This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
As you will know if you got through my outbound TR, we had used VS excellent seat request. Like a good boy I had been checking the seats weekly but after loosing our outbound seats (but in the end it didnt matter as we upgraded to an exit row) I was pleasantly suprised to see that our inbound seats were still there.
Sunday evening saw us at a family friends for a BBQ/Cocktail Party so we decided to check in online at theirs 24 hours before we departed. Online check in was painless and very quick. Unlike the BA system you dont have an option to print a boarding pass which I think is a good thing, after all how many people have access to a printer on holiday? Checked in and given our requested 32 B and C in about 2 minutes. Fantastic.
My original plan was to arrive at the airport about an hour and 30 before departure, grab a quick bite to eat in our little MCO secret hideout and then head through security. Dollar Rent A Car decided to play the devil in my plans. For some reason Dollar and VH insist that hire cars are returned no later than 3 hours before departure. This rule seemed to be written on every bit of literature we were given (which in truth was only 2 bits of paper and a British Dollar Handbook but the bold font and triple underlining kind of made the GF think it was important). I have no idea why this rule exists considering it takes all of 2 minutes to return the car at MCO and Dollar have hundreds of cars, I cant believe we had the only Sebring convertible that was being returned that day and that it was going straight out? Or maybe it is a VS ploy to get you checked in and through security to ensure an on time departure? Ok am going off track. Anyway not wishing to risk it we arrived bang on 3 hours before departure. Car of course was sorted in 2 minutes and within 5 minutes of arriving at MCO we were at the VS check in area.
O my how check in has changed. My last flight with VS ex MCO was last summer when VS still used Terminal B. Of course they have moved to Terminal A in order to get more space. Initial thoughts, there is a bit more space, not much only about 6 foot. The check in desks seem to be sunk into the wall a bit more if that makes sense. V28 and 74 (?) had already checked in. The queue for Y was massive and snaking a fair bit. The Y area seem to be organised chaos, at first glance it looked a mess but it was working. We headed straight for the bag drop, only one family in front of us. And this is when I saw the problem with bag drop first hand. Having not been to any other US stations for a while Im not sure if its the same at all VS stations in the US but at MCO the bag drop is really served by J and W agents when they are free. Of course J and W passengers take priority (which I have no problem with). S*ds law we happened to arrive when J was three deep and W was five deep. 20 minutes later we were finally seen and were dealt with in about 3 minutes. I cant quite work out why VS do not have a dedicated bag drop desk/agent. When he/she is free they then call forward any waiting W passenger? This is how it works at LGW. There is just about space at MCO for an extra desk for this to happen, as long as the TSA dont mind moving a bit! We then took the bags over to the TSA screening area which was being organised by I am guessing the VS station manager. I always feel a little bit uneasy about jsut leaving my bags in a roped off area in the middle of the airport. It wouldnt be hard for someone else to steal my bag (not sure why someone would want my dirty boxers though) or slip something into my bag.
Boarding passes in hand we went to our secret little hide out which will be kept a secret so that no one finds out. (If you really want to know, I am open to bribes, LHR CH Access should do it!). We had a very pleasant meal, chicken club for me and pizza for the GF. A lovely 90 minutes was had by both of us. The service was excellent and the loos were more akin to the CH than the main loos of an airport.
At about 6pm it was time to head through. Again we decided to use the MCO security line trick. It worked a treat. We were through security in about 5 minutes. Had we not used the trick I think it would have been at least 30 minutes. A quick hop onto the monorail which seems to be a compulsory fixture at all US airports and we were in the gate area. We had a little potter around duty free then decided to go and hide at the AirTran gates. Boarding was set at 6.35pm so we wandered down to gate 85 at about 6.45pm. Gate 85 was pretty quiet. Y boarding was in full swing and priority boarding (as is always the case at MCO) was fantastically well organised. I cannot understand why MCO can get it right but LHR and LGW cannot get priority boarding to work.
We boarded at about 6.50 and picked up our duty free on the airbridge as always. Straight on board (English Rose as on the outbound) to be met by two friendly crew. The FSM was visable at the boarding door, welcoming everyone on board. It was at this time I realised I have been reading V-F for too long. I am now getting on a plane and being impressed if I see an FSM at the front door, heck Im not flying J but I could tell by her attitude that she was a leader.
The plane was already to go ahead of time, even despite a passenger realising he still had the car keys for his rental(!), but the paper work was late so we had a slight hold on the gate. The captain was on to give a very lengthy introduction with lots of facts about the flight, which of course I found interesting. 7 hours 42 minutes, out of MCO on the most westerly run way, up over the 417 Greenway, a sharp right turn over Kissimmee airport then up towards Charleston, skirting the Eastern seaboard leaving land at about Annapolis and then out across the atlantic, coming in over Cork (wave to HL) then over Salisbury, New Forest, Portsmouth, Brighton. Anyway the captain was on for about 5 minutes and closed by informing us the senior first officer would be flying us this evening. Once he was done the paper work was complete and the doors closed. The FSM was on to do the usual welcomes include a very indepth chat about electronics that could be used. As we taxied out of MCO over the bridge on Boggy Creek Road, the fire station staff were out on their forecourt. Normally at MCO heavy TATL a/c depart off the newest runway, the most easterly runway. I guess it was a novelty for us to cruise pass them, so they were all out with ear defenders on waving us off. A manual safety demo was done. Done pretty well although the FSM at parts did seem a bit unsure of what to say but Im just being picky.
As the final bing bong came over to warn the crew to take their seats the FSM came on to announce This flight has 352 passengers and 15 crew, enjoy the flight. Wheels up at 7.46pm exactly, so some 21 minutes late. As the captain told us we were out following the route as mentioned above. I never grow old of seeing familiar sights from up high.
The plane was some 70 passengers light and so as soon as the seat belt sign was off the GF and I moved to a centre four seats to spread out. The bar service was started fairly sharpish along with the usual amenity kit and headphone distribution. Pillows and blankets were on seats upon boarding. Super Nova was fired up.
It was at this point I realised why sometimes we hear of a bad reputation amongst crew of the MCO route. The poor crew member doing the bar service was being asked questions left right and centre along the lines of:
Pax: My TV doesnt work
Crew: yes it does you just need to hold the video button down
Pax: No it doesnt
Crew: Let me look, there you go
This happened to her non stop for about 5 minutes in which time she served one drink! Hat off to her, she must have to have the patience of a saint. Despite her best efforts, Super Nova was playing up and the whole system had to be reset. This is the first time I have ever seen this happen with Super Nova, it took about 35 minutes. Annoying as we had to watch the first 20 minutes of our film again (o for AVOD!) but it could have been worse.
Those who have read the outbound report will know that the GF was not very happy with the dairy free meal we had ordered. We didnt have high hopes for the return journey so Mum had stocked us up on goodies before we left home but were rather shocked when it arrived. An initial look at the tray and all looks good. No dairy evident at all. Open the main meal up and its pasta. Good stuff, the GF puts on fork in it to find that its pasta filled with chesse. We are both grateful for VS for offering alternative meals but surely someone needs to realise that the dairy free meal needs no dairy in it! Not happy at all, in fact pretty amazed at this huge schoolboy error we decided to voice our opinion. I was pleased the GF had decided to make a fuss after she stopped me on the outbound. The CC member we spoke to was fantastic! I was expecting to have to ask for the FSM but no such problems. She expressed her suprise at the situation and went down the back to have a look if there was anything the GF could have. 5 minutes later she returned and said their wasnt but she knew there was jacket potato and beans in the crew cart which she could have. The GF accepted this kind offer and was told it would be with her once the main meal service was over.
In the meantime the main meal service was started the current selection is:
Beef Stew with Mash
Chicken in a cream sauce with rice and spinach
Chesse pasta
I went for the chicken served with the House white. It was pretty poor. Not as bad as the outbound but I still only had five mouthfulls. Meal service was completed in about 50 minutes and some two hours out of MCO the lights were turned out.
The GFs new special meal arrived. Was jacket potato, baked beans with a banana for desert. All served on J class plate with J class silverwear. Excellent service. The CC member also commented that she would bring the GF a special breakfast from J as she wouldnt be able to have the breakfast. We thanked her very much and the GF tucked into her new meal with a big smile on her face.
Duty free came round and in the meantime a second movie run was started. I ended up watching a very good thirller with Forest Whitaker and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Over 2 hours out of LGW the lights were turned on and breakfast was served. Again this has changed from last year. I cant work out if this is a money saving measure or VS listening to customers views. In Y gone is the muffin and melon that used to be served and in its place has come a Jimmy Dean Ham, Egg and cheese muffin. It is hot but that is all. As I am writing this TR on the go I havent tried it yet but will report back later on.
The aforementioned excellent crew member brought the GF some fruit and again said sorry for the mix up. Breakfast was reasonable a bit on the stingy side but not too bad. One noticable change was the cabin lights were switched on some 2 hours and 15 minutes out of LGW. This seemed rather excessive considering the service was done with over an hour and half to go. Certainly I would have prefered the lights to be kept off longer. The early turning of the lights was made worse by Super Nova being turned off very early as well so the last hour or so really dragged. It was noticable that the younger members of the passengers were suffering as many crying babies could be heard plus the lovely smell of toddler vomit from the young chap in front of us. Couldnt be helped.
Around an hour before arrival the cabin was fully secured. The First Officer came onto inform us that we were to do one lap of the circuit as LGW was busy. This was done fairly rapidly and it wasnt long before we were on final approach battling against the crosswind and dropping like a stone! The FSM made her final announcements including the now obligatory Thank you for all your hard work on both sectors crew announcement.
The strong crosswind meant the pilot struggled to get us down, we hit the runway hard and late slammed on the breaks and just stopped before the piano keys at the end. Judging by the aircraft following us we really were late on touchdown on the runway.
In 10 minutes we were at the gate surrounded by Barberlla and Pretty Woman on either side. Immigration was it usual mess, we made a sharpish exit off the plane but seemed to be in line at immigration for about 15 minutes along with all those off Club 18-30 holidays who looked like they were still drunk from the previous nights clubbing. We were seen by officially the most moody immigration officer in the world. All we got was a stand at the front not at the side bark. No welcome home, have a great day etc. Typical British. Very sad really that the frontline of the UK are not welcoming.
No matter how much BAA try baggage reclaim at LGW is always a mess. This time was no different although I was lucky enough to be stood by the exact belt that would be used for our flight. The bags came off and we had our three in a matter of minutes. What was interesting was there were no signs up saying which belt the 16 bags were on. Right on que BAA made an announcement blaming VS for not putting baggage belt up on the board. Straight through customs and within an hour of arrival we were on the M23 heading to home.
So to conclude. An interesting flight. FSM was good. For me the flight was made by the member of crew who helped the GF out, she was excellent so friendly and even remember to bring her a special breakfast later in the flight. Other than that this was a bog standard VS flight. The rest of the crew were ok. The IFE was good, a reboot needed but VPort has those problems, if I was VS I would keep the super nova and save my pennies. The food was dire. The purse strings are clearly being tightened. As a side my parents flew the dark side back a couple of weeks ago and despite being Ag on VS are now only going to fly BA. The VS product was fine it does what it says on the tin but the more I fly them from LGW the more I believe in Y they are just becoming yet another carrier, dare I say it offering a service level that would be more akin to that of a charter.
With regards to my ratings. IFE got a good as the reboot was not that bad and I thought the offerings were reasonable for a flight of this length. Food/drink gets a very poor due to the special meal problems and poor breakfast/dinner. Check in gets a good just because we had to wait a while in bag drop. MCO ground staff still miles ahead of thier UK counterparts in terms of service offering. Seat gets a good, not that bad made better by having two seats each.
The GF and I have now decided that all future flights will be ex LHR on VS (not a snob thing, just we are not too keen on crying babies and toddler vomit as we experienced on this flight) or with BA who even leave midnight snacks out for Y passengers.
We had hoped this would be our last Y trip long haul. Sadly the GF has decided we must take three trips to the States a year to see the parents and shop. With her being a teacher I think we will be sticking in Y for a tiny bit longer.
Without a doubt the asset VS has over its rivals are its crew. Get a poor crew and the flight is more than likely to be poor. Some may harp on about LGW being second best to LHR, maybe its true but for me even if I have the best of the best (so VPort ex LGW) if the crew are average then the flight is average. So a bog standard VS flight but its clear to me standards are slipping and the level of inflight product is becoming worse.
