VS008 LAX-LHR 20 Apr 08 (PE)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

LAX bag drop / check in let this trip down badly. Special Assistance had assigned us 29H and K and we had checked in on line with confirmation printed. The LAX staff insisted in changing our seats, claiming they were emergency exit seats - I argued that SA had assigned them and that I knew they were not exit seats - but she knew better. She actually was rushing to go on a break apparently [V].

We also had UC lounge passes from a promotion, which were confirmed on my printed check in confirmation - she eventually gave us them but tried to say we were not UC so could not have them [n].

The Air New Zealand Lounge was good and the Virgin rep was excellent. We boarded 'Mustang Sally' quickly with SA help and then I had a discussion about the seats. Two of the crew were just wonderful, they moved us on their own authority and the able bodied folks who had been given 29H and K were very good about moving to our assigned seats.

Although the seats were near the galley; busy and noisy, they were OK for us. The food was pretty good but we missed breakfast because we were sleeping. The rest fo the cabin crew were very good indeed, attentive and considerate. The flight crew kept us informed about progress and a short delay due to a previous problem at LHR meant we were about 30minutes late.


Edited to remove names as per forum rules - honey lamb

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks for posting the TRs, Roy.

You are not the first to make negative comments about check in staff at US airports.

Nice to see though, that the service you received from Special Assistance was top notch - this is another frequent feature of comments about SA - [y][y]

Nick

Having had first hand experience of shoddy ground staff at LAX, and seen numerous poor comments on this site about them, it does seem to be a real problem for VS that needs rectifying. We would have avoided LA for this summer's trip if it had been possible.

Sadly I've also seen plenty of evidence of sub-standard support from US-based check-in staff. I use IAD and LAX a lot and both have some way to go I feel, before the service reached an acceptable level. Shame really!