VS900 LHR-NRT 5 Apr 07 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

I saw the Galley notes on my return flight from MCO last year - the FSM left them on the bar after she had used them to go round the UC cabin and introduce herself to each passenger by name.

It was just a slip of computer print-out, the list just had each seat number on, the pax name, FC number & any service notes [i.e. Vegeterian meal]. This would fit in with what others have said about the notes not saying if the ticket is revenue or reward - just a FC number and each level of membership starts with a different number I belive.

Thanks
James

Originally posted by Decker
It's a 'Who ordered what' list to help the crew with service. Columns for starters/mains/dessert etc. Normally scrawled next to the pax is an annotation of their FC/Staff status. The mention of reward/treatment was a response to an earlier post not yours

Thanks Decker & James

Originally posted by Decker
...we were rapidly seen by a black shirted check in person. Realising her badge didn't have 'Mosley' on it we looked more closely at her badge and saw the word 'Premier'

Damn, I was going to guess it said 'Diana Mitford'...

Originally posted by Decker
Shortly after this touching reunion there was a kerfuffle as a couple of VS ground staff escorted Jordan and Peter AndrŽ ... Call it sour grapes if you will but if crew could pay the same attention to loyal customers it might actually have a better knock on effect.

Don't you mean 'knockers on' effect, sir? [}:)]

Originally posted by DeckerShortly thereafter several group members left for their treatments culminating in Decker, Fozzyo and Wolves27 gracing the jacuzzi with their presence. This was enjoyed by all (well, Mrs D was none too pleased with Decker's insistence on Speedos but as Wolves27 points out, it could have been far worse, it could have been a thong)

No. Wrong. It could not have been worse.

Originally posted by DeckerUpon boarding the assembled hordes were horrified by the sight of a young couple with a baby estimated at less than a year old boarding and sitting directly opposite the Deckers and Dean. Given that none of the flyers have children (well they were going away for a short weekend in Tokyo so you can intuit that) this is an understandable stance despite the beliefs to the contrary by others with children. However gamely they opted for the Òbenefit of the doubtÓ stance. This was to prove to be woefully inappropriately optimistic.

Is there nothing that can be done? Cannot the parents slip Baby a thimble of Oban? After approximately three decades of nightly drunkenness, I stand here before you a reasonably productive citizen. Don't tell me one night of grain-induced wooziness will ruin Baby's life forever! Parents...either sedate your children in public conveyances or cease all procreation!!!

Originally posted by DeckerShortly before take off Mitchja was asked to move from his preallocated seat so that the couple could sit together.

Ah yes, the holy hetero union asserts its hegemony yet again. Well, here's another way of seeing it: if you hadn't bred, we wouldn't be in this mess, would we? I would have absolutely refused but MITCHJA is obviously a better man than me.

Originally posted by Decker
Lady S took one for the team opting for the chicken tikka.

Ah, hardly surprising. Her outer radiant beauty is matched only by that of her inner being.

Originally posted by Decker
After the meal we wandered back and checked the Galley notes and unsurprisingly found there were 7 Au on board in UC of which we were 6! The FSM was again approached and this time she explained that the 26 figure was FC members on board of any colour. But she explained there HAD been a lot of Au Op Ups to UC at the last minute.

Spin, obfuscation, LIES! Shame on this woman. Shame. Shame. SHAME. Standards are slipping like an OAP on an icy sidewalk.

Originally posted by Decker

Decker fell asleep sitting up and awoke a few hours later and headed for the bar where he was engaged by a gentleman wanting to talk Vista vs Mac.

LOL

Originally posted by Decker
Whilst he was at the bar the CSS went to his seat and started to remove one of his spare pillows. She was asked what she was doing by Mrs D and replied that the father of the baby didn't have a pillow and needed one as he was moving to another suite leaving the baby crying in his.

I refer you to my rant against privileged reproducers above.

Sirs, Ladies, Bitches...I hope with fervor in my loins that you will advance this litany of complaints to the proper authorities. Given that many of you have inside avenues to the pulsating paths of power out Crawley way, I sense you may be able to engender greater constructive change than any of us lowly Red FCs. This is a terrible reminder that provision of service standards are on the way down...the once-proud VS banner is half staff now -- how long till the flagpole is bare altogether?

Safe travels, sirs, ladies, bitches.

GJ

Thanks for the excellent TR, written with style - you should write for a living!

Sorry to hear of your bad experience - let's hope it's better on the return leg!

Cheers

Tony

[Scrooge]

Disclaimer: Just a quick mods note

For the non members and the members who have not bothered reading any threads of late.

The term bitches refers to a small group of V-Flyers that decided to do a weekend break in Tokyo (well who doesn't), being the people that they are the decided to name themselves the Tokyo bitches.

When my my learned friend refers to sirs, ladies, bitches he of course is referring to those in this group and not women in general.

This TR is a compelling read. Brevity yet depth, in a happy union!

No doubt warning bells would go off on the '26 Au' claim (can anyone say they have ever seen this number in a cabin?), and it was shown quickly that this was false. Now, how to repair the situation? As honey lamb says, the right approach would be to take service up a level to make that fib a distant memory, not to sink to new lows.

Originally posted by Scrooge
Disclaimer: Just a quick mods note

For the non members and the members who have not bothered reading any threads of late.

The term bitches refers to a small group of V-Flyers that decided to do a weekend break in Tokyo (well who doesn't), being the people that they are the decided to name themselves the Tokyo bitches.

When my my learned friend refers to sirs, ladies, bitches he of course is referring to those in this group and not women in general.

Hello. No. I was referring to female dogs. Everyone knows I'm bent as Cruft's, love.

Seriously, though, my near hetero-fevered regard for LSoM should settle any thoughts as to misogyny on my part but, nonetheless, thank you for this.

Note to you, though -- the biggest bitches I know happen to be men!

GJ

Now into my second year of flying as Au and flying in UC and PE (UC flights are generally Op-ups or miles upgrades) I've never been greeted by an FSM when in UC (don't expect it in PE)

I've certainly come across the 'you had a treatment in the CH so you can't have one in the sky' school of thought...

Maybe it's just a 'benefit' of the small UC cabin on a LGW/MAN 744 - but every UC Pax [irrespective of FC status / membership], both ways, got a personal greeting from the FSM on my UC round trip last year. Sure, on the way home, the [blatantly] upgraded VS staff member got the most attention from all the crew - including a 10min chat with the FSM, personal escort off the air-bridge on arrival at MAN to bypass some of the immigration lines etc...

Originally posted by RichardMannion
Bit late to comment, and I see 908 people have viewed this thread so far so the damage is being done. Let me just say that I won't be leaving it here, some serious issues need rectifiying and they have indeed been noted.

What can I add. Truly one of the worst flights I have done on VS. Shame really.

Glad to hear you'll be feeding back. Boy do either VS catering and/or LSG need a drop-kicking over the lack of bento boxes! Bugger how much they cost! Upper tickets, be they J, D, Z or G, aren't cheap, and to load so tightly smacks of cheapness.

(From my trip in J on Gulf Air recently, no-one went without their first choice of food - meaning I could have probably enjoyed two full meals if that was what I wanted.)

As most people will know from here, my opinion with LSG Skychefs' quality of catering for VS ex-LHR is pretty low - yet occasionally they manage to pull off a surprisingly good dish.

To have LSG's mediocre food slopped on your plate by a crap crew, well, I'm hardly surprised it's leaving a bad taste.

(Surprising, as LSG's food ex-SFO and ex-BOS is usually okay. It's sad that LON's food seems so rotten by comparison.)

Good luck getting your feedback to the right places in VS.

Mike

Great TR, and as the others have said, Being lied to by the FSM is unacceptable,[n] she should be leading by example, Anyway it was great to see you all. [:)]

[mitchja]

Well five of us have just stepped off the VS901 from NRT and that was a completley different flight in every respect. In fact it comes pretty close to been one of my best VS J flights.

Full TR to follow but we all received everything we expected [y] [:)]

Regards

Originally posted by mitchja
Well five of us have just stepped off the VS901 from NRT and that was a completley different flight in every respect. In fact it comes pretty close to been one of my best VS J flights.

Full TR to follow but we all received everything we expected [y] [:)]

Regards

Glad to here that you guys had a better retern flight. Look forward to the T/R.
Jerseyboy

Originally posted by mitchja
Well five of us have just stepped off the VS901 from NRT and that was a completley different flight in every respect. In fact it comes pretty close to been one of my best VS J flights.

VERY interesting James, good you all had a great flight back. Staff on board were SO informed that you all were flying.

Cheers!

Dean

[fozzyo]

Glad to hear! We are looking forward to seeing how our flight is on Friday.

We are now all checked into the Park Hyatt ... very nice!

An excellent read, thanks. I'm fascinated by the fact that they attempted to fob you off in such a blatant way, and cheered by the fact that you didn't let it go.

Originally posted by Decker
The Captain announced a short flying time - less than 11 hours and after the obligatory delay caused by waiting for some paperwork to be finalised (this is right up there with 'Ugandan discussions' in the euphemism stakes we suspect) we took off and headed East.

[:)]

Originally posted by Decker
Whilst he was at the bar the CSS went to his seat and started to remove one of his spare pillows. She was asked what she was doing by Mrs D and replied that the father of the baby didn't have a pillow and needed one as he was moving to another suite leaving the baby crying in his. This was like a red rag to a bull and in no uncertain terms she was told that this was completely unreasonable. The baby had not paid for a suite and the father had chosen to give it up to the baby.

I thought you were going to say it was like a red rag to a bull that the father was going to move to another suite leaving the baby crying. As one of GJ's privileged reproducers I stand astounded that they'd think of doing that in such a public space. I'm not going to claim I never left either TFO or TLFO wailing away, but when I did I did it in the comfort, privacy and soundproofing of our own four walls.

Paul

Great TR Decker, I'm just sorry the outbound flight and CH were a bit below par.(Peter who?)

Look forward to the rtn episode.

Iain

[RichardMannion]

Bit late to comment, and I see 908 people have viewed this thread so far so the damage is being done. Let me just say that I won't be leaving it here, some serious issues need rectifiying and they have indeed been noted.

What can I add. Truly one of the worst flights I have done on VS. Shame really.

For some hope though, the Japanese crew in UC were very nice and understood the meaning of the word service. If it had just been them, then I think the flight would have been quite okay. It was an absolute embarrasment by the English crew. If there is one thing that I hate, it is laziness and people trying to fob me off. There really is no excuse for it. The tone of the English crew was a disgrace, no proper preparation. Asking every single one of us if we had flown VS before and if we had used UCS when we all have Gold tags on our cabin baggage, and Gold status duly noted in the manifest justs demonstrates the demeanour.

The FSM was fresh back from a long absence (I recall a comment from her that she was still new to the UCS!), and her English staff basically took advantage. An IFBT that had little at all to do because 'we'd had treatments in the CH'. A CSS that jsut made things up. Appalling. A SCC that was nowhere to be seen for the msot of the flight but was quick to criticise our group when we were left to our own devices at the bar.

Even the LHR CH let it usual standards slip. I have seen many a true celebrity in CH's around the world and on flights, and no such fuss or fawning is ever lavished. If staff want to be that way to minor celebs then do it out of view of other customers that are sat in the Clubhouse as they too are either Golds or Upper Class customers that count.

Was not amused in the slightest overall. To upset one Upper/Gold customer is bad enough, but to do it to a group of 7 is just asking for it, and boy is the bad PR being done now.

Thanks,
Richard

Originally posted by mike-smashing

Originally posted by RichardMannion
Bit late to comment, and I see 908 people have viewed this thread so far so the damage is being done. Let me just say that I won't be leaving it here, some serious issues need rectifiying and they have indeed been noted.

What can I add. Truly one of the worst flights I have done on VS. Shame really.

Glad to hear you'll be feeding back. Boy do either VS catering and/or LSG need a drop-kicking over the lack of bento boxes! Bugger how much they cost! Upper tickets, be they J, D, Z or G, aren't cheap, and to load so tightly smacks of cheapness.

(From my trip in J on Gulf Air recently, no-one went without their first choice of food - meaning I could have probably enjoyed two full meals if that was what I wanted.)

As most people will know from here, my opinion with LSG Skychefs' quality of catering for VS ex-LHR is pretty low - yet occasionally they manage to pull off a surprisingly good dish.

To have LSG's mediocre food slopped on your plate by a crap crew, well, I'm hardly surprised it's leaving a bad taste.

(Surprising, as LSG's food ex-SFO and ex-BOS is usually okay. It's sad that LON's food seems so rotten by comparison.)

Good luck getting your feedback to the right places in VS.

Mike

I have it on good authority that LRoM and LSoM's Lear just went wheels up from Luton on its way to Necker for a personal delivery. Stay tuned... [;)]

GJ

[Darren Wheeler]

Excellent TR that has me wanting to fly UCS again, but so glad it wasn't on this flight.

My thoughts on the flight....

Baby's - Absolutly shocking!! and as for the father abandoning the cabin because of the noise is even worse. Perhaps it's time for VA to introduce a yellow/red card system. OK, so you upset a couple of AU members, but that's way better than a whole cabin of AU members. Either that or turn the crew rest area into a sound proof creche. [}:)]

Bento boxes. It's a flight to Japan for heavens sakŽ. Steak and spuds isn't going to be a big draw for the average Tokyo suit.

Being lied to by the FSM. Inexcusable!! People will accept things if they are given the truth and an explanation, in this case, 'sorry, we messed up big time.' The crew need to be reminded that they are the public face of VA and the next ticket sale could be based on their performance.

Minor Celebs in CH. I suspect there was a small army of PA's running around making demands somewhere and the manager decided it was better for everyone to play along for some P&Q. Class (upper) is something one cannot buy or marry as these 2 prove [V]

As has been said, UC is not cheap regardless of whether paid in money or miles earned and I hope much of the poor service here is a one off rather than an sign of slipping standards. I did read in the Times that VA is very slowly being compared to Butlins. Everyone wearing red and smiling loudly trying to convice you everything is really great despite what you see.

Still, I'll be flying VA later this year and hopefully returning to my rightfull place in the UCS soon [^]

Oh I love it when this kind of stuff happens - sorry but I love arguing with people when they've lied, tried to mislead me or pull the proverbial wool over my eyes.

This behaviour really is inexcusable and the FSM should have thought twice before arguing with knowledgeable Aus about to be deprived of sleep by irresponsible parents.

VS.

Wow! What a superb TR Decker [y]

It certainly had me grimacing in parts[:0] Unprofessional and unprepared crew, lack of meal choices, selfish fellow travelling pax and crying babies. It could have easily read as a Y TR!


Thanks for a great read.

Great to hear a collective viewpoint and shame things weren't as they should be. I always feel slightly cheated when it happens to me and it's the lack of consistency. I'd be interested to see what reply you get when you take this up with VS... just hope it's not the usual 5,000/10,000 miles and the usual fobbing off.