VS074 MCO-MAN 3 May 09 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Firstly this was a change of date and flight due to some very bad news whilst we were away (My Mother passed away), my Wife and I had to change our return flight and tickets. From the get go, Virgin were nothing more than helpful and understanding in every way, so thank you very much to all the staff behind the scenes for all your help and consideration for making this a smooth and worry free transaction.

We pulled up kerbside to check in at MCO and were greeted by a young lady skycap, with trepidation I ask if she could take us to check in, wondering if the bags may be too heavy for her(we had had hit the stores before the bad news broke!) Without any hesitation and with my admiration, she hauled the bags out of the car and onto the waiting trolley before i could bat an eyelid, boy was she strong and plesant to boot. Straight to the check in desk, two minutes later and we were parting with the tip for the skycap, she was really excellent.

Up to the Hyatt to cancel our return booking(great staff and hotel,views from the pool over runaway are stunning, and then onto McCoys for some plane spotting and our last American food excellent as usual. Next the security line, painful but essential, enough said.

A spot of duty free shopping, behind the Crew from our flight, what a sight for sore eyes they are, always smart and a credit to Virgin.

At the desk, we were early for boarding as we did not fancy the lounge, we were greeted by a lovely American lady who let us stand in line and chatted with us until boarding. As usual boarding was great, met by very pleasant crew with happy smiles. Drinks were served and nibbles, the FSO introduced herself, what a lovely,friendly lady. I know it's their job but some of them go beyond that to make you feel relaxed and special, she chatted about my sad news and was very sweet. All the crew were attentive and could not have done anymore than they did to make both my wife and I very comfortable and feel very special.

Push back was on time and the 1st Officer announced that the flight time was to be 7hrs 10mins, the lights go off and all goes quiet, a problem that was sorted within 10 minutes thankfully.

The flight was faultless, I did not eat so cannot report on the food, sorry! but the beef looked good. Great in flight entertainment (V-Port) great!
Very attentive crew all the way home, we could not have asked for any better service, they were truly a credit to Virgin, Mr. Branson is a very lucky man to have such good staff.

Thank you to all the Crew, you were fabulous. One last word about the flight deck, they do this, as do the crew on such a regular basis, but very rarely do you get any chit chat between passengers and crew, this crew were great and Thank you for a safe trip home with a great smooth landing, and a very special thank you to the FSM for all her kindness at such a sad time for my Wife and I.

Thank you VS, we will be back in September to do it all again.

[honey lamb]

I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Please accept my deepest sympathy and thank you for taking the trouble to do a TR at such a sad time for you.

I'm glad that VS pulled out all the stops to make your journey as smooth as possible. Good to hear

Like honey lamb (above), I am sorry to hear of your loss. There is never a good time for bad news, least of all when you are away on holiday enjoying yourself.

Good to hear that VS did all they could for you, both in re-arranging the return flights and going that extra mile whilst you were onboard. It is the little extras that make all the difference - like the FSM mentiong that they were aware of your bad news. It costs nothing, but proves that when things work, the left hand does know what the right is doing at VS and makes the passenger feel valued.

A very slight correction to the TR (and please note, this is not a criticism, especially given the curcumstances of the OP). I was at MAN this afternoon and saw G-VTOP depart as the VS73 back to MCO. Therefore, the OP was on this aircraft into MAN and enjoyed Odyssey IFE, not V-Port (us MAN passengers can but wish for V-Port!)

Thanks
James

Sorry to hear about your loss. Thank you for taking the time out to write the TR, and glad that VS were top notch.


Dominic

My sympathy to you for your loss.

It's very reassuring to know that in this time of cutbacks VS do respond promptly and efficiently to passengers in real need.

[buns]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

For a route that sometimes gets a bad press, the crew clearly can be ultra professional[y]

buns