This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
This is my first VS Trip Report (I have done one for Kingfisher before). Apologies that it is so rambly!
Background to the trip- After working as a consultant for five years (including 6 months in the UAE with lots of VS Flights) , I took advantage of my employers’ flexible working policy to spend six months working for a community development charity in Rural Nepal. I had flown out in a PE fare which I upgraded to upper on the outward flight back in October 2010. To sum it up, telegram style: Good banter from check in staff. Great haircut at lounge. Crew pleasant but not exciting. Odyssey. Crap. No Toy Story Three. Sulked. Best sleep ever on a plane.
This flight was my return flight, as I was coming home for a wedding before heading out to Nepal for three more months. I did not upgrade so it would be my first ever time in PE, though I‘ve flown a lot with Virgin in economy and upper.
Left the hotel (The Hilton in Janak Puri which I have to recommend- it was exceptionally good and the check in experience I had as a mere Gold Hhonors member was better than anything I’ve had as an IC Royal Ambassador. Mostly due to the gin.) and took a cab with Megacabs which, despite the lack of seatbelts, at least had an honest taxi driver who put the meter on when I asked. (The taxi driver the night before had ‘forgotten’ to put on the meter!).
Arrived at Terminal 3 which is a modern airport and very well organised- any people that had been to terminal 1 in the old days will be pleasantly surprised here! Went to VS checkin- economy looked very busy with queues longer than the tensile barriers could cope! Wandered round to the UC/PE queues where a lady was there checking details. I went to the PE queue which I thought was UC but the lady who checked the details who told me nicely ’you can check in in Upper Class with a gold card’. Madam, I am a member of V-Flyer, I know that! But it was nice of her to tell me in case I didn’t know.
Check-in lady was OK, not hugely friendly. I asked if there was any space in row 18 but she said it had been allocated for infants. I didn’t think there would be that many infants travelling in PE to necessitate the whole row being blocked out but didn’t argue! Having had everything sorted, she handed the passport and pass back and indicated it was time to go. I thought this was strange that she hadn’t given me a lounge invite so I asked her where the lounge was and she replied ‘I’m sorry that’s just for our upper class passengers’ to which I, for the first time in my life, had to flash the gold card! Since I’d upgraded the outbound leg, my FC number wasn’t on the system- instead the usual 0500500500. She was suddenly a lot more pleasant, changed the tags on the bag from PE to UC (though I don’t think she printed out a new bar code) and immediately called one of her team to escort me to immigration.
This was good! He waited whilst I filled out my departures card. Immigration was mayhem. He explained this was because they had closed airspace for an hour earlier in the day as there was preparations for the Republic Day celebrations which had resulted in a backlog at immigration. However, the member of ground crew parted the queues like Moses and the red sea and took me through to a very small ‘First/Business’ queue. The fact that I got this travelling PE suggests to me that all Au card holders get this perk at Delhi, regardless of travel class, so that is good! However, like at DXB, no-one at immigration ever checks that you are actually First/Business, so I think that in these circumstances, if travelling economy, you could easily apply the rules that we used to say as kids of getting into a bar aged 16- act like you belong there and no-one will question.
After immigration, we went to security- there was no fast track security but each security desk was behind an immigration desk so the ones behind First/Business were a bit quieter.
Now, I like to think I’ve relaxed a bit living in Nepal, but the security queue taught me I hadn’t. Why people wait till they are just about to go through the scanner to remove their laptops, put phones etc in bags/trays etc I do not know! Prepare for this at check-in while the check-in person is tapping in the computer! Or remove them at the queue for immigration. Or the queue before you get to the scanner! Not when you are next in line for the scanner!!! I would have forgiven people for this if they were infrequent fliers (or had kids to supervise) but some of these numpties had frequent flier luggage tags on their bags. Rant over.
Also, like Kathmandu, regardless of whether you set off the scanner you get a pat down…which makes me wonder whether its worth the effort of taking out the phones etc out of your pockets if you are just going to get patted down anyway- think I’ll try that next time and see!! Previous trip reports I’d seen had people saying that they write down your passport details in a book after this. However, while other security lines were doing this, mine wasn’t. Hopefully it’s a phase out of the system. Otherwise, I’ll be in trouble when I next arrive in India as it would seem that somewhere between the immigration post and the departures lounge I escaped back into India!!
However, despite this, total time from entering the airport to getting to the departures lounge was only 20 minutes which is pretty good I think especially in a famously bureaucratic nation like India.
Despite not having flown in 3 months, I reverted quickly back to my frequent flier mode and power walked through the public departure lounge- which was a lot busier than the last time I came, as they’ve migrated more airlines across to T3- and to the lifts to the Plaza Premium Lounge. For those who check on the plaza premium lounge website, you’ll find photos of a few Plaza premium lounges in Delhi. It is the one on the fourth floor with more facilities that Virgin use.
The lounge was split into two areas- the first area was largely comfortable chairs in a seating area, though there was also an area where six or eight laptops were provided for anyone to use. The second area contained the buffet, the drinks, and some areas for people to plug in their own laptops, as well as a few chairs. It reminded me a bit of the split in the First Great Western lounge in Paddington between ‘comfortable bit’ and ‘practical bit’. There were also some very nice smelling massage rooms- but these cost 900 rupees for a 30 minute massage (foot or head and shoulders).
It was busy in the lounge (got a lot quieter after the SQ flight was called) but I was able to find a seat easily- which beats the LHR clubhouse on a Sunday night! First thing I did was went to the bar and asked for a gin and tonic. ‘I’m sorry sir, we have no gin’. NO GIN!!!!
I’m sure this will constitute sacrilege for many v-flyers. I didn’t ask, but the way she said it suggested that they do not keep gin full stop, rather than they had just ran out. Annoyed, I had a diet coke, a couple of sandwiches, and a sulk. The food selection was pretty good- the hot food was all Indian style- some curries and some more snacky stuff, and the chefs regularly came to make sure it was fresh. They also had pre-packaged sandwiches, make your own tea and coffee facilities, and a good selection of fruit, soft drinks, and the usual nuts and crisps. By way of comparison to the other places I’ve been in, I would rate it higher than the lounge used at DXB and MCO but below the HKG and GTW clubhouses (and clearly below the LHR clubhouse!).
Wi-fi was available but was patchy (at least on my iPhone) so I used the laptops which were pretty quick.
This is the buffet area- I'd like to say I made it fuzzy on purpose to disguise staff and pax identities but I didn't, I'm just bad at taking photos.
The flight was delayed by 30 mins due to incoming aircraft being late- we’d been warned about this at checkin both verbally and on the signs, and we were called about 50 mins before revised departure time and walked to Gate 9. Priority boarding was done well and the lady supervising it greeted me by name.
However, once this was done, we walked to an area where the two airbridges joined, and the UC pax had to cross over to the PE/Economy bridge, have their bags checked, have a pat down, and get back to their own airbridge, which must have been annoying for them! After a while, security got its act together and set up a separate bag check for UC. PE and Economy were held for a while for a reason I don’t know (I think it might have been while they boarded passengers using wheelchairs) and was greeted warmly and pointed to my seat (though not by name).
The plane was Plane Sailing which is an A343 with Odyssey- BOO. A bottle of water was provided on each PE seat.
This photo is plane sailing, hidden behind the Jet Airways flight to London. You can also see the tail of BA’s 747. These three, and the Air India flight to LHR, all took off within about an hour of each other!!
Once all the passengers had boarded, the cabin crew were very quick to hand out sparkling wine or orange juice- served from a tray in glasses similar in style to UC (though I think the wine glasses looked smaller!). They also distributed newspapers - choice of Independent, Times of India, FT, or Daily Mail. By the time they got to me they had run out of the Independent, I’d read the Times of India that morning, I didn’t fancy the FT and I could not bring myself to read the Daily Mail or by the end of it I’d be convinced that flying gives you cancer and that its like that because of the immigrants. So I flicked through my magazine and looked out of the window instead!
The pilot and FSM both called the flight time- 9 hrs 1 min and take off seemed pretty orderly. PE was completely full, there were about 6 seats free at the very back of Y and I think there were a few seats in J but I didn’t get a chance to have a proper look- just glimpsed through the curtain. Served a hot towel- same type as UC, and just as dangerously hot, and the drinks run started very quickly, I had a Heineken and the very nice cream cheese pretzels. The crew were very friendly and smiley- a bit change to the scowls of Kingfisher, and had a very good ‘vibe’.
They distributed the menus- I had pinched my menu but have somehow lost it (along with my amenity kit) but it was a Waldorf Salad for starters (basically apples and mayo- not great). Then mains was a choice of a generic chicken dish and an Indian lamb curry so I went for the curry and rice. This was great and served on a big tray with lots of sides including poppadoms, yoghurt, pickle etc. The crew then handed out the bread- onion roll or a very nice roti, and dessert I can’t actually remember. I had a glass of red and the crew came through to top up both this and the water. The tray they served it on was a lot bigger than the economy tray which gave more room for manoeuvre, and the cutlery was silver, and the glassware real glass.
As you’ll have noticed, I’m comparing the offer a lot to UC and Economy- as many people had said the offering is well positioned between the two other classes. However, in one area I would argue PE is better than Upper Class- and this is the amenity kit! Yes, the toothpaste is a crappy economy tube, but for a day flight, who cares! Plus you get a pen! Also, the seats were very clean and in good nick- compared to many economy seats and UCS I have been in on all three types of aircraft.
Quite a while after lunch, the crew came round with baileys and brandy, of which I had baileys. Then the crew disappeared- I didn’t see any member of crew in the PE cabin for one whole odyssey run, leaving my baileys glass sitting on my arm rest for about 2 hours. I eventually popped down to the galley at the back of the plane where I handed it to them and there were jugs of Orange Juice and water (Is it just me who hates the orange juice on Virgin? It tastes rank!) and a box of the pretzels where you could help yourself. Of all the star ratings you have to give for trip reviews, I find the cabin crew one the hardest for this flight. In every interaction they were pleasant and helpful, and they were very efficient. However, I thought the absence of the crew for much of the flight was pretty bad (Apart from two water and juice runs during the flight they were absent for a good five hours). Is this because my expectations of PE were too high? Though even when I’ve been in economy the cabin crew have been regularly seen ‘pacing the aisles’- maybe this is because my economy travels are usually on the MCO route and I’d imagine (though CC members can correct me if I’m wrong) that you get more people pressing the call button on this route than the DEL route. Anyway, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and four stars!
I only saw the FSM leave UC once (though in fairness I wasn’t particularly looking for her) but she seemed busy helping in UC e.g. securing the cabin for landing.
The Odyssey system on DEL and NBO flights has a different choice to the odyssey system on other routes (which again strikes me as weird- So Virgin has V Port, Odyssey for DEL and NBO, Odyssey and Nova??). The film choice was actually pretty good, I watched Monsters, Three Idiots (a hindi film which was really good and I’d strongly recommend it- funny and emotional, and not like your standard ‘bollywood’ film at all) and Megamind, which was also hilarious. I also watched the V alternative channel which had a good selection. So the choice of entertainment was pretty good. However, I cannot bring myself to give more than three stars for a non-AVOD system on an all-Long-haul airline in 2011. It really doesn’t fit with VS’s brand image and needs to be updated ASAP!
Before landing we were given a decent but quite bland chicken pasta- the same I think as they got in economy- along with some cookies. We were offered the fruit bowl which all looked very fresh.
Weren’t able to make up any time en route so landed 30 minutes early.
Iris was working fine and was through quickly. Baggage took a while to come through, longer than in Delhi, but priority baggage seemed to be working well. Chose the world’s loudest baggage cart and wheeled it down to the underground and headed into London and my first roast dinner in 3 months!!
Overall, I think the actual physical product (food and drink, seat, legroom etc) for PE is well positioned between Y and J, however the service is essentially the same as Y- I think I was probably expecting something a bit more attentive (probably due to VS’s marketing about the ‘devoted cabin crew to guarantee prompt and attentive service’) which is perhaps why I was a bit disappointed with the cabin crew‘s absence. Personally, I would probably not go PE again, either save money and go in Y, or splurge and go for J, but that is very much due to my personal preference- where the service is a lot more important than the actual product (which is why I choose VS over BA, even though I’d say the food, the IFE and the quality of the kit is better on BA). In terms of product, however, it’s a definite step up from economy and for anyone over about 5’ 9” the extra legroom is great! Also, I say this as an AU card holder- without the gold card, the addition of premium check in, priority boarding, and priority baggage probably makes it a much more distinct service offering from Y.
But overall an enjoyable flight and a good way to get back to the UK!
