V-Flyer

Unfortunately, my low opinion of Pre-Check In and Check In at Manchester continues. Arriving at 08:45 to almost empty Check In gates, the 'Man In The Uniform' greeted me with a patronising 'come here' wave and what seems to be the immortal words, 'Flying Economy Today? Maybe one day a 'good morning, may I see your ticket' greeting will be offered, maybe not. Check In was mechanical/functional.

The queue for security seemed endless, however within five minutes we were through fast-track and seated in Escape Lounge, which is clean, functional and usually seems to have polite staff. We all know that Escape is not a Clubhouse, however it serves its purpose.

We arrived at the gate halfway through boarding, however this was not a problem and we were ushered to the front and were soon on board. As there were four of us on this trip, we had rows 6 & 7 so we could talk to each other fairly easily. The general condition of the suite was OK, and there was time for a couple of glasses of Champagne whilst looking over the menu.

No visit off the FSM yet.

Early into the flight came the first gaff - the 'warm' towels arrived prior to drinks, however no-one checked the towels had in fact been warmed, they hadn't and were stone cold! The flight attendant had a look of horror when she was told.

Still no sign of the FSM or amenity pack

Drinks service was excellent, as usual and lunch was served by the polite and friendly staff. The food and wine was fine, I have had a lot worse on this route! A couple of post lunch drinks were followed by having my seat turned over and a couple of hours sleep - nice!

Still no sign of the FSM but on the bar were a stack of PE amenity packs?? The cabin staff advised that there were no UC available and we were welcome to take anything from the PE packs!!!!

Time to speak with the FSM who I found sitting and form filling on one of the jump seats. Interesting conversation. It appeared that despite have assurances off the incoming crew that there were UC packs on board, there were not. To further compound this issue, when our FSM failed to locate the packs, he contacted the person who had confirmed they were onboard who had to admit he had lied! No complimentary Cowshed either! The topping on the cake was when our FSM admitted that there had been no UC packs available in Manchester for the preceding FIVE days! The icing on the cake was when he told me that he, on numerous occasions, has had to 'beg, borrow or steal' UC packs from aircraft at MCO bound for Gatwick to top up the Manchester flight! Yes, I do have my 'Any Concerns' form to complete and send of the Customer Relations. During my conversation with the FSM, it came across that many of the Northern Crews were growing frustrated with the 'them and us attitude' between themselves and the South East. No surprise there then! Very disappointing though that the FSM made no attempt to visit the UC suite to speak to the passengers and apologise for Virgins shortfalls, not a nice job but someone has to do it and it is the FSM job!

Afternoon tea was excellent, again served by the efficient cabin crew.

The remainder of the flight was OK. I've never worked out when the curtains are closed between UC & PE on this route/configuration, if the toilets are for general or preferential UC use. On this flight it got pretty crowded on occasions with passengers who had migrated through the curtains and were standing in the UC galley.

Passage through immigration to baggage claim where all checked in baggage was waiting - very good.

All in all, a fairly regular MAN - MCO flight. The UC Cabin Crew were friendly and attentive throughout. It is unfortunate that my previous TR's seem to follow a similar thread. One standard of service is needed on all Virgin flights; somehow I can't see that happening. Do Virgin read these TR's?

Return MCO - MAN TR to follow......

Thanks for the good read, despite the attention to detail encountered both at 'pre-check in' and onboard.

Originally posted by Realistic Flier

.........it came across that many of the Northern Crews were growing frustrated with the 'them and us attitude' between themselves and the South East. No surprise there then!

I have been 'banging on' about this for months and months and months. Good to see that my perception has once again been vindicated (and by crew members to boot) [:w]

Hope the Florida sunshine made up - in part - for the naff flight.

Thanks for the excellent TR.

I would have thought that the FSM would have thought it his duty to come around to all the UC passengers to explain about the amenity kits and to apologise for their absence. After all you are only talking about 14 passengers. Whatever about the reason for them not being there, this really was not good enough [V]

We had the new U/C packs on the way out on the 15th but were given P/E packs on the way back on the 20th with an apology and £15 off anything from the duty free.

David