Virgin Atlantic Negatives!

Ok well obviously all members of the forum like Virgin Atlantic but how many of you have things you dont like about VS?

We all know the positives how about the negatives?

Go for it ....

Economy seat pitch and leg room

[Nottingham Nick]

Of course, an organisation the size of VS isn't going to be perfect. Planes will go tech, members of staff will have bad days and there will be times when I can't get the flight / price / seat I want.

The thing I do like about VS is that they appear to try to do their best to look after me, the customer. They apologise when things go wrong, they change when things clearly aren't right and I usually enjoy my experiences with them.

I know this isn't the type of post you are looking for. I am not a Virgin sycophant and am one of the first to make a noise when things don't go right, but I will defend them when I feel it is right to do so.

There are plenty of sites on the web that slag VS off and I have spoken to a number of people whose experiences have been short of what I would expect them to be, but I speak as I find.

Nick

I think that you need to assess the package offered as a whole and I believe that VS is the best for my business and holiday needs. VS, for me, do most things better most of the time.

cheers

GO

There's one negative for me, inconsistency of service . The majority of flights are very good, significantly better than the competition. But, on a couple of occassions I've had a a cabin crew who really don't seem to care. It always stands out so much more on VS because the good is so good.

VSlf

[Decker]

Jonathan

Why? Give us a context . Currently my pet peeve is that the NYC flights back to LON are too short to enjoy UCS properly

[HighFlyer]

I love VA and the Virgin brand, but admittedly, while i rant and rave about them to my friends and colleagues there are a few areas they need to address.

1) Inconsistency with cabin staff. I have experienced this a few times but usually when travelling on night flights, i have had to find a member of Cabin Crew for drinks and refreshments, and i have had a few dirty looks apon pressing my button. This has been in different cabins too.

2)The old A343 Airbuses, i cant believe that Virgin had kept them going when they were falling to bits. They really put theit image to shame.

Otherwise, i am quite happy with the service. Id obviously like to see some improvements here and there but nothing too important.

Id really like to adopt a no trolley policy in PE. With only 38 px i think it would be a nice touch to bring the meals out by hand.

quote:Why? Give us a context . Currently my pet peeve is that the NYC flights back to LON are too short to enjoy UCS properly

I agree:D:D

The inconsistency of service has been a major disapointment to me in the past but I have not had a bad flight in the last 10.

[RichardMannion]

Nothing is ever perfect.

I have some negatives, have experienced bad flights and some poor service - but then I am known to be a fussy/difficult/annoying little person.

Problem is that sometimes one VS flight will set the bar really high, and then next time it may not be so good but then when you compare the lesser experience to flying with an alternative carrier, the lesser VS expereince will 99.9% of the time be significantly better.


Thanks,
Richard

Virgin Atlantic rates higher than all other airlines in most areas I find, but the things I dont like are:

1) A340-300's. Too tight in economy! Had a couple of pretty uncomfortable flights to Boston last year.

2) Seats in economy always look a little gaudy. Prefer one consistant colour all the way through economy (being fussy now I know!)

3) They send loads of Brits over to Vegas!!! I used to love going to Vegas to get away from the Brits and nowdays you cant walk from one hotel on the strip to the other without seeing a pair of pale legs or football shirts! On the flip side, I love going to Vegas direct rather than connecting hehe

Every other department Virgin are far on top. Would like to see some 777's though

A323 PE
A346 UC
Not being able to book LHR V.Touch
No bar/therapist on B&S UC
Variable IFE
Inconsistent service

Fairly minor stuff. Oh, and if they ever run out of the decent wine on one of my flights again I am going to do my well known exploding kettle impersonation!

BC

BC, why UC on a A346?

Completely agree on the wine issue... Is there no way they can limit consumption on the outbound?

Hmmm, I really had to think to come up with some negatives, 'cos I don't honestly recall having a bad experience with VS yet

S'pose the only thing I really have any "pet peeve" with is Nova IFE on LGW>MCO

I'm loathe to mention "In-flight service inconsistency", because I've not actually had any bad in-flight service on VS, it's just that some flights are good, and some are excellent [8D]

BTW, I'm not including seat width/pitch in Economy as I'm lucky enough to have a choice on that at the moment, but I do agree it needs some improvement

Cheers

Michael

My first flight in 1991 was a random placing on VA to NYC. They had seat back TV screens, plentiful alcohol, and it was great fun.

Over a decade later, I am astounded the planes still in service with "broadcast" entertainment (sometimes a single screen at the front of the economy cabin - to Europe!), and I will not even mention the lame entertainment.

Probably the only negative with VA is consistency, which is of course
always a difficult parameter to manage. It is clear they try to have a unique service, and they are the only ones I have sat at the bar and had a massage on - so far....!


TS

quote:Originally posted by thescientist

Over a decade later, I am astounded the planes still in service with "broadcast" entertainment (sometimes a single screen at the front of the economy cabin - to Europe!), and I will not even mention the lame entertainment.

Hmmmm I assume you are not talking about Virgin there, as all their aircraft have seat back TV's and all round they have the best entertainment around... and they dont fly to Europe.

quote:Originally posted by Buffers
BC, why UC on a A346?

It's a long, characterless, single cabin. Gimme a 747-400 every time.

quote:
Completely agree on the wine issue... Is there no way they can limit consumption on the outbound?

Not with me on board there isn't...[:p]

BC

Johnathan,

My point exactly. The Virgin service of over 10 years back is still better than that of many today. I am not kidding about the "single screen" aeroplane either!

TS

I find that the service from check-in staff tends to fall behind that of those in the clubhouse and on-board. Also, not being able to get decent 'fizzy cafeine' - I can't stand Virgin Cola.

hehe yep Virgin cola is nasty, as are all colas except Pepsi and Coca Cola.

Mix it with Barcardi and you wont notice it