VS008 LAX-LHR 20 AUG 11 (Upper Class)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

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Seat

Cabin Crew

After 4 weeks in the US it was time for our journey back. The 4 weeks went very quickly, including an aborted attempt to visit Panama.. tickets were all booked, but my son fell foul on the 90 day passport expiry rule by a few days. I am sure I checked all that when I booked the tickets in Jan, but ah well. Good news is that I managed to get a full refund.

Back to Saturday. Arrived in LAX 3 hours before departure, no queue at the UC checkin - got my 6 bags all tagged and a nice guy took them to the TSA section which was quite busy. He basically put our suitcases to the front of the queue so by the time I got our passports back, I could see our cases going thru.

Quick look in Duty Free - no real bargains in there so straight to the Air New Zealand lounge, which we walked past initially.

Lounge was very busy due to the cancelled VS24 the day before, but thinned out once AZ2 was called.

Our flight was called soon after and we walked the short distance to gate 23, there was a priority queue in place so we were quickly waved thru and to my delight found only one way in... this meant that I could finally turn left on a plane The last 3 times I was in J it was turn right

Seat was fairly clean, however no one came to say Hi and to introduce themselves (like they did on on the outbound flight in July. We took off, food order was taken and both my daughter and I opted for the lobster and the chicken. I went to get changed and when I got back, my daughter said that the "man" asked her if she would mind not having the lobster as they have run out. I can understand them having to ask, but when the alternative is beetroot, then they should really have put more lobster in. What really annoyed me though was that they did not offer her any alternative. I asked him to see if he could get something from the PE menu. He came back and said would a chicken ceaser salad do, my daughter was happy with that but then all she got when it did arrive was a plain salad. I asked to see the FSM but was told he is too busy (this was after the meal service was concluded) but that he would note down my dissapointment - which he did, though not sure if anything will ever come of it.

Rest of the flight was uneventful, a few drinks then some sleep and a couple of bacon rolls.

We landed at LHR early and by the time we got to baggage claim the bags had started to come out. Our 6 were in the first 10, so we were out the main door around noon.

Our taxi man from Preston was there waiting, we loaded up and headed up north. I fell asleep for most the journey back up the M40/M6 but he must have been tanking it as he dropped us off just over 3 hours later.

So, a mixed first UC experience. the outboud journey was excellent, despite being delayed for 6 hours and having to swap planes. The return was just plain lacking, which is a shame.

Thanks for the TR.

A little disappointing with no introduction and issues with the food orders. I'm suprised to hear that the CC said the FSM was too busy - I would have thought a cabin supervisor could have spoken with you.

Glad the rest of the flight was ok.

Cal

Many thanks for your TR.

It is simply not acceptable for either the FSM or CSS not to come and speak with you. I would send off an email to Customer Services. I had a poor flight once and asked to see the FSM, I was told she was far too busy to come and talk to me (which made my blood boil!) -it was put right though by the Executive office on my return.

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Jon

Many thanks for your TR.

It is simply not acceptable for either the FSM or CSS not to come and speak with you. I would send off an email to Customer Services. I had a poor flight once and asked to see the FSM, I was told she was far too busy to come and talk to me (which made my blood boil!) -it was put right though by the Executive office on my return.

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Jon

I totally agree with you, Jon, you would expect someone to make the time to try to assist you with your issue! It is frustrating when you get such an inconsistent level of service Generally the level of service offered by the VS CC is superior to others but there are those times...

Mark

Thank you for the TR. Sorry to read that your return experience wasn't as good as your outbound flight.

A manager being 'too busy' to deal with an unhappy customer is seldom - if ever - a valid excuse for poor service.

Agree with all of you, I would have expected a supervisor to at least talk to me in the 6 hours since I noted my dissapointment.

I have emailed greg from the FB team to see if he can advise what happens to the piece of paper with my name on as I am not convinced a general email will get a timely response based on the backlog they have at the moment.

I am not letting this spoil my memories though, I now have the CH bug, so am trying to scheme my next visit there

Sorry about your bad experience, it's really unacceptable that the FSM didn't come and speak to you!

I have flown UC twice before, VS250 and VS46. Neither of the FSM's on those flights spoke to me (or any other passengers) individually. Should this have happened?

[honey lamb]

I have flown UC twice before, VS250 and VS46. Neither of the FSM's on those flights spoke to me (or any other passengers) individually. Should this have happened?

I have flown UC at least 3 times a year as a Gold member and it is hit or miss whether the FSM speaks to me. There are some FSMs who the minute I see them, I know they won't come next or near me; others will; in some cases the service I have received from the cabin crew has been of such a high standard that it makes the input of the FSM irrelevant and on one occasion the FSM failed to make the flight because of a crash on the M50 and the CSS acting-up could teach some FSMs a thing or two.

While I would agree that generally speaking, the FSM sets the tenor for the flight an excellent SCC in UC can surpass that

Kudos to the CC as my dissapointment was passed on as I got a letter today saying that the exec office are looking into it for me

Kudos to the CC as my dissapointment was passed on as I got a letter today saying that the exec office are looking into it for me

That is a good result, it will be interesting to hear what they come back with. Please keep us updated on the outcome

Received an email from the exec office - rather dissapointing in that they did not seem to actually read my letter and apart from a "sorry and hope you still have faith in us" they did not address the specific points I raised around why an alternate starter not offered and then when I pushed, what was received was sub-standard and why the FSM/CSM could not see me at the time.

ah well.

Shame that - there's nothing worse than feeling like you've been brushed off.....Are you going to follow up or leave it...

I have followed up.. asking if they feel this is a UC experience etc.

You hit the nail on the head.. I have just been brushed off, which is at least one step from being ignored

I have followed up.. asking if they feel this is a UC experience etc.

You hit the nail on the head.. I have just been brushed off, which is at least one step from being ignored

Seriously, do they think this is acceptable customer service? Come VS get a grip

Time to draw a line under this one.

I got another email yesterday, more apologies and this time with an offer of 8000 miles which had already been credited to my account.

As I am off to LA again next month, with VS but this time in PE, I asked if, as a final gesture of goodwill, if they would extend a clubhouse invite to me and my 3 colleagues.

They said they would give me an invite, but not my colleagues which, for the cost of 3 folks in the CH for 2 hours would have been a great way to delight a customer, unfortunately they didnt see it this way.

You complaint is that didn't get your menu choices and the FSM did not come and talk to you?

The latter is slightly, to me, the more serious. The lack of meal choice is as they say a fact of life - it happened to me on my last flight from ORD on LX. I was slightly miffed but moved on and still had an excellent meal.

8k miles looks to be the normal level of compensation for most complaints these days.

I admire your cheek in asking for access for 4 people to the CH on your forthcoming fligh but that was never going to happen. I think you over-egged it there so am not surprised they said no. You might have got a difefrent answer if it had been you +1 though.

tb the complaint re food was more that the CC selected the youngest person in UC to ask first, then failed to offer her an alternative and when I requested one for her, they failed to deliver the promised alternative. This is CC simply not looking after their customers.

The FSM being too busy was equally annoying.

I thought about asking for me +1, but that would have meant 2 of my colleagues being left at the mercy of T3 and I couldnt do that. It was worth a try

Here's hoping for an issue free return to LA next month though sadly not in UC comfort.

I think that 8,000 miles plus a CH invitation is a very reasonable apology.

If I were running VS ... I would make sure your complaint led to the FSM coming and saying hello to you on your next flight and thanking you for your loyalty. It's easy to say these things, though; more difficult to get it to work.

Anyway, have a good next flight. I've done LAX in PE a couple of times and didn't find it too bad.

tb the complaint re food was more that the CC selected the youngest person in UC to ask first

I have been asked to change my choice a few times when I have been the youngest in the cabin, I sent an email to VS once asking if it was VS policy to ask the youngest, as that's the way I felt I was being picked (sat in different seats, hearing what others had ordered and the fact my FC status is ignored), they very quickly replied saying it wasn't and was given a few miles. I wasn't even complaining about not getting my first choice, just asking if the policy was to ask the youngest. It was like they were trying to cover up.

I doubt it's an official policy but maybe an unwritten one, CC knowing they will be the easiest target?

I think 8,000 miles and a CH invite is a good apology.