V-Flyer

I'm flying VS Upper Class in June with a Z fare coded ticket.

Would the cabin crew know this? Are they likely to treat me differently because of it? Would higher paying passengers get priority, e.g. over meal choice? I keep reading trip reports that suggest that there's never enough of each menu option on board.

A ‘Z’ fare won’t result in any different treatment to a ‘J’ fare.

What does count, however, is status. In theory (and it doesn’t always happen), Gold Flying Club members should receive priority when it comes to meal choices.

It is indeed the case that they only cater for about 110% of the passenger load in UC, so in a cabin of 30 there’ll be 33 meals loaded. Which means if 25 people want the beef, it ain’t happening but those with status should be given priority over those without.

I was on a flight to Orlando from Manchester last year in UC. There was a man on board who was quite well dressed and seemed to be making a big deal of his “status” to the crew. He got pampered all flight. Myself and my wife were almost ignored in comparison and all of our meal choices were gone before we were served.

I later had a nosy at the sheet that they pin up that documents the FC level of each passenger. He was Red.

So if you want to get preferencial treatment just act like you deserve it. I wasn’t impressed.

Thanks for your replies.

It seems extraordinary that you pay thousands of pounds for a flight and they can't even load enough food so that everyone can get their first menu choice.

I hate flying — it's just an all round unpleasant experience — so I have no regrets about booking UC. It does make a miserable business less miserable. But I hope it will be more than that. Perhaps down to luck of the draw as to the flight crew you get.

If they loaded enough food for everyone to be guaranteed their first choice they’d have to throw away 75% of it. That’s costly, and means a lot of unnecessary food waste.

The solution, of course, is to introduce preordering as BA and several other airlines have done. Then you can save even more money and cut down even more on food waste as you need even fewer surplus meals.

I think it is very much down to the crew.
Travelling out to Orlando in Feb in PE I got a much better more personal service than I did returning in Upper.
As I've mentioned before, not having a dedicated Upper crew has lowered the standard of service.
Dick D

When flying to LAX last month in UC, on reward seats and lowly red. We had exceptional service, first choice of meals , and superb all round experience. Mind you we have been in UC many times and had terrible crews and meals.

Its all down to the crew.

As always, a good crew led by a strong FSM will generally deliver great service & everything will be done by the book. Meal choices should be allocated by Flying Club status - but on the new DL IT system it takes a bit of effort from the FSM / CSS to decode the Flying Club status off the manifest. Lazy crews led by a less than interested FSM just allocate the food on a first come first served basis.

I tend only to fly at the front of the plane in Upper Class, so recognition when in a lower cabin is not an issue. Depending on the boarding time / taxi time to takeoff you can generally tell pretty quick if the crew are switched-on or lazy, as you will have been welcomed back by name, thanked for your loyalty & your post-takeoff drink order taken (if you have status), or just welcomed onboard & drink order taken if not.

Meal ordering is hit & miss. Some crews dot the ordering round the cabin to see Gold pax first, then Silver, then Red then no status. Some just go front-to back or back to front (or both) depending on the aircraft - you can only hope they then allocate the meals by FC status before revisiting the unlucky passengers.

I have experienced both types of crews. My best & worst VS flights were both Gatwick ones to/from Orlando. The outbound service was just amazing led by a brilliant male FSM. The inbound was shocking - not helped by a certain TV presenter who recently passed away being in Upper Class. The crew were all over him like a rash & sod the other 13 passengers.

profmatt wrote:I'm flying VS Upper Class in June with a Z fare coded ticket.

Would the cabin crew know this? Are they likely to treat me differently because of it? Would higher paying passengers get priority, e.g. over meal choice? I keep reading trip reports that suggest that there's never enough of each menu option on board.

I've never known VS to run out of food on board. And have always had my first choice. Have been gold for 11 months

They have advised that the advertised dessert wasn't available but that was no biggie.

I'd argue that the proportion of people on full J fares is low.

Kraken wrote:As always, a good crew led by a strong FSM will generally deliver great service & everything will be done by the book. Meal choices should be allocated by Flying Club status - but on the new DL IT system it takes a bit of effort from the FSM / CSS to decode the Flying Club status off the manifest. Lazy crews led by a less than interested FSM just allocate the food on a first come first served basis.

I have a feeling this may have changed. Certainly in the early days it was the case, but I spoke to some crew I know recently and they implied it was easier now - but didn't say how.

Regardless, travelling on Z should make no difference to the experience. And I doubt anybody other than the FSM or a crew member who specifically went looking for the information would know anyway.

I've never had bad service as a Z lister