VS200 LHR-SYD 15 FEB 13 (Upper Class)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Sadly for my first post here it's a juicy bad review

The total flight experience out of 5 stars, a solid two.

Mine was a long haul flight Hong Kong to Sydney return. Flying "upper class".

On boarding no one came to assist me settling in, no room the isles are too narrow, no tray offered with enticing drinks isle too narrow for this too. No news-papers were offered at the door or when I sat down. No where to put the drink when I found one, tray behind my head and blocked by a lamp fixture. No local news- papers available when I found them just a rumpled used British tabloid from the flight in. No rugs available at all only cumbersome bedding for use after take off after bed is made flat. No visibility out of window. Music loud and irritating went on for ages as we were delayed, would prefer soothing ambient before take off myself not a mixed bag of loud noisy vocals. Air hostesses slovenly, far too familiar, and short on smiles and sincere assistance. Though I must here pause to say the single steward was friendly, helpfull, eager to please calm and presentable though the whole flight experience wasn't working in his favour.

The food on the flight to Sydney was very very bad and same back to Hong Kong. At best just disgusting at worst inedible. Cold as was the coffee. The food had little flavour and was unappetising to look at. I had the roast duck and noodles coming back. I received two solid chunks of dry cold duck on a flat bed of stringy noodles stuck together by a dried up hoisin sauce plus three small pieces of soggy and wilted blackened green and some over cooked carrot. I didn't eat it, the hoisin didn't even taste like hoisin but rather like cheap soya no plum flavour at all. The desert was again very unappetising I had the bread and butter pudding which had no texture and an overly sweet processed custard. Coffee was cold. No latte or cappuccino available. No after dinner chocolates. The cheese selection was good but missed a strong blue, there were no digestives only low fat, low salt, low flavour paper thin tiny rice crisps and the fruit selection was three grapes.

After take off I discovered my pillow underside was encrusted with dried vomit. I called for a replacement and was asked if i had pushed it into my nut bowl (grainy vomit) and was told there were no more pillows but she would look. Clean pillow arrived no smile. The seat was comfortable when flat, but narrow and with only one arm rest and no where besides behind my head to put drinks. The dinning tray doesn't function when the bed is flat nor does the seat, its up or flat no in between. So if you feel like sitting up in your bedding in the middle of your sleep you cannot. The toilet was mostly clean but was wet on the floor and around the sink every time. Breakfast was terrible, cold watery omelette, on an Asian flight I expect at the very least a selection of fresh dim sum. All in all it was a motel experience as opposed to a hotel one of any rating.

Virgin "upper class" comes in quite near something like Cathay Pacific (which I use a lot in the region) economy in all but the flat bed and the food which is terrible on Virgin Atlantic. All in all disappointing and no improvement on the flight I took six months ago to Sydney, both times Virgin was a second choice due to availability restrictions on other airways during busy holiday periods and both times I found them not up to the standard one becomes accustomed to on Asian airways. I fly regularly between HK and Sydney but I dont see VA being able to compete with this kind of service against the likes of Cathay pacific Thai airways, Singapore airways etc.

During the late eighties I used to fly VA often from the UK to Hong Kong, the service was good if not a little eccentric, it seems those days are long gone. I notice people here write a report on all legs of there trip? That would be exaustingly the same same in my case so I wont, besides service should be of an equal standard on all legs.

My report could seem a bit unbalanced towards the negatives but thats because thats how it was, luke luke warm, many lows and no highlights.

Well, as Basil Fawlty once said, "otherwise ok?"

Ha ha ya and if only.

As I said in another recent TR from Trevski it amazes me how VS get it so wrong sometimes.
As for the vomit on the pillow yuk ! I assumed that the bedding in UC was changed after every flight ,is this not the case then?
Blacky

Well as far as the pillow is concerned it looked like it was a new pillow except the vomit hadn't come off in the dry cleaning because it had dried in a big patch and in the seems but the rest of it as was sparkling clean. I found it very difficult to control myself (I did of course) when the hostess looks at me disparagingly and asks if I had pushed it into my nut bowl! Outrageous. Then "there aren't any more but I'll look if you want".

This sort of thing is simply unacceptable from a hostess in any class but in Upper it just makes you wonder how these people are selected and trained and if VA honestly respects its customers at all?

I had a very bad problem with VS on a flight from HK to Sydney before, my seat hadn't been cleaned at all from the Heathrow HK leg. The whole thing was covered in someone's long black hair, not just a strand or two but loads and loads of it, brush loads and there were old crisps all down the side and in the storage space, food wrappers and other food crumbs all over the place, part of the seat was even sticky and wet. The flight was packed and I was travelling with someone so they couldn't even move us, so was just left sitting in this mess and the hostesses were completely unmoved by the filthy conditions of the seat. There seems to be a rather odd make do type attitude going on.

VS's response when I complained later was similarly shoddy, they gave no apologies or explanation just informed me they had given me some air-miles and a really really tepid amount at that.

It was after that that I started avoiding using them entirely, think I've still got those points unless they've expired.
What a shocking reminder it was though to revisit the VA flying "experience" nothing had changed if anything its gone even further downhill, especially as far as food and service is concerned. Even the vanity bag has become a nasty cheap thing you wouldn't want to use or be seen using again. Which is a terrible waste, I've used the ones I've collected from first and business class on other airways for years and they still look good.

Im not inclined to believe that this is just a particular flight or route gone wrong, it was just uniformly budget at "upper class" prices. I also read many of exactly the same type complaints on the cross Atlantic flights.

Im also inclined to think that if VA want to try and compete with the better Asian airways in this region doing the same route they should simply slash their prices in half, no one would complain as they would be fully prepared for the budget experience, they would bring their own food even.

Forget the "groovey" post post retro British thing that's become an excuse for bad service, let them unveil the Virgin Atlantic New Concept, "The Budget Flat Bed". Its a win win?