V-Flyer

Following another great night at the Radisson at T2 (can’t recommend the place enough) me and the present Mrs Treelo had a quick trot along the ‘skyway’ to VS check in. We were intercepted by the self-service check in police who asked if we had checked in online. ‘Yes, thank you,’ says I. ‘Have you printed off your boarding pass?’ asks the keeper of the self- service check in machine. ‘No,’ says I, ‘ I prefer to pick up a proper one at the check-in desk. ‘You can just as easily do it here, and then you won’t have to queue for so long,’ comes back the un-PC PC. ‘But there is no queue at the PE check-in desk,’ comments the simmering Mrs Treelo. ‘Sorry madam, I thought you were travelling economy. Well, the lady wife gave the poor chap such a withering look that he almost fell over apologising.
The subsequent check-in went smoothly and we were soon through security, clutching our ‘real’ boarding cards for 79Aand C. A quick trip through duty free to pick up some Jack Daniels and we were soon into the relative calm of the Escape Lounge. Some cereal, toast, fruit and an alleged latte macchiato later (hardly the LHR lounge I know) and we toddled off to the gate and Pretty Woman.
No priority boarding in force (about right for MAN) so we joined the general melee and were soon in the sanctuary of the bubble guzzling a glass of fizz. Took off on time (and landed 35 mins early) and apart from a couple of bumps mid-Atlantic, had a very smooth flight. Following a drinks run we both had the beef, with mash and mixed veg and it was surprisingly tasty. My only gripe is that the bread roll and wine weren’t offered until about 15 mins after the meal was served. Watched Sherlock Holmes – Robert Downey is fab – and a fantastic performance from Rob Bryden, Live at the Apollo. Water and juice was available at the back of the cabin through the flight.
Shortly before landing, cheese and pickle or coronation chicken sandwiches were the offering. I think it is amazing that a sandwich can have one piece of bread that is quite soft and one that is harder than a hard thing.
Landing at MCO, we had a very short taxi to the stand and were in the empty immigration hall very quickly. Second in a queue, we were through very quickly and had a whole 40 or 50 seconds to wait for our luggage! We took the luggage onto the shuttle to the main terminal and very shortly were in our hire car and off to Deland for our overnight stop prior to our journey to Charleston.
All in all, a very slick VS experience, marred only by the fact that one of the CC insisted on very noisily and very obviously, chewing gum for the entire flight.

Treelo

Thanks for the TR

All told, seems as though VS did as says on the side of the tin
I would hve loved to have witnessed that withering look a MAN

Excellent result on the pasage through MCO

buns

Great report Treelo,
I think I saw said man at MAN last weekend dropping mrs nh off, he seemed ok, when we got blocked trying to go to PE chk-in, allowed through on showing AG card (good to see they do watch for this).

Thanks for your TR you did very well to be second in the queue of your flight to immigration considering UC should have been ahead, nice one.

cheers

alex

Alex V wrote:Thanks for your TR you did very well to be second in the queue of your flight to immigration considering UC should have been ahead, nice one.

That's the advantage of sitting at the back up top, you're down the steps and straight out.
UC have to negotiate their way through the downstairs PE cabin to get out.

Many thanks for the TR.

Wish MAN would get that priority boarding sorted - such a let down after the Radisson - I fully agree how good it is.

Thank you for the great TR. I would love to seen the man's face when Mrs T put him in his place.

My normal line with the pre-check-in screener when they come out with the "flying economy today sir?" line is... "am I trying to enter the economy queue?" (said quietly and politely). They normally just say "no, please could I see your e-ticket" and then realise the error of their ways.

Virgin really need to sort the out-sourced security screeners at MAN. Would they allow their own ground staff at LHR working in the UC check-in at T3 to do this all the time - err, I think not as they would seriously annoy sone high-rev pax travelling on full whack J fares.

James

Kraken wrote:My normal line with the pre-check-in screener when they come out with the "flying economy today sir?" line is... "am I trying to enter the economy queue?" (said quietly and politely). They normally just say "no, please could I see your e-ticket" and then realise the error of their ways.

James

Wouldn't have minded too much if I had been asked the 'economy or not' question James. It was the assumption that peed me off.

Treelo wrote:Wouldn't have minded too much if I had been asked the 'economy or not' question James. It was the assumption that peed me off.

I know how you feel. I remember being asked the same question at LGW. What irked even more was that a distinguished looking guy and family arrived at the PE line at the same time as this poor widder woman with teenage son in tow arrived at the UC line. The lady in question swivelled between the two of us and decided that Mr Distinguished and family were in the right channel but that elderly lady with teenage son was illiterate (in spite of her post-graduate degrees) and dealt with the PE group first. I can still hear her patronising tones when she asked if I were travelling in economy and her grovelling after she realised that we were in UC. To this day I'm half sorry I didn't cut through her smarming of Mr Distinguish with an "Excuse me but I'm in UC" but two wrongs don't make a right

Heaven knows what they'll think at LHR when I turn up with with my nine year old trolley case and nine year old laptop bag ... Doubtless I'll get The Stare..

[quote ........... but two wrongs don't make a right [/quote]

Probably not honeylamb, but I bet it would have made you feel a hell of a lot better

Opinions please. We usually fly to Sanford rather than MCO as we can be off the plane and in the car in 20 minutes if you ignore the travel rep on exit. Yes I know that means not flying VS but ... any way if we decided to do MCO for a change is it better to go from LHR or MAN please, both around the same distance for us to travel from home ?

SNOMO wrote:Opinions please. We usually fly to Sanford rather than MCO as we can be off the plane and in the car in 20 minutes if you ignore the travel rep on exit. Yes I know that means not flying VS but ... any way if we decided to do MCO for a change is it better to go from LHR or MAN please, both around the same distance for us to travel from home ?

It won't be from LHR on VS but from LGW.

Of course the reason for the assumption of PAX flying economy is rather simple. Virgin employ their own staff at LHR, MAN and LGW use Swissport (without taking any secuirty staff into account). Hence no full VS customer service training (you can spot the difference a mile off) which I know to be fact, the training I had was a joke.

Can i ask why it's so offensive to many on here if people think they are flying economy

newuser wrote:Can i ask why it's so offensive to many on here if people think they are flying economy

newuser, I'm presuming you are referring to the security person asking if you are flying economy when they are in PE or UC? What is offensive is the presumption by the security person that because we have fetched up at the PE or UC line that we are stupid and/or illiterate and we are in the wrong line. I have been at the receiving end of that assumption and the patronising way the question is asked is insulting to say the least. OK so people do fetch up at the wrong line or try to go through the shorter line but there are ways of asking such as "What class are you travelling in today?"

newuser wrote:Can i ask why it's so offensive to many on here if people think they are flying economy

It's as HL has said - it is the assumption that if you are say dressed even slighly casually (or basically confortably for a long flight) or have children in tow then you MUST by flying economy or because you are wearing a suit then you MUST be in Upper.

If someone in econ wants to wear a suit (and I'm assuming that many do because its mistakenly thought it will get you an upgrade) that's fine but its the assumption made by the queue minders that is annoying.

There are ways of dealing with people to stop them going in the wrong queue etc

'where are you travelling today sir, may I see your ticket?'

'let me just point you in the right direction'

Its similar to those people that complain when there are children in the 'business' lounge (a legacy from the days when there were very few leisure flyers flying in the premium cabins and only men on business could afford it) because they are not business men !

It is not just a presumption that you are travelling Econ.
I suspect that most times they know very well that you are travelling PE or UC.
The question, and the way in which it is asked, is entirely designed to annoy.

HL, agree. Tonty, agree. Bill, agree. There are ways to ask the 'how are we travelling today' question. There is no room for assumptions

Bill S wrote:It is not just a presumption that you are travelling Econ.
I suspect that most times they know very well that you are travelling PE or UC.
The question, and the way in which it is asked, is entirely designed to annoy.

Indeed. The Swissport training manual for pre check-in screeners probably reads;

1. Don't smile, look the approaching passenger up & down to give the impression you are forming an opinion.
2. Ask "Travelling Economy today Sir / Madam?"

All that needs to be done to rectify this, as others have said is just have one question;

"What class are you travelling today?" OR "Please could I see your e-ticket?". Job done. Should not be too hard to get a training course cobbled together to get this message through either.

James

Kraken wrote:

Bill S wrote:It is not just a presumption that you are travelling Econ.
I suspect that most times they know very well that you are travelling PE or UC.
The question, and the way in which it is asked, is entirely designed to annoy.

Should not be too hard to get a training course cobbled together to get this message through either.

James

Virgin Check-in needs more VIRGIN employees controlling things, not just running round with the credit card machine or hiding in the customer service booth...
Or as Lizz has hinted at-least get Swissport better trained,
I noticed UC had a Virgin staff member at the desk last week, PE and Y all checked-in via Swissport, which I find poor especially for PE- a "premium" service- well the automated responses we were getting anyhow.
More supervisory control at the gate by actual Virgin staff.- No priority boarding- there just no excuse for this..

At the end of the day, MAN is having major issues in Customer Service, a lot down to training and reliance on "don't give a toss" subcontractors who haven't been picked up on.

It could have been a swissport employee in red, they are 'cuss' agents but the supervisors put them on the UC desk to make it look better, they are trained just as poorly.

I think I may mention this all to my manger at work, there are so many issues in TR's on here about MAN ground staff. If the big boys at the top know their company is not coming acorss well on a public website due to their staff it should give them a kick up the backside! Lizz to the rescue!

Just be careful you do not get yourself into trouble Lizz. You know what bosses and web forums are like!

Iain

Ah yes I know, anything I have said that could put me in a bad light won't be shown, but without sound like a complete bitch, it will be quite nice to show that team up after the majority of them stabbed me in the back. Bitter? me? never!
Anyway I know just how horrible it is to get bad customer service, I may not be the biggest fan of my job but I make sure I do it properly.

Thanks for the replies.