This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Check-in went reasonably smoothly for me as I had called the VS Au line to upgrade earlier in the week. In fact, I had also wasted several hundred heartbeats and raised my stress levels by bringing my homeward flight one day earlier - apparently the MOD route deal (hmmm....the word 'deal' normally implies that the tickets are cheaper...) through Hogg Robinson Travel now has a clause that the passenger has to contact their home unit or the HR emergency out of hours hotline to change the flight...it didn't use to be this difficult! Anyway, four phone calls later and I had a changed date and a miles upgrade.
My colleague's change was not so easy to enact as he is a filthy contractor (just kidding, Makkers) and had paid for his own flight - in economy no less. Well, on hearing that there were UC upgrades to be had he sorted it out with FC Au and got a good deal - however, somehow that didn't translate to the ticketing desk who tried to charge him double! After a bit of wrangling it was all sorted out and he met me in the IAD Clubhouse. Of course, being a good egg, I had a glass of champagne waiting for him....
A couple of hours passed, during which we did our best to run the stocks dry of champagne and Baileys (we didn't but having tried manfully we felt we'd done our bit). The flight was finally called and we made our way across the concourse to the gate; boarding went smoothly apart from the fact that the overhead lockers were (as usual) full of bags I would not consider to be 'carry on' items or size[V] and I had to ask the FA to stow my laptop bag in one of the rear lockers.
6K was in the snooze zone (I'd asked specifically as I needed to sleep enough to be in good shape to attend my daughter's rounders game the following afternoon) and things looked well set for a quiet journey...until I saw the baby lying in the arms of the lady in 8G... at that point the baby looked reasonably quiet and calm....well, here's hoping...
My colleague was intent on bantering me into sitting with him at the bar for the entire trip, despite my protests (but it IS a well known fact that I have the breaking strain of a warm KitKat[:I] ) and I could see him grinning and pointing at the bar.... Meanwhile time was marching on and nothing much appeared to be happening...the captain came on the PA to tell us that there had been a loading error in the rear cargo hold and that the aircraft was out of trim limits unless it was fixed. 'Shouldn't take too long'...hmm, I've heard that before! 40 minutes later we could finally hear (and feel) the cargo doors being slammed shut and to give him his due, the captain had kept us well informed throughout the delay. The FSM had also (belatedly) begun circulating through the UC cabin, talking to passengers and explaining the problem. By the time she got to me, the doors were being closed so she scooted off to complete the pre-taxi procedures.
Taxi out and takeoff were smooth and relatively quick, and it wasn't too long before we were through 10 000' and the seat belt light was extinguished. Sadly, at this point I broke and joined Makkers in the bar....having had a big lunch I really didn't feel like a full meal and asked the FA if I could have a bacon roll instead. 'Certainly' was the reply...this was typical of the rest of the journey. The FAs were fun, chatty and helpful if asked, but there was little or no forward thinking and the overall service was not that great, sadly.
A good example of this was (as I mentioned earlier) that I was in the snooze zone - well, having spent an hour and a half at the bar, I could see that the snooze zone was battened down for the night. I quietly made my way to my seat, thinking that (to save noise and not to wake the pax on either side of me) that the FA would have made the bed up. To my surprise, the seat was just as I had left it, despite being asked (twice, in fact) if I wanted my bed made up after takeoff. Likewise no sign of the extra pillow I had asked for... There was not an FA to be seen anywhere in the UC cabin at this point so I gave up and made the bed up myself. Not a problem in itself but pretty unfair on the pax in 5 and 7 K...
Finally having settled down for some beauty sleep the next thing thing I knew was the gentle touch of the FA waking me for breakfast (I love the way they do that...must be in the training or something). 'Give me a couple of minutes to get changed and brush my teeth and I'll be ready thanks' I scurried off to the bathroom to change thinking that the bed would be sorted out by the time I got back... Now, perhaps I'm either assuming too much or turning into a closet snob, but I would have thought it would be better to make the seat back up then put the table up, rather than leaving the breakfast tray on the duvet on the bed![n] To further complicate things, at this point the seat belt light came on (minor turbulence) so I had to eat my bacon roll sitting perched on the end of the bed sitting side-saddle! Not too much fun.
The seatbelt light went off again, coincidentally timed with the first officer's pre-landing PA so there ensued a mad scramble of pax sorting theirs seats out and waiting for the bathrooms so they could get changed! The cabin was, to be honest, a bit of a shambles and the most untidy I have ever seen in Upper. The FSM at this point was sitting at the IFBT station completing paperwork and playing no part in proceedings. All a bit unsatisfactory...
The landing and taxi in went well, but the chaotic scenes at Immigration were unbelievable - using Fast Track was pointless as the queue was just as long as the UK/EU lines...thank god I'm not 'other' as the queue snaked all the way through the imigration lines and back up the ramp! This at 7.15am on a Saturday!!
All in all, a funny old experience with a crew who were individually very nice, chatty and helpful but as a team left a lot to be desired....I think being somewhat leaderless did not help. Compare and contrast this trip to my last TR (the one before the one lost due to the virus) and it's clear that the CSS and FSMs remain key to the overall performance of the crew and that Virgin disregard this important customer relations issue at their peril!
Cheers (with an apology for the length of the TR)
Tony
P.S. The baby was really good - didn't hear a peep!
