers if need be ;-)

I wonder whether Virgin will go for the BA line of "customers told us that they wanted XYZ appropriate for the time of day" / "customer feedback told us that customers ..."

I didn't like the sparkling wine they served on my last flight and I hope they don't roll it out!
There's no substitute for champagne...
Even prosecco would be a better choice imo

Surely they are deceiving UC clients whilst they are still saying online :
"On boarding the plane we'll greet you with a preflight glass of Gardet Brut Premier Cru Champagne or Bucks Fizz....."

I know arriving at your destination is the most important part - safe and hopefully on time- but promoting an experience that fails to deliver is sending out all the wrong messages. Makes you wonder what else is not going to be provided ?

We had Lanson out in Feb, back in March.
Sainsbury currently have it at £20 a bottle for info of any fans.
Personally I'm quite happy with Prosecco as long as it is quite dry. Don't like sweet wines whether they sparkle or not.

Dick D

This is 100% incorrect having checked with multiple sources at VS. The switch to Gardet was only finalized on all flights at the end of March. Lanson is still available in some lounges.

There are no plans to roll out that 787 muck across the fleet.

It's such a shame seeing as BA now have a choice of 3 different champagne types across the whole of the club world offering.

I'd love to see Redhewds avaliable on flights... That would be a winner for me!

I was on BA yesterday, and they were serving blue Monopoo... yuck!
Stuck to the sauv-b

SQ is the king-of-the-hill for champers... Dom or Krug? It's the toughest decision you'll make that day.....

BA have sparkling wine in Economy, Virgin charge £12 for Champagne.

Was the flight mis-catered? Or just lounges left with Champagne?

On the dreamliner you get the english sparkling.

I am something of a fizzy wine drinker. My friend is somewhat a professional wine drinker (I mean professional she is not an alcoholic- is somewhat well known )

I dont like Lanson or rather recent Lanson. I did like the Lanson special they had last summer which was lighter than typical. IMHO the English sparkling I had was better than Lanson. They did an English blind tasting tasting for us a while ago and I have to say I was rather surprised at the outcome.

My view is that most drinkers wouldnt know if it was champagne or not based on the taste. There are many sparkling wines that outweigh a mediocre champagne. Some of the french cremants are fabulous.

Sadly most people think that champagne is all the same. It isn't. You wouldnt like all red wines or all white wines so no-one would like all champagnes,

BA 1st and CCR have laurent perrier grand siècle- my current favourite

Barnaby100 wrote:On the dreamliner you get the english sparkling.

I am something of a fizzy wine drinker. My SIL is somewhat a professional wine drinker (I mean professional she is not an alcoholic- she is somewhat well known )

I dont like Lanson or rather recent Lanson. I did like the Lanson special they had last summer which was lighter than typical. IMHO the English sparkling I had was better than Lanson. My SIL did an English blind tasting tasting for us a while ago and I have to say I was rather surprised at the outcome.

My view is that most drinkers wouldnt know if it was champagne or not based on the taste. There are many sparkling wines that outweigh a mediocre champagne. Some of the french cremants are fabulous.

Sadly most people think that champagne is all the same. It isn't. You wouldnt like all red wines or all white wines so no-one would like all champagnes,

BA 1st and CCR have laurent perrier grand siècle- my current favourite

I totally agree. A good Cava or Prosecco beats a cheap Champagne.
But, there is the psychological feel good factor of drinking Champagne on a special occasion and for me, sitting in the Upper Class cabin is one of those occasions.
Dick D

I concur with the above. I'm lucky to live near the Camel Valley vineyards and their wines are superb, particularly the sparkling. Better than some good champagnes. But, I do like a glass of decent champagne on board. It somehow befits the occasion of sitting in my UC suite.

If they do start putting the Camel Valley sparkling on then that is a step in the right direction. But it just feels to me that the underlying message here is "cost cutting". I don't fly Virgin again until November and for all I know the replacement is much better. But there is something about champagne that says "class". Any event I go to, and I do appreciate there is a huge variance in quality - and dare I say it "snobberry" - in the label and therefore the taste, but if they start serving "subsitutes" then eyebrows are raised for sure. I think the same applies here.

It just seems like saving a penny but it costs a pound.

Post in haste, repent at leisure ...

Well the FSM who told me that, then served champagne later in the flight.

Message of convenience over fact perhaps but it was wrong, champagne is definitely on board non-787 flights (and thanks to the person from Crawley Towers who also shared this with me in parallel)!