Coming soon: big changes

We flew back home from Miami on a flight just after New Year one time and they announced that they were down a number of crew but met the legal minimum requirement. It was the best service we'd ever experienced with Virgin that time.

What a shame. Although I fly mostly BA now I do try and fly a couple of Virgin flights once I have achieved BA status. Always enjoy the difference in UC over CW.

Agree with most - at a time when oil is so low I thought we might be seeing a return to some of the items that gave Virgin its reputation.

So....
Cheaper Fuel
less wages on Staff
flight prices not fallen.
Shrinkflation at its best. Keep the prices the same, but offer a lesser service - rather than keeping the same service & increasing prices.

Cheap fuel is great, new aircraft are expensive!

Cheap fuel is great, new aircraft are expensive!

and price fixing is illegal.
No doubt if one slashed prices, they would all follow.

Not had the Upper ice cream debate for a while...

Last time some of us said we'd seen it rarely. But had seen it.

Others insisted that it always happens and we must have missed it due to sleep (I rarely sleep on a plane, and if so, not more than 20 minutes).

I think it used to vary by route, so perhaps if on the LGW/MAN flights they might not do it, but might always do it on ex-LHR.

But in the end I cared so little about it or the ensuing strong opinions, that I didn't really keep up with the conclusions..

[mitchja]

Haven't the VS crew numbers been at their new reduced levels for a few months now on several routes ? I'm sure when the FSM announced the crew numbers on my recent flights to / from MIA they where lower than I'd heard mentioned previously even though the flights where both full, however, I didn't notice any reduction in service in the Premium economy cabin.

The problem with ice-creams on all flights and routes is that the aircraft don't have any freezer storage so dry-ice has to be used instead to keep the product frozen. If that evaporates then there's no ice-cream.

Also I'm sure I read somewhere that VS load all the catering for both the outbound and the return inbound flights at the UK end? I think quite a few airlines handle catering this way as well now don't they?

They ran a trial of the new crewing levels on certain routes a few months back. Needless to say it was deemed a success so will now be rolled out from April.

I believe most if not all UK-bound flights are still catered downroute (although bars are not).

[Darren Wheeler]

I suspect the ice cream is going due to wastage.

My last trip in Upper I could have had as many as I liked because no-one wanted them. The did head head south pretty quickly once out in the cabin.

and price fixing is illegal.
No doubt if one slashed prices, they would all follow.

Price fixing is illegal, price matching isn't.
BA and VS have been caught price fixing in the past though.

Many senior crew are leaving Virgin. Plenty have taken up new positions with BA, you may well see them around in a different uniform.

Yes, BA are externally recruiting into their Cabin Service Manager role at LHR

[Darren Wheeler]

A lot of the seniors are going part-time working 70% hours so will still be about.

I haven't posted for a long time, but I was sorry to read all of this. The attrition of the PE offering is particularly sad. It was always such a strong component of the VS product, and I think they are mistaken to chip away at it.

I have yet to fly VS UC (I have flown PE, never E, with the airline) but have my first flight in the cabin this April, when the "ch-ch-ch-changes" should have bedded in. It will place me in a good position to assess the cabin service as I will not have any previous UC experiences to compare it to, so will see it all with fresh eyes.

I have alsways viewed VS UC, rightly or wrongly, as a hybrid of F and J classes found on other airlines.

I have visited the LHR CH before and have to say, this is the part of the UC package I am most looking forward to. If they start chipping away at that, things will be serious!

I did hear a rumour the LHR CH was closing temporarily at the end of this year for refurbishment.

Can anyone confirm?

Could be great news ... or could just be to cram in more seats for DL elites.

I did hear a rumour the LHR CH was closing temporarily at the end of this year for refurbishment.

Can anyone confirm?

Could be great news ... or could just be to cram in more seats for DL elites.

Well I'm in the CH today and this is true....though it will be refreshed/redesigned in phases and a member of the team here mentioned work will start early 2017. Having heard a couple of other team members talking about it, we then got into a discussion about what we would like to see, so it would seem to be at an early stage of planning!

Jon

So....
Cheaper Fuel
less wages on Staff
flight prices not fallen.
Shrinkflation at its best. Keep the prices the same, but offer a lesser service - rather than keeping the same service & increasing prices.

Flight price haven't fallen they're up even more, I recently priced a PE to Detroit, it came in at £2,912 for my dates. I can fly to India via Dubai in business for that and thought it incredibly poor value for money. These changes make it even worse value.

I really think VS should rethink, the brand will suffer badly and customer satisfaction especially in the front even more so. At a micro level removing the ice cream service could be replaced with putting ice cream on the snack menu and stock a smaller volume of tubs - VS used to be creative, it didn't used to be an also ran.

I haven't posted for a long time, but I was sorry to read all of this. The attrition of the PE offering is particularly sad. It was always such a strong component of the VS product, and I think they are mistaken to chip away at it.

Welcome back at240.... you've been missed.

Flight price haven't fallen they're up even more, I recently priced a PE to Detroit, it came in at £2,912 for my dates. I can fly to India via Dubai in business for that and thought it incredibly poor value for money. These changes make it even worse value.

Thought I might try the new Delta service from EDI to JFK in the summer till I priced it - Delta One comes out at £3500 and its on a 757-200 (and that's mid week !)

Maybe not !!

David

Sad to see even more "enhancements" being brought in.

Can we do a list of "enhancement" reductions there have been?
In flight Beauty therapist
Red Pillows
Flower vases
Anything else to add you long timers?

Sad to see even more "enhancements" being brought in.

Can we do a list of "enhancement" reductions there have been?
In flight Beauty therapist
Red Pillows
Flower vases
Anything else to add you long timers?

Metal pens!

[honey lamb]

Sad to see even more "enhancements" being brought in.

Can we do a list of "enhancement" reductions there have been?
In flight Beauty therapist
Red Pillows
Flower vases
Anything else to add you long timers?

The hot water bottle
The Bedtime story book
The rubber duckie
The special gifts in the OB amenity kits such as mirrors and cufflinks

I'm sure there's more but it's late and I need my bed.

Sad to read this as I will be experiencing these changes when I fly out from MAN-MCO on the 5th of April in UC.

Will be interesting to see, as I had the worst service of any flights I have ever taken when I took my most recent trip with Virgin (LHR-SFO-LAX-LHR UC) back in November. Notably there was no FSM on one of the legs (must have been a trial by the looks of it) and it seemed to make the staff behave as they wanted. They ran out of food and there was no chance of getting a drink at all. There was no service of drinks after afternoon tea- which ended 90 minutes before the end of the flight, guess that explains it now! (Have to say you are gagging for a drink after drinking that dishwater coffee they serve with it too )

Prices are the highest I've ever seen them, cheaper to get a hotel down at Heathrow for us and fly with BA, never thought I would see the day!

There will still be FSMs after the changes - although they'll also have to act as the CSS in UC as that role is going. There must have been an FSM on your flight although it may have been a CSS acting up which isn't unusual.