VS005 LHR-MIA Jan 07 (PE)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Ok we'll try this a 2nd time - first time VFlyer had a fit and said I'd expired, 5 minutes after paying for a whole year.
I'm a newbie here, thought I'd better join as I just bought a house in Miami Beach and will be using VS regularly between LHR and MIA.

So I'm flying on VS5 from LHR to MIA in PE last week. Turned up at LHR T3 about 90 mins before departure and turned up at check in. About 10 people in front of me at the PE checkin at T3 for all VS flights.
Took about 30 mins to check in.
Went through security in about 30 mins total and did a bit of quick shopping and then went to the departure gate. Managed to push to the front of the queue and board the aircraft as they had already called premium pax and PE pax. I was shown to the stairs in the plane and went upstairs to my seat - 73K.
Stuffed my kit into the bin beside the seat and then had a glass of fizz - hair of the dog... hmmmmm
Had about 4 more drinks as the plane was delayed about an hour waiting for some cargo to be stuffed on board.

We took off about 70 mins late and we were soon on our way. Looking forward to the VPort but unfortunately as soon as we were on our way, the pax on front of me reclined his seat and I was unable to view my IFE screen for the rest of the flight. Even with the screen tilted as far as it would go I could not view it properly - did NO ONE from virgin test this feature? I'm 5'11 tall so hardly a giant. It was ****. Complete crap. Sort it out Virgin. BA even got this one right.

Otherwise the food/drink services were great - lots of rounds of FA's with trays of drinks and even a similar J class raid the larder service at the back - probably for UC pax at the front of the upper deck, but the PE pax weren't denied using it either.

We landed more or less on time and my bags were off about 10th/11th, which was nice - took about 30 mins from touch down to being in the car on my way home!

Out of interest, I'm flying back next week in PE (S) class. a mate is flying back as well with me (different PNR totally - just happen to be on the same flight) in PE (S) class. He tried to upgrade it to a W but was told that W wasn't available. An upgrade to UC was $4500 (one way).
Another friend tried to get on the flight in Y - and was told no chance - the flight is full. Would it really be so rammed as that? Any chance I'll get bumped to Y? A mate of mine got bumped from PE to Y last week on VS5 LHR to MIA due to PE being over booked. Am worried now!

Anyway thanks for reading! Comments welcome!

JR x

[Pete]

I have to agree with you that the screen design is a bit of an issue when the passenger in front goes into full-recline mode. On previous flights where this has happened to me, I've resorted to utilising my laptop as a DVD player rather than strain to watch the IFE's poor quality angle. Better LCD screens would help, or an adjustable pivot position for the screen (so you could swing it out from the top).

It's not often that I've heard of a Premium customer being downgraded to Economy when the cabin is rammed. Normally they'll move people up to Upper - but I would guess on this occassion it was one of those rarities where Upper and Premium were both full to capacity. I wouldn't worry too much about your flight to MIA. Personally I like flying in PE when the indicators are that it's oversold - there's more chance of an upgrade!

Pete

[mitchja]

Welcome to V-Flyer and thanks for the TR [y]

Originally posted by pixuk
I have to agree with you that the screen design is a bit of an issue when the passenger in front goes into full-recline mode. On previous flights where this has happened to me, I've resorted to utilising my laptop as a DVD player rather than strain to watch the IFE's poor quality angle. Better LCD screens would help, or an adjustable pivot position for the screen (so you could swing it out from the top).

I mentioned this in my complaint after my crappy VS6 flight the other week and the response I got back was:

We have had no other complaints regarding the position of the tilt when the front seat is reclined

[:0] I really dont believe that at all.

Regards

[Pete]

Methinks it's time to let them have a few more 'comments' about this then.

Welcome to V-Flyer, thank you for the TR!

I'm a touch taller than 5'11...[:I]

I could just about see the top third of the screen on my trip back from SFO last night. I will be sending an email as it's a pretty basic design error thats unacceptable..[n]

I cannot see any money being thrown at the problem though with the new config and PE seating refits in the summer unfortunately...[n][V]

Thanks for the TR, glad you enjoyed your trip. [:D]