This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I wanted to use some of the miles I had built up and called flying club to see if there was any availabilty to take me to Upper Class, unfortunately for me there wasn't, but there was for PE one way. That suited me as I am due to fly back with 2 others and they are in economy and I wouldn't want to be in a different cabin to them! I was offered the choice between seat 19C or 15K, the only other seats being in a cluster around the toilet area. I chose 19C at the recommendation of a few vflyers, then panicked and altered it to 15K! In hindsight, I would have stayed where I was because to me, 19A and 19C look like good seats, with full recline, and have the added bonus of being one of the first off the plane.
So, to the flight.
Having checked in online the day before (SEQ2 BOO!), I got to Manchester in good time, on arriving at the check-in desks the economy line was enormous! I figured this was probably due to the 2 flights in close proximity to each other. For me there was a wait of around 5 mins as the family in front of me was processed.
At the gate, there were several announcements for folk to collect their upgrade receipts, and as it started to fill up, I could see that this flight was going to be busy. Boarding went as usual, with the premium cabins going first.
I soon settled into my seat, which I thought was just a normal PE seat, I thought that compared to the old style PE seat in the bubble, this compared more to the offering on the A330, which I consider to feel a bit more cramped. I took some photo comparisons which I will upload when I get home. I could see everything that was going on behind the curtain, even when cabin crew had pulled it to, and due to the proximity to the toilet, often experienced a whiff of perfume that one of the cabin crew kept spraying into it. I do wonder why there is a toilet so close to where the cabin crew are preparing food. I wasn't sure who this toilet was supposed to be for, as there were curtains separating it from both the upper and PE cabin, and PE passengers weren't prevented from using it.
The toilet at the back of the PE cabin is in a terrible place, and was definitely being used by those in economy, which I think if you are in any of those seats nearby make PE not worth the money. On a night flight, these should be avoided at all costs.
Enough about the toilets, on to the onboard service.
Welcome drinks were offered, I took orange, and then once in the air, we had a drinks run with the pretzels. Then it was on to lunch, it was smoked salmon first, which to my mind needed something a bit more than creme freche to accompany it. For main, I chose lasagne, which was delicious. The chewy chocolate cake was also lovely. The warm bread roll was rock hard.
A few hours passed, and out came the ice cream thing, which was absolutely revolting, seriously, I would rather have nothing that have another one.
"Afternoon tea" came very many hours later, there seemed to me to be a very long gap in feeding people. This was the famous sandwiches and cupcake. The sandwich had almost no filling in it, and the bread was stale. As for the cupcake, that was also tiny and very sweet. This "meal" is not a success story for Virgin in my opinion, it just seems like an exercise in promising much and delivering little.
We were soon in Orlando, where they let off the PE cabin downstairs off at the same time as those upstairs, so basically there was no real priority disembarking.
There was a BA flight in front of us, so the wait was long enough for those of us off first, so I can only imagine what it was like for those sitting at the back.
All in all, and enjoyable flight, I probably would try for the bubble next time out though if I chose to fly PE, but I still remain a bit undecided if the whole thing is worth the money. There doesn't seem to be much bang for your buck.
