LGW 747 new config...who decided that layout?

Well...we flew out on Saturday from LGW to Cancun on Ladybird, fresh from her refit. 8 of us were flying PE and were very exited to all be seated upstairs in the bubble.

First impressions were good, nice seats, great IFE however the new config soon revealed problems! Firstly, whoever decided PE and Economy should be mixed upstairs needs to be shot. There was a constant stream of people walking through from Economy to use the toilets up the front in PE. I felt really bad for those PE seats up against the bulkhead...I don't think mins went by without somebody standing waiting for the toilets.

Then there was the really slow service generally. Definitely didn't feel any love at all. It seems as though we had one member of crew who worked the bubble, when they were free. Yes we were fed first...but then we had to wait for Economy to be fed before we received any wine with our meal. We must have waited at least 30 minutes. And so this delay in service just continued...calls to flight attendant went unanswered for 20-30mins...when they did finally notice we were told they will try to get to us shortly...more waiting! ?|

Finally the icing on the cake, the disembarkation fiasco! PE passengers upstairs had to wait until UC and PE passengers had got off the aircraft, then the Economy were let off and as we were behind them upstairs75% of the aircraft were off before us. This then meant we were way behind on passport and customs queues. !

Some fellow passengers who were gold card holders were seriously peeved about the service and layout .... I can see Virgin will be receiving a lot of grumpy correspondence if this is what we can expect.

Yes I know it's not the end of the world, but its the principle here, you are paying a premium fare for a premium service..l.you certainly don't get that if you sit upstairs....SO BEWARE IF YOU HAVE THE NEW LGW CONFIG DO NOT SIT UPSTARS!

On appositive note the new IFE is really very good.

Anyway rant over...fingers crossed the flight home is better. If it's the new layout we will hope that we get seats downstairs.

Gavin

[preiffer]

So... Most of the issues foreseen on here (and viewed by Virgin representatives) many months ago *appear* to have come to fruition.

Oooops! :w ii)

Oh dear !

I think this is one of the first trip reports I've seen regarding the new LGW747 and it certainly gives me no encouragement to go out and book PE seats if this is what I can expect if I was seated upstaies ! Such a shame. It certainly does seem that all the worries & concerns about the new layout in the 'bubble' have been justified.

If VH still get their 'special allocation' of those front row seats, then judging from this TR all I can say is that they're welcome to them ii)

Keep the TRs on this new configuration coming, so we can view with interest.

well we knew it was coming, we said what we thought and........................ TOLD YOU SO.

great own goal VS

The mixed layout upstairs doesn't seem to garner any fans, whether it's UC and Y or PE and Y, perhaps VS should just bite the bullet and make all upstairs Y like ANZ used to ...

Or, perhaps put PE behind Y, now there's a revolutionary thought!

I just hope lots of people write in and complain do they realise what a mistake they have made !

Even consider booking PE seats in the bubble if you are flying on any of the refitted LGW/MAN VS 747-400's!

A friend of mine came back last week and said that the disembarkation of the aircraft in the bubble is an absolute joke, for 'health and safety' reasons they have to allow the Y pax off 1st before the forward sitting PE!

It seems that VS have made a complete mess up with this and can now see the bubble being an area to avoid! v(

I have questioned other PE problems on FB and was told that PE is a Economy class so why am I moaning! mind you last year flying UC from MCO we were not 1s of the plane either

Staggering and defies belief that Virgin can make such a c**k-up. Beginning to wish I hadn't requested bubble seats for my upcoming hols.

[Neil]

Quite obviously they are getting to let the Y pax in the bubble before the PE pax otherwise it would be ridiculously messy.

I don't see what the issue is, if you have been flying UC on the LGW/MAN 747's for the past 10+years, were the premium paid is huge over Y and PE, you will have had the small economy cabin and small PE cabin let off before you.

The same issues exists on the LHR 747's, were again it is UC pax at the front of the bubble, and the Y pax up there get let off beforehand.

Is it really such an issue that maximum of 30 odd passengers are let off first? And this one issue makes the PE bubble seats a place to avoid? Seriously?

Great to see some reviews from the new configs coming through y)

I have said a number of times on here and directly to VS that they should take advantage of a forum like this and embrace it for positive change......Oh well, looks like they will learn the hard way v(

I'm going to SFO next month in Y and it looks like we have an UC and Y config upstairs....sorry UC pax I'm planning on sitting up there to see the effect of such a config ):

I just hope lots of people write in and complain do they realise what a mistake they have made !

A mistake, yes without a doubt but one that will never be rectified. They ignored the complaints about the UC/Economy split on the LHW runs and the same will happen this time.

[Neil]

I think some of the reactions on here are just a tad OTT.

I just can't believe having an extra 13 people upstairs can make such a massive difference. So an extra 13 people suddenly mean the toilet is being used non stop throughout the flight. The extra 13 people mean it takes the crew an extra 30mins to serve meals. The extra 13 people meaning the level of service by 2 crew suddenly goes from being excellent to rubbish? Really?

calls to flight attendant went unanswered for 20-30mins...when they did finally notice we were told they will try to get to us shortly...more waiting!

People were seriously waiting 20/30mins with the call bell on rather than standing up and walking the maximum 20 steps to the galley at the back were a crew member is positioned? (3 crew upstairs, 2 out looking after the pax and one working the galley).

Given the reactions I'm guessing Virgin and their PE product is going to be practically empty on all ex LGW/MAN flights from the New Year with everyone else deciding to fly in the wonderful and perfect PE cabins on either BA or one of the charter companies......... ii)

Sorry Neil but I have to disagree. Yes 13 more people in that small area will make a difference to everything - the service, the loos, the disembarking and the atmosphere.

I do not think there will be a mass move over to other airlines because the VS product does have advantages. I think the issue is why change and what good has come out of it.

PE is very expensive these days and the OP's trip report did not appear to justify the extra cost but then again the downstairs cabin may be better. Await a feedback on that one with interest, especially from folk being allocated a seat in the middle four ):

The original post says that 75% of pax disembarked before the bubble PE. Yes you can't really hold the bubble y pax back before bubble PE but presumably you would just let all bubble pax disembark?

Re the slow service perhaps they were short of crew?

As for not choosing the bubble with the current situation re not being to request seats, this might not be an option until OLCI.

I'm sure things will settle down.

I think when travelling in economy, this layout is great if you can nab a seat upstairs. But for those who are used to all PE in the bubble, it's obviously not going to be as good. We travel 2/3 times a year in PE, mainly ex LGW and have always been fortunate to get seats upstairs and have really enjoyed our flights, but hearing the comments here, certainly don't encourage me to rush on to the net and book VS. I certainly don't fancy sitting in a 2-4-2 config downstairs and I can certainly see the crew trying to serve all the meals in one go, which will ultimately lead to delays in service for PE passengers.

In my opinion, they should let UC and PE off first downstairs, then the bubble, followed by the rest of Economy. Seems quite simple to me?

Or, perhaps put PE behind Y, now there's a revolutionary thought!

But that flies in the face of all received wisdom that clearly relates an individual's importance, status, wealth and general worth in society to how close they sit to the pilot... :0

Thankfully this will end the barrage of complaints about people NOT being able to get seats upstairs!..

While many V-Flyers have come to fondly regard the bubble as a nice perk for flying PE out of LGW, that's all it is - a perk which PE customers at LHR don't get.

From a business point of view it's reasonable for VS to want to standardise PE across the fleet and make it consistent wherever you fly to or from.

After all, PE's only meant to be an added-value economy product, not the near-business class product some seem to expect. So unless (and, I fear, until) VS copy BA and start charging more to reserve upstairs, that perk's going.

VS needs to find the ultimate configuration that yields the most revenue by matching as closely as possible the number of seats in each cabin with demand.

It realised it was unable to meet the demand for PE and this was the best way to achieve that - but presumably there wasn't sufficient demand for it to cover the whole upper deck AND an expanded section of the main deck.

So no, nothing will change unless PE customers abandon VS en masse in protest. But given that there's apparently big demand for PE on the Vegas and Caribbean routes, that's unlikely.

I think 747Rich has hit the nail on the head; they should hold back the downstairs economy passengers until the bubble and the "front" are all out - they didn't do this when we went to St. Lucia last year and coming down from PE meant we were a long way back in the immigration queue.... but I notice on the VA website it no longer mentions "priority disembarkation" - only:
Enjoy the privileges
With dedicated check in and bag drop, you can avoid the queues. Plus you’ll enjoy priority boarding and where possible, you and your bags will be one of the first off the plane when we arrive.

where possible, you and your bags will be one of the first off the plane when we arrive.

Or, perhaps put PE behind Y, now there's a revolutionary thought!

you,Gump, are a goddamn genius


BTW Neil an extra 13 PAX is an extra 33% yet the same number of CC as before

[Neil]

BTW Neil an extra 13 PAX is an extra 33% yet the same number of CC as before

I know, but that was an exceptionally good ratio of CC/pax, almost on par with UC and much better than all of the other PE cabins on the VS fleet. All VS are doing is bringing it back in line with the rest of the fleet offerings and it certainly doesn't mean it is suddenly dreadful.

Last time I waded into this I got flayed alive for it. I will try to moderate my tone this time.

I do think we get an unbalanced view of this on v-flyer, because PE bubble-flying seems to be such a cherished experience here. So it's not surprising that worsening this experience is so unpopular. But as I've said before, we should remember that for every PE customer who is irritated by the changes, there will be a number of Y customers who are delighted by the prospect of flying upstairs. It will be interesting to hear their views in due course...

While many V-Flyers have come to fondly regard the bubble as a nice perk for flying PE out of LGW, that's all it is - a perk which PE customers at LHR don't get.

I agree with this. PE on a LHR 744 is a pretty nice experience (apart from the lack of a dedicated toilet for the cabin). And you definitely get off before the majority of people on the plane. If this becomes the experience for the majority of PE LGW customers, then I don't think that they are enduring any great hardship.

Indeed.

Instead of regarding the all-PE bubble as a right that's being taken away, we should probably regard it as a luxury that we were lucky to have for so long.

The newly expanded PE downstairs may be seen by some V-Flyers as a downgrade, but it brings it into line with the LHR fleet and the LGW 330s.

And remember, for the typical economy passenger, getting to upgrade to it is a real treat.