VS006 MIA-LHR 1 Jan 07 (PE)

[mitchja]

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

VS006 MIA - LHR
B744 G-VBIG (Tinker Belle)
Premium Economy seat 72K

Well before long it was time to say goodbye to South Beach and head back to MIA. As I was on a V Hols booking my transport had already been pre-booked (received a call the day before from V Hols informing me of the pick-up time). I didn't book a car as from previous experience Miami Beach is a nightmare for parking.

Picked up at 15:30 and made the short 20 min trip to MIA concourse E. VS check-in was not busy with only 1 pax in front of me in the Upper line. having been checking Expertflyer a few days before I knew tonights flight was full.

Check-in was a nightmare with the agent seeming to not know what they where doing. I had to ask for the PE tag they put on my bag to be replaced with a J tag. This was only done after checking with a supervisor. I also had to ask for my Club America invite as well (again this had to go through a supervisor as well) [:(].

Once everything was sorted I had my way to the Club America lounge. Last time I was at MIA there was a seperate section of the lounge for smoking, this has now gone and VS just use lounge B. Smoking only possible outside the terminal building now. There's not many seats and it didn't take long to fill up. No food available other than a plate of biscuits. Not a lot of drinks either.

After a few trips back outside for a smoke it was time to make my way to gate E-8. Security was very quick and easy with no lines. The boarding gate area was very busy with VS pax everywhere. Found the priority line but boarding had not yet started. My passport and BC where checked and then the call was made for J, W and AU pax to board. Made my way up to seat 72K, no chance of swapping or even upgrading as this flight was 100% full in every class.

This was actually my first time in one of the Wash PE seats (other than the quick 10min stint I did before been upgraded on my way out). People are not wrong when they say how bad the Wash seats actually are. The IFE screen is utterly pointless as you can't see it once the seat in front reclines. The inflaitable seat cushions have all be replaced now with ordinary cushions. The table would not stay flat and I had to hold on to my glass of champers. Other pax where also having the same problem. One pax's table actually collapsed during his meal [:0]. The lumber support also wasn't working either. Roll on the new PE seats on the B744's (although I guess they wont be on the upper deck though [:?])

We pulled back on time at 19:45 and where in the air shortly afterwards getting great views of the South Beach area.

Seat belt sign shortly turned off and the drinks service soon started. [:?] Once again (for about the forth VS flight I've been on the crew appeared to be short staffed). On the Upper deck there was basically one crew for PE and another for J. Sevice was not good the entire flight as the crew where very rarely seen in the PE cabin and avery answer to questions and requests by pax was 'yes but in a minute or two'

No menus for PE and once again the food was not very hot. I wasn't at all impressed with any part of the new PE service and it most certainly was no way near a Premium service.

V:Port had nothing much different on it for Jan (not that I could watch the screen properly anyway)

Flight time was a quick 7 hrs and 90 mins before landing breakfast was served which consisted of a bowl of fruit and a muffin. Thankfully no sign of those nasty paper cups on this flight.

No much of a wait to get a landing slot at LHR and we were on the ground by 08:45. There appeared to be no crew stoping Y or W pax from getting off so it was a free-for-all and I ended up getting off almost first. Made the long long walk to immigration (which was deserted) used the IRIS which was very easy again.

For the first time in about 8 VS flights priority baggage actually worked [oo] [oo] as my bag was about the 10th bag to come off. Wonders will never cease [y]

Headed up to Revivals via the smoking area outside first. Had a shower and some breakfast and currently sat in the BD lounge waiting for my flight to MAN.

Overall not a very good VS PE flight. I never saw the FSM once during the entire flight. The Wash PE seats are dreadfull and need dumping ASAP. VS need more crew ASAP as it's now clearly impacting the onboard service.

Regards

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks for the TR, James.

Looks like Virgin Atlantic's famous 'How can we shoot ourselves in the foot? Department' has been at it again.

Let's make a big song and dance about the NEW PE service, and then completely fail to deliver it. [V][n]

How to impress new customers... not! [?]

Nick

[HighFlyer]

Dear oh dear, sorry you did not have a good flight James. That really doesnt sound good, as Nick says, advertising a service and really not delivering it, especially on an ex-LHR route.

Thanks,
Sarah

It's a real shame that your flight didn't live up to the expectations of the new service. My experience flying out to BOS in W last Saturday was quite positive, and I enjoyed the PE food ex-LHR. I guess there's going to be some wrinkles and hassles for another month or two, until everyone has had a go at working the new service, and gotten into the swing of it.

If the cabin service was better, I'm sure it would have made up for the dreadful 'plastic terror' seats, too - they were designed by someone who had to look at them, not sit in them for 10 hours at a time, glad they will be gone soon - but it's been acknowledged on here a couple of times that VS are short of cabin crew at the moment, and many flights are going short of a crew member, and that's going to become visible to the pax eventually. Sounds a bit like you had a crew on an off day too, which can't have helped.

Good news that priority baggage worked this time, too! Apparently, according to my last communication with VS on this subject, the automated sorting by barcode doesn't apply at all airports, so at some stations it does rely on the card tags on the bag, which seem to be prone to snagging and tearing off, causing mis-sorting of bags.

I hope the Revivals team looked after you though? It has to be one of my favourite bits of an overnight VS flight!

Mike

[mitchja]

Yeah Revivals was as good as ever [:)], although I din't have too long in there as BMI kindly brought my MAN flight forward by an hour (oh and it was nice of them to tell me NOT, only noticed when I went to check-in online from my lap-top whilst I was still in MIA the day before)

Revivals was not busy as well whilst I was there around 09:00. I didn't see anyone from the VS6 flight in there. It really does seem to be a hidden gem.

Nice to see G-VBIG lining up for departure as my BD flight rotated too. Not sure where she was going but it was about 12:10. No rest for the Virgin ladies [:w]

Regards

I think the reason you never noticed the FSM was because there wasn't one, it was a CSS acting up. As for crew short, it was only operated 1 crew member down, but was no doubt full of new inexperienced cabin crew!!!!

Originally posted by Denzil
I think the reason you never noticed the FSM was because there wasn't one, it was a CSS acting up. As for crew short, it was only operated 1 crew member down, but was no doubt full of new inexperienced cabin crew!!!!

That observation about the lack of a 'black shirt' probably holds true for both flights from my New Year BOS trip.

I think we went an FSM down on the way out, as I don't remember seeing a black shirt at all, and the crew on the return were four persons down for a 346 (including FSM plus IFBT), and were very apologetic about it.

Mike