VS604 CPT-LHR 23 Nov 08 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

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Cabin Crew

Check in at the airport was a breeze despite all the construction at CPT in preparation for some football tornament in a couple of years. Except for one thing. As we were checking in, a VS staffer butts in and brings with him a fellow and two others to upgrade to UC from Y. Oh here we go I thought. It turned out he was a mate of the pilot when we saw them chatting later airside.

In Duty Free, I notice the crew. The same crew as the outbound. My heart sank. But I made a really conscious decision to make a nice friendly hello to our FA from the outbound. Hmmm... I don't think she was necessarily going to be a people person today either.

The lounge at CPT is the SAA lounge and there was no room for us to sit in the non smoking section, so I suffered the smoking section. In retrospect perhaps I should've gone upstairs to the Priority Pass lounge where there might have been more room. WiFi wasn't free.

Boarding was pretty good except for the busses and the inevitable hanging around on the steps waiting for the pax in front to board.

As we turn left to 6A & 7A (yes, regular readers, the curtain is indeed between 7A and 8A), there is someone in my seat 6A. Oh, what do you know. 'I was upgraded at the gate you know' she says rather snotily, displaying her boarding card with a penned out 98F on it replaced with 6A. Oh, and her mate's in 7D, also on an upgrade from Y. She doesn't want to move so she can be with her mate. Oh, and guess what, it turns out she's off duty crew with her boyfriend.

Well, thankfully the FA deals with the seating problem right away, firmly telling her there is a mistake and that she is definitely in the wrong seat, and she will deal with it. This was the same FA who'd been so standoffish on our outbound and who I'd said hello to in the Duty Free. Hmmm, a different person. Almost. She still never said please or thank you the whole flight and turned away to my appreciations.

Let me make one thing clear. I am not at all averse to taking the opportunity of a job perk. But I have a couple of comments on it. If you're staff and you are sitting in a fare paying pax seat, at least have some sense of dignity and butt out graciously. Secondly, if you want to do musical chairs with your passengers as I was the target of on the outbound, move those who are on freebies before being pushy with your revenue earning passengers.

I'll have to give the CSD a pat on the back for consistency on both legs. We saw her when she did the amenity bit run, and when she took the paperwork to door L2 at the end of the flight, and that was it. She didn't recognise us from the outbound. Hardly surprising really considering the amount of time she seemed to spend in the cabin. And, we had our token gum chewer among the crew today as well.

Apparently the flight was empty today as they announced that they'd prefer pax not to move around until after takeoff. Well, not in UC it wasn't. At check in there were a total of 14 seats in UC taken. There wasn't a free UC seat in the house at takeoff. Err, and guess what? Yes, we're on another crew-and-mates junket. Almost the entire rear section plus the centre section of the forward section were on mates rates.

The good news was that I managed a lot more sleep than on the outbound, for which I am delighted: no Galley FM or bar noise this far forward.

The food wasn't bad either on this segment, with a biltong and mushroom salad and a very tasty roast beef and Yorkshore pud. Wine, well, the same as the outbound, an almost total write off. Virgin have thus successfully renewed my Tanqueray Ten and Tonic habit.

A significantly better flight than my outgoing one despite the same crew, but still a very substandard one at that. Frankly I was extremely dissapointed with the in air experience on this trip. It's flights like these that make you lose your brand loyalty.

I also have a handy tip for all those looking for the free upgrade to Upper Class on Virgin. The answer is to either be crew or be their mates. Just don't expect too much when you're sitting up front. From my experiences on these two segments you would probably be better off sat at the back anyway.

A comment on questionaires. Again, I didn't get the opportunity to fill one out. But a number of off duty crew did.

Virgin must try harder. A lot harder.

[Decker]

Boooo hisss - for shame. Oh well enjoy your Honkers in F this weekend

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks for the TRs, Howard.

Both of them should be printed off by various departments at VS and used for remedial training. [n]

Like you, I have no argument with staff travel, it is a well earned perk of the job. Having said that, your two reports show how the paying passenger is relegated down the pecking order behind some staff and their 'mates' on so many levels. [V]

Nick

quote:Originally posted by Decker
Boooo hisss - for shame. Oh well enjoy your Honkers in F this weekend


Wilco, although sadly someone's just ruined my hopes of having the entire cabin to me and me mate by gatecrashing in 5A.

H

[RichardMannion]

Howard - please raise these issue with customer relations. All of the crew on this flight that 'served' you need to go back on the basics, or be demoted to go and work in Y for a while.

Simply, simply unacceptable. I'm writing to the Vatican now to have you canonised for having the patience of a Saint. Manners like you say - please, thank you.

As for the off-duty f*ckwit in your seats - they should lose their staff travel concessions for a year as punishment for their behaviour.

Howard - as Richard has said, you need to write in to SRB's office about both flights, with as much detail as possible about the 'offenders' - both the on-duty & off-duty ones.

Like others, I have no problem with off duty staff taking advantage of space-available upgrades to UC / using mates rates tickets to bring friends along. It's a perk of a job that is not fantastically paid, but one they should use in a manner that does not piss off the people who are paying big bucks for their seats.

One final thought... I generally fly the LGW/MAN routes, where the UC cabin is small, so opportunities for mass-upgraded Galley FM parties at the bar are rare - maybe all of a sudden I'm not in so much of a hurry to fly UC on a quiet flight out of LHR.

James

quote:Originally posted by Kraken
Howard - as Richard has said, you need to write in to SRB's office about both flights, with as much detail as possible about the 'offenders' - both the on-duty & off-duty ones.

Like others, I have no problem with off duty staff taking advantage of space-available upgrades to UC / using mates rates tickets to bring friends along. It's a perk of a job that is not fantastically paid, but one they should use in a manner that does not piss off the people who are paying big bucks for their seats.

One final thought... I generally fly the LGW/MAN routes, where the UC cabin is small, so opportunities for mass-upgraded Galley FM parties at the bar are rare - maybe all of a sudden I'm not in so much of a hurry to fly UC on a quiet flight out of LHR.


To be fair, there weren't any staff bar parties such as those I've encountered in the past, although I must say was expecting it when I boarded and saw the cabin demographic! But there was a fair amount of chit chat going on with the on duty crew themselves during the night that had no problem filtering down to us four rows down waking us up on a number of occasions.

H

Thanks for 2 excellent TR,s, what a real shame about the whole CC experience. We all know they make or break a flight, but it appears these 2 flights were completley broken.

looking forward to the F TR already and to see the comparison in attitude (and wine)[:D]

all the best
Iain

Thank you for TR! As LROM has mentioned, you do have the patience of as Saint.

This is all about consistency, I'm sorry but if crew can't be as accommodating like on one of the 'glamour' flights then they need to have a bad appraisal. Maybe what's needed is for every pax who has a poor experience to demand two feedback forms. One to give to the FSM and one to keep, copy and send to SRB office.

[buns]

Howard

I salute your patience[oo]

Like other replies, the notion of staff perks is something I can accept however, it ought to be done with discretion.

The attitude of the crew no doubt was symptomatic of poor leadership and a desire to give priorty to 'mates'; any FSM worth their sorts would have ensured a healthy balance between fare paying pax and hard working members of staff[:(!]

I think a line to SRB is in order

buns

When on a VS staff--family-member-travel ticket, I remember being advised by my uncle to sit down, stay quiet, be humble, do what you're told... which I duly did.

CPT always has been a popular mates/family route.. like HKG too.

quote:Wilco, although sadly someone's just ruined my hopes of having the entire cabin to me and me mate by gatecrashing in 5A.

H

Thanks for the TRs Howard think I would have blown a gaskit[:(!].We had the F cabin nearly to ourselfs on a HKG trip last year and the service was horrendous,think the crew thought they were in for a lot of sleep[:D].Have a good time think the Bolly and Catt are gone but the 99 Pol is ok watch out for the pink Catt yuk.

On our recent trip to BOS in CW, my heart sank on boarding the return as it was the same crew as the outbound and while not as bad as your experience it wasn't up to scratch.To my pleasant suprise the crew remembered us and served us like kings, we even got off with a couple of bottles of the Charles Heidsieck[y]

quote:Originally posted by jaguarpig


[quote]Wilco, although sadly someone's just ruined my hopes of having the entire cabin to me and me mate by gatecrashing in 5A.

H

Thanks for the TRs Howard think I would have blown a gaskit[:(!].We had the F cabin nearly to ourselfs on a HKG trip last year and the service was horrendous,think the crew thought they were in for a lot of sleep[:D].Have a good time think the Bolly and Catt are gone but the 99 Pol is ok watch out for the pink Catt yuk.

On our recent trip to BOS in CW, my heart sank on boarding the return as it was the same crew as the outbound and while not as bad as your experience it wasn't up to scratch.To my pleasant suprise the crew remembered us and served us like kings, we even got off with a couple of bottles of the Charles Heidsieck[y]


Yes the Cattier Rose isn't to my taste either. There are sporadic sightings still of Bolly 99 I see in the T5 CCR, so I might get lucky but I don't have my hopes high. Have yet to try the Pol Roger 99.

Me & me mate have snagged 1A and 1K, so God help the pax in 5A [:p]

Problem with BA is you can never really tell how full it's _really_ going to be until you've boarded.

After a good YVR trip in F in August, an ATL trip last month in F was really far less inspiring.

Back to VS (sort of). Unlike VS, BA do seem to protect their revenue and prestige in F, and I've only ever been aware very occasionally of the odd staff traveller there.

I was wondering if the crew on my VS CPT trip were PO'd because they were expecting light loads from an early manifest, only to be deluged at the last minute.

H

[Decker]

Addendum: In fairness to crew there are THOUSANDS of non crew who can use staff travel who likely are less likely to be attuned to the 'proper way' of doing things. So let's not immediately assume that any poor behaviour is off duty crew. Think about it - crew KNOW about noise at bar - Office Staff don't. Crew KNOW about low champagne loads - Office Staff don't. So behaviour that REALLY goes against the grain is more likely to be non crew.

Howard - just terrible, sin bin to the crew and a very stiff letter to VS I think.

You say one thing about BA is you never know how full the cabin is till boarding, same happens to me on VS all the time. To many freebies with people who don't know how to behave and crew who can't tell the difference between someone who's paid £7k and someone who hasn't.

I've very much seen what Slinky says; happened to me once to be talking to one of the on-duty crew at the bar about the cabin load, and they very much mentioned seeing a manifest early, lots of space, then - shazam - UC was full. They don't bump VS personnel 'til quite late, from what I recall, and in fact it's not unusual for them to be last on the plane. It doesn't eat into the possibility of upgrading with cash/miles, in other words, though it likely cuts off op-ups for PE paying passengers.

All in all, I think this is a dangerous trend, though I know a few folk who've very much benefited from this, without causing a nuisance. It's not helping with the overall experience for sure, though I agree the overall quality of certain things, like the wine, are much more of a concern. I'm amazed Berry Bros wants the association if VS ends up parading the content of their bargain bins .....

quote:Originally posted by MarkedMan
I've very much seen what Slinky says; happened to me once to be talking to one of the on-duty crew at the bar about the cabin load, and they very much mentioned seeing a manifest early, lots of space, then - shazam - UC was full. They don't bump VS personnel 'til quite late, from what I recall, and in fact it's not unusual for them to be last on the plane. It doesn't eat into the possibility of upgrading with cash/miles, in other words, though it likely cuts off op-ups for PE paying passengers.

All in all, I think this is a dangerous trend, though I know a few folk who've very much benefited from this, without causing a nuisance. It's not helping with the overall experience for sure, though I agree the overall quality of certain things, like the wine, are much more of a concern. I'm amazed Berry Bros wants the association if VS ends up parading the content of their bargain bins .....


This seems to be it: the crew's expectation of a half empty cabin, only to be presented with a full one.

Regarding the wine, I like to think that my palate will cope with most stuff, and although I say so myself I reckon I'm really pretty open minded about it and appreciate a wine for what it is. But overall apart from the cab shiraz this was not a good selection.

One other thing: the IFE was inadvertently left on during takeoff. A rather welcome, if unexpected feature of the flight. That is, until they reset it thinking it neeeded starting up.

H

Ahhh! Wine on planes.
An interesting topic given that my job is selling wine.
It's fun to look back at Michael Broadbent's book and see what they were selecting for Concorde back in the day and compare with today's offerings.
I've been amazed by the selections in most business class flights I've been on. Then when I worked with a company that owned a Chilean winery, I was amazed that we had sold 2000 cases of a $10 Cab to American Airlines for 1st class. The wine was generally available for $7.99 and tasted like it, yet it was deemed good enough for first class.
IMO the only way to go in real 1st class is with the usually very expensive and very fine Champagne they serve. Of course it manages to be beyond VS to have more than a couple of bottles of so-so Champers on board before they pull out the Blanquette di Limoux - which is vastly inferior to US domestic champagne (sorry - sParkling wine for the benefit of the EU)