Upper Class

Hi everyone

I'm going to be flying UC on 31st Dec 2005 LGW to MCO with my 7 year old and 6 month baby and I have a couple of questions. I'm a single parent by the way and will be the only adult.

I assume by then that the new UC suites will be in situ on the LGW 747's. I've flown first class before on plenty of other airlines and skycots have always been available. Will there be skycots available with the new UC suites?

I've never seen UC/first class full on any of the airlines I've flown, does VA UC ever get full on that route? When we went out last year there was only 2 people in UC on the way out and 3 on the way back (we flew PE) If it isn't full do you think the cabin crew would allow me to spread out more? Whenever I flew various other airlines including BA with my son when he was under 2,the crew have always allowed me an extra seat for him for example without my even asking. In fact on BA business class to Spain they moved me into a row of 2 and 2 and told me to just spread out! I've didn't ask for this at all, but it was very helpful for me.

TIA

Claire

Hi Claire,

I just got back from Hawaii via LA on Saturday, and flew Virgin Atlantic Upper Class. I actually got upgraded on the outbound flight, was in PE, but all 4 of my family got upgraded to UC! On both flights UC was full, there was not one empty seat!

I imagine Virgin will allow you to spread out with two small children if there is space! The crew seemed to be the friendliest i have ever experienced, on both outwards and my return journeys. Thumbs up to Virgin Atlantic!

I unfortunately didn't get to fly in the suites, but saw Cosmic Girl at the gate as my flight from Hawaii was landing so rushed to check in to see if I could get on the earlier flight but it wasn't possible.

Skycots were avaliable in UC, so I am sure you can get them in the suites! Sure someone will confirm though!

Hi Claire,
Virgin are very accomodating especially to their UC passengers!
in terms of the new suite planes are being refitted now so depending on progress you might get a new suite or you might get the same seating as you did last year.
The new suites are designed to be more private than the current seats so im not sure how easy it would be to spread out..
details of what virgin offer parents here

It might be worth looking at the new suites here and/or asking if anyone with kids has had experience of the new suites..

[Nottingham Nick]

Hello Claire and welcome to V-Flyer

Please bear in mind that UC is a business class product and shouldn't be compared to first class on other airlines.

It is fair to say that there have been favourable comparisons on this board, but the idea of UC is that you get a premium business class product for a business class fare.

I don't know the figures, but VS seem to run their planes on a very high occupancy % compared to other airlines - esp the US ones, and it is therefore not uncommon to see all the seats on the a/c occupied. Having said that, the UC product doesn't sell too well on the MCO runs - hence lots of op ups and the Club Orlando fares.

Nick

Thanks for all the replies. I am really looking forward to the UC experience on VA, and comparing it to all the various First,Business and Club classes I have been lucky enough to experience in my life time! My parents have always refused to fly bucket class and so I have been extremely fortunate in that regard since a child!

VA were excellent last Christmas with the exception of not having our pre-ordered kids meals! DS broke a very small minor bone in his little toe the week before we were due to fly - it healed fine before we flew but the doctor suggested we requested bulkhead seats for him for extra comfort. I rang the FV club helpline and they took note of my request and passed it onto the special assistance department.

On both legs of the journey, when we got to the airports we had been pre-allocated these seats. I was thrilled and very impressed with that level of service for PE pax.

Nottingham Nick - your first 2 paragraphs confused me somewhat. Are you saying that UC as a business product for example can't be compared to BA or AC first class? If so, is it similar to BA business class on European routes? I don't quite understand your point and would be grateful for further clarification.

Thanks again to all who replied.

Claire

[Nottingham Nick]

Claire

All I am saying is that Virgin's Upper Class is comparable to other airlines Business Class products, not their First Class.

Nick

quote:Originally posted by feistyblue
Are you saying that UC as a business product for example can't be compared to BA or AC first class? If so, is it similar to BA business class on European routes?

There is a product in between BA FIRST and Club Europe - that is Club World, BA's international business class, and this is the product which Upper Class should most fairly be compared to since their pricing is often very similar.

Most people round here would agree UC beats Club World hands down on the seat, the food, the lounge and the service. BA FIRST is a rather different beast - it costs a lot more, provides more privacy and space and supposably the best food and wine. It's a bit unfair comparing it to UC because of the price differential, but some have indicated the Upper Class Suite is as comfortable, or more so, than the FIRST seat/bed.

Thanks to Nick and to onionz for the clarification. I have both Club World and BA First so it is handy to have the comparisions. I really enjoyed PE so am looking forward to flying UC, especially as the price is so unbelievably reasonable. Seating, leg room, service and not sitting with hundreds of loud mouthed,badly behaved people are far more important to me than the food!

Walking round the plane last December with my son, I was disgusted by the behaviour/things I saw in economy - it was horendous! I've honestly never seen anything like it. I've felt so sorry for the cabin crew. A large multi generational family group of 20 which included 6 kids, had totally littered the aisle with rubbish,food, dirty nappies, vomit and god knows what else on both aisles, across 10 rows. The kids were chucking stuff across the seats and the adults were all sat drinking from beer cans doing nothing about it. I mentione it one cabin crew member discretely and she rolled her eyes and said it was a pretty frequent occurance and that the adults in this case were throwing stuff around too and were just as bad.

Sorry for the rant - I just can't believe how some people behave!

[Nottingham Nick]

quote:Originally posted by feistyblue

Sorry for the rant - I just can't believe how some people behave!

I don't think you will get many people disagreeing with you on this board[:(!]

Fortunately it is only a minority of pax who behave like that, but is is still far too many. Staff certainly have to put up with more than they should - not just from economy pax either!!

Alcohol is often the root cause, it is easy to say that it should be limted but impossible to do effectively. How much is too much? How do the crew know how much people have consumed before they boarded? Telling a drunk that he / she had had enough is not always going to make it pleasant for those around them either.

Now I have had my rant (or part of it - I could really get on my soap box about the way people behave on holiday[:I][:I] )

Nick

Due to the cabin layout the seating design, Bassinets/ cots are not provided in the Upper class suiteas there is simply no place to put them.

The baby will have to sit on ur lap for the flight.

On non upper class suite flights there is cot positions only at row 11 and 12 howver on MCO flights these seats are used for PE.

So you may get allocated Row 6 but no cot position!

So let me get this straight. On the UCS there will be no skycots, no infant care chairs and quite rightly for safety reasons you aren't allowed to put an infant on the floor in front of your seat. In addition to that regulations dictate that cabin crew aren't allowed to hold babies. Hmmm - eating will be interesting then! So in fact there won't be any point in me flying UC as it will just be too difficult. So I might as well fly PE. I phoned FC this morning and they said that you can have skycots on UCS. So I am confused now.

Can someone here confirm that there are no skycots or ICC on UCS? Maybe a member of cabin crew? Or someone whom has flow UCS with an infant?

Seems strange that VS wouldn't cater properly for their UC pax.

[Bazz]

Hi feistyblue,

Sorry you are getting what appears to be conflicting information on this.

There was another topic recently which you may have read
http://www.v-flyer.com/forum/topic.asp? ... D=1753#top

Three cabin crew members posted to this thread and SouthernBelle (CSS) on page two summed things up pretty well.

Did you ask FC specifically about UC with the suites fitted as this is what seems to make the difference?

Bazz,
It might be that FC were looking at the MCO route with the current config as skycots are certainly available with the current recardo configeration.

feistyblue,

I would call FC back and ask if you have the new UCS (which is by no means certain) what the situation will be?

The other thing worth looking at is the JFK routes as they are all UCS so im sure someone can confirm the skycot situation on those routes..

Thanks for the link - very interesting.

I phoned FC again and they still confirmed that UCS can take skycots although I forgot to ask about ICC!

I'm hoping that by Jan 2006 there will be UCS on all LGW-MCO flights!

Another thing occured to me though. I'm aware from reading this board that rows 11&12 are frequently flown as PE. But, if in February when I book my UC flights I notify VS that I need a skycot and put in a request for row 11, coupled with re-requesting that at twlight check in the day before the flight, and lets assume they allocate me 2 seats in row 11 -one for me and one for DS, I assume as a UC pax I would still receive UC service despite the remainder of the seats being PE seats?

quote:but some have indicated the Upper Class Suite is as comfortable, or more so, than the FIRST seat/bed

After having a good nights kip in the suite for the first time yesterday I will stick my neck out and say it is more comfortable than the BA first seat reclined.The BA bed in first gives me terrible back ache after a while, this did not occur with the suite:D

There are no skycot positions at all in the UCS cabin. (Airbus or Boeing)

ICC's are not compatible with any seat that has an inflatable seat belt (ie. UCS seats and economy bulkhead seats on the A346).

That's a good question. Does row 11&12 ever have a mixture of PE and J pax ?

The A340-600 is the only UCS equipped aircraft that has a skycot position. There are none available on the B747-400 with UCS.

Also as mentioned above Infant Care Chairs are incompatible with the Upper Class Suite.

The Upper Class Suite is currently in phase one and there are modifications in the pipeline including adding at least one skycot position. I cannot confirm at this stage when this is likely to happen and if indeed it will be available on the LGW aircraft with the 14 UCS configuration.

Sorry!

I've never seen a mixture of Upper Class and Premium passengers in rows 11 and 12. However it might be possible in order to accomodate a passenger travelling with two children (one of whom needs a skycot).

Call FC again and ask them which row is compatible for sky cot and let us know.

Due to the angle of the seats at row 6 on the UCS there simply is no where to put a skycot.

Also crew can hold babies however its favourable for the baby not to be separated from the parent or guardian as the infant is familar.

I doubt that VS would put UC pax with PE pax in row 11 and 12, this is unusual in four years of flying I have never come across this scenario you have a lucky baby!!!