No coffee before landing ...

So, arrived home yesterday on the VS012 from BOS (not the 46 as I'd posted), and I was nicely woken up prior to landing, a little after the captain came on and said in about 10-15 minutes we'll be starting our descent, so I asked for a coffee.

"No, I can give you orange juice."

Me, "I don't want orange juice I'd like a coffee please."

CC, "We're no longer allowed to serve coffee when the captain has made his pre-descent announcement."

So, with the seat belt sign still to come on and loads of time around, and noting only a few weeks ago I had coffee in a paper cup a long time after the seat belt sign came on, what is this all about? Some new nannying rule by the CAA? Some new nannying by VS, some policy to help the CC but sod the passenger?

Same thing happened to me coming back on the VS24 last week. Asked for tea just after the crew started shutting up shop for descent, and was told that;

'We're not allowed to serve any hot drinks during descent or landing anymore' - I ask why, as this is news to me, and get the perfunctory response of;

'Its in case we hit turbulence and you burn yourself'

Pardon? By extending this to its logical, yet absurd, conclusion, this would mean that all hot drinks should be banned during flight 'In case of turburlence'. I suspect it has something to do with the ghastly new coffee flask things that they use onboard - what was wrong with being given an individual cup from the galley?

All in, sounds like a knee-jerk response from VS, as some passenger probably emptied thier coffee into thier lap during descent and the geniuses that populate Crawley Towers have decided that the dont want the risk of getting sued.

Thanks for that comment, seems it is a new policy, even though we weren't even on descent. I quite agree, just stop serving hot drinks if the policy has gotten that anal!

However, over on FB Greg has posted a different comment, he says CC can continue to serve hot drinks until the seat belt sign comes on ... so, I wonder which is right, Facebook or CC. I love connectedness.

In my experience there are serious discrepencies between the 'official' policies trotted out on the social media site, the expectations built up through the machine that is VS PR, and the reality of the onboard experience.

For a company that is so neurotically obsessed with image and presentation, there are times when I do wonder if they are aware of the disconnect between the 'standard line' and the 'operational realities'

[preiffer]

^ this

That would have got me grumpy beyond belief!

I don't do life after waking up without coffee - even airline coffee.

It might seem a small thing to some, but it would really get my goat...

What a farce...

[honey lamb]

My response on FB:

Hmmmm! To follow up on Paul's point, tomorrow I shall board an A320 with 174 seats all economy and 4 cabin crew since the minimum legal ratio is 1:50. The actual flight time will be 50 minutes to to one hour in duration. The cabin crew will start service some 15 minutes into the flight which is Buy on Board and therefore quite slow as people decide often only when the trolley fetches up beside them. If I have the misfortune to be seated in the mid-region of the aircraft I may have the misfortune to be served at the Top of Descent (which has happened) but I still have been served. After the food service the crew will also do a Sky Shopping run through the cabin. Almost always the cabin is being cleared during the descent even to the point of where the cockpit signals that they are about to go into final approach. Before anyone asks I am not talking about Ryanair but I have verified the facts with my son who works for the airline in question.

This begs the question as to why I can get a cup of coffee and more on an aircraft with a 1:50 ratio of passengers when a passenger in a premium cabin with a much higher ratio of crew to passengers can't? A Virgin Atlantic flight could quite easily be passing over my home just as I am taking off from my local airport!

worst than no coffee - they seem to be running out of booze.
LHR-IAD this week bubbly ran out very soon after takeoff.
LAX-LHR yesterday no Malbec wine and no port. Apparantly it had all be drunk on the outbound flight and the new caterers were not allocating suficient stocks.

worst than no coffee - they seem to be running out of booze.
LHR-IAD this week bubbly ran out very soon after takeoff.
LAX-LHR yesterday no Malbec wine and no port. Apparantly it had all be drunk on the outbound flight and the new caterers were not allocating suficient stocks.

No Port v(