Pre dinner drink gone

Flew Premium economy to and from Orlando, very dissapointed in the service, two hours to get a meal and no pre dinner drink, only offered wine or soft drinks with meal?????????

You could just ask for one presumably?

Did this happen both ways? I know that the booze has been cut back on Vegas & Cancun flights, I just wonder if they are slowly doing this across the whole board?

[Neil]

They now merge the drinks/food run on the return/inbound flight to speed it up and give pax as much time as possible to sleep. This certainly was the case last night on the 76 and it worked much better in our opinion.

There should have been a drinks service before the meal on the outbound but not on the inbound. The only time it might not be offered on the outbound is if the flight was operating crew down and services had to be cut. Did you ask the crew why they weren't offering drinks?

Flew LGW-MCO 04/10/12 and there was a drinks service pre meal
Flew MCO-LGW 20/10/12 and there was no drinks service pre meal.

On the return leg the meal was served quicker as suggested to allow for more sleep. Didn't bother me as the meal was served earlier so just had drink with that.

Sadly i didnt get one either way, and it defo didnt make the meal faster on the way home, it was slower taking 2 hours! Was left completely unimpressed when i was given dirty knife, fork and spoon too, they were encrusted with old food... ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..... oh and to top it off they kept turning the light in the cabin on and off ont he way home, so got 2.5 hours of it totally out and that was it!

Sad as alwasy raved about Virgin for years, really considering another airline now!

Should I suggest the extremely heretical thing and say... Ask for one ?|

Have never been turned down when I asked for a drink, do occasionally get a few funny looks though if I ask for seconds ):

One tip, don't try asking for Jack Daniels if you are in PE or Eco, even if you tell the CC exactly where in the UC bar it is stored they will not get one for ya n(

No pre dinner drinks offered on our Chicago to LHR flight in UC

I got my brandy n coke out and homeward bound 2nd and 16th Oct in UC.

[Neil]

I got my brandy n coke out and homeward bound 2nd and 16th Oct in UC.

We are talking about the PE offering here. UC still gets there pre dinner drinks.

I got my brandy n coke out and homeward bound 2nd and 16th Oct in UC.

We are talking about the PE offering here. UC still gets there pre dinner drinks.

We were UC and was not offered pre dinner drinks on way home

I was on VS73 (MAN-MCO) on 12th October in PE and offered more than one pre-dinner drink, I was quite grateful they stopped offering as many drinks after the meal as I hate to turn down a free drink

I understood that if the flight departs after 1900 then the drink service is cancelled to allow quicker serving of meals especially for those "travelling with kids"

I got my brandy n coke out and homeward bound 2nd and 16th Oct in UC.

We are talking about the PE offering here. UC still gets there pre dinner drinks.

We were UC and was not offered pre dinner drinks on way home

Never not been offered a pre dinner drinkie in UC on over night flights

Never not been offered a pre dinner drinkie in UC on over night flights

Have you flown in the last month and a half?

I think the trend here, in a number of classes, is that Virgin is cutting back drinks services. I had a mean drinks service September 18th from SFO in UC. I think its coming more in UC. It might be on the back of a "We think you lot shouldn't be drinking as much" vibe, but probably the real reason is cutbacks.

we flew home yesterday on VS34 in PE from Antigua, which departed at 16;40 local time, so not much chance of getting much sleep.

No pre-dinner drinks run; when I asked for a Bloody Mary and a white whine, I was told "one drink only at a time" - when I had finished the BM I could then ask for a wine.... and I was told that policy was introduced about 18 months ago.

Yet another cost-reduction policy?

The pre dinner drink hasn't gone, it was just never there on inbound flights/ night flights. It's not a cost cutting measure of recent or whatever people want to call it.

As mentioned further up its just the way virgin do things as to get people as much rest on a night flight without crew hauling carts through the aisles with lights on.

I can see why customers think they are being hard done by but all you have to do is ask for another after the combined dinner/ drinks and you can have it, it's not being withheld or stopped.
On some flights night flights you may get a pre dinner drinks run if the on board manager says its to be done.
Yes in general it's one drink per person, thanks to the ever more frequent event of passengers getting drunk etc. it's hard to monitor what each indivual is drinking so something had to be introduced, but then on another flight you might ask for 2 drinks and get given them. Yes that may be inconsistent but then each crew member is different.

So in a nutshell it's not cutbacks or virgin taking things away from you, we just don't do a pre dinner drinks run on night flights. Yes things may be different on your flight be it day/night but then there is probably a reason behind it, which an on board manager has made..

I can't remember not being offered pre-dinner drinks on any of my night flights. What's always been a variable is the offer of crisps (or potato chips). Even on my overnight PE flight which admittedly was in May, I got a drink and pretzels

Hi I am new to this forum and just had a similar experience, no Pre Dinner drink on Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy on a flight from USA.This is the first time in over 40 years of long haul flying with various airlines on business and leisure travel that I have been refused a Pre Dinner Drink. It is now Virgin policy, they claim that most passengers want a quick meal and then off to sleep. Not my idea of an enjoyable flight, and all part of their deteriorating service levels I'm afraid.

Never not been offered a pre dinner drinkie in UC on over night flights

I got a per dinner drink/G&T in UC returning from Havana in early November. Only got the small travel wallet amenity kit though!

We didn't get offered a drink pre dinner on vs46 on tues nite but the dinner came out quickly so I didn't really see it as an issue as we had had the usual pre take off drink in PE anyway,

According to my buddy in Virgin (and my personally experience) all flight have an different set of Service guidelines.

In upper, inbound new yorks ie the VS4 get a slightly different service to the later VS10.

In Premium all flight departing after 7pm local time do not have the first drinks service for speed.

In economy the service is set on departure times and may or may not have the first drinks round.

I have never been refused another drink or a drink if I have asked for one before dinner. Plus in upperclass there is a bar (you may have seen this as you enter the aircraft). Funny enough, you can sit here and order a drink.

But in UC there's a bar so surely it doesn't matter whether or not you're offered a drink because you can go to the bar to get one?

On the VS400 last week in UC we had a pre-supper drinks run with refills.....and pleased I was too... :w