Which LGW planes are the worst?

Intrigued in recent LGW post to hear that some of the LGW 747s are worse than others...

In recent years all my VS flights have been through LHR, now with a Family trip pending to Antigua from LGW I guess I get to see what everyone here is less than happy with.

So (forgetting the chance in a million of a LHR plane slumming it at Gatwick) which are the most in need of interior tlc (lets forget about which have engines falling off for the momment)[:p]....? I also assume that nice shiny new tail paint has absolutely no bearing on this (such as Pretty Woman V-ROY).

Oh, and we will be firmly down the back so comments relevant to coach are particularly relevant.

A true comparison is surely difficult as the experience of a specific aeroplane may change over days depending on cleaning regimes, IFE being fixed, films available, the service provided by the cc...

I must admit I'd rather be in a state of blissful ignorance rather than worrying about which specific aeroplane I'm going to be on....

Paul

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by pjh

I must admit I'd rather be in a state of blissful ignorance rather than worrying about which specific aeroplane I'm going to be on....

I agree, Paul.

It isn't if you have any control over it at the end of the day, unless of course; you are flying on a very expensive flexible ticket. [8D]

Nick

We are booked on a LHR config a/c on the 19th March flying back from Barbados to LGW. This has been confirmed at this point anyway by our seat numbers which are upstairs in the bubble, so it does happen. We also flew out on a similar config a/c from LGW to TAB last year so I guess I have been lucky twice, although the IFE was not working for most of the flight[xx(]

Iain

Barbados seems to be the route to get an LHR config most often - I went on the VS29 this time last year and we had V-port but then or return it was a traditional LGW workhorse.

I had the same back in 2005 both ways LGW - BGI. Resulted in an op-up from PE-UC (my wife was very happy!!)

I understand that you can't pick and choose of course, and you get what you get, but earlier comments elsewhere seem to indicate that some are particularly bad, and I was just curious whether it was purely a function of age of the aircraft, or whether some had had more interior maintenance (or abusive pax) than others.

I believe that the exterior repaints would not have had any accompanying interior maintenance as I gather these two areas are dealt with in different locations- though you would think they could make better use of the off-line time and kill two birds with one stone[?] no doubt there is a good reason for this...

[HighFlyer]

now with a Family trip pending to Antigua from LGW I guess I get to see what everyone here is less than happy with.

I would not say this statement applies to everyone here at all. There are signs onboard many of the aircraft of wear and tear, this is true of the UC suite and that isnt very old at all. I think its perhaps more a case of a product not standing up to performance and use tests rather than any bearing on the age of the aircraft, which for the LGW fleet are not old at all. Sometimes the aircraft are physically dirty onboard when the ground staff have not cleaned the seats sufficiently. This should be reported to the crew so that this can be followed up.

I really would not worry yourself over the condition of the aircraft and focus on enjoying your holiday abroad [:)]

Thanks,
Sarah

Jersey Girl and Ruby Tuesday ........ ICK! for PE anyway ...

Originally posted by barnstaple
Barbados seems to be the route to get an LHR config most often - I went on the VS29 this time last year and we had V-port but then or return it was a traditional LGW workhorse.

Barbados does get LHR flights now Dec through March it it flies into LHR itself.

Also when its 'the season' in Barbados and Mustique the LHR flights are bumped in as there is a much greater demand for UC.

A comparison to the BA fleet for BGI - 777's with only 100 economy seats .... first class and a double extended business class. That runs all year round.

Originally posted by Islander
Jersey Girl and Ruby Tuesday ........ ICK! for PE anyway ...

These are the exact two planes I recently flew on. I did trip reports for both legs (LGW-UVF). Aside for an errant IFE cover and a disloged tray table I thought the interiors were pretty good. And I've flown all 3 classes on the A346 and B744 out of LHR for comparison. OK so they have their faults but did they spoil my flight? no. Would I fly in that config again? absolutely. I can't believe a virgin virgin would fly once on these ac and say never again. Believe me I've seen much, much worse trans-atlantic.

[Neil]

Originally posted by McMaddog

Originally posted by Islander
Jersey Girl and Ruby Tuesday ........ ICK! for PE anyway ...

These are the exact two planes I recently flew on. I did trip reports for both legs (LGW-UVF). Aside for an errant IFE cover and a disloged tray table I thought the interiors were pretty good. And I've flown all 3 classes on the A346 and B744 out of LHR for comparison. OK so they have their faults but did they spoil my flight? no. Would I fly in that config again? absolutely. I can't believe a virgin virgin would fly once on these ac and say never again. Believe me I've seen much, much worse trans-atlantic.

This is exactly why a thread like this, imo, is very difficult.

Everybody has different levels of acceptance and expectations. A dirty a/c is one thing and very definitely wrong, but how to judge if an interior is 'shabby' or 'bad' is very difficult.

I think a lot of a/c interiors, VS or whoever could do with a spruce up, but I have never been put off flying a certain airline due to how new they looked.

Neil

Originally posted by Neil
A dirty a/c is one thing and very definitely wrong, but how to judge if an interior is 'shabby' or 'bad' is very difficult.

Cheers Neil. The ac were spotless in both directions - including down the seatback pocket. The seat covers looked newish as well. Certainly more modern than those on the older A346s. The only stain my clothes got was from my cup of tea when the guy behind hit my seat at a most inconvienient time ...

[Nottingham Nick]

It is also a huge problem dissing a particular aircraft, a class of travel or even a whole airline based on limited experience on one individual, who may have had a bad experience.

I have flown transatlantic on Virgin metal 72 times and on these flights I have been on 33 different aircraft (anorak [:I] ).

Crew members have told us time and time again on here that, if we have a problem - messy seat, unemptied seat pocket, broken IFE etc. etc. the one thing we should make sure is that the problem is reported to a member of cabin crew. That way, things can be mended and consistently sloppy aircraft cleaning can be flagged to those who can do something about it.

I totally agree that there is a level of expectation no matter what class you are travelling in - this very much includes a clean smart cabin around you.

Nick

I know that the old PE seats are on their last legs everywhere they remain i think we all need to have some faith that they are high on the priority list for replacement to bring them in line with the rest of the fleet.

So it sounds most like for most of the unhappy comments, we are talking about folks getting unlucky with a poorly cleaned plane then. In busy fleet this is going to happen I would think and I would be surprised if different airlines have different cleaners or cleaning policies (once on the ground)though I stand to be corrected in this. Anyone know the answer there?

There is no excuse for a dirty aircraft. Fair enough there is limited time for CC to collect rubbish on the overnight flights due to passengers sleeping but surely it isnt beyond reason to ask passengers to make sure they empty seat pockets into binbags held by CC as they depart the aircraft.

The majority of LGW aircraft land between 5.30 and 7.00am and dont leave again until around 9.00am onwards. That gives a fair amount of time for a cleaning contractor to get onboard and do a fairly decent job but if they arent being checked by CC then they will be tempted to cut corners.

Maybe it should be the last job for the disembarking FSM to check the state of the aircraft before he hands over to the new crew rather than leave it to passengers to point out issues.

[Darren Wheeler]

There are announcements made about assisting the CC with clearing up your mess, but mostly get ignored.

The outgoing crew generally won't see the incoming one due to the time between hence why there are paper handovers. Also it would be impractical for the CC to check every single seat to make sure it is working 100% so they do rely on pax advising of issues.

I am not suggesting CC check each seat for faults but rather the outgoing FSM check that at least the aircraft is clean especially in the seat pockets, the amount of times i have sat down to find wrappers and used tissue in the seat backs is a joke and yes it has been pointed out to CC at the time.

The issue of cabin cleanliness is a recurring one and looks as though no matter how much it gets reported it still seems to roll on. There really should be a physical handover between incoming and outgoing crew to make sure any problems can be addressed as much as possible. Then again we would be getting into the realms of crew asking for more money to do the extra work i guess and at this time of economic trouble we wouldnt want extra costs incurred would we.

All I know is, I would be embarrassed as hell if someone came into my house or car and it looked like a pig sty.

[Darren Wheeler]

Not only that, after a long flight no crew are going to want to hang around for 2 hours or so and they would be tecnically working and that will cause issues with their hours.

[Decker]

My car is always a pig sty [:)].