VS028 MCO-LGW 7 MAY 13 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

First time in the Airbus and was pleasantly surprised. Mademoiselle Rouge much more full (announced 299 Px) than V-GAL on VS027 a week earlier as you might expect in a smaller plane. Economy seat pitch (this is where the 2-4-2 config drops to 2-3-2) was very good and Vera behaved. Very few children at the back too. No babies / screaming kids.

Good seats if you cannot get 2 on the side. A bit too upright and the extent of the recline from the Px in front was a shock but at least the large screen tilts. I was annoyed by the slight offset of the row in front which had the seat support strut in my footspace.

VA offered us £199 each one way upgrades to PE but I am glad I declined as I am sick of a grossly inflated price for 7 inches of legroom we do not need, cheap sparkling wine on boarding, metal cutlery, limited after meal brandy/bailey's round where there is supposed to be a full bar, and a perfunctory visit from the fruit bowl.

The 2-class aircraft must be finding Economy Px competing with usually-UC Px for the PE seating. VA charge far too much for a very small hike on economy class travel compared to a proper business class seat. Mind you, outbound, we were offered £2K each one way upgrades to PE on a 3-class 747 - VS027 on 30/04 - which is a joke. The new economy experience - especially if they were not so mean with the food and drink - is more than enough to make paying for PE a waste of money.

The drinks service was even more vestigial than on our outbound flight - one drink on boarding and one glass of wine with the meal. Polite request 'when you have time' for another glass of wine produced nothing. Food again awful aside from the butter chicken. Foul dessert in a polish top. Now I understand why they are using half trays - the Airbus drop-down try is very narrow.

Being told by PA you can use a water fountain the other end of the plane for fluids was unimpressive. Breakfast box actually not bad - very edible biscuit and cake without too many chemicals or dried fruit in, OJ, and a tea and coffee service. No idea why they included a cutlery set with it and S&P, which was wasted.

Doesn't sound the best of flights ,I do wonder about the lack of drinks sometimes,surely the cc have some sort of programme they are meant to stick to regarding the service and it seems like you were short changed

Thanks for the TR, an interesting take and I couldn't agree more about the ECO food offering. The standards are declining

As for the drinks, people are directed towards the galley for drinks to prevent the full trolley service going up and down. To be fair I think it is less disruptive, although sometimes they do need to be reminded about any drink requests

Personally I do think that PE is worth it but all unto their own I guess.

Cheers for posting

If you look at my companion post VS027 on 30/04 I explain we were gifted Economy tickets and haven't flown other than PE for ten years so this was an experience for us - which rather devalued the supposed benefits of PE.