This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I felt I had to write a report, sat here in St Martin as the rain beats down, as we had an incident en route for which I have every praise for the Virgin staff.
We had our breakfast in the Gatwick Virgin Lounge which is always good and relaxed in comfort waiting for the boarding to be called. On board, we had secured 7A & 7K as row 6 was already taken. We like these front two rows as there is less disturbance and they are close enough to communicate with each other.
The cabin staff were good, the seats comfortable and the entertainment was the touch screen variety which was good in itself, but I thought the vast amount of films were lacking in anything that interested either of us. We watched the TV programmes instead. The meal was good and before we knew where we were, the 8 hour flight was nearing the destination. Almost too quick!
We were on the ground (in our seats and wandering around the cabin for about an hour and then took off for Antigua. The captain of the first leg came to join us just before take off as he was staying a couple of nights in Antigua for his rest period. We were having a good chat with him and were interested to learn that he had worked for Virgin for 16 years and was very happy with his lot and how the company treated him.
We also had a common interest as I am also a light aircraft pilot and we were both a little puzzled by the slow, low powered cruise. About 20 minutes into the flight, the new captain came down looking stressed and asked the 1st leg captain if he could come upstairs.
Within a few minutes the captain came on the speaker and said we were turning back to Barbados. They suspected a flap problem and thought Antigua's shorter runway would not be suitable if the flaps weren't working properly.
We did a full reverse thrust and brake landing with fire engines in tow at Barbados, but there was absolutely no worries - just a bit of bracing with the high retardation. After what seemed like about an hour of investigation, it was announced that we all had to disembark as the flap actuator was faulty.
At this point we realised we were going to miss our LIAT flight from Antigua to St Martin. In fact where were we going to spend the night? Once in the terminal a member of Virgin staff asked the Upper and Premium Economy passengers to follow him. They had chartered a LIAT Dash 8 to take us on the 1 hour flight to Antigua. Fantastic for those whose destination was Antigua, but we had already missed the last flight to St Martin and we had nowhere to stay. The Virgin man promised us that the Virgin girl in Antigua would find us some accommodation.
So within about an hour or so, we were heading to Antigua. On landing, the Virgin girl had no idea where we could stay and put us to one side. As it happened, the two captains from the 747 were in our group and we panicked slightly and said that we are in a predicament. Our bags were still in Barbados as they couldn't get them sorted and onto the LIAT flight on time and were due to follow on the next flight and we were homeless.
His words were, "we are not Ryanair, we'll look after you". Despite Virgin in effect fulfilling their contract with us and delivering us to our destination, (our onward flight was booked independently), they certainly did look after us.
We were taken to a decent hotel. It was 10:30 at night by this time, so we had missed dinner and just wanted to get to bed. Next morning we had a hearty breakfast and then started checking LIAT flights to St Martin. To our horror, they were all booked up, even the next day. The hotel owner, an English lady, was taking an interest in our situation and she said she would speak to Virgin to see what they could do. The reply was that they would do what they could to get us on an afternoon flight, despite them being full.
In the meantime we had some drinks and then a very good lunch. Nothing seemed to be happening, but the kind English lady said she knew the Virgin girl and she was confident she would get us a flight. We took things a bit into our own hands and said we thought it might be beneficial to go to the airport and take a chance on a no show on one of the afternoon flights.
We checked out and asked for the bill - NO CHARGE! We were quite surprised that Virgin paid for everything including drinks and meals. Even the taxi, or should I say limousine was paid for.
We were reunited with our baggage and met the Virgin girl who asked us to wait in the restaurant. We sat having a beer when she came to see us and said, lets go to check in you are on a flight in 30 minutes. Brilliant, she had worked with LIAT to get us on and again, no charge for the flight, even though we hadn't booked it through Virgin.
We can't praise Virgin enough for looking after us and not involving us in any further costs. We know it wasn't their fault that the aircraft broke and they did get us to where we were supposed to be on their ticket, but they looked after us even after that.
Thank you Virgin. This was Upper Class treatment. I wonder where the economy class ended up and all those hoping to return home from both Barbados and Antigua. We did hear that as soon as the fault was discovered, Virgin got another aircraft airborne from Gatwick, but obviously there would be a long wait for all the unlucky passengers.
