VS075 MAN-MCO 1 Jan 08 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

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Well, the first trip of 2008 back to a rather chilly Florida (at the moment) and it was a pretty good start to a well needed break.

The check-in and delays have been pretty much spoken about already, so I will gloss over them. This was a first for us, travelling with 2 young children (although my sister and her husband were there as well) and all you parents now have my utmost respect for the untiring patience most of you seem to have.

The delay, which was an hour at the bag drop, magically stretched to nearly two after the short trip through security and onward to the notorious 'Escape Lounge'. I know Man only has 1 or 2 flghts a day but when you add in the lounge at mco (which is ok but no clubhouse) its clear that some routes (I will not use the dreaded abbreviation) are treated somewhat differently from others - remembering that mco can have 5 fully laden 747's in 1 day.

The flight itself was bursting at the seams and speaking to one of the crew, has been and will be that way until mid to end of jan. When you take a walk down the back and see economy section after economy section nearly overflowing, you soon recieve a reality check and realise how lucky you are [:)]

The food was Very good, the last few flights having much improved over what was previously available. The soup was very tasty, the lamb was superb and even the chocolate pudding was very nice, rounded of by a cappuccino. The champagne flowed and the service was 1st class, although the only time the FSM was in the upper cabin, was when she was serving the bread.

Did overhear that the reason for the delay which extended slightly after we had loaded was due to staff shortages, and that they had to call in a specifically trained one to cover as they need 2 members of staff who are trained on the defib machine on every flight. Don't know if this is correct, but nice and reassuring anyway. Am I not right in thinking the VA was one of the first to have these machines on all their fleet?

Anyway, after a long and bumpy at times flight, we arrived in a very busy MCO with the 27 just in after us and the ba 777 arriving just as we boarded the train. Immigration was a breeze but busy and the new arrangements for the bag drop works well if you have only 1 case.

The queues for security in the main terminal, on the other hand were horrendous and stretched past the new food court in the middle of the terminal. A lot of english accents waiting in them no doubt causing another knock on to the delay problems happening at the moment. There could have easily been 3 or 4 thousand people waiting to get through all the security lanes [:0]

Another nice flight with VA, just like it should be. Just got to plan for the homeward journey now in P/E although given the seat maps .......... you never know [;)]

David

(Oh and a Happy New Year [:D])

Thanks for your TR, good to hear that you had a good flight and that the food was good too! [y]

Hope you have a great trip and think of us freezing here in the UK!

DMB

Correct, we need to defib trained staff on all flights, there is normally three though.

The FSM and the 2 CSS must be defib trained.

Originally posted by declansmith
Correct, we need to defib trained staff on all flights, there is normally three though.

The FSM and the 2 CSS must be defib trained.

[y] Thanks - nice to know. Does BA have these machines on their aircraft?

As Declan said, it's true, Virgin requires two defib trained crew. I have no idea why all crew aren't trained to use it, it isn't rocket science. At my last two airlines, all crew were trained to use it during their initial training. It takes about thirty minutes tops.

Thanks (belatedly) for the TR David and some of the photo's you've also posted. We were in Orlando over Christmas / NewYear and you arrived right on the cold snap - daytime temperatures in the high 40s or around 9c. Looking at your WDW picture you can see the people wrapped up to the nines.

We were four of the poor mugs back in Y - not for the want of trying to get something better but those flights were packed to the rafters. The only good thing was that we had two small children in the middle which gave us a little bit of room to stretch out. Oh and the haven of the LGW CH on the way out was nice too!!

Glad you enjoyed the trip.

FM

Originally posted by FamilyMan
Thanks (belatedly) for the TR David and some of the photo's you've also posted. We were in Orlando over Christmas / NewYear and you arrived right on the cold snap - daytime temperatures in the high 40s or around 9c. Looking at your WDW picture you can see the people wrapped up to the nines.

We were four of the poor mugs back in Y - not for the want of trying to get something better but those flights were packed to the rafters. The only good thing was that we had two small children in the middle which gave us a little bit of room to stretch out. Oh and the haven of the LGW CH on the way out was nice too!!

Glad you enjoyed the trip.

FM

Hi Phil

They were busy flights - unfortunately, we had to go from man as in a fit of madness, I had decided to take my nephew (age6) and niece (age8) and thankfully my sister and her husband for their first trip as a Christmas present - so thought a short drive down from the Borders would be easier on the children. This of course meant the 'delights' of the escape lounge.

That, as well as the unusally long flight (only managed 450 mph) on the way across and then arrival in a bitter Orlando meant a different start than usual to one of our trips.

And it wasn't only the flights that were packed to the rafters. The parks and malls were crazy as well.

We were staying at Saratoga Springs straight across the water from Downtown Disney, so when the temp started to rise they were able to use Disney's fantastic transport services, which gave us a little bit of relaxation time at the pool [;)]

There were 4 747's leaving mco on the night we left and I doubt there would have been many more than 4 empty seats on all the flights - definately an opportunity for expansion at that time of year.

thanks

David

Originally posted by David

onward to the notorious 'Escape Lounge'. I know Man only has 1 or 2 flghts a day but when you add in the lounge at mco (which is ok but no clubhouse) its clear that some routes (I will not use the dreaded abbreviation) are treated somewhat differently from others - remembering that mco can have 5 fully laden 747's in 1 day.

Just a couple of reasons for lack of lounges at MAN and MCO:

MAN only has one flight a day from VS, sometimes two during peak seasons. So on average thats 14 lounge visitors a day, 28 on good days. With the volatile aviation industry that now exists airlines will try to save on money where they can. It doesn't make much economic sense for a CH at MAN with only 14 pax. Sure they could share the lounge to other airlines but if you look at schedules the vast majority of flights will leave mid morning to the US. In an ideal world VS would have an evening flights to the East using the lounge. Clearly its not worthwhile. At MAN I do not see why they don't use another lounge such as the AF lounge.


The same can be said for MCO, they would have to have a lounge for a small number of flights, especially during the off peak seasons. There is also a clear lack of space at MCO and who would use the lounge during VS Down time. LH would be an option but there FRA bound flight leaves in the evening like the VS flights.

Vs would not want to lounge share at the same time as it will make for confusion about who can have what CH privileges.

So a lack of demand is the reason why. Hope that helps and cheers for the TR.

Originally posted by willd

who would use the lounge during VS Down time.

Yeah, I understand there is sometimes not the demand (saying that 4 times upper to mco last year and there was only around 1 or 2 empty seats) , but with 3 or 4 flights per day, a sprinkling of golds, a few purchased and the long term possibility of Virgin America starting (assuming they would use the same satellite) [:?]

You could use the same theory for Boston. 1 flight per day 50 odd upper seats at a max and a sprinkling of golds [:?] but a new clubhouse [:?]

However ... the crown room is still much better than the boarding area [:)]

Maybe one day ........

David

Originally posted by David

Yeah, I understand there is sometimes not the demand (saying that 4 times upper to mco last year and there was only around 1 or 2 empty seats) , but with 3 or 4 flights per day, a sprinkling of golds, a few purchased and the long term possibility of Virgin America starting (assuming they would use the same satellite) [:?]

You could use the same theory for Boston. 1 flight per day 50 odd upper seats at a max and a sprinkling of golds [:?] but a new clubhouse [:?]

I know and as a frequent user of MCO I am the first to sing the praises of the place. The problem is with MCO there firstly isn't room, the satalites are designed for one lounge each- DL certainly are not going to give it up. And the airport authorities are less than likely to give lounge space to VS over other carriers.

BOS is a good point, but then again LAX doesn't have a CH either. There has been a couple of threads on here about the same issue. I think the problem lies in the fact that at BOS the NW lounge which I believe VS used was dire. At LAX the NZ lounge is excellent, at MCO the DL lounge is good for the amount that use it and it is close to the gates. You get the picture...

VX wont be in MCO anytime soon- MIA will come first. And there is a lack of gate space for VX in that satellite after Frontier moved into the unoccupied gates.