V-Flyer

Oh dear! So this was our return flight after two lovely weeks in Orlando. Having flown out with the new aircraft we had a idea of what to expect. We were somewhat dissapointed.

Check in at Orlando was busy. PE check in though had no line so we were straight to the front. Love it! Painless check in process with the only surprise being our seat allocation had changed from 22 A and C to 18 A and C which are the bulk head seats. Having had a good nosey on the flight out at the general layout of the PE cabin we had noted the frankly ridiculous amount of leg room allocated at 18 A and C. So we were tickled to have these seats on the way home!

Again the terminal was hooching! Thats a good scots word for busy. It seemed like there were a lot more kids going round at the terminal than I'd noticed on the way out? We grabbed some lunch at Outback and soon it was time for boarding. Again it was very nice to walk past a big crowd and onto the aircraft leaving a morass behind!

In contrast to the outbound flight, the cabin was full this time and also in contrast our seat area was filthy! Thank god for wet wipes. I've never had such an experience before and didn't expect to get it in PE in Virgin. When the CC noticed me wiping my seat and area down he just sort of smiled and said "thats what passes for clean in the US" It wasn't just a little grubby it was like someone had thrown soup around! The carpet hadn't been hoovered and there was paper and wrappers stuffed in the side of my seat! When we later took our TV's out of their storage areas the screens were filthy and the arms they sat on sticky and covered in what looked like lentil soup! Nice! My TV arm also was already busted in a manner similar to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman trying to make her opera glasses work, I couldn't get the TV to stop falling down until I jemmied my boarding pass into the joint to jam it in place!

There was an atrocious atmosphere in the cabin a combination of not enough over head storage that nearly caused fisticuffs with two couples behind us (not with us thankfully!) and a general grumbling about where people had been seated. There were no less than 5 couples complaining to the cabin crew about their seating allocations! One chap went on for a good 20 minutes arguing the toss and I thought he was going to get punted off the aircraft if he didn't calm it down! It wasn't an auspiscious start to the flight!

And it didn't improve any! Shortly after we reached cruising altitude the cabin crew came and plastered a sign on the bulk head in front of us, written on a napkin and taped on with yellow and black hazard tape saying "toilets to the rear of the premium cabin" Wait what? The perfectly serviceable toilet behind the galley at the front of PE cabin not in use? When the drinks service came shortly after, my husband politely asked if the toilet was not working. "no" we were told "its fine, its just its a design fault with the aircraft that the toilets there" "its too close to the cockpit" Yeah, right missus!!! I refuse to believe that Virgin let an aircraft come to market with a "design fault" They just didn't want passengers up by the galley where they promptly spent most of the flight! So that general drinks sevice that came just after take off, that was the last drinks service of the flight!

The food came shortly after our drinks had been cleared and I fully expected the offer of another drink! Not so! They offered wine and water - a thimble full of water at that! Thats what accompanied my dinner! I chose beef stroganoff. They forgot my stroganoff. There was precisely three chunks of beef, and noodles and peas and carrots! Bleugh! Not impressed. The cheese and crackers were lovely again! And the pretzel bread offered was nice but I'll never get that whipped fluffy buttery stuff the americans call butter! I didn't eat the dessert but tried a mouthful and it was nice enough just a little bit too sweet. My husband had the chilli chicken and seemed to make better of it than I did. He says it was edible!

The rest of the flight was non descript. Nightime flights are never great. We had all the useless and pointless leg room and it was almost uncomfortable! I really missed the foot rest. They issued us with these purple pleather wedge things that were no use to man nor beast! They were smooth on the base and would slide away from you! Could have used a rubber base so they didn't slip! Take note Virgin! We were offered tea and coffee and when my husband said yes, the CC ignored him and kept on walking past him, inanely offering tea or coffee! We were offered water and orange juice through the night, but no body collected any empty glasses. I had by the end 4 empty glasses that belonged to just me! My husband was snoring his fool head off oblivious! There was never a final rubbish collection before landing infact and when we were descending my husband was holding an empty water bottle and a bunch of rubbish and empty glasses slid through the cabin landing at our bulk head location! Pretty shoddy! Again the entertainment was turned off about an hour before landing but I didn't get suckered into not seeing the end of a film this time!

So all in all it wasn't a very nice return flight! We were off the aircraft almost first, some economy passengers had managed to shove past and we were barely into the terminal and some kerfuffle ensued! I'm thinking lack of nicotine might have been involved or maybe lack of sleep, but what ever it was, it wasn't classy and it wasn't really necessary!

Our bags were off first as promised and we were through the terminal and out to the car park in no time! Minutes later on the M8 and on our way home!

If this had been my only experience of Virgin and the PE cabin, I would never book it again! Rubbish food, shoddy cabin crew and an uncomfie seating position due to TOO much leg room!

Oh dear, not a great experience.

This toilet issue is going to become a recurring issue!

I can't help but hear the Scottish accent in your TR, very enjoyable!

Your TR sort of brings into reality what I said I thought a full flight on an A330 would be like

I forgot to include in my recent A330 TR that the seat area was already dirty and I had to wipe it down and then found more congealed food in the table area and arm rest when I lifted it out. This is bad news for such a new plane

I also agree that the tables are rather unstable.

Oh dear.......

Sunshine

This sounds like a shocker of a trip. On a brand new aircraft these things should just not happen. To have the only toilet in a premium cabin just for crew use, and lets be honest that is what it is for, is unacceptable. VS need a rocket up their arse to sort these easily sorted issues out.

Iain

Outragious behaviour by so called cc who have treated their paying customers like an inconvenience just terrible, I really do feel sorry for you.

Well atleast your home now.

cheers

alex

Oh dear. I second the r up the a.

And cleaning - this is knucklehead stuff that should be sorted.

mind you, i can appreciate the problems having pax queuing near the galley.

For security reasons airlines don't want passengers queuing for the toilet near the flight deck door. This is common on all aircraft fitted with a toilet in close proximity to the flight deck access.

clarkeysntfc wrote:For security reasons airlines don't want passengers queuing for the toilet near the flight deck door. This is common on all aircraft fitted with a toilet in close proximity to the flight deck access.

Yes, I can appreciate this, but then why design an aircraft with toilets so near the flight deck?

stevebrass wrote:

clarkeysntfc wrote:For security reasons airlines don't want passengers queuing for the toilet near the flight deck door. This is common on all aircraft fitted with a toilet in close proximity to the flight deck access.

Yes, I can appreciate this, but then why design an aircraft with toilets so near the flight deck?

The aircraft was originally designed to have UC which would have reduced the volume of people using it.

However, a lot of aircraft have the toilet next to the flight deck door - most airlines don't stop use, but simply advise passengers to queue into the aisle rather than blocking the flight deck door.

VS need to make a decision if this toilet is to be available to passengers or not and establish a consistent approach. If it's not going to be available, a proper sign (not a napkin) should be created and the toilet signs removed.

You would be hard pushed to queue in front of the cockpit door as it is hard against the toilet door! So the queue, if one formed would be either side of the galley. If you are talking what 56 passengers in PE cabin - say half go to the forward toilet half to the rear you are talking 28 passengers using one toilet over 9 hours. I can't see a very big queue forming! Infact there never was more than one person waiting for the toilet on the outbound flight!

This is the sign by the way! Very classy!

http://yfrog.com/hsh78vtj

what a sad TR, shame you had a bad experience.

correct me if I am wrong but isnt the loo door in the bubble about as close as can be to the cockpit? so whats all that about

makinga note to self -avoid 330 stick with good old dumbo

Feebarn wrote:
This is the sign by the way! Very classy!

http://yfrog.com/hsh78vtj

Classy indeed.

This in a premium cabin in a new aircraft.

Come on VS - get a grip.

Thanks for the highly informative TR

I'm stunned at the whole 'dirt & rubbish everywhere' thing, there's just no excuse for it

Even on low cost carriers they have it down to a fine art, ie. taking next to no time going down the aisles with a bin bag. Also I've seen crew wet wiping where needed seat arms & surrounds as part turnaround.

I would have been horrified if I'd experienced the same on a VS long haul that I'd paid a considerable sum for. You have every right to complain, indeed if the likes of Easyjet can ensure clean seating surroundings with their incredibly tight turnarounds then surely VS has no excuse. Must admit if there's one thing I've noticed about EZY crew it's that they are fanatical about collecting up the empties and rubbish - good on them! ...and no I have no affiliation with EZY

Thanks
James

Sounds like the return flight from hell. Please let us know how your complaint gets handled.

And that was the PE experience?

I wonder what it was like in Economy

Perhaps VS need to consider reducing the 'premium' one had to pay for PE on the 333 as it seems the 'premium' product is not quite as 'premium' as advertised!

Luke085 wrote:Perhaps VS need to consider reducing the 'premium' one had to pay for PE on the 333 as it seems the 'premium' product is not quite as 'premium' as advertised!

I'm not sure a dirty seat and poor CC performance on one flight would necessarily mean the whole VS PE offering has suddenly become crap

Of course it isn't good enough, but for the same price compared to WT+ you are still getting excellent value for money.

Neil wrote:

Luke085 wrote:Perhaps VS need to consider reducing the 'premium' one had to pay for PE on the 333 as it seems the 'premium' product is not quite as 'premium' as advertised!

I'm not sure a dirty seat and poor CC performance on one flight would necessarily mean the whole VS PE offering has suddenly become crap

Of course it isn't good enough, but for the same price compared to WT+ you are still getting excellent value for money.

No i'm certainly not saying PE has become crap at all and PE definitely remains a better product than WT+. However, closure of a toilet and lack of cleanliness is not something I would be happy with considering you pay £1000+.

Luke085 wrote:No i'm certainly not saying PE has become crap at all and PE definitely remains a better product than WT+. However, closure of a toilet and lack of cleanliness is not something I would be happy with considering you pay £1000+.

I don't disagree but then you can get a dirty seat and broken toilets in UC where you pay £3000+ or Y where you pay £500 - cost is irrelevant, poor cleaning and service should not be acceptable ever.

My point was that you suggested that VS should look at re-pricing PE on the A330 because of the issues highlighted in the TR, which is what I disagreed with.

You are paying for the extra legroom and enhanced offerings like increased baggage, priority boarding etc, not separate toilets or cleaner seats, so I don't get why PE pricing on the A330 is an issue?

On my flight to Chicago yesterday lots was good to great, but a plumbing fault led to all of the sinks being out of use and one of the UC loos too. That's not great for hygiene ... at least in UC we were offered bottled water and towels, but it was a fairly full flight ...

Shame to the OP about the flight - there's no reason to turn off the IFE an hour before landing, that's lazy, nor is there for the CC to stretch their legs and offer waste collection, or another drinks round (although you could have asked).

But this dirtiness is getting ridiculous and is often mentioned from MCO. VS needs to shoot a rocket up the a***s of their cleaning contractor ...

I agree with Slinky, because MCO is one of Virgin's "backbone" routes and must be very high in their list of most profitable routes. So if the dirtiness is an ongoing problem, it'll really hurt them on a route like MCO if customers decide not to come back.

clarkeysntfc wrote:I agree with Slinky, because MCO is one of Virgin's "backbone" routes and must be very high in their list of most profitable routes. So if the dirtiness is an ongoing problem, it'll really hurt them on a route like MCO if customers decide not to come back.

Not much competition though from Man and Gla, unless you fly into Sanford. Nothing wrong with that, but it does add to the drive and not much good for connecting flights.

Completely unacceptable behaviour by crew and the absolute opposite to the fantastic PE flight I had out to MCO on Monday (TR on way).

As in any job, there are some people that are really good at their job and others who do the bare minimum, sadly it seems you got the later.

The issue regarding the front toilet is a load of rubbish. Given the large amount of security with CCTV cameras, reinforced cabin doors, there should be no reason why a queue of four people causes a security risk. Interestingly on my flight over on Monday upstairs in the 744 there was often a queue of people waiting for the bathrooms, some half a foot from the flight deck door and nothing was said. Strikes me that your assumption could be closer to the mark.

Neil wrote:

Luke085 wrote:No i'm certainly not saying PE has become crap at all and PE definitely remains a better product than WT+. However, closure of a toilet and lack of cleanliness is not something I would be happy with considering you pay £1000+.

I don't disagree but then you can get a dirty seat and broken toilets in UC where you pay £3000+ or Y where you pay £500 - cost is irrelevant, poor cleaning and service should not be acceptable ever.

My point was that you suggested that VS should look at re-pricing PE on the A330 because of the issues highlighted in the TR, which is what I disagreed with.

You are paying for the extra legroom and enhanced offerings like increased baggage, priority boarding etc, not separate toilets or cleaner seats, so I don't get why PE pricing on the A330 is an issue?

Well there isn't anything 'premium' about having to queue for the toilet (I do think this is a benefit of the PE product, whilst not necessarily advertised) or having to worry about where you'll put your hand luggage due to a lack of overhead storage space. Paying the premium price for PE you shouldn't have to worry about things like this, whereas I would expect to wait for the toilet in Y.

Fair enough on the cleanliness point, that could have happened in any class or aircraft and that is definitely worthy of a complaint. BA may be offering a lesser product but I never had a dirty seating area on their aircraft. VS need to work with the cleaning contractors rather than the CC simply saying "well that's clean by US standards" - my opinion is the same as yours that is shouldn't be acceptable by VS standards or is it? Is the MCO route neglected because the passengers are deemed as untidy? I hope not.

The comment "well that's clean by US standards" is frankly plain ignorant. The US has just as good a reputation, if not better, than the UK for cleanliness in public areas etc.