VS004 JFK-LHR 24 Jul 07 (PE)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

I got a town car from the Sofitel New York with my holiday buddies who had decided to fly Zoom back to London. We were supposed to be departing JFK at the same time, but their flight was moved forward 3 hours, so I resigned myself to a lengthy stay at JFK. Firstly I had to head to ticketing to pay for an upgrade to PE that I'd sorted over the phone the previous night. Check in was pretty empty, and took only a couple of minutes. Foolishly I headed through security without grabbing some food first - I'd forgotten how barren JFK is post security.

The ground staff at JFK were without doubt the worst I've ever encountered. They were rude, disorganised, and very plainly none of them wanted to be there. I dread to think how they would have been if they'd have had to deal with more than the 10 of us that were milling about to check in early. For the second time on this trip I was told that exit rows were for sale when I asked if any were available. Do these people know they're standing under big 'Premium Economy' signs? Anyway, you know something is seriously wrong when you find yourself thinking that the TSA dude seems particularly friendly and helpful.

Boarding started maybe an hour before departure - I wasn't really checking. Priority boarding was in effect and announced, although the flight was so quiet it wasn't really a big deal. Takeoff was more or less on time, and the food came shortly afterwards. I tried the bangers and mash, which I thought was good. I fell asleep too soon after eating to tell you if after dinner drinks or the fruit bowl were offered.

I slept all the way to Heathrow, so i can't report much about the rest of the flight, although it probably tells you something about the sleepability of the PE seat. I thought the headrest flaps were particularly cool. As somebody well used to flying economy, it's my opinion that PE is definitely worth the extra cash.

One thing worth noting is that the exit rows in PE are not as roomy as the Y exit rows. My feet hit the wall in front of me, which was mildy annoying, but I'm 6'4 and YMMV.

I used IRIS at immigration, which had no queue and worked really well. The idea of priority baggage reclaim seems to be a joke though. I saw the number of passengers in W and J, and it definitely wasn't commensurate with the number of bags that came out before mine.

Overall I was distinctly underwhelmed by the flight. It started badly with the JFK staff, and the cabin crew were just average really, which is a shame since I've come to expect more from Virgin. It could also be that the outbound leg in UC readjusted my expectations a bit too high for my first flight in PE (a bad outcome for my wallet!).

Cheers,

Ben

Thanks for the TR Ben [y]

Shame about the JFK ground staff, I had a very different experience, and at security my bag fell off the machine having gone through the x-ray, and the security man tried to do some kick-ups with it 'that's for you brits' he said. We were puzzled. 'Hey come on, it's soccer!' he clarified. A much better security experience than the norm anyway.

I know what you mean about the PE bulkheads too.

[Neil]

Originally posted by benamure
One thing worth noting is that the exit rows in PE are not as roomy as the Y exit rows. My feet hit the wall in front of me, which was mildy annoying, but I'm 6'4 and YMMV.

Thanks for the TR Ben[y]

I'm guessing as you had the new PE seats you were on the A346 which would mean you had a bulkhead rather than an exit row, so not really 100% comparable to the Y exit row seats. The exit rows on the B744's are the best seats on the a/c (apart from UCS of course!) in my opinion.

Neil

thanks for the tr ben. its strange we were at JFK on the 23rd and the check-in staff were great (by the way i noticed that they are swissport staff in virgin uniforms so it may be a swissport managerial issue, but it reflects badly on virgin). I am glad you found the new PE seats comfortable as we are off to CUN in feb via miami in PE, and it would be good to sleep on the way back as we got none in Y from JFK

[ChuckC]

Thank you, Ben, for the informative TR. JFK staff is inconsistent at best, based on the experiences of V-Flyers, though I will say that they were at least polite on my most recent trip out.

Chuck-

Thanks for the TR Ben

I arrived off the VS4 this morning. I share many of the same sentiments as you regarding the staff and priority baggage which I'll post in a TR soon.

Glad you managed to sleep well on the flight and that you enjoyed the new PE seat[:D]

Thanks for the TR Ben, shame about the staff, but glad you managed to get some shut eye [|)]

DMB

Hi there!

Sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with the JFK ground staff. I am Virgin JFK ground staff at JFK and believe me, we are concerned with our passenger's perception of the check-in staff.

The ground staff at JFK were without doubt the worst I've ever encountered. They were rude, disorganised...

Can you specify what made them rude and disorganized? You can PM me the details if you're not comfortable posting it.

and very plainly none of them wanted to be there.

I'd also love to hear the reasons behind this speculation.

[Decker]

Virj

You are going to find yourself with a lot of friends on this board if you continue to take this customer-centric approach.

Thanks!

Hi Virj,

Thanks for the interest. I'm sure in part I just had some bad luck - my family and others on here have reported decent experiences at JFK.

Firstly I had to ask whether I should go to the ticket desk or checkin desk to sort out the upgrade I had arranged over the phone the previous night. I asked a group of three staffmembers milling around inside the queue ropeline, and the response was downright surly.

Next off to the ticketing desk, which is shared with two other airlines. There was no effort by the guys behind the desk to explain whether the sprawling queue was for the desk or there were three separate queues for the three airlines. I could have asked the Virgin agent, but she was chatting away on her mobile, without so much as a 'Can I help the next customer?'. Anyway, when I got to the desk it turned out the queue was all for South African Air, so I needn't have waited.

Then back to checkin, where only the economy checkin queue was open. Anyway, I asked a staff member if she could open up the PE line, which she did. When I got to the check in desk the woman was busy digging moisturiser out of her bag. She finished applying that before checking me in. Then she then told me she didn't have any boarding passes yet, and whilst waiting for some she started shouting across to another member of staff about something that definitely wasn't anything to do with finding some boarding passes. When I asked about exit rows, she told me they were for sale. If I wasn't a V-Flyer who knew better, how would that have panned out!? Anyway, the boarding passes didn't turn up, so after a while she just asked the guy next to her to print my boarding pass. He'd been free the whole time, so I'm not sure why she didn't ask for this straightaway.

As for the not wanting to be there, I just can't imagine why anybody who is in a place that they wanted to be couldn't manage even the slightest bit of cheer. It was all particularly annoying, because I'd been explaining to my Zoom-flying friends why Virgin was worth the extra cash, and they'd just had a smiley checkin and a free upgrade to Zoom Premium Economy! This has been their only experience of VS. I couldn't help but contrast the VS experience with the nice chat I had just had with a Zoom staff member whilst my friends checked in for their flight.

As I said, I know it's not the experience of everyone, but when I could have flown for so much less cash it's annoying nonetheless.

Cheers,

Ben

You are going to find yourself with a lot of friends on this board if you continue to take this customer-centric approach.

I hope so! While my approach is customer-centric (and it should be that way with all staff... always), my ulterior motive for signing up for the boards is to explain certain aspects of airports and airlines that regular folks may not know about but will be bothered by anyway. Sometimes an explanation that leads to understanding is all anyone with a bad experience really needs

Ben,

Now I definately understand your sentiment! My apologies for the poor behaviour. The staff need to be their tip-top from before check-in setup until the last flight lifts off of the ground, as they are well aware. I can assure you it's not always like this - sounds like you definately got the wrong batch that afternoon. Still inexcusable, though.

I've printed up what you had to say and have shown it to the proper people. The promise to me was that it was going to be addressed. Can't really say more than that - but I do want you to know that we are trying to improve in every area including passenger contact - ground handling company or not.

[preiffer]

Sounds like it'll be great to have you around Virj [y]