VS401 DXB-LHR 29 Apr 07 (PE)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Had an amazing week visiting a friend in Dubai (eating and drinking way too much!) and was looking forward to an enjoyable day flight back to LHR.

Checked in online the night before however we couldn't get 2 seats together so had to wait till the morning, Got there nice and early about 0700 to no queues and a very helpful lady allocated us 2 bulkhead seats together on the window (18HK i think) Off to get some breakfast then stocked up on duty free. Boarding was on time and priority was in force with a separate bus for PE UC & AU members[:D].

We were just settling in to the seats when i noticed a seating issue arising back in the cabin and I knew what was going to happen next! The ground staff came on and informed me that I would have to move as there was a lady who NEEDED to have a window seat. She had been allocated an aisle seat so rather than sitting there and asking a crew member to relocate her she decided just to take someone else's seat! Now as most of you probably know i'm VS crew so we are expected to be flexible when on staff travel which is fine as we do travel at a reduced rate so i simply asked the woman if she would consider the isle seat as there were 2 of us travelling together and we were now on opposite aisles and ends of the cabin. This woman was having none of it though and said that she HAD to have a window as she wanted to work (not sure why that matters[?]. Anyway i promptly said that's fine have the seat its just that any reasonable person would have stayed where they were if they were separating people for no good reason. Anyway. we were seated and waiting for the welcome drinks.

At this point i thought well at least were in PE which i was grateful for so settled down a bit. I now have to say that the crew on this flight with one or 2 exceptions were awful. the worst i have ever come across, and i was thoroughly embarrassed that i work for the same company.

To cut a long story short here are the bad points...
welcome drinks consisted of a tray with OJ and one 1/4 filled glass of champagne thrust in front of me without a word being said my mate wasn't even offered a drink!

No Newspaper service

Y kits were delivered rather than PE

No menus issued

Only 1 crew member by herself serving both isles - which is never ment to happen!

only 1 drinks round offered (a 2nd should be offered in PE)

I was asked what i want to eat and said i didn't know as there were no menus! was told oh hang on i need to look and see what it is by the FSM who was mow helping out in PE then told Fish of Veg with no description of what it might consist off! was then given a Y chicken with no explanation!

There was no warm bread offered. (or bread at all for that matter!)

The person next to me asked for juice with there meal as was given a sigh told she would have to wait.

2nd wine & Water service was not done.

Ice creams offered were the Y ones (W get hagendaz on DXB) and were delivered from a box being passed of my head as she couldn't wait until the duty free service was completed so just got us to pass them along the aisle for her!

Ice creams were not cleared in.

Not a single OJ&water service carried out.

Duty free consisted of our 'dedicated' crew member saying duty free twice as she walked down the aisle - which everyone missed as they had headphones on!

The passengers seated next to me had major probs with Vport so i had to go and find a crew member to reset there screen as nobody went through the cabin! they never returned to check if it was working - it wasn't so I had to go to the galley and request DVD players for them. They said that I had been very helpful, yeh the person on their bloody holidays rather than the operating crew!

Afternoon tea started and could here the crew member saying ham salad or cheese salad. Now i know that you don't get ham in DXB and there is no way that it would be served on the flight! But just to prove myself right i picked the ham salad and then told the crew member that it was actually chicken. This was the CSS! who laughed and said oh yeh thats why everyone wanted cheese i forgot about them not eating pork - its a shame i was seated in the 2nd last row!

With the afternoon tea my mate had asked for juice instead of Tea/coffee well its not arrived yet!

By this point my Vport broke and i couldn't find anyone to reset it so i just went and did it myself!

Think that's about it really there was nothing good about the flight other that arriving on time! It was such an eye opener for me and i am aware that this was bad luck. What annoyed me more was that the people next to me were using VS for the first time and had previously been on EK and BA i wouldn't be back it i was them i just hope there inbound flight is a million times better at least it cant be any worse! The seating thing i understand as staff we are always being asked to move and i was pleased to be in PE at all but its more the person in question that annoyed me when she had no good reason for demanding a seat by the window, I know i wouldn't ever do this just her being a cow really - but as they say about karma and all that... my original seat had no TV - it was totally missing so i guess that serves her right, and there was no way that crew would have offered a DVD to her[:D] I would have complained about the service on the flight but as crew didn't really feel happy doing that but i wished someone else had!

Il do the outbound one shortly just had to rant for a bit about the return first! The outbound was v good though thankfully!! lemme know your thoughts im considering forwarding this to cabin services but not sure yet maybe i'll have a drink and get over it!

[Neil]

Oh dear, sounds like another TR to add to the ever growing pile of 'not good enough VS'. Again it seems to come down to the CC, and the service levels you experienced are simply not good enough[n]

[Nottingham Nick]

Inevitably, the main arguing point here is - Where in the passenger pecking order should staff tickets feature?

Part of me thinks that, if the crew can't even look after their own, what chance do the rest of us stand?

On the other hand, you have said you are travelling on reduced price tickets (IIRC they are significantly reduced), so should full fare paying passengers take precedence?

Interesting debate, I suspect with strong feelings on both sides - please let's keep it civil as the viewpoints are put forward. [:D][8D]

Nick

Thanks for a very informative TR. It was interesting reading.

I think it demonstrates how 'hit and miss' VS service has become.

If you get a good FSM and a good CSS then you tend to get good CC, if the FSM and CSS aren't up to standard then it is more likely that the service will be less than perfect.

I know that this is not true in all cases but my flights over the last couple of years have tended to prove the point.

Mrs D

What an awful flight! Like others have said, if they are not looking after their own, what chance do we have. Did they not notice from the passenger manifest that you were crew? Well I just hope someone on the flight complains, as this really can not carry on, and needs to be brought to CS attention. [n] Poor show VS!

[mitchja]

Thanks for the TR [y]

Interesting read. Now I think you can understand how others on here feel after getting off a bad VS flight. In this caase a bad VS flight in a new cabin as well [:(]

Please do forward it to cabin services and let us know the outcome (if any).

Regards

Sounds on a par with the other 'bad' flights that have been reported here, to be honest, up there with the lying FSMs and giggling jumpseaters.

Are you sure the 'ham or cheese' wasn't the crew member trying to save all the chix sandwiches for themselves, so they could scarf them down in the galley? [}:)]

(That happened on one UC flight I had. The cake stand wasn't offered around as it should be with afternoon tea - though if you asked for a cake, one was brought out to you on a side-plate. Then, about 45 mins before landing, I caught most of the J crew red-handed, gobbling up cakes in the galley. Boy, did they get a disapproving look from me.)

JoeyVS, you must have been absolutely cringeing as your colleagues bumbled, fluffed and bluffed their way through the service.

I guess you're faced with a difficult decision - do you grass your co-workers up, or not?

If it's any help, it's this sort of bad flight, with an ignorant, unobservant, disorganised crew which really lets down the good VS flights which have helpful, hardworking, conscientious crew with an eye for detail and a flair for service.

Right now, I think there's more of the latter, but the former are increasing in frequency, it seems.

Cheers,
Mike

[Bazz]

Thanks for the TR Joey, you have a difficult decision to make, I guess if I were you, I would send in a report, simply because behaviour like this reflects badly on all VS crew and the airline in general.

I was pleased to see you gave up your seat, however he reasons for it being required appear somewhat tenuous, maybe she was a weather forecaster or an observer of cloud formations or something? [ii]

Thanks Joey for the report - it certainly seems awful. In generous mode, it sounds like the crew numbers were down (i.e. just one FA in PE) and therefore everything was as truggle, even more generously the FA may have been asked to come from Y and was not familiar with the service. IN less generous mode it sounds bloody dire. At the least the FSM should have spent a good time in PE making sure things happened.

I too would write in to VS customer services with a fair and accurate report, doubt you'll be offered miles compensation however [:#]

Good to hear it from a crew members perspective. You know what should/shouldn't be done on a flight. I'd say something - a bad flight is a bad flight and needs to be fed back. As your mate to do so not as to put you in a difficult situation. Hopefully, VS will realise their service is getting more hit and miss and the complaints must be on the up.

Originally posted by JoeyVS

The ground staff came on and informed me that I would have to move as there was a lady who NEEDED to have a window seat. She had been allocated an aisle seat so rather than sitting there and asking a crew member to relocate her she decided just to take someone else's seat!

Oh for heavens sake!!

Very interesting reading. Hmmm. I am so pleased I have just booked with Emirates. I know that I couldn't hack all that you had to put up with if I was a full fare passenger.
I think that the overwhelming majority of VA staff are excellent & that is why I fly VA. [^][:)]

Yeh pretty much the worst service i have ever witnessed...anywhere! However the best service I have ever seen was also on a VS service to BOS a couple of years ago from an FSM which shows how good we can be! For anyone thinking im moaning about moving seats, its not the policy im annoyed about its more a matter of manners. Yes as staff im aware that its a privalage to be upgraded and I am very grateful for that, however it was more the fact that the woman in question didnt care who she was inconveniencing, so long as she got the seat she wanted - more an observation in manners than anything else. They were one crew down but there are procedures in place to prevent that from compromising the service. Plus breaks were given so its not like they were rushed off their feet! Iv operated a full vegas with 4 crew down and never gave anything less than 100% so thats what annoyed me.

Joey- I can sympathise on the seat issue- the same thing happened to my brother and I on a quick internal flight on DL from ATL. This scaty lady who smelt very bad- boarded kicked up a fuss about her seat and my brother was the one picked to move. It was only an hour flight (thank god- as she did smell bad )so dread to think what a 7 hour flight was like without your traveling friend and their banter to keep you sane!


If you feel that strongly about the service and dont want to grass the CC in yourself- could you not get your friend to make a complaint (persuming they are non staff?)


With all these bad TR's maybe its about time VS started employing us V-Flyers as the mystery flyers- secretly rating the staff on service levels......[:w]

Thanks for your report, it is valuable to get feedback from someone who knows how things are supposed to operate. You should definitely give your feedback to customer services.

I'm flying VS UCS to DXB later this month and having read the recent reports wonder if this is a good call. I'm new to flying VS having been a regular with the dark side, and after 2 very average VS flights in March (PE & UCS) am concerned I may be wasting a good deal of hard earned money...

Am I worrying too much???

Originally posted by ZippyUK
You should definitely give your feedback to customer services.

This gave me a good laugh. We've all been giving feedback to Customer Services, some of us for years, since things started to slide, and it hasn't made a blind bit of difference.

(Or even worse, I think if our suggestions are taken away, they are then poorly executed, without feedback to the customers who suggested it to ask 'was this what you were thinking of?')

All CS do, unless repeatedly pushed incredibly hard for answers, is bribe us with miles so we go away, and the service continues to backslide, becoming more and more dependant on the mood of the crew on the day to make up for the other things being poor.

Mike

i picked the ham salad and then told the crew member that it was actually chicken. This was the CSS! who laughed and said oh yeh thats why everyone wanted cheese i forgot about them not eating pork -

In my last Y trip the best part was the attention given to pax who required special meals, often one would surmise, for religious reasons. To forget that the plane a crew member is on, originated in a Muslim country, and to forgetfully offer ham sandwiches (when in fact they are chicken!) is evidence of someone who should probably not elect to work on a major international airline. Imagine what the Dubai pax must think about VS! Virgin do make a good effort to provide culturally appropriate food, too bad this was stymied by staff stupidity.

Re: the pax who wanted an aisle seat at any cost, I have met her/him on many an occasion...a champion of squatter's rights, coupled with a peculiar sense of personal privilege. Whatever would happen if we just said no?

Overall, given the lapses in your PE service, sounds like a crew member who has only ever done Y, and was faithfully replicating what s/he knew best. I have colleagues who have flown several recent PE VS flights and have been over the moon about how lovely they were.

As a crew member, I would actually feel more than obliged to share my concerns over this experience, as you know far better than passengers, what a fiasco the flight was. The best businesses are those which foster a sense of high personnel integrity....which means holding each other accountable for excellence.

[ii]RR

[Darren Wheeler]

Originally posted by roadrunner
[i]
Re: the pax who wanted an aisle seat at any cost, I have met her/him on many an occasion...a champion of squatter's rights, coupled with a peculiar sense of personal privilege. Whatever would happen if we just said no?

Been there, done that. Took ages to wipe the smug grin off my face, all the while feeling the daggers in my back [:D] He was obviously in need of the window as he slept most of the flight.