VS028 MCO-LGW 8 AUG 13 (Premium Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

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First time on the 2 class plane and wasn't disappointed.

Got to MCO at 3pm for the 5:55pm flight after dropping off the car at Alamo. I had booked the car hire via the VS site as this was one of the first times I saw car hire cheaper there. I normally book the 'gold package' (?) which gives a free tank of petrol. However, I always end up staring at the petrol gauge for the last few days of the holiday so thought it was easier to take it back with a full tank.

Anyway, the guy at Alamo gave me the cc slip and I started to walk away. Looking at it I thought there was a charge of $85 so a called him back. He said they had put a hold on the funds when I got the car, and this was just cancelling it.

I thought 'ok' and walked off. Checking my CC card on-line today there is a £57 charge from Alamo I phoned Alamo today and they said I had asked for a full tank when I picked up the car. No No No !

Then they said I took the car back empty. No No No !

Alamo Customer Service said they will investigate and revert. Not happy about this at all. I will be contacting the cc company to get this reversed as a disputed charge and will also contact Virgin Holidays to alert them of this scam.

Can I afford £57? yes, just about. But the principal of this says I will pursue this until it is rectified.


Back to happier things.

Check-in wasn't the normal scrum, but as I was waiting in the P/E line they asked me to turn round and go to the U/C check-in.

Very friendly check-in and as we were in the last row of P/E we asked if we could move further up. They said all the bulk head seats were free and put us on the list to get them if they were not needed - they actually phoned the request through for us. I have to confess that this may have been because I still had a couple of my old Au luggage tags on my hand luggage. The check-in agent then asked about Lounge access, but I then pointed out I was no longer Au

Had a pleasant chat to a someone booking in for V028 and then decided to go straight through security.

Now, I have probably done this journey approaching 20-30 times over the years, and this was the first time I have got on the wrong monorail. Returned back to where we started and then had another chat with the same VS028 passenger who had done exactly the same thing. Turns out they are also a v-flyer (and were in the same restaurant as us the night before - Capital Grille at Point Orlando !)

Waited down by the gate and VS028 passenger came down from the Delta Lounge to chat before we boarded - we v-flyers are a friendly bunch !

Didn't get called at the gate so assumed we were stuck in the seats at the back (I had looked them up on Seatguru and it said you may get disturbance from the lavatories). Sat in the seats and no-one was sat in the row in front of us - so no-one would be reclining into my lap.

Just before take-off, we were approached and said that the bulkhead seats had not been needed and so would we like them? To be honest, once we had sat in the back row, noticing that no-one was sitting in front of us, and the lavatories were quite a way back we thought the seats were fine, but it would seem ungrateful if we didn't accept their offer - so off we trooped to the front.

Glad we did as the leg room was huge - I couldn't reach the seat basket in front when I had the seatbelt done up ! And when airborne they give you a footstool.

One thing I must mention though - I have never seen such a light load on a summer MCO flight. I had changed the flight from a few days later, but I was still looking for U/C reward flights to become available on VS028 (I know, I know). Out of curiosity, I also put in P/E and there were a minimum of EIGHT reward seals in P/E on both VS 16 & 28. What is all that about? I didn't look at the Y cabin, but I would say that W was only 75% full.

I can't understand VS revenue management. These reward seats that I changed to only came up a couple of weeks ago. My estimate would be that they new they would have trouble filling the seats, but just did not release reward seats. No idea why they would rather have empty seats than mopping up miles. As I said, it wasn't a matter of 1 or 2 seats.

We had 2 FSM's on this flight and later on I talked to the lead FSM who said that the outbound flight was also light.

As I mentioned in the outbound trip report, I am really impressed with the new P/E. The IFE is great.

Finished watching Django Unchained from the outbound flight (is it me or is Tarrantino a bit 'Emperor's New Clothes?) and then a couple of other films and it was time to land in a rainy LGW.

Only downside was the food. I was going to have the chicken, but when it was delivered to Mrs S I changed my mind to the beef ! Then, before they got to me the beef was delivered to my daughter. I switched back to the chicken as the 'least worst' choice.

Mrs S loves sticky toffee pudding - but she said this one was inedible.

All in all, a good flight (especially as they were all reward flights with 2 out of the 3 passengers having Amex upgrades).

Having looked at the rocketing prices lately (on the outbound I spoke to my seat neighbour and he had paid £7k for a family of 5 - £1,400 per person)for the P/E flights I wonder if VS have slightly overcooked it hence that many spare seats?

Thanks for the TR -- good result on the bulkhead seats; it makes such a difference.

[buns]

Thanks for the TR

Waited down by the gate and VS028 passenger came down from the Delta Lounge to chat before we boarded - we v-flyers are a friendly bunch !

Well done on the V Flyer get together

hope you manage to get the Alamo Extra Charge sorted

buns

Nice report, interesting.

Hope you get the Alamo money back, I normally take a picture of the car dashboard before I return it just in case of situations like this.

From memory the VH Gold package is about £60 more expensive, a tank of fuel is about $60 but the gold package also includes additional drivers. Personally I take it because I don't want to be looking for a filling station on the way to the airport.

I've been looking at upgrading to PE as well and seen prices from £800-£1100 from Glasgow. If it was just me and Mrs Fuzzy I would do it no question, but as I've got the kids it's a bit of a stretch. An economy seat is already super-size for a 5 year old, PE is wasted on him tbh especially as they get the kids meals and not the 'improved' adults, and we can up arm rests and spread out a little.

You could try Twitter for Alamo. I don't think they are as frequent posters as some of the others, but it is always a good way to focus their attention. Dashboard photo trick is worth remembering, that's bookmarked in my memory!

Great TR.

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed this report.

Good point about the photo of the dashboard.

Having done this trip about 30+ times as we used to have a house out there (not all on VS) I think I may have got blasé and not paid attention to potential scams.

I spoke with Amex today and they will reverse the charge and take it up with Alamo.

I am also chasing Alamo direct - 3 calls so far.

I think I have sussed out how the scam works - and it is a scam.

I did OLCI for Alamo and obviously just picked up the car and drove to the exit booth.

Attendant asks if I want to pay for a full tank, to which I say 'no'. He puts the charge through as though I say 'yes' and says the cc is a 'hold'.

Now this is the sneaky bit - today, I looked at the paper work for the first time. It is stamped as 'bring back empty' which I said I did not want. Thinking about how I did not notice this, it suddenly dawned on me. The paperwork is folded INWARDS and handed back to you at the exit - so you don't see it unless you unfold the paperwork - not something that people tend to do after a 9 1/2 flight. You just take it and put it in the bag !!!!! The folds are still there.

So, they may say that even if I took it back full, then that is my lookout.

Even so, I would have remonstrated on the drop-off, but he said it was just releasing the cc hold.

I have told the Alamo people that I will be contacting the Orlando Sheriff's Dept to report the scam as it has irritated me so much.

I know in the scheme of things it is a 'bit of a first world problem' and in terms of the overall holiday cost it is miniscule, but.........

Great TR Thanks for the heads up on Alamo, very naughty for an international firm to be pulling a stunt like that Hopefully they will respond positively and delight you with a gesture of goodwill (but not accepting liability!)

As for the flight, result on bulkheads, unfortunate on the food...my last couple of Y meals have been ok but you never quite know

Thanks for posting