V-Flyer

Seat 31C (Eventually)
Plane : Soul Sister A340-600

Arrived at UC checkin at 8:40am for the 12:30 flight. All the desks were open, and I was greeted immediately. Was asked where I was heading by the member of staff patrolling the UC waiting area, and was given some advice about baggage collection.

The Gold Security BAA agent was asking for Gold cards today, I wonder if people have been tailgating other passengers through the automatic door ?

The Check In agent would not give me an Exit Row, nor ring up and ask. Which surprised me considering how easy it had been in the past at LHR & LAX. She suggested I check with the concierge.

Picked up my Jamaican Dollars from Travelex, they wanted another 93p from me as the bank had not sent them $100 bills, and I never carry UK currency when I fly, so they wrote off the extra I owed them ! I did offer them a $1 in exchange.

The Clubhouse was n't too busy and I headed straight for the concierge to see if they could help with my seat.

A full English arrived quickly, the service was a little better today, with no wait to get a drink. I had my ususal massage at 11am and the flight was called at 11:45. We were departing from Gate 7.

As the flight was called I checked with the Concierge and they released 31C to me [^]

We pushed back a few minutes late as there was a late arrival on board, which I thought was kind of strange as they had a bulkhead and an infant, so they must have been at the airport pretty early considering how many infants and children there were on board today.

The IFE was playing up from the very start, my seat had problems with the colour when pulling the screen fully upright and the right channel would not work, so it was mono for most of the flight. Others in Row 32 had no sound for the whole flight and had DVD players. They did reset their IFE 3 times. When the reset the whole plane, my sound came back on both channels.

I went for the BBQ Chicken, which was OK, later a Choc Ice came out, although it was a good 3 hours after the Ice Cream in PE. A Chees and Pickle roll was the choice just before landing.

During the flight there was only 1 Juice/Water run.

No Au acknowledgement or differentiated service this time.

We touched down a little early and had the usual long wait in Immigration, what an unfriendly bunch they are there !

No evidence of Priority Baggage in effect. From landing to getting to the Hilton Airport Hotel took 1 hr and 45 mins !

Off to Jamaica tomorrow with AA and my Return TR will be on the direct Kingston to LGW flight.

Below average service from the UC desk compared to my usual visits.
Good service in the Club House.
Good service on board.

Mark

quote:Originally posted by ukcobra
had the usual long wait in Immigration, what an unfriendly bunch they are there !



Yep, and pretty unpleasant to boot.
Still no Au recognition on board either[V].

Immigration asked what I was doing in the US for 1 day, when I told them I was only here for less than 24 hours. They appeared surprised I was on a connecting flight !

Given up on Au recognition on board, just think it's interesting to track when it actually happens and in what form.

I saw the FSM come through into the back twice.

The flgiht was almost full in Y and PE, no idea of UC.

quote:Originally posted by ukcobra
The Check In agent would not give me an Exit Row, nor ring up and ask.

That is bad Customer Service.
Did she give any reason for not wanting to make a 30 second phone call?

Nick

I think we should forget any recognition on board nowadays - as some crew have commented here, it no longer features in FSM training (or is not emphasized) and as we observe there is great variation within the FSM ranks.

For example, travelling to New York on Tuesday we had a great FSM, she was in the cabin, visibly talking to people including me, turns out she had been seconded to Virgin Nigeria to deliver training and it showed through her example!

On the return the FSM was invisible, on the odd ocassion he walked through the UC cabin he couldn't even make eye contact with passengers let alone interact - noticeable too that he did not bring around the extra amenities so had no need to talk to any passenger, it was further obvious that either the crew treated him as invisible or he didn't feel the need to talk to them either - he was very efficient about controlling the lighting though!

I think VS needs a bit more standardisation and on the job monitoring of its FSMs ...

Have a great Caribbean holiday1

The reason why the Exit Row was not given at checkin is that they wanted to sell them.

And Slinky09, I am actualy working in Jamaica next week, no holiday for me !

Thank you for the TR!

Thanks for the TR.