VS073 MAN-MCO 5 Sep 08 (PE)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Looking forward to our Holidays, and excited that we were again flying on Virgin, this flight PE out and UC return, we checked in at Man and were through very quickly.
Why? Why? Why? is Man so bad at getting you through and onto the plane, when everywhere else is so good? Get to our seats to find that the seat back is broken and will not recline very far, having finally got the attention of one of the crew, the reply was 'it's the way the seats are', NOT. Not happy at all with the whole experience at Man or with PE on the way out. The crew seemed to be short staffed, and we hardly saw anything of them at all except for the meal service (which was yuk!). Sat and read Mr.Branson's book, enjoyed it very much. As a Big fan of Virgin and it's staff, I was very disappointed with this trip in general, the only thing that kept me sane was I was on my hols for three weeks! I did not complain, as I am not a moaner and always try to give people the benefit of the doubt or look for a reason as to why things are so bad. But in my own business, i understand that people have a choice, more so now than ever before, and when you spend this amount of money we all have a right to expect better. It will be a long time before we fly PE again, the room was OK and is what I suppose you pay for, but apart from that no better service or food than Econ. See UC report for 27th Sept.[V]

Sorry to hear about that flight - very different from your UC experience last year & this!
MAN always seems to be the poor relation with VS.
I had a similar experience on an LHR flight with a seat that would not recline without CC manual operation.
Got a 15,000 mile 'In-flight bonus'. Was told that this was automatic if the seat was faulty - I did not need to complain in any way!
Sometimes it does help to ask to register a problem - not a complaint about staff but register an issue that VS need to correct. The FSM/CSM would usually be most helpful...

[HighFlyer]

Sorry the flight was not good. As Bill says, did you see the FSM on board at all? They should be interested in your comments and if you speak to them on board it at least gives the crew a chance to improve things on board.

Thanks,
Sarah

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Sorry the flight was not good. As Bill says, did you see the FSM on board at all? They should be interested in your comments and if you speak to them on board it at least gives the crew a chance to improve things on board.

Thanks,
Sarah

Hi Sarah

To be honest I did not see the FSM, I really got the impression that the CC were under staffed on the flight and under pressure. I am writing to Steve Ridgeway thanks to Steve's reply and will mention it then, but I in no way blame any of the CC, it was just one of those flights i guess.

Thanks
Gerry

Very unfortunate about your seat - on my recent return from HKG there was a chap in UC who's seat was stuck in the partial recline position and wouldn't move, up or down or convert into a bed, on a 12 hour flight [:0]. Then, his TV broke [:#]. And UC was chocka. I did feel very sorry for him - there's a lot more about his behaviour and the FSMs response that could probably be used to help improve customer service that I won't add here.

On the leg before from SYD-HKG we were understaffed too, before take off there was a very matter of fact 'we're understaffed, sorry but you'll have to put up with it, the alternative is to cancel the flight' announcement ...

Whatever the case, it is worth hunting down or requesting to see the FSM, a log entry will be made even if it can't be fixed on the spot and you may be offered some miles or duty free vouchers in compensation!

Hi ya
and thanks for taking the time to report in your experiences, im sure if you send an email to VS they will look into it for you and atleast contact you to hear your disatisfaction with the flight, im sure it will be worth your while.

cheers

alex

Gerry,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, just sorry to hear it was a poor one.[:(]