Not impressed with lack of champagne (LHR-MIA)

Howard - you were doing so well[^] then you mentioned the GF driving scenario[V] - such a disappointment, I had you down as a true gentleman! [:D]

Originally posted by Jacki
Howard - you were doing so well[^] then you mentioned the GF driving scenario[V] - such a disappointment, I had you down as a true gentleman! [:D]

Perhaps I may be able to redeem myself: she is tea-total. Those who know me or my reputation may find that somewhat difficult to believe, but there's nowt so queer as folk as they say.

H

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming this was luck not selection![:w]

I had the 'free bottle of Krug' experience too, earlier this year on SQ, SIN - SYD! My wife's a doctor but the CC greeted me with 'welcome aboard, Dr xxx!). I pointed out the outrageous sexual stereotyping they were guilty of (In the nicest possible way, of course - neither of us were in the least bit offended!), so maybe the Krug was by way of an apology!

Originally posted by Mr Farenheight
I had the 'free bottle of Krug' experience too, earlier this year on SQ, SIN - SYD! My wife's a doctor but the CC greeted me with 'welcome aboard, Dr xxx!). I pointed out the outrageous sexual stereotyping they were guilty of (In the nicest possible way, of course - neither of us were in the least bit offended!), so maybe the Krug was by way of an apology!

Next time act as though you are traumatised and you may get the whole case!

Seriously though, it would appear that on Virgin you are lucky if you get past your first glass of champagne before they run out, but its not unusual for other airlines to be handing out free bottles at the end of the flight???

We saved the 'trauma' for a letter to the CEO of Singapore Airlines (after a very poor response from SQ's Customer Service Dept.) - not over the 'doctor' issue, but due to the very poor food choices offered to my wife (who's on a special medical diet) in all four legs of the LHR-SYD return trip. Despite the free flowing, excellent champagne and my own top- notch nosh, her dishes were nowhere near what one would reasonably expect in a First Class cabin, special diet or not. Seemed he agreed with our point though, as a refund of 50,000 DC miles was offered, and gratefully accepted!

I must say I have always found SQ very helpful. I flew over to SYD one year with horrendous 'flu - they kept me going with an amazing chicken honey and lemon soup, even arranging for someone to escort me to the lounge for the transit and making sure the new crew had the soup recipe.

My only worry was the look on the concerned passengers when the CC insisted on kneeling down to me and asking 'has madam taken her medication?!!'

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Claire, that change happened some time ago. It was indeed Champagne in PE but now only sparkling wine, and not particularly nice sparkling wine at that.

Thanks,
Sarah

Quite possible - think the last PE flight I took before that was around 18 months before. Have to wholeheartedly agree with you Sarah, it wasn't particluarly nice sparking wine...[:(]

I remember a few years ago bringing a bottle of Krug '89 onboard - in economy - which the crew were more than happy to chill and serve to us.

And on my most recent trip, celebrating my 40th, the Revivals manager presented me with an unopened bottle of Mumm Cordon Rouge.

The rather good Charles Heidseck ran out somewhere over the Equator on my flight to JNB as it did in February.[V]

I moved to red on my return on Wednesday as I knew if would run out soon.

Never happened on a BA flight - despite my best efforts. [B)][:D]

Oh, forgot to mention:

I complained earlier this year when it had the first time and Customer Relations said tha they would mention to the people who stock the 'planes - yea right...

I spoke to a rather cute CC member last Saturday - apparently the UC and PE? (pre take off only?)had consumed the 15 bottles on the flight and there was a concern that there would not be any for the return flight[}:)] The CSM had to raid the duty free to find some more! Well done for the effort and initiative!

What with the average to poor food, this is not really an Upper Class experience[V]

[Scrooge]

Ok, call me stupid, but would it not make more sense to stock the inbound flight at it's point of departure rather than having to fly everything over and back (weight = fuel = lost profits) of course there will be the admin headache of dealing with a second set of bills, but this is stupid, the only was to guarantee champagne on a flight is to be on one with SRB ???

Originally posted by Scrooge
Ok, call me stupid, but would it not make more sense to stock the inbound flight at it's point of departure rather than having to fly everything over and back (weight = fuel = lost profits) of course there will be the admin headache of dealing with a second set of bills, but this is stupid, the only was to guarantee champagne on a flight is to be on one with SRB ???

Agree with you there - also, wouldn't it be cheaper to source booze abroad? I mean every time I go away I see lower booze prices...

Cheers
Michael

Originally posted by Scrooge
Ok, call me stupid, but would it not make more sense to stock the inbound flight at it's point of departure rather than having to fly everything over and back (weight = fuel = lost profits) of course there will be the admin headache of dealing with a second set of bills, but this is stupid, the only was to guarantee champagne on a flight is to be on one with SRB ???

Agreed: ISTR that this round tripping (or whatever the word is) of booze was discussed elsewhere although I can't seem to find it now. It doesn't exactly match the green credentials that VS are so quick to quote.

Top tip -

Bean counters: throw out the Champagne completely, along with the cushions, flowers, IFBT, amenity kits, and bar along with the baby and the bath water. That way there'll be no passengers complaining about running out of fizz half way through the flight. Indeed, there'll probably be no passnegrs left at all, so you can scrap the seats too.

H

Originally posted by Howard Long
Bean counters: throw out the Champagne completely, along with the cushions, flowers, IFBT, amenity kits, and bar along with the baby and the bath water. That way there'll be no passengers complaining about running out of fizz half way through the flight.Indeed, there'll probably be no passnegrs left at all, so you can scrap the seats too.

H

VS already make a good profit from this

Top tip -

Bean counters: throw out the Champagne completely, along with the cushions, flowers, IFBT, amenity kits, and bar along with the baby and the bath water. That way there'll be no passengers complaining about running out of fizz half way through the flight. Indeed, there'll probably be no passnegrs left at all, so you can scrap the seats too.

H

If babies get a bath, how come adult's don't?[:w]


[edit:mitchja - to fix the quotes]

[mitchja]

VS dont have to feed/water/pamper cargo either [:w]

Perhaps airlines should start sticking
these labels on pax at check-in so they are only loaded onto cargo only aircraft [:o)] [:w]

Regards

So, here's one comment in a reply from SRB's executive assistant to my letter about poor provisioning of champagne:

'we're not allowed to restock our plane with alcohol in other countries because of customs restrictions'

Hmmm [:?] so other airlines manage this, why not VS.

I can think of a myriad of ways for VS to resolve this situation, cut downt he white and red selection to two each, stock more, restock downroute, etc. It seems the will isn't there or it's a deliberate cost cutting policy. Either way, people notice and VS suffer ... can that really be counted as a good result?

Originally posted by Howard Long

Originally posted by Jacki
I did have a strange experience flying SIA First from Sydney a couple of years ago. As I was leaving the plan at Heathrow the crew handed me a full unopened bottle of Krug - didn't complain!

My history of being handed full bottles of wine as takeaways on airlines are:

Bottle of Cordon Rouge Mumm in about 1998 in F on Ansett SYD-MEL: in those days they had a three class cabin on this 90 minute hop. I'd already polished off an entire bottle on board during the short flight - in the end they handed over the opened bottle to stash in the seat pocket so I could continue drinking during the final descent and taxiing to the gate. The flight was full of business types on their way to meetings, except for me and my then GF on holiday. I was the only pax drinking, the GF was driving. [}:)] They took pity on the GF having to carry me off, and handed her a full bottle as compensation. But it was me who drank it later...

Bottle of 1988 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne on my birthday on Concorde in 2003.

Bottle of Primitivo di Manduria, Accademia dei Racemi dessert wine on board Delta LGW-CVG in 2003.

H

On most of my flights I have been on I have been given a bottle of fizz. On my SYD-HKG flight in UC I had the same FSM as my DXB flight earlier in the year and we got chatting and she handed me a bottle, on many of my BA flights have been handed my 'duty free' aka free champers. On my recent GF J class flight was given a bottle of Perrier Jouet 1999 from FC to take with us.

Must of been just lucky with my crew! [y]

However VS double loading doesn't seem to make sense at all, especially if it means restricting UC passengers to one glass of champers PP!!! [n]

As an Upper Class pax I am allowed 3 x 32 Kg bags. I do not use this amount, only one bag. Similarly the rest of the family.

Lets see, How much does a bottle of champagne weigh? Make the sums easy call it 4Kg.

Right! On 7 Aug 2009 (LHR-SFO) and return 28 Aug 2009 (LAX-LHR). I hereby allow Virgin Atlantic to use my unused baggage allowance to stock an additional 64 bottle of the fizzy stuff.

I will, of course, share with my fellow Upper Class Pax.

We seem to have one airline regularly only able to supply one glass of champagne per UC passenger, whilst there is now plenty of evidence that other airlines not only manage to supply the Fizz on demand throughout the flight, but also generously hand out unopened bottles. Virgin need to come clean and start advertising it as a 'welcome' drink or load sufficient quantities to meet reasonable demand.

Originally posted by Slipperman
Right! On 7 Aug 2009 (LHR-SFO) and return 28 Aug 2009 (LAX-LHR). I hereby allow Virgin Atlantic to use my unused baggage allowance to stock an additional 64 bottle of the fizzy stuff.

Capital idea. I'd like to echo much the same offer to VS for our upcoming MIA flight, except instead of Champagne I'd like my 64Kg to be made up as follows:-

Limes (say about 20 kilos or so, just to be on the safe side)
Tanqueray No. 10 (case of)
Little Red Cushion
Flower and vase for bar

Actually, we could start an interesting new thread here. Assuming you travel UC with just the one case, what would you like to allocate your spare 64Kg to...?

Originally posted by mdvipond
[
Actually, we could start an interesting new thread here. Assuming you travel UC with just the one case, what would you like to allocate your spare 64Kg to...?

....... Kylie Minogue [}:)]

Originally posted by Slipperman
....... Kylie Minogue [}:)]

Although I haven't lifted her up personally.... I am pretty sure you are talking about 24kg there rather than 64kg....[;)]

Would be happy to donate my extra 64kg+ to champagne (and share it). Would offer my husband's 64kg+, but I am pretty sure that he would want to use it for M&S 'Percy Pigs'... [ii]

I never use ANYWHERE near my luggage allowance (infact husband and I use one bag under 23kg each) and I am not particularly weighty myself... so is it too much to have maybe three glasses of champagne whilst travelling UC (my husband doesn't drink when we fly, so technically I would only be having two glasses plus his one glass)...? [:#]

Boo

Originally posted by Boo Boo

Originally posted by Slipperman
....... Kylie Minogue [}:)]

Although I haven't lifted her up personally.... I am pretty sure you are talking about 24kg there rather than 64kg....[;)]

Good point, well made... Although I did assume she'd be bringing her own Champagne.

Best throw in Danni as well then [:w]