Virgin...Not What It Was?

[Boss Raptor]

Have just flown on Virgin for the first time in 2 years LHR-LAX...

Slow and surly check in...long queue...

The aircraft, a B747-400 'Lady Penelope', was absolutely filthy and visibly streaked with dirt on the outside...inside the interior was dirty, bins, bulkheads and sidewalls grimey...seat covers faded and worn...service was friendly and OK but this is not the VS I remember from the past...

Can anyone regularly using VS and having a wider exposure than just my one sector comment?

[cargosales]

Huh. Think that's bad. Anyone who flew Hong Kong to London on VS201 September 21st can tell you just how awful it has got.

Food: Inedible

Service: Very very poor (staff morale gone down the toilet at VS?)

Aircraft: Shabby. Broken toilets. IFE system falling to bits.


Have defended VS over recent months because I've had some very good flights with them. This was just not funny. 13 hours of hell :mad: :mad: :mad:

[World Traveller]

I flew on Lady P 2 weeks ago (again, just a single sector) and you are right - I didn't notice the exterior but the interior needed a damned good clean!

Conversely the crew were fine, the food OK - though the IFE at my seat was broken. The IFE was also old with a very small screen - not the image VS like to portray.

Didn't have any particularly 'negative' feelings about the experience because of the crew, and I can't concentrate on IFE for more than 2 minutes anyway!

Wine served from a botle rather than individual bottles though....hmmm, lacks the 'personal' touch the Virgin brand is based on.

WT
<CO 767-400, the way to go>

[preiffer]

I have to say, as someone who travels LHR > SFO frequenty, I've always found them to be the best out of the lot!

Staff are always friendly and helpful, sure - the planes are a little dirty on the outside, but then so are people's car's after driving for 12 hours....!

No problems from me - try going over on someone like Northworst...! <you'll appreciate VS a lot more then :) >

[Young Paul]

"Wine served from a bottle, rather than individual bottles" -

Most people would consider that an enhancement to service. It takes more time to take a glass, pour out wine and return it than give you a bottle from the bar.

[Sharjah Night Shift]

I flew with them last October LAX-LHR where they have a 744 and A340 departing within a few hours of each other. I was on the later Airbus flight but they were late opening the check in for the first flight resulting in some of us queing for nearly two hours.

The seat pitch in economy was no better than on a charter to the med, my IFE worked but some of the advertised films were not available however the food and cabin service were quite good.

My previous Virgin flight was to Hong Kong before the tie up with Singapore Airlines and on this trip I flew home from Macau via Singapore with SIA. After that trip I know why the standards on Virgin have dropped.

Next month I'm off to Tokyo and could have gone economy with Virgin or Business Class with Aeroflot for the same price. Needless to say I'm going with Aeroflot.

[PAXboy]

Five weeks (as of the minute of writing) I shall be in the lounge for 601 to JNB. Since I have forked out for Upper (money and miles) I shall have my critical faculties set to maimum and shall report back!

As things have turned out, my last trip on VS was LHR/JNB 744 and CPT/LHR 342, two years ago in Premium Economy and I found all as I would have expected, in all regards.

[The_Banking_Scot]

Hi,

The last time I have travelled economy on VS was last new year on LHR-BOS. Did notice the no menus but service and aircraft were good and clean.

Since then it has been PE and UC (upgraded) while UC on LGW aircraft is not as good as on the LHR aircraft it is still excellent.

In PE I have noticed on one flight the wine being served out of a main bottle rather than individual bottles ( refilled no problem ) and I tend limit my alcohol intake on flights. I also noticed the smaller amenity kit on the return flight from the US to UK.

Economy queues have been longish ( about the same as other transatlantic airlines) but being VS FC Silver ( now gold) I use the shorter PE/UC check in.

Lounges excellent as usual.

Combined with a very generous FC programme ( full milage in Economy compared to 25% milage with BA) VS has been god (good) to me ( economy seating could do with a bit more space though)

Aircraft have always been clean.

Regards
TBS

[edited as i cannot spell words with 2 oo's!]

[Young Paul]

VS has been god to you?

Even RB would think that idolatry was a little over the top, surely?

;)

[The_Banking_Scot]

ooops!!!!:)

Regards

TBS

[Tiger]

Wine poured from a large bottle vers small quarter bottle.

It is cheaper to have large bottles than the smaller bottle you talk of. It also stops "hand bag" (as such) wine. Thats the bottles paxs takes off rather than consume on board.

Whilst on the point of "hand bag" wine...on EU flights UK customs does NOT allow the drinks off the aircraft, thats why crews "crack" the bottle top. It stops us getting in to trouble with customs.

[PAXboy]

As it happens, I prefer being served from a standard bottle. The wine (if half way decent) benefits from being open and I don't have the tiddy bottle cluttering up my dinner 'table'.

I rather like the sight of the wicker basket with four bottles in it, so that I can look at the lables to choose. The small bottles tend to be inferior and with a much narrower range, as the supplier will want to be sure of a long production run. With standard bottles, you should be able to get a wider range?

Also, I often only want one glass of wine and so even the small bottle is wasted on me. For those who pile into the wine, please note that there will have been a double brandy in the lounge and another double brandy before the meal and almost certainly a liquer to follow! Hhhm I think we need a 'smiley' for 'Tipsy'. :p

[pilotwolf]

Haven't flown with them in over a year - made mistake of using Air Canada instead for my last trip stateside :(

However on the last trip and during my work dealings with them the service was still excellent and very professional, from flight deck through cabin staff to customer service staff.

And there is just something about their uniform!!! :D

Perhaps their 'cherry has been popped' !!! :D :D :D

Sorry to lower the tone! But will still make sure if at all possible will only fly VS.

Keep up the good work Virgin staff.

[Boss Raptor]

Well I am on the A340 tonight coming home...my complaint was not about the cabin crew as they were very friendly...

The problem was the disgusting state of the aircraft...probably no worse than Sabena or similar but for Virgin it was bad compared to their past standards!

[PAXboy]

Well, today I had another conversation with VS Flying Club sales to get the ticket issued and ... what a pleasure! All friendly and helpful.

Also, the Retail Therapy catalogue arrived for me to Pre-Order - a week earlier than they said it would.

So far - so very good.

[Boss Raptor]

Well back last night on a VS A340-300 and it wasn't any better!

IFE system unusable from time of cabin crew attempting to use it for pre-flight brief...very crackly and unintelligible sound...they left it out of service for the whole flight...

2 out of the 4 economy class toilets out of service, sealed with tape...lovely...you can imagine the queues for the remaining 2!

Many seat covers and back pockets hanging off throughout the cabin, at least 50% in the check of 5 rows that I made...on my own seat the velcro had come unstuck from the seat back and the cover hung down onto my table...

There was a time when VS made the extra special effort to provide quality of cabin and service...clearly not any more as this experience has been a total disgrace out and back!!

[cargosales]

Do what I did and complain.

Didn't get us anywhere - they haven't even acknowledged the letter, let alone done anything about it.

Got three big trips coming up. Guess which airline I won't be considering.

CS

[PAXboy]

I wonder if the reason for the 340-300s being rather scrappy is that they are coming up for refits, once the -600s are fully in service? They might be coming up for 'D' Service and will swopped out for -600s, then the refitted -300s will be ready to start the new services to Carribbean and so forth that are announced for May 2003.

Found this info on another noticeboard:
--------------------------------------------------
... Tokyo, Hong-Kong and Johannesburg will be linked by A340-600 before the end of the year.

This new aircraft, longest in the world, is fitted with 311 seats:
. 50 in Upper Class,
. 28 in Premium Economy
. and 233 in Economy.
This represent a capacity increase of 25% compared to the A340-300.

This new aircraft will have some innovations :
- new seats in Economy and Premium Economy ;
- bar and massage space redesigned ;
- video monitor of 10,4 inches in Upper Class and 9 inches in Economy ;
- new toilets with chromium set and offering atmosphere lightning in the whole cabin ;
- access to "Video and Audio On Demand" : 300 hours of "Video On Demand", and 14 channels of "Audio On Demand"
- 15 video games including some with multiplayers option.

[pilotwolf]

I ve had to come to LA rather suddenly and brought a ticket through TraveloCity.co.uk - (DON'T DO IT IF YOUR FLIGHT IS NEXT DAY as had horrendous problems at LHR and nearly missed flight), and flew on the VS07 as a code share with Continetal.

Noticed some differences as already stated - menus etc.

But in general found the aircraft to be clean, customer service at LHR and inflight was still outstanding.

The IFE worked fine and didn't notice anyone complaining of any problems. There was some feedback on the pa when on particular FA used it... maybe operator error or that particular station.

I m returning on 3rd from LAX if anyone out there is operating this flight... would be forever grateful for upgrade etc :D ;)

[Crepello]

I mostly fly longhaul with US carriers these days and am repeatedly underwhelmed. Flew Virgin from LHR to LAX on 15-Sep, first time with said airline for 10 years. My findings...

Check-in: Took far too long but queue was well managed & supervised. Heathrow's depressing at the best of times so it wasn't entirely VS's fault.

Plane: A340-300, few years old but very clean, stylishly presented, v. comfortable.

FAs: Babes!

IFE: Excellent. Great to see movies in near-entirety, rather than sanitised to trailer-length. Computer games dated but appreciated.

Catering: Best in class - Chicken Tikka Massala, mmm. I'd have paid cash for seconds. Was miffed about the wine tho' ;)

Overall, as close to being enjoyable as any flight I've had. Very sorry to hear this isn't always the case.

[Boss Raptor]

I am going to keep going with VS...the staff make all the difference, they were very friendly and really made the flight...unfortunately cant use VS as the example to my clients as to how all airlines should be anymore...shame...as once I could!

[High as a Kite]

G-VFAB "Lady Penelope" is due soon for a cabin refurbishment in Premium Economy and Economy. I know that is no consolation for those who have flown recently on this a/c :(

The company is aware of the unreliability of the Arcadia IFE and is working hard to replace this with the vport video on demand system on as many a/c as possible.

Toilets being unserviceable is very frustrating for all concerned. Sometimes it is a stark choice between cancelling the flight or operating it with the restrooms out of use.

It's great to read positive comments about the crew. We try hard to make the flight memorable for the right reasons. :D

[The_Banking_Scot]

Hi,

I have never had a bad experience in all my flights on VS and the crew both on board the aircraft and in the lounges have been excellent.

I especially love the Upper Class Service and the Revivals lounge ( best in the industry i think).

Early this year the vport system had just been introduced and was only playing the movies on demand but on my two recent flights everything was working with the 52 cd jukebox, tv map and music and was excellent.

I hope they roll out the vport across the rest of the fleet soon.

Regards
TBS (VS Frequent Flyer)