This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
At the Airport in plenty of time, no queues at check in so straight up to counter and here comes my first bug bare :
After an exchange of greetings and the "how many bags to check in" question he proceeded to tag my bags and print my boarding pass so I thought I ask "is the flight on time ?" as I had yet to recieve an Im sorry but its delayed message from check in staff so.... he replied "yes sir, boarding is at 12:50pm"
"Sorry ?????" I saiid
Now I sure that if a flight is delayed there is a valid reason which cant be helped and Virgin do everthing in their power to prevent this from happening with financial inplications and all but when no apology is forthcoming from check in, well quite frankly Im shocked. So a bewildered look from him said it all and whats done is done i thought.
...anyway he handed me my boarding card and I checked the seat number which was 16 something ?? Didnt recognize this seat number in the 'bubble' so I said "excuse me would you mind telling me where this seat is as I dont recognize it?" I was informed it was a PE seat next to the window downstairs, in reply I said "Im soory but I pre-selected and seat upstairs on the aisle as I have to use the toilet quite regular and also spoke with the pre=flight team about it" then a Virgin colleague pointed out the aircraft had a refit and infact I am upstairs on located on the aisle "Ok thankyou for your help" and off happily I went to clear security and browse the Duty Free.
Boarding was announced and up I went to be told and the cabin door "just down there on the left sir"..ok I thought as the plane has had a refit so all's not lost but then......it was the same premium seats downstairs that I had many moons ago and was far from impreesed (definelt not premiun downstairs !) Yes the media system was upgraded but thats it and I was seated next to the window.... horror !
I pointed this out to a cabing crew and she said we will sort it out once everyone is on board so I waited and waited and waited some more then pressed the call bell. The same cabin member that I spoke to earlier cam over and said straight away before I spoke "I sorry sir but there are no other seats available, is there anything else ?" well yes there is but as long as this passenger doesnt mind me getting up every hour on route, the rest can wait "ok sir" was her reply.
So we took off and of course the passenger next to me went soundly asleep (drink induced as he clearly had been at the bar for the delay) so do you think I could wake him ? Not on your nelly ! so I pressed the call bell, and then again an hour or so later, and again. Clearly at this point my fellow passenger was fed up being woken as I can understand but the cabin crew member had the righ hump ! I think it was the fourth time I pressed the call bell when I clearly heard "you go this time" she said to her colleague and so she did. After returning and just befoe I sat down her colleague quitely said to me "If you had to be seated elsewhere you should have said" I replied "I have done over and over again but no one seems to listen or care".
So the flight continued in this way : excuse me sir (no answer), call bell, return to seat, excuse me sir (no answer) and so on....
Maybe I was wrong and I should have been treated somewhat diferently but I really cant see how I could have been treated worse !
