VS016 MCO-LGW 5 JUN 12 (Upper Class)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Return flight following two weeks in the land of the mouse. The kids had been duly spoilt and I was ready to return to blighty.

Downtown Disney check-in around 11:00 which was empty and as a result fast, efficient and completed in about 5 minutes. The rest of the day was spent buying more Disney based products (or useless tat as I call it).

Arrived at MCO by 16:30 to meet the car rental deadline, the additional purchases/cases need to be checked in so we went to the Upper class check-in.

A couple of people in front of us and we were called forward by a rather surly check-in agent.

I simply tried to explain that we were already checked in but wanted to check in another couple of cases and with many sighs, huffs and puffs she duly produced an economy luggage tag. The lady had decided to assume that my family and I were economy passengers instead of asking which class of travel we were flying. When I explained that we were travelling Upper Class she looked me up and down and said “you are traveling Upper Class”. I am sure following my assertive (but not rude) response she was under no illusion that I was indeed traveling Upper class. I wouldn’t mind but as family we always dress nicely and we are well mannered, it’s not like we are the family from ‘Shameless’ .

The check-in agent had put me in a mood and it was hardly upper class treatment, my mother kept laughing at me for not looking like I should be in Upper. Side note: at least one person on the flight in Upper was wearing a track suit and what looked like school shoes , so there you go, we don’t all fit the Upper Class stereo type.

Through security in about 10 minutes and onto the Delta lounge. I felt uncomfortable taking my children into the lounge as most of the people were older or business men/women. There is a small area with a TV for the kids but the lounge was akin to a library. My youngest can be loud at the best of times, mostly singing, but not always to everyone’s liking so the wife took him out shopping whilst I sat with the older two.
Don’t get me wrong I have been in worse lounges but it’s not a clubhouse by any stretch of the imagination.

The flight was called at about 18:40; we left straight away and made our way to gate 87 where Jersey Girl was waiting. Again, for everyone’s sanity I waited with loud child No3 at the departure gate whilst the wife took angelic children 1 & 2 onto plane and enjoyed the pre-flight drinks.

At the last minute I joined the rest of the family, no greeting at the door just told “you’re on the left”. I got loud child into seat 6A with the wife in 6K and myself in 7A so we could both keep an eye on him. Angelic children 1 & 2 in 7k and 8K and my mother in in 8A which worked well as we didn’t interfere with the other UC passengers. (Note: Loud child is only 3.5 and like my other two children is always and was impeccably behaved on the flight and I wouldn’t expect anything else. Whilst I know I have spent a lot money for the flights, I am always aware that other people have also spent their hard earnt money and don’t want their experience ruined by bad parents and children, I think I worry too much though.

Anyway, greeted by a lovely female cabin crew who made a big fuss of all of the children and referred to them by name throughout the flight. This was the children’s first time in UC with myself and my wife having travelled in UC numerous time before.

The suites had lots of marks and abrasions and were in an extremely poor condition; I know they are revamping planes but I am not sure how they will make these suites look acceptable. I believe in the UC product and love the benefits but even I felt short changed with those suites.

Short delay on take-off due to requiring new clearance from ATC but with a flight of 7 hours 20 minutes this was not an issue. Once we were up in the air and the seat belt sign was turned off and drinks orders taken.

Drinks delivered with a bowl of crisps and we were soon ordering dinner. The children ate first so we could get them settled and my wife and I ate soon after. They were keen to get the lights off but there was no pressure for us to eat quickly.

I had the Leek soup for starter and chicken for the main which were both ok. This may seem petty to some people but we were offered another bread roll with the soup which was duly accepted. I am one of those people who need butter with bread or rolls so I asked for butter and the lady went off to find some. She returned to explain that they had searched the plane but she couldn’t find anymore butter. I understand that meal choices might run out but butter?

With only one piece of cheesecake left it was only right to get two forks and share it with the wife, to be fair she ate most of it as I didn’t fancy that fight . What I had of the cheesecake was very nice .

Beds all made up and we all settled down some 2 hours into the flight, the seat belt sign was on for 4.5 of the last 5.5 hours and it was a very bumpy ride home. The Captain made an announcement in the middle of the flight to re-assure everyone that we were all perfectly safe and we were skimming the clouds and couldn’t climb any higher due to traffic above and unfortunately we were in for a bumpy ride. No consolation to my wife because she hates flying at the best of times and being apart from me she was a nervous wreck for 4.5 hours. I think given this experience we may be traveling in PE because my wife feels too separated from me in UC because of the seating configuration.

Woken up for breakfast an hour and a half before landing which consisted of Rice Krispies, bacon roll, orange juice and a coffee. Fruit was available on the bar if required.

The kids slept right up until we needed to change the beds back for landing which was good.

When they converted my mother’s bed the seat belt broke. She alerted a male member of cabin crew to this fact who promptly ignored her twice and on the third time of being asked returned and said “oh that’s definitely broken” .

With a broken seat belt my mother had to sit in economy for the landing but was allowed to walk back to upper (whilst the plane was taxiing) so she could get off the plane first. Along with the marked suites, this is another thing that makes you feel short changed, the physical product on Jersey Girl is in such a bad condition.

A smooth descent into Gatwick and a long taxi to the gate, the flight actually took just under 7 hours due to the turbulence.

We were off the plane quickly with the upstairs PE section and economy section held back. Our bags were the first ones off and we were plane to Valet parking in 40 minutes.

The service by one female member of cabin crew made this flight acceptable and managed to distract me from the lack of butter, dirty suites and broken seat belt. Technically I got what I paid for which will keep me coming back.

I didnt see the FSM the whole flight so I cant comment on her abilities.

Thanks for reading.

I simply tried to explain that we were already checked in but wanted to check in another couple of cases and with many sighs, huffs and puffs she duly produced an economy luggage tag. The lady had decided to assume that my family and I were economy passengers instead of asking which class of travel we were flying. When I explained that we were travelling Upper Class she looked me up and down and said “you are traveling Upper Class”. I am sure following my assertive (but not rude) response she was under no illusion that I was indeed traveling Upper class. I wouldn’t mind but as family we always dress nicely and we are well mannered, it’s not like we are the family from ‘Shameless’ .

The check-in agent had put me in a mood and it was hardly upper class treatment, my mother kept laughing at me for not looking like I should be in Upper. Side note: at least one person on the flight in Upper was wearing a track suit and what looked like school shoes , so there you go, we don’t all fit the Upper Class stereo type.

Seems to be a trend for VS Check In agents to assume that some people couldn't possibly be flying Upper Class

An excellent and detailed TR, thanks for posting OMG I think you have been treated very poorly for the class of service you deserved when you fly UCS

I think I would be mentioning my concerns to VS regarding the check in agent and the state of the plane I would certainly mention that you are very aware of the investment that VS are making at the moment, however, that did not make this flight anymore pleasurable for all 6 paying pax

Mark

[buns]

Thanks for such a detailed TR

I must admit that your experience at the UC check in at MCO is, IMHO, an unusual occurrence - the Ground Team at MCO are usually very helpful, given they are dealing with multiple 747s in a short space of time.

Nice to hear the other side of the story with your "loud" little one and the worry you have on the impact on others in the Cabin. It is a great credit to you that are are so considerate (but as you say most probably over cautious )

buns

Hi,

We flew back MCO-MAN (VS74) UC on the same night on Ruby Tuesday. We had a very similar experience in terms of turbulence. We were all strapped in for the majority of the flight and the crew were the same for a few hours themselves. I checked the skymap at one stage and we were mid-atlantic flying at 25,000ft, so we must have been avoiding some bad weather somewhere. We always seem to have quite a bouncy flight on the way back from MCO, but this went on for a long time - I was getting grumpy tired, but thankfully my son slept right through it all, apart from a moment when the capt spoke to reassure everyone that we were perfectly safe, but he soon nodded off again.

Ruby Tuesday is in a similar state to Jersey Girl, the IFE failed and had to be rebooted, same on the way out (same plane). It's just tired and well in need of a refurb. The problem we had was that the meal service was really late. We had the seat-belts on for quite some time after take-off but the PE seats behind us had finished their meals whilst we were only just getting our amuse-bouche! The amuse-bouche was not pleasant, and it seemed they were trying a bit too hard with this one, and it didn't really work. I must say I much prefer Club World food, and IFE, but just don't get on with climbing over people or facing backwards. We're back to MCO again at the end of October, so hopefully we'll be on one of the refits.

We always go in the Delta lounge with our son who's eight now, and we must have just missed you by an hour or so. There we some French children in the lounge when we were there and they were all playing with the cushions in the far right corner. It does look a bit snooty in that lounge, and it is surprisingly business like for Orlando, but we've never had a problem with our son playing in there.

With regard to check-in, we didn't even spot the UC check-in desk because the last time we were at MCO (12 months ago), the UC check-in was just the last desk in the row, so we didn't spot the new one behind us. As it happened there was no queue at any desk so we checked in at Economy and they had the lounge pass and our bags were still off first in MAN, so it worked out just the same.

Nick

Great TR. Much detail.
Bad luck with the check in.
We normally find the MCO staff pretty good.
Last year we did this flight in Economy and checked in at the airport (in good time). We were on a 747 and had reserved a pair of seats at the back where three become two on the sides.
We asked if there were any better seats and the agend got on the phone and was very offiscious. A minute later we had two exit seatswith loads of room and no mention of any charge.
So we were delighted.

Thanks for posting - bit of a shame your experience was marred by the checkin agent and like of butter - bit of a slippery slope?

The element of your TR that bothers me the most was the broken seat belt - in what way did it break? If you had hit severe turbulance and the belt had failed resulting in any kind of inury, there would have been an interesting discussion to be had with VS.....

As otheres have said, your experience at MCO checkin is not the norm, they are usually excellent.

I still prefer the Outback lounge!!!

Thanks for the TR!

I'm glad to see that someone else is like me - really worrying about the kids effect on everyone else.

My two have numerous issues - almost an alphabet soup which I won't bore you with - but we braved a flight in WT across to LA and back last year which they coped really well with (to my surprise and delight!) but I didn't relax once. The FA's (partic. outbound) were brilliant with them... the connecting flight home was hmmm a bit of a different story (nightmare from before boarding (one child going deliberately awol in T5 to coping with air rage, french FAs, my youngest doing his stuff that he does...etc this flight had it all in 50 minutes!) .

Just my hobby horse that people seem to assume that sometimes the parents don't care when children are loud / obnoxious but most of us do... And we do try to minimise the effect they have on other people....

Thank you for the TR, sorry to read about the checkin staff.

Great TR sorry to hear about the ground crew