Hello
I'm a new member here, though I've been flying Virgin for a good few years now for leisure and business when I can persuade management there is no choice. In fact my first Virgin flight almost 10 yrs back was UC Heathrow - Newark; a great experience and one it would be difficult to live up to, Liam Gallagher in the lift and flying down the (East? Hudson) river with the iconic NYC skyline to port...but I digress.
At Easter we took what will probably be our last true family holiday together, the eldest now being at University, so I thought as a treat I'd upgrade us to PE on the way back from Vegas to Gatwick, but not tell son and daughter. I'd planned just strolling as per into the economy queue in anticipation of the fact that they would never say "PE queue's over there" and the offspring haven't really studied aircraft seating plans with the eye for detail that tells you seat is actually better than seat 65 (having persuaded them to date that the pairs of seats at the back are the best Economy seats).
Anyhow, on arrival the terminal, massive queues for Economy, none for PE. Putting on best exasperated voice I beckoned them to follow me and marched to the PE desk stating something like "I'm not going to stand for this queue...!" Apparently they were rolling their eyes and trying to shrink in face of dad's behaviour. Marched up to the desk, slammed down my red Frequent Flyer card and said the check in lady "Look, I know this card is wortheless for now, but this is a surprise for them, they don't know I've upgraded, can you please play along and pretend you're just dealing with a stroppy customer you want to get rid of"...and bless her heart, she winked at me and gave nothing away...
I played the same stroppy dad card at the gate, hauling the family up at the first call saying we'd waited long enough, just try and let them stop us etc... so we hung back on the air bridge and let our son get in front to board first. "Up the stairs sir" said the stewardess; "no, I'm at the back" he replied, setting off for the rear of the plane...it took a bit of persuading, but he was finally convinced and it did round the whole trip off rather well.
Paul
I'm a new member here, though I've been flying Virgin for a good few years now for leisure and business when I can persuade management there is no choice. In fact my first Virgin flight almost 10 yrs back was UC Heathrow - Newark; a great experience and one it would be difficult to live up to, Liam Gallagher in the lift and flying down the (East? Hudson) river with the iconic NYC skyline to port...but I digress.
At Easter we took what will probably be our last true family holiday together, the eldest now being at University, so I thought as a treat I'd upgrade us to PE on the way back from Vegas to Gatwick, but not tell son and daughter. I'd planned just strolling as per into the economy queue in anticipation of the fact that they would never say "PE queue's over there" and the offspring haven't really studied aircraft seating plans with the eye for detail that tells you seat is actually better than seat 65 (having persuaded them to date that the pairs of seats at the back are the best Economy seats).
Anyhow, on arrival the terminal, massive queues for Economy, none for PE. Putting on best exasperated voice I beckoned them to follow me and marched to the PE desk stating something like "I'm not going to stand for this queue...!" Apparently they were rolling their eyes and trying to shrink in face of dad's behaviour. Marched up to the desk, slammed down my red Frequent Flyer card and said the check in lady "Look, I know this card is wortheless for now, but this is a surprise for them, they don't know I've upgraded, can you please play along and pretend you're just dealing with a stroppy customer you want to get rid of"...and bless her heart, she winked at me and gave nothing away...
I played the same stroppy dad card at the gate, hauling the family up at the first call saying we'd waited long enough, just try and let them stop us etc... so we hung back on the air bridge and let our son get in front to board first. "Up the stairs sir" said the stewardess; "no, I'm at the back" he replied, setting off for the rear of the plane...it took a bit of persuading, but he was finally convinced and it did round the whole trip off rather well.
Paul
We can get better, because we're not dead yet
[y]
