Variations in Service

I've just arrived in Sydney on the VS200. The flight to Hong Kong was superb with the Upper Class staff as good as I've ever seen them. However, from Hong Kong to Sydney, they were noticable by their absence, or were chatting at the bar with passengers they knew (at least one of whom let slip that she was Virgin cabin crew). The meal service was slow, drinks were not refilled and the cabin crew just seemed uncaring. This pair of flights really brought home to me how much the Upper Class product depends on the crew.

The difference seemed to be the FSM: obviously running the crew on the first leg, but not seen on the second.

Boarding at Hong Kong was great with two walkways and a seperate Upper class line. Why oh why do Virgin find it impossible to lay a red rug down at Heathrow to give the Premium passengers priority boarding?

FarWest

[Decker]

Greetings FarWest and welcome to V-Flyer. Your comments are borne out time and time again in trip reports on this forum. However stick around and read some of the back threads and you'll find that VS _are_ introducing this at LHR real soon now.

[honey lamb]

Hi FarWest and welcome to V-Flyer. Lack of consistency is the main complaint by regular V-flyers and like you say, the role of the FSM is vital to this.

As Decker says, the issue of priority boarding has been discussed at length and is now available for all flights using the 747s. It is hoped to start trialling it for the 346 soon at LHR, if it hasn't already started


Link

[HighFlyer]

Welcome to V-Flyer [y]

The best thing you can do is write in to customer services and explain your grievances. Only with feedback can VS hope to improve and while VS have been known to read these boards, we are only a fan site and not a direct feedback channel.

As Decker and Honey Lamb have said, what you have experienced is sadly quite common. I know there have been changes to the way that the HKG/SYD flights are crewed so perhaps that has some bearing. Sorry your flight wasnt as good as it could have been.

Thanks,
Sarah

Many thanks for your suggestions and comments. I've written to VS Customer Service.

FarWest

Such a long trip too, even with the layover. It's funny, when I have a really great holiday as i've just had, I forget all about the outbound flight. I hope you can to, at least the last leg of it.

Best Wishes [:D]

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by soledad-canyon
Such a long trip too, even with the layover. It's funny, when I have a really great holiday as i've just had, I forget all about the outbound flight. I hope you can to, at least the last leg of it.

Best Wishes [:D]

Did you have a sub-standard outbound flight in Economy then?

Originally posted by FarWest
This pair of flights really brought home to me how much the Upper Class product depends on the crew.

the crew have an intensive 6 week training course and yearly exams according to one of the crew posting somewhere on here, so surely it depends on the product and not the crew? Is there something wrong with the product?? Are you paying enough do you think?
[:w]

Originally posted by RichardMannion

Originally posted by soledad-canyon
Such a long trip too, even with the layover. It's funny, when I have a really great holiday as i've just had, I forget all about the outbound flight. I hope you can to, at least the last leg of it.

Best Wishes [:D]

Did you have a sub-standard outbound flight in Economy then?

Oh Richard, darling, you are such a tease!!! [:D][:D][:D][:o)]

I have had a reply from Customer Service:

Thank you for your kind comments about your experience with us on the London Heathrow to Hong Kong sector I was glad to read that the crew lived up to their usual high standards, so thanks for taking the time to get in touch.

Unfortunately the same can't be said for the Hong Kong to Sydney sector it would seem. I can only apologise for the disappointing lack of service and attention you received on this flight.

I've passed on your concerns to the cabin services manager as well as the flight services manager on this sector.

Regarding your comments about the dedicated check-in and the Virgin Atlantic red carpet I've forwarded these to our station manager in Hong Kong.

Mr xxxxxxxx, we value all customer feedback as we want to know what our passengers think Ð good or bad. After all, it's only by being told where we've gone wrong that we can take steps to put things right.

Thank you for choosing to fly with Virgin Atlantic. I hope we'll see you on one of our flights again soon, and that next time you'll have a smoother, more enjoyable experience with us.

They have completely missed the point about the poor boarding process for premium passengers at LHR so I have gone back to them on this point.

My return into Heathrow this morning was excellent with the FSM on the second leg actually greeting me by name! This regularly happens on Continental, but is the first time ever for me on Virgin.
FarWest

Thanks for taking the time to report back their reply, interested to hear about upper boarding.

cheers
alex[:D]