Virgin Trains First Class Lounge

Hi Guys,

Anyone know if the First class lounge, London, will be open on Monday 28th Aug as it will be a Bank Holiday. Their website makes no mention as to opening times on Bank Holidays. If it isnt ill upgrade on the train as its only £10.

Cheers

[fozzyo]

Not sure if they open the lounges on a weekend / bank holiday. I usually just jump on in First and grab a seat. No at-seat service but once you have your upgrade ticket from the Train Manager you can claim your complimentary drinks and snacks at the shop.

Lounge at Euston is open Bank Hols as per weekends - which means it does close quite early - 7 or 8pm - something like that.

Don't get me wrong - it's better than waiting with the huge crowd of zombies on the concourse staring blankly upwards at the innumerable rows of screens for the platforms to be announced - but I wouldn't build your travel plans around experiencing it; it's not much to write home about.

That said I have had a pleasant enough time swigging my way through a fair few cans of Stella there before now, waiting for the Caledonian Sleeper - the last train of the day.

I've never actuayyl understood how to get First on trains - so just go for standard - any advice[:I]

VS.

Won't bother with the lounge then. just booked 2 std tickets at £6.60 each plus £10 upgrade so first class for £16.60 not bad considering the open ticket is close to £200. So i have to go and get my food? I have been on at the weekend and they bring it to you. Not same sort of food as during the week but still saves having to go to the shop. Have they changed this policy now?

Cheers

Tom

Originally posted by VS045
I've never actuayyl understood how to get First on trains - so just go for standard - any advice[:I]

VS.

Pretty simple VS - you have three main choices.

If you're not paying personally, rock up at the ticket office and ask for a first class return to wherever you're going. It's absurdly expensive though for what you get - i.e. about £186 return London to Birmingham, for example.

On the other hand, if you commit to specific trains, book at least 1800 day before departure, aren't travelling before 1000 on a weekday on either leg, and there is still availability, you can do the same trip in first for £52 in first. That is actually a lot cheaper than many standard tickets (for example, completely unrestricted standard on the same route is about £95).


The third way is available only at weekends, and provided you're holding at least a "Saver" ticket for standard, you can upgrade to first one-way on the train for a fixed fee usually between £10 and £20 depending on the route.

Really the same kind of game applies to trains as it does to getting a good deal on Virgin Atlantic (or any other airline); once you've assimilated the rules, then you know how to work within them to get more for less.

Good place to get "the knowledge" by trial and error is http://www.thetrainline.com.

Originally posted by stoneflyer
Won't bother with the lounge then. just booked 2 std tickets at £6.60 each plus £10 upgrade so first class for £16.60 not bad considering the open ticket is close to £200. So i have to go and get my food? I have been on at the weekend and they bring it to you. Not same sort of food as during the week but still saves having to go to the shop. Have they changed this policy now?

Cheers

Tom

Virgin changed it about 18 months ago - no at-seat service in First at weekends - you have to go fetch with your ticket. Plus, what you get is pretty limited choice (coffee, crisps, flapjack, one of two sarnies if they haven't run out).

GNER still do full at-seat at weekends (although you have to pay) - so swings and roundabouts as they say...

Virgin first in the week is however awesome for the full English breakfast. When working for stingy clients who won't reimburse for first I still always upgrade from my own coffers. It works out as £38 for a breakfast, which is a bit steep, but standard is always packed on those morning services to London and I just can't face it...

Thanks a lot, James:D[^]

VS.

Shropshire Lad have you tried the new Primo menu? Is really that much better than the original? Will they be rolling it out on more services? It seems like they are only trialling it at the mo.

Cheers

Tom

On a side note... When I was doing my "driving exam" on Pendolino the Chef appeared with two lovely sausage and bacon rolls for me and two for my colleague who was assessing me. I accepted them graciously then, because both hands were occupied, failed to press the button acknowledging a signal warning and went from 125mph to zero!!

I had to order a new coffee after that!!

John

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by JAT74L
On a side note... When I was doing my "driving exam" on Pendolino the Chef appeared with two lovely sausage and bacon rolls for me and two for my colleague who was assessing me. I accepted them graciously then, because both hands were occupied, failed to press the button acknowledging a signal warning and went from 125mph to zero!!

I had to order a new coffee after that!!

John

And you're driving trains!! [:0][:0][:0]

Originally posted by stoneflyer
Shropshire Lad have you tried the new Primo menu? Is really that much better than the original? Will they be rolling it out on more services? It seems like they are only trialling it at the mo.

Cheers

Tom

I've only experienced the Primo Breakfast and Afternoon Tea.

The main difference on the breakfast is the number of alternatives. Doesn't make a huge difference to me, because I always have the full English anyway which is served on every departure to London before ?1000? on weekdays, but for the cholesterol-phobes there's a ton of choices. Ones I can think of are: smoked salmon and eggs, kippers, fruit platter, croissants/danish/, Innocent smoothies and bacon/sausage toasties as well as toast, yoghurts and juices. You can certainly have more than one choice as well - last time I was on I was a bit of pig and had a danish, a yoghurt, the full English and a couple of rounds of toast.

The difference on afternoon tea is that the "savoury" round has a hot alternative unlike other first class daytime services, and then you get quite a nice range of fresh cream cakes and fancy gateaux for the sweet bit.

As for the evening meal service, I've never sampled it because it's only served on London - North West/Scotland services, rather than on the West Mids routes I use, where there isn't enough time to do it. Mate at the office experienced it a few weeks ago tho' and said the beef bourgignon was fine - exactly the same kind of thing as you'd pay about 8 or 9 quid for in a chain-pub. And you get some drinks too.

So overall, (with the possible exception of breakfast - unless you don't like full English or a feeling particuarly famished/greedy) I'd say it's certainly worth checking the timetable and going for a Primo service if it doesn't mean shifting your travel plans massively around it. On the other hand, it isn't doesn't have such a "wow factor" that it'd be worth letting the Primo timetable dictate the timing of your trip.

Last thing I'd say is that because Primo only operates on "selected peak routes" Mon-Fri I think there are virtually no Primo trains that you can get discounted first class tickets for. There might be a mid-afternoon Euston-Wolves departure (serving the afternoon tea) which you can do on the cheap, otherwise you have to pay full whack for Primo.

I don't have any inside track on it, but I don't think it's a trial - they've been running Primo on the current basis for about a year and it hasn't changed in that time. The whole point of it seems to be to offer an enhanced service on services when VT perceive people will really appreciate it - and where they have paid among Europe's highest per-mile rail fares.

James

I took the Virgin train from London to Glasgow last Thursday because of the Airline disruption - I used the lounge at Euston and wasn't impressed. Better to go and sit in the pub and enjoy a decent beer, I would suggest.

Cheers guys for all the replies.

John, a bit of a geekie question, do you know if the train will be 'tilting' on the 27th? beacuse i have never been on it when it tilts The train has been to be diverted via nuneaton because of a line closure at at Birmingham International?

Cheers

Tom

Originally posted by honey lamb
[brAnd you're driving trains!! [:0][:0][:0]

Would you rather I went hungry? I mean, my judgement may have been impared due to beakfast being on the floor rather than inside my ample gut!!
[:o)]

John

Originally posted by stoneflyer
do you know if the train will be 'tilting' on the 27th?

If it's a Euston - Brum/Wolves service diverted it'll tilt as normal at up to 125mph until Nuneaton where a diesel loco will be attatched.

Regards

john

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Jumping in here and veering a little off the topic:

Two things:
[1] I've heard of people getting really good deals on 1st class train tickets. How? They all seem to be way overpriced when I look for them (up to 6 times standard class)

[2] What, if anything do you actually get on board?
FRom this thread and other sources, I've read about drinks etc, but what exactly do you get without paying extra? Food eg breakfast?

A wider, reclineable seat and more space basically.

Virgin West Coast are unique in the UK by providing food and alcoholic beverage as part of the ticket price.

For my money, I prefer to travel GNER first and buy the food and drink - you are far more in control of the product you recieve IMHO.

Regards

John

Originally posted by JAT74L
A wider, reclineable seat and more space basically.

Virgin West Coast are unique in the UK by providing food and alcoholic beverage as part of the ticket price.

For my money, I prefer to travel GNER first and buy the food and drink - you are far more in control of the product you recieve IMHO.

Does VS offer WiFi like GNER? I was most impressed the other week when I used it. No drop outs at all, even in tunnels. Sometimes a little bit slow, but fine for email and browsing.

Cheers, Howard

Originally posted by JAT74L

Virgin West Coast are unique in the UK by providing food and alcoholic beverage as part of the ticket price.

Unless it's at the weekend or bank holiday? or do you still get liquour at the weekends?

Cheers

Tom

Originally posted by stoneflyer

Originally posted by JAT74L

Virgin West Coast are unique in the UK by providing food and alcoholic beverage as part of the ticket price.

Unless it's at the weekend or bank holiday? or do you still get liquour at the weekends?

Cheers

Tom

Afraid not. The "complimentary pack" which you fetch from the buffet on presenting your ticket/upgrade doesn't include alcohol. You can have tea/coffee, and/or Virgin Cola and/or water as far as drinks are concerned and that's your lot.

If you want anything that isn't in the complimentary selection then you just pay for it.

I do find this pretty odd - for example, the crisps, sandwiches and flapjacks that are part of the complimentary pack aren't the same as those available for general sale. If they've run out of stocks for complimentary nibbles then in my experience it's just a case of tough bananas - they won't give you the "for sale" Walkers' crisps if they've run out of the Virgin branded complimentary ones.

In light of this not-exactly-stellar service at weekends in First, I think it's fair to say it's probably only worth upgrading for the extra space - which can itself be a big advantage on busy late-Sunday services, for example.

One important wheeze to remember - if you're holding a Standard Open ticket, you don't need to pay anything to upgrade to First at weekends on Virgin. That's partly in recognition of the fact that Std Open is daylight robbery - it's a sort of goodwill gesture. Having said that once I had to explain the rule to a train manager who didn't know - and gleefully produced a print of the relevant page from VT's website.

Originally posted by Howard Long

Originally posted by JAT74L
A wider, reclineable seat and more space basically.

Virgin West Coast are unique in the UK by providing food and alcoholic beverage as part of the ticket price.

For my money, I prefer to travel GNER first and buy the food and drink - you are far more in control of the product you recieve IMHO.

Does VS offer WiFi like GNER? I was most impressed the other week when I used it. No drop outs at all, even in tunnels. Sometimes a little bit slow, but fine for email and browsing.

Cheers, Howard

Not at the moment although they're working on it. Their First Class lounges do have WiFi though.

It's a complicated system that GNER have got (and VT are developing). Essentially, it's a two-mode system whereby an on-train antenna picks up the signal directly from satellite when travelling in the open, and then switches over to picking up a conventional radio/GSM-type signal from transmitters placed in tunnels when they go underground.

It took a lot of fiddling to make it work, and the historic twistiness and tunnel-iness of the West Coast Mainline makes it fiddlier still and more expensive to install there than it was on GNER's East Coast run.

VT are probably playing it safe and refusing to roll it out until it works properly. That's probably wise given that VT still haven't managed to sort out the LCD over-seat reservation system two years after full Pendolino roll-out; if you can't sort out software and hardware to replace little card tags, it doesn't bode well for providing complex WiFi..!

Originally posted by ShropshireLad

Not at the moment although they're working on it. Their First Class lounges do have WiFi though.

It's a complicated system that GNER have got (and VT are developing). Essentially, it's a two-mode system whereby an on-train antenna picks up the signal directly from satellite when travelling in the open, and then switches over to picking up a conventional radio/GSM-type signal from transmitters placed in tunnels when they go underground.

It took a lot of fiddling to make it work, and the historic twistiness and tunnel-iness of the West Coast Mainline makes it fiddlier still and more expensive to install there than it was on GNER's East Coast run.

VT are probably playing it safe and refusing to roll it out until it works properly. That's probably wise given that VT still haven't managed to sort out the LCD over-seat reservation system two years after full Pendolino roll-out; if you can't sort out software and hardware to replace little card tags, it doesn't bode well for providing complex WiFi..!

Yes the GNER promo does quite a good description. I was pretty cynical about how well it would work so it was a surprise when it did work so well.

The bit of my business that sadly makes little money but at least keeps my grey matter going is the design and development of both ends of satellite comms systems, and seeing the combinination of this technology so seemlessly with 3G/GPRS/GSM into a working solution was pretty impressive - I guess they're tunnelling everything over a virtual circuit to make it so seemless. I couldn't get low latency demanding or high application-turning technologies to work well like Skype or VPN or remote desktop, hardly surprising given the high latency circuits being used to implement it. But browsing and email were fine.

This was the link I've seen describing it: https://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/MobileOffice/how_does_it_work.htm

Cheers, Howard

[/rant on]

I was in the Euston lounge this evening and it is one complete and utter disgrace. Where do I begin? The entrance door to the lounge and all the windows were open as it was stifling inside. Obviously the portable air-conditioning coolers weren't working.

Tea and coffee is now served in paper cups. They've got rid of the china cups on trays (as used on the trains). The coffee was ghastly and hardly warm. The lights were broken at the bar so the lounge attendant was serving in semi-darkness. Juice and water is still served in plastic cups. Truly tacky.

The lounge was busy and all the armchairs were taken. Only seats left were the nasty plastic stools. Biscuit wrappers and empty cups were left uncleared by the staff. This has been the case in the dozen or so times I have been in the lounge (in the evening) this year. No newspapers to be seen.

The toilets are an absolute disgrace. I cannot believe how filthy they are. Do they only clean them once a day? I have to mention the last time I visited there was actually poo on the toilet seat. The mirror and hand wash basins are filthy as usual. At least they've cleared one of the blocked urinals (which had been blocked for weeks on end). [ii]

I asked one of the lounge staff for a towel as I wanted a shower. As usual there weren't any large ones so she gave me one - (1) - small handtowel. In the past I've had to request at least two of these handtowels. This has just got be a joke. When I went into the shower room I was just dumbstruck. Raelly I was.

The showers were pretty bad before, i.e. no hot water, broken showerheads fixed with sellotape, disgusting shower curtains, used towels left lying on the floor since the morning, etc, but this time it was a mess. There are three private shower cubicles. As usual, none had any soap in the dispensers (I always have to carry my own). One shower was completely broken - the handle to operate it was missing. Another had its door broken off (it was propped up against the wall). All were in a filthy condition. Parts of the ceiling panels were hanging down, chipped tiles in the showers, filthy handbasins. My god, the showers in my boarding school a decade ago were never as bad as this. And Virgin Trains have the cheek to call it a First Class Lounge? A First Class Dump more like it. I'd rather wait for my train in Burger King.
[/rant off]