VIRGIN STANDARDS SLIPPING

Having been a VS fanatic for years now i never thought I would start a post like this but having jsut flown on VS on 2 seperate flights I feel compelled to write something!

I have been lucky enough in the last to fly over 5 long haul carriers including sister airline SQ, partialy related airlines Virgin Blue and Pacific Blue (not long haul!), codeshare partner Air NZ, American and Delta.

The service on VS LHR-SFO-LHR was disgusting. On the way out the cabin crew were totally unintrested in pax in economy, throwing food down, not offering more than one tea/coffee service, no water offered to pax inflight (despite inflight leaflet advising it will be for our health), the plane was an LGW plane and the inflight entertainment was poor. Disembarked in SFO, rather disapointed by an airline who i flew last year and felt were the best and for a carrier who spend so much money on saying they are the best. My traveling companions who are BA long haul regulars were v unimpressed.

Time for our return to LHR-couldnt be much worse I think. well we arrive onboard the aircraft, this time LHR based but still very tired inside and dirty. Toilets stink and look gross. Pax were not asked to close window blinds on a night flight so as soon as sun rose everyone awake, we were towards back of aircraft and other pax insisted on doing exercises on our chairs whilst we were asleep thus waking us- crew told and nothing done, no water at all handed around and to make it worse. One traveling companion had to have a pillow on her legs when using tray becuase the tray was broken and on an angle that cuased her meal to fall in her lap! And my other companions tray stowage button was non existent resulting in a tray being fully down the whole time! CC informed immediatly on boarding in SFO and a ground handling agent came with a BA engineer (who showed more intrest-ironic!) and they tapped the tray in place! We had to untape tray everytime a meal was served! Ground handling offered to move us and told us to think about it but then captain asked ground crew to disembark and we werent asked our answer! Surely on a 12 hour flight with 2 broken seats- ground crew could have informed captain there was a problem and sorted us out- after all if it had been 2 late pax we would have waited! VS offered us £30 of vouchers for duty free which expire on 31 Dec and considering we didnt want anything from Duty Free and wont be flying VS again this year they are useless!

Flight back from boston earlier in year was bit better but still staff were moody, not enough food on plane and they were all rude! Ground crew not much better either!

We are flying club members and I am a VS fanatic like all of u! But given my experiences on Air NZ and SQ lately I will not be rushing to fly VS soon! Sorry to be boring but VS need to take a leaf out of Singapores book and offer amazing service! With further expanation into Far East and Oz territory, VS will find themselves up against amazing service from the likes of Air NZ, SQ, Emirates etc. Whilst it may have been a one off experience and we were unlucky (have made 8 flights on VS in 4 years and no probs) it just takes one experience to turn u off anything! All i can say is the experience has left me flying Emirates to sydney in december and not VS as I wanted to! Come on VS pull ur standards up at all levels!

PS: All VS CC this wasnt aimed at you- Jetstreamer and co dont take offence its your colleagues that are letting u down

Aircraft flown on were:

- G-VGAL Jersey Girl (LHR-SFO)
- G-VAST Ladybird (SFO-LHR)
- G-VXLG Ruby Tuesday (Boston

Sorry to hear (read?) you had such a disappointing experience. Have you written to Crawley to complain?

I'm disappointed that your recent VS flights failed to live up to your expectations.

I can assure you that our standards are not slipping and what you experienced is certainly not the norm.

If you have any concerns onboard it is always worth taking them up with the Cabin Service Supervisor or Flight Services Manager. The situation can then be quickly resolved.

Hopefully you will give VS another chance.

VS offered us £30 of vouchers for duty free which expire on 31 Dec and considering we didnt want anything from Duty Free and wont be flying VS again this year they are useless!


Was this £30 offered on board or by customer relations if on board you purchase something there and then no voucher is issued???

Im sorry to say this, but it is slipping.

I have been a frequent vs flyer for 4 years now, and i do think the standarrds are slipping.

1) My mum was flying economy in those new reccardo seats (Very tight and cramped) and my mum had a leg injury, my mum need help because she was adviced by a doctor in the US to keep it raised. They totally ignored her.[:(!]

2) Stewardess didn't tell us about CAA regulations about the bulkhead and luggage which turned into a arguement.

3) Improve the reccardo seats they are not disabled passenger friendly.

Virgin is still my favourite airline, but im slightly worried about it. Most cabin crew are not like this just the odd bunch and i do appericate that having a demanding job such as a cabin crew can be stressful, but there is no need to take it out on passengers.

I hope VS realises this before it gets worse Like other airlines[:(]

I'm flying to LGW from MCO in December..are you telling me I should re-book for BA? Or should I give Virgin a chance...I've been told by many people that Virgin's IFE is better than BAs, but BA cabin service overall is still better and the staff is very professional...and being a BA flyer in the past, I've always enjoyed their service. Very rarely have I complained about them and I hope the same happens with Virgin.

I also have been feeling very worried about Virgin standards, There have been quite a number of posts on standards on The DIS and DIBB boards. The main complaints appear to be to do with indifferent cabin crew, and lack of drinks, no water or very little water given out during flights.
I think that UC is perhaps not affected by this, but UC is a very small number of privledged people when compared to the rest of the passengers.
I am told that the MCO routes are the worst for service and poor attitude.
I for one would fly BMI from Manchester if they did a direct flight. Several years ago I would have said Virgin had the best service.

Having flown to both MCO and MIA in Y,W,J last year I can say on the flights I was on service was of the usuall high VS standard.

In Y your obvously got going to get the same level of service as W or J, but the level of service was still good.

on the LGW routes there are 373 Y passengers so what I tend to do in Y is get serveral drinks @ once that way i'm helping them help me..

Obviously in W or J service will be better as the ratio of FA/Passengers is better.

I've flown VS know for over 5 yrs I still fly Y (but not often)

At the end of the day you pays your money and takes for choice.
There are serveral options for MCO/SAN so you could try BA or a charter? sometimes you need to give another carrier a go so you have a point of comparision.

I'm flying SQ in Aug as VS dont (yet) do SYD..
so I'll be able to compare their Y against VS (and still get FC Miles &TP;))

SQ dont do a W product on many routes so having to stick to Y.

[Bazz]

Willd,

I am really sorry your recent flights and treatment was sub-standard, you appear to have some genuine grievances there. As Helen says have you written to head office detailing your complaint, this is the only way we will ensure VAA maintain the standards we have all come to expect.

As jetstreamer says, whilst on board you should have discussed things with your CSS (purser) and failing that with the FSM it is always good practice to get the names of the FA's aswell as the CSS & FSM. They should have been able to make improvements in some of the areas which would have made your trip more comfortable.

Cabin crew are supposed to check and clean the toilets regularly, there is no excuse for the toilets to be allowed to remain in a disgusting state.

I am not making excuses for poor service but the crew may have been below compliment putting extra pressure on everyone, as I say that should not be an excuse.

Rainbow,

Water service is usually pretty good with several rounds being offered, unfortunately some crews are better at this than others. There is always water available in the Galley and if you are not offered sufficient, use your call button or go to the Galley.

stylo4444

From your Avatar I see you are an FC Silver member, and you have posted positive in other threads, I am somewhat surprised by your questions. We all know you can get good and bad in cabin crews as in all walks of life, but as your past flights with VS should tell you, generally VS try harder, I hope you stay with VS for your flight.

Odessey,

Did you contact VAA Special Needs before your flight, they should have been able to advise you what seats would be most suitable and made any arrangements on your behalf. As for the treatment you encountered on board, you should have elevated the matter to the CSS and/or FSM and certainly penned a letter of complaint to VAA head office on your return.

As Baz says you get good and bad crew on any airline I have been served or not as the case maybe by some true horrors on VS, CX, SQ & BA the last one a couple of months ago in BA fIRST.V port IFE is as good as anything up in the air and is a real plus point when down the back.
I do not like the new VS Y seats and that bloody box under them,but BA Y is just as cramped and I have found has worse service than VS.

I do think it unreasonable to expect 5* pampering with a Y ticket.

quote:Originally posted by Bazz

Odessey,

Did you contact VAA Special Needs before your flight, they should have been able to advise you what seats would be most suitable and made any arrangements on your behalf. As for the treatment you encountered on board, you should have elevated the matter to the CSS and/or FSM and certainly penned a letter of complaint to VAA head office on your return.'

Hi, Bazz

Yes we did request asisstance from VS and (Aircraft A340-300) they give us the the bulk head seats at the front (in economy).
Yes we did complain to VS but we got was £30 vouchers for duty free(:)).[:(]

Thank you for the reassurance Bazz. We have 2 flight to MCO 075 booked November and April both in PE. I really was getting a bit concerned when reading the posts on DIS/DIBB. It is quite a while since we flew Virgin.

Not aimed at anyone in particular just a general answer to 'standards slipping', as you are always going to get times when things go wrong.

Is it possible that people have a really high expectation when they travel on VS, as it is still only a for profit airline, and the staff normal as the rest of us.

Travelling in Y on VS you can't really expect the standards of service you receive to be any different from travelling (dare i say it) on BA or any other carrier, you are always going to get times when things go a little off plan as in any cust service company, just as times your going to have fantastic service.

Travelling in Y, you are after the cheapest way to get from A to B, who cares if you don't get a second glass of water, take your own 89p from WH Smith.

The FAs in Y work there socks off, only way to ensure service is perfect is to have more crew or less pax either way price of a ticket will increase which i'm sure no one will want.

Not making excuses for a slip in standards but we really can't expect miricles...well not everytime:D

quote:Originally posted by db1
Not aimed at anyone in particular just a general answer to 'standards slipping', as you are always going to get times when things go wrong.

Is it possible that people have a really high expectation when they travel on VS, as it is still only a for profit airline, and the staff normal as the rest of us.

Travelling in Y on VS you can't really expect the standards of service you receive to be any different from travelling (dare i say it) on BA or any other carrier, you are always going to get times when things go a little off plan as in any cust service company, just as times your going to have fantastic service.

Travelling in Y, you are after the cheapest way to get from A to B, who cares if you don't get a second glass of water, take your own 89p from WH Smith.

The FAs in Y work there socks off, only way to ensure service is perfect is to have more crew or less pax either way price of a ticket will increase which i'm sure no one will want.

Not making excuses for a slip in standards but we really can't expect miricles...well not everytime:D

That is still no excuse, look at AA

Don't really know what your trying to say about AA, but if you think they are better why don't you switch, seems simple to me.

AA has gotten worse, that what I meant to say.

oh nooooo, please accept my apologies i didn't really understand what you meant, but not sure about them getting worse i think if i was travelling in Y i think i would choose AA any time 'more room throughout coach'