V-Flyer

My Christmas trip home, and this time I had my girlfriend in tow so I was a little excited to show off Virgin Atlantic to her and although the seat was nice, overall I'd say the crew were simply just a little bit meh, but more on that later.

We got to SFO somewhat early, partly to enjoy the clubhouse but also to see if we could nab 28 A&C - on this front we would be left disappointed, having been given the fob off at check-in that we would be on standby, and they refused to answer whether someone had checked in....quelle surprise that the couple sat there should be related to one of the crew Anyway, no particular bother as we had two seats on the side and that's really all we ever wanted, and honestly, the ground crew on this occasion were superb and very friendly, none more so than the SF clubhouse crew.

It seemed that time had absolutely flown by when it came to departing the lounge, which we did about 5 mins before they called it so as to beat any rush for security. A short wait at the gate and we were boarding, shortly after that we were settled into our seats with the 'welcome aboard' bubbly. I won't say the experience turned sour at this point as that would be over doing it, but it's fair to say this was not my favourite collection of cabin crew. They weren't rude, though it wouldn't have taken much for them to be considered so, but they were so utterly utterly disinterested and not in anyway personable - you'll not be surprised to learn that there was no welcome aboard as an Au card holder, not even at the boarding door.

The crew lameness was summed up for me with the single, yes that's one, water service throughout the flight. Yes, I know you can just go and grab one from the galley, but it still seems pretty shoddy to me.

The food was fine, though for the life of me I can't remember what exactly it was that I had for the main, or the starter to be honest but I recall that my palette wasn't necessarily offended.

Of course 2 hours into the flight, the cabin crew seem to want to wrestle control from you over the window blind, I know there's good reason for this esp on summer flights but for whatever reason it ticked me off a little to be told to shut my window....and for good reason, about 3.5/4 hours into the flight, I felt the urge to ignore the window blind police and have a gander out the window into the dark abyss and boy, was I glad I did! I've seen the northern lights before, but it never gets old and I don't recall ever seeing them this bright, this strong and just so beautifully serene as it danced in the black of night.

The northern lights made me forget about the zombies clad in red, it also made me forget about the suit in grey who didn't make a single appearance in the PE cabin other than for take off and landing but soon they would be delivering us breakfast. I'd rather they hadn't. The breakfast is pretty dire, I'm confident they can do better but I suppose I did eat it all and thus stopped me from eating any of the cabin.

Soon, after a few movies, we were doing big circles in the air over the south of England and we were now given permission to have our window blinds open again. We got some jolly nice views of London as we were holding and for me it was enjoyable, for my girlfriend it was just ok as I guess she couldn't quite see as much as I.

Once at the gate the disembarkation process was an abosolute farce. They let 28 and 29 A&C out and then asked us to wait as for 'safey' reasons they couldn't have upstairs leaving at the same time....yes, ok, I understand the quite possibly totally made up reason if there was any sign of anyone from upstairs coming down, but there wasn't. As we waited, and we waited, I asked if they couldn't just let us sneek out to which the CC almost barked, but not quite, "No sir, you need to wait!"...absolute joke

All in all, not quite what I'd wanted for my girlfriends first VS experience and in fact had her asking me why I didn't switch to BA when I moved to the US....quite.

Shame about the service.

Result on the Northern Lights though. I wonder why the crew don't announce things like this if they see them? I know they may not want to disturb sleep, but presumably there would be some way of flashing up a message on the IFE? I remember with some fondness being directed to a view of Niagara Falls and another time to an ice wall collapsing into the sea.

Thank you for the TR. Unfortunately your trip sums up the problem with VS at the moment. They appear to have reduced the basic service in all cabins to the point that unless the crew rise to the challenge and make up for the deficit, the experience doesn't match the expectation and in my opinion the overhyped advertising just adds to the problem.

pjh wrote:Shame about the service.

Result on the Northern Lights though. I wonder why the crew don't announce things like this if they see them? I know they may not want to disturb sleep, but presumably there would be some way of flashing up a message on the IFE? I remember with some fondness being directed to a view of Niagara Falls and another time to an ice wall collapsing into the sea.

Yeah, that would have been a neat idea. A few people noticed my excited gasp when I opened the window blind and were able to enjoy it. It lasted a good while too.

Ah the window blind thing, there are some VS CC who are tyrannical about it ... I especially hate it when someone leans over you with no communication to snap the blind shut!

Shame about the "meh", I hope it's better for the return.

slinky09 wrote:Ah the window blind thing, there are some VS CC who are tyrannical about it ... I especially hate it when someone leans over you with no communication to snap the blind shut!

Shame about the "meh", I hope it's better for the return.

Yeah, no only that but they flashed up a message about it on the IFE. Odd.

Yes, pleased to report the return was much better, though it was in UC.

Thanks for the TR

To echo what others have already said, a grave shame about the lack lustre crew - no doubt aided and abetted by a disinterested FSM

Wake up VS and do something about training FSMs to be dedicated

buns

buns wrote:Thanks for the TR

To echo what others have already said, a grave shame about the lack lustre crew - no doubt aided and abetted by a disinterested FSM

Wake up VS and do something about training FSMs to be dedicated

buns

Thanks Buns. Yes, I would like to think they could shape up a little. I'll write my return TR soon, the crew were lovely and the FSM was total pants.

simonallardice wrote:

buns wrote:Thanks for the TR

To echo what others have already said, a grave shame about the lack lustre crew - no doubt aided and abetted by a disinterested FSM

Wake up VS and do something about training FSMs to be dedicated

buns

Thanks Buns. Yes, I would like to think they could shape up a little. I'll write my return TR soon, the crew were lovely and the FSM was total pants.

Great TR, thanks for posting! It looks like a case of the VS inconsistencies again on both your flights.

Massive result on the Northern lights, which I have never seen and am very jealous!