This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Tried to checkin on Friday but both the Virgin website and mobile app kept throwing errors. One saying my international document was invalid, one saying I needed to provide a flight receipt? I assumed it was something to do with secondary screening, but when I got to the airport it was all good and I didn’t get the dreaded SSSS on my boarding card.
From dropping off my car at T2 meet and greet to getting airside, it took less than 10 minutes. Upper Class checkin incredibly efficient, security very efficient in the priority lane.
Straight up to the Escape Plus lounge, which seems to be more claustrophobic than the last time I went in, in February of this year. I think they’ve crammed in even more chairs (the ones to the left of the door as you walk in). I had a mooch to the buffet which looked inedible. Grabbed myself a lukewarm Coke before helping myself to a few bottles of water and abandoning the lounge for a bit of plane watching in the terminal itself.
The flight was soon called and the usual disorder ensued. There was a sign for Upper and priority boarding but they roped the area off, so in the end one big queue formed. I stood to the left of the queue and made a beeline for the gate when they called for Upper Class passengers to board.
I noticed another review where it mentioned the aisles on the A330-200 were tight. I didn’t think much of it, when when I turned left after boarding, my initial reaction was that I might need to lose some weight. Not only are the aisles tight, but getting to the Solo Suite seats is also a squeeze. I’m a regular sized guy and it was a bit of a contortion act getting in and getting comfortable on my seat (although comfortable is the last word I would use to describe the seat, more on that in a min.)
Boarding was completed fairly quickly and we left on time. I was offered bubbles or OJ before take off but declined.
On taking my seat I quickly realised there was more food in and around my seat than in my fridge at home. One word: disgusting.
I didn’t bother pointing this out to the cabin crew because it’s not their fault. They spend most of the flight apologising for various shortcomings in the cabin anyway, I didn’t want to add to their load.
There was a bit of a kerfuffle in the Upper cabin before take off as 3-4 different IFE screens were out of order, so people were switching seats. The crew got iPads for those people who ended up in seats with no IFE. At the end of the flight, all the people who had IFE issues were given a nicely wrapped bottle of bubbles as a sorry from the crew. I thought this was a top notch gesture, well played guys.
My IFE worked fine, and it was a larger screen than you usually get in Upper Class. It was really responsive and had a good range of movies and games. I used it for less than 10 minutes in total, but it seemed pretty decent.
After take off I was given a WiFi code which was great for messaging during the flight. I then tried to get myself comfy but to no available - it felt like I was sitting on the inner workings of the chair as there seemed to be no stuffing left in the cushion. After less than an hour my bum had gone numb. I also noticed every time I moved there was a waft of stale poo - the smell was coming from seat material, gross.
I held out for food before trying to catch some sleep. The soup was great. So was the fillet steak and the cheese and biscuits. Once I’d eaten I made my bed up and tried to sleep - but again it was rock hard and it’s the first time on a first or business class flight I haven’t been able to catch 40 winks. I was very disappointed and gave up trying after a couple of hours. I also noticed Virgin haven’t bothered reshaping the mattress thing in the bedding kit, it’s a curved shaped meant for the normal Upper Class cabin so it doesn’t fit the seat properly on the ex-AB planes.
Some notes about seat 5K: it has the curtain around it as it’s the crew rest seat for long haul flights. It’s the only seat in the Upper cabin with air vents (three air vents at that!!) due to aforementioned curtain.
Throughout the flight the crew were ACE. Absolutely great. What impressed me the most was the cabin service manager who didn’t stop grafting with his staff. They all worked their socks off - which is hard enough without having to deal with issues every five minutes because of the terrible cabin.
Virgin have really hung their staff out to dry by making them operate these knackered old cabins. They’re terrible. It’s hard to tell how much damage they’ve done to their reputation and customer goodwill during their short time in the fleet. I can only speak for my flight, and there were endless complaints from pretty much everyone in the Upper cabin. Still, at least the bean counters in head office are happy, right?
The hard product on these A330-200 is disgusting. Literally disgusting, and way worse than I expected even after reading other poor reviews. Not sure if I got a particularly crusty plane, but had I known how bad it was, I would have gone via London or swam instead.
The cabins are so old it’s unreal. But it’s not just that, it’s the fact they’re also incredibly dirty. I should probably count myself lucky it was just food in and around my seat and not bed bugs or worse.
Before the end of the flight I noticed the massage function on the chair. An interesting feature for sure, I tried it but quickly turned it back off.
We had a nice approach into Boston so had a good look out of the window. Once landed we were off the plane quickly, into a long immigration queue. About 90 minutes later I was out of the airport with my luggage, and on a shuttle to the hire car centre.
I’ve been lucky enough to fly in first and business on various occasions with different airlines. I really like the normal Virgin Upper Class product, but it was a disgrace that I was sold this flight as Upper Class because it was horrid. I’ve checked fares and Virgin seem to be charging roughly the same as they do for flights from LHR with much nicer cabins, seems a bit cheeky to me.
First world problems I know, and as long as the flight is safe I should be happy, but I still feel ripped off. Luckily the crew turned it round with their great service but even so I can’t say I enjoyed it.
