VS016 MCO-LGW 6 DEC 12 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Return flight after 2 weeks at work !

We were origanlly scheduled to fly back on Saturday 8th but pulled the flight forward a couple of days as we finished early. Checked on Flightstats on the Tuesday and the load was very light - 9's across the board, even X and E - we changed our tickets and there was no additioanl charge so we thought we were on to a winner with a quiet flight - not so !

OLCI done in the morning of the flight, seq 165 so didn't expect a full flight.

Arrived at MCO early as a colleague was on an earlier BA flight. Straight to bag drop where it all started to go wrong :-( on my way out, I had accrued anough TP's to get to Silver - whilst it gives minimal benefits, being able to us PE check in is a lot easier. Arrived at a fairly empty PE check in (Economy was madness !) and trid to check in to be told I couldn't use PE without my Silver card - not easy to produce when it is in the UK waiting my arrival home. No flexibility, so I joined the EC bag drop of about 20 pax :-(. Fortunatley, someone overheard the conversation and after about 10 minutes sent us to UC check in as they were emty. Expereince was not great, check in agents more interested in talking amongst themselves !

Went and grabbed a bite to eat in the Fox sport bar - not great service but the food was ok, then on to security which was a nightmare.

Through security we saw the MAN flight borad and depart and proceeded towards the gate when boarding was called. What a queue ! it was evident from the queue this was not an empty flight - finally on board and advised 449 pax and 17 crew - significantly different from expected on Flightstats !

Taxied out with the usual speel about alcohol consumption, dinner was served about 1 hour in - late because the meals loaded in MCO were forzen and therefore took longer to cook.

Drinks service was non existent through the whole flight, crew were poor and didnt engage at all. Smooth flight back in to LGW about on time after a flight of 7.75 hours.

As expected being in the back 2 rows disembarking was slow however the E-Passport gates saved a lot of time. Bags slow coming off but all told in the chauffer car (work provided not VS !) about an hour and quarter after wheels down so not too bad.

Shame again, VS inconsistencies let the flight down. Great flight out, poor flight back - the opposite to our last expereince to CUN.

Have to say, the new EC seat is actually pretty good - colleague came back on a VS airbus and remarked how cramped it felt compared to the re-furb 747's...............

To be fair unless you are at an airport where the ground staff are directly employed by the airline it is not unusual to get indifferent service. Good news on aircraft disappointing on the crew and meals again!

To be fair unless you are at an airport where the ground staff are directly employed by the airline it is not unusual to get indifferent service. Good news on aircraft disappointing on the crew and meals again!

Are the ground staff at MCO not VS employees?

None of the check in staff at any airport are directly employed by Virgin, they are all third party contracted staff who wear the Virgin uniform. Virgin only have around 5 ground staff in each overseas airports who are directly employed by Virgin such as station/duty managers, TCO's etc.
The only exception is LHR where all our ground staff are employed directly with Virgin.
Virgin have very little control over third party contracted staff.

If someone was wearing my company uniform carrying out work for my company I would want more than very little control over them that's for sure

Yet another example of the VS dreaded inconsistenvies Thanks for posting your brace of TRs

If someone was wearing my company uniform carrying out work for my company I would want more than very little control over them that's for sure

Absolutely right, sometimes the check in staff are servisair or some other ground services provider. If someone is wearing VS uniform I would expect VS service.

Checked on Flightstats on the Tuesday and the load was very light - 9's across the board, even X and E

Hi, please can you tell me how/where I can do this? Seems like it would be a really useful tool.
Thanks for your help x