VS027 LGW-MCO 3 Dec 07 (Econ)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

A short 9 day break in Orlando beckoned so we got the chance to visit the Big M at Christmas time [:D]

Did online check-in but again although it originally gave the gluten free meal, once completed checkin it said n/a. We've had this happen before and it seems just like a glitch as it does recognize the meal anyway. After this we had to endure the M1 roadworks which meant it took us around 4hrs to get down to LGW but then I have to say Twilight Checkin was a breeze!! Arrived at 7pm on a Sunday night, no queue and was all done in 5 mins, well chuffed.

The flight the next day was delayed and hour and turned out to be packed solid due to the previous days flight being canceled. We were informed it would be a bumpy flight and would be 9:30hrs. The flight was actually quite smooth with only a few bumps and we landed about 18:00 Orlando time.

I'm not sure if it was because the flight was full due to the canceled flight the previous day, but the crew were just plain hopeless. Meal was served about 3 hours in and I had meatballs which wasn't too bad. Emma's gluten free meal was mushroom risotto which wasn't too bad either but took ages to arrive.

The main problem was the lack of drinks. The ONLY drink service was about an hour after take off and that was it!!!!! Nothing, zip, nadda more. I had taken bottles on but after 8 hours we had ran out so pressed the buzzer. No one came. 15 mins later pressed it again. Nothing. Another 10 minutes and we grabbed a cabin crew coming past and asked for a bottle of water to be told 'sorry we are all out!'. We had to stop her walking away so we could ask for a coke, again all out! How the hell does that happen!!

Total joke. The only saving grace was they were the new Economy seats which were much better than before so that helped. Also the in flight nova system worked fine.

AndyR,
I would hope that this was an isolated case as I believe running out of drinks, paricularly water and soft drinks, is way out of line. Even the in flight advice from VS is to drink fluids as often as possible to avoid dehydration. How can this happen if they only offer 1 drinks service and then run out[n]
I don't know if you have flown VS before but if you haven't I would be tempted to view this as an isolated case. Maybe someone on v-flyer could shed some light as to what happened[oo]
NOC

Yeah flown VS a lot so know this was the first time. The way back flight was much better though.

hi sorry to hear you had a bad flight, on any plane in any airline it's almost impossible to run out of water, as they will always have tap water, from the tanks. coke does run out very quickly on a busy MCO, its all the kids drinking them 2 or 3 at a time lol.

[Neil]

Originally posted by johnvscrew
coke does run out very quickly on a busy MCO, its all the kids drinking them 2 or 3 at a time lol.

Surely VS know this though John and if it is happening regularly then you would think they would just stock more. I know its impossible to stock unlimited drinks, but there must be certain lines that don't get used on say an MCO flight so can't VS swap them, or do you just have a standard quota of drinks for each flight?

Neil

'"Great TR thanks for posting' [}:)]"

Originally posted by Neil

Originally posted by johnvscrew
coke does run out very quickly on a busy MCO, its all the kids drinking them 2 or 3 at a time lol.

Surely VS know this though John and if it is happening regularly then you would think they would just stock more. I know its impossible to stock unlimited drinks, but there must be certain lines that don't get used on say an MCO flight so can't VS swap them, or do you just have a standard quota of drinks for each flight?

The problem could be that VS already do this but the demand still outstrips the supply.

Its a very tricky business all this meal/drink scheduling- after all VS dont have a magic ball.

If other carriers can manage to always supply something to drink.....

I suspect that this may well be some form of 'unofficial' action.
If it is, it needs to be stopped.

A letter to Customer Services detailing the flight is certainly needed.

I have been told by a steward on a return trip that they had run out of red wine, this was 90 mins into a SFO to LHR trip. Needless to say the CSS knew there was more, the lazy male steward was clearly in an I cannot be bothered mood.

There is no excuse for running out of soft drinks, particularly water. It should not happen.

If you ask for a can of lemonde you can have 10!!! Everyone seems to drink the Virgin Cola on Orlando flights leaving plenty of Lemondae in the carts,

As for water there are always at least two jugs of water on the galley sides on ALL flights which customers are invited to help themselves too on ALL flights.

There is enough water onboard to fill an Olympic swimming pool so that crew member just needed to open her eyes to get you a glass!

Thanks Declan,
Tinkerbelle - I can understand coke or any particular drink running out.
It was single drinks service and the suggestion that there was nothing to drink which gave rise to suspicions!
On re-reading the report I see that Andy may just have requested bottled water - but if so, surely a glass of water should have been offered?
Is only one drinks service on a long-haul daytime sector either acceptable or normal with VS?

Sorry yes we had asked for a bottle of water as the person in front couldn't sit still for more than 10 seconds so anything we put on the tray got spilt.

Main point were though that only 1 drinks service was done, took so long to answer the call, shoddy attitude. Compared the the return flight just made it seem even worse.

Oh well, letter has been sent to CS but as I will not be flying Virgin again now as I have used all my miles up it doesn't really bother me.

Hope everyone had a great christmas!

Originally posted by declansmith
There is enough water onboard to fill an Olympic swimming pool so that crew member just needed to open her eyes to get you a glass!

Really [:0]

The water cooler on the newer Airbus planes is a great little addition to avoid these sorts of problems. I like to drink loads of water during a flight so it's great to be able to go there and get it than constantly ask.

Originally posted by mediamonkey
The water cooler on the newer Airbus planes is a great little addition to avoid these sorts of problems. I like to drink loads of water during a flight so it's great to be able to go there and get it than constantly ask.

But, if you're in a window seat, I think it's more polite to use the call bell, rather than disturb the person next to you.

Mike

true true, hence my love of the Aisle seat... or just UC!

I always buy my own water (2 litres) to take on a flight as I drink a lot. It means I get some odd looks but I don't care.[|:)]