""Good Night Flight"?"

[Nottingham Nick]

Milliemoo brings up some great points here.

It is okay to poll the top 50 fliers, for whom UC travel is likely to have become a means of getting from A to B, and really a bit of a chore.

What about the quite high percentage of fliers for whom booking a UC trip is something special?

The way they are going to be treated on board flies in the face of all the 'UC experience' hype, and should cause VS to radically alter their marketing of the suites.... or face a few lawsuits from unhappy punters!!


Nick

Yeah I can see where you are coming from regarding "cost cutting"
Just look at my discussion forum on "Cabin Crew Pay 2005"
If virgin don't care about us do u think they really care about the passengers!!??

I'm sure by the time it goes "live" there will be certain changes.
Remember you do not have too sleep,you have IFE to watch, a beauty therapist will be on all flights and possibly 2 on the A340-600 soon!(you heard it here 1st!!)And you always have the bar to chat to us or have a drink!

I dont like this at all!

this should be an optional service, like snooze zone currently is.

I'm due to do the LHR-HKG-SYD in UCS (not yet booked) in Feb, and for me I'd want full service on the LHR-HKG secor, which is 11-12 hours long, and would normally catch a couple of movies before turning in for a 5-6 hour sleep.

other thoughts :

is the "hot tray" option just one choice?

will it be bangers & mash [:(] ?

what happens to the freedom menu concept on these flights?

what happens to lite bite options?


Seems like more cost cutting dressed up as "consumer research" to me. Will look forward to the official press release for more info, before I pay £thousands for restricted service..........

This sounds bad to me. You pay a lot of good money for a high quality service, to be offered hardly anything.
Why dont they go one better, unplug the IFE, and tell everyone to go to bed at 9:45, then tuck everyone in to bed without desrt like they are unruly children.
Certainly not selling the UCS product to me on flights after 9pm. Ill stick with economy, where I still get full service and the choice of 3 meals and little legroom!

As far as I am aware you will have the choice of 3 hot entrees.
The light bites will be included in the cold tray.
I'm sure you will still be able to order snack during the flight if you wish to do so too!

Im afraid the bangers and mash may be around for a while to come. We recently switched catering contractors, so the change over is causing a delay to the new J class menu.
Believe me we have to eat the same food as you, we have to eat it 10 times per month, so if you are sick of it how do u think we feel!!!

[Decker]

That's interesting - do crew have to eat the food of their cabin or do all crew eat J food?

All the crew have a upper class hot entree each.
We also have a crew cart which contains: sandwiches, baked potato, crisps, chcolate, hot snacks etc....

[Decker]

Originally posted by vscss
All the crew have a upper class hot entree each.
We also have a crew cart which contains: sandwiches, baked potato, crisps, chcolate, hot snacks etc....

I'm sorry that has me giggling slightly. I always delay my "Freedom Menu" choice until after I've finished work. Just as well I prebook my choices or I could have the amusing experience of a CSS telling me that my choice is no longer available knowing that they'd just eaten the last one!

Wish we got baked potato... [:p]

I just have to agree with Milliemoo and others that the "early to bed for all" sounds like a disastrous concept. Having paid a fortune for a ticket, to get such a reduced service is not going to endear Virgin to its customers. Some of it doesn't even make sense: how is not having any linen an improvement to the service? I can't imagine even the lucky 50 who were polled said that the thing which got in the way of their sleep was table linen!!

If you don't get a chance to have a meal in the Clubhouse, you are going to feel very short changed. Virgin used to sell the concept of breakfast in bed with the UCS, but now they want to get by with a rugby scrum at the bar.

Not overly impressed!!

E

indeed, and with only 3 bar stools on the A346, its hardly a realistic option for upto 50 J class passengers.

Just rang Premier Team and they had no idea of it, although I'm aware the commercial team have gone home. If this is true for all J pax on post 9pm flights I'm disguted. I will cancel the ticket, not paying all that for meal on a tray.

Dean

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by Wolves27
I will cancel the ticket, not paying all that for meal on a tray.

Dean

I would just hang fire before doing anything rash.
vscss did say "I'm sure by the time it goes "live" there will be certain changes."

Let's wait and see what the official announcement says when it is made.

Nick

Indeed I will Nick. I really don't want to cancel my ticket at all. Will wait and see how it pans out first. But I won't be happy flying with them on these routes if this is the case. And if it is, lots of letters to SRB methinks.

Dean

[fozzyo]

As Dean said, if this applies to the whole cabin we will probably be cancelling our flight (J with Companion).

I only ever done one UC flight (SFO-LHR), I have been very excited about the prospect of four full-service UC flights with all that that includes, and for us - one of the very few times we will have a full-fare J ticket with Limo. How is this service different from the old Club Orlando service? PE service on UC seats, which to my mind this equates to with CH access.

Called FC about this and spoke to an agent in the American office. They didn't know about it, when i explained what we believe it may include he was shocked and advised me to complain to VS in London, and to ensure all my friends who don't like it complain too.

I think this is a great idea - provided it is optional. Zone A would make sense for it, minimum through traffic. There are pax that would like it and take advantage of it, i'm sure some on here would. But the choice is the important factor.

Questioning the top 50 UC passengers, to me, is a bit stupid. I am guessing they are very frequent business travellers, if travelling that often I imagine all you want to do is get to sleep and not bother with the peripheral service as that is just part of the flight - its what you expect and when you are that used to it looses part of its excitement. Those 50 pax will not represent a fair cross-section of UC pax.

For my £2,700 (and Dean's £2,700) I expect a full service, I expect to be made to feel special - i expect value for money. This isn't.

It will be interesting to see what VS say about it.

Foz xx

Originally posted by fozzyo
It will be interesting to see what VS say about it.

I echo that.

and lets hope they pay attention to the comments of other UCS flyers on this thread first.

Originally posted by Wolves27
Just rang Premier Team and they had no idea of it, although I'm aware the commercial team have gone home. If this is true for all J pax on post 9pm flights I'm disguted. I will cancel the ticket, not paying all that for meal on a tray.

Dean

Wolves27

I'm not sure the last time you flew on the UCS, but we have always served the J cabin on trays since the UCS came into service.
The tray is covered by a piece of linen like a pillow case. Which is then placed on a piece of table linen on the table.
The only difference will be no table linen, the tray will still be covered.(However if you have ever looked at the tray it is the same as the ones from premium & economy!!!)
I do not see what the big deal over a tray is all about!
CHILL OUT!!

I last flew J in January and indeed it has always come on a tray covered by very nice crisp linen. Maybe my over reaction to the tray is wrong, but I don't think I'm alone in being annoyed at the food service all in one go, no wine service and no drinks service after take off (all your words in your first edit). Whilst I like to fly J a couple of times a year I never see myself becoming the jaded business traveller who flys all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles who just wants to sleep.

I just simply want to get my moneys worth and all these things their removing just seem to be making it less and less worth the large amount of dosh out of my piggy bank.

I'm feeling that most v-flyers think its poo. what do the staff think?

Dean

For me its not so much the tray issue, as being almost "forced" to follow some kind of doctrine - we like to have a choice!

Without doubt some people will love this service, and value the extra sleep. But for many others (and all posts on this board so far I think), they like things the way they are, and value courses served seperately with a proper drinks service at the seat, and breakfast served to the seat before landing.

Why cannot VS offer both types of service on each flight like they do for East Coast USA flights?

Furthermore, the snooze zone service is currently not on the VS008 service due to its length - so why is it rumoured to be put on the HKG service - which is a longer flight than LAX?

[preiffer]

The whole thing sounds a bit lame to me (as a rather simple "business traveller"). When BA introduced their sleeper service, it was seen as cost cutting - and indeed turned out to be exactly that.

This forced copy is the same deal.

While I think the snooze zone is a great idea, I want the OPTION of sleeping the whole way, or having a full service (where I'm with a colleague, etc). Forcing the entire cabin into a "regime" should not be VS' decision - if I want to work/eat/etc, (and pay £4000 for the priviledge of doing so) I will. [}:)]

Luckily, this doesn't look like it will affect me too much, as the flights are limited away from my usual routes (and I sincerely HOPE will remain so), but the thought of landing without a hot breakfast after 11 hours (even if sleeping) is just ridiculous.

[fozzyo]

As long as it is offered as an option (like the Snooze zone) then it will be a great addition to an already superb product. If it is across the board then it, for me, de-values the product.

Going to wait and see what happens, and what VS say about it.

Foz xx

You will still get your choice of drink and your choice of wine, but it will be served to you all at the same time as when your tray is delivered to you. There will not be a seperate drinks or wine service like now.
It's to cut down on the time it takes pax to get served on night flights. Virgin want to you to make the most of the largest flat bed in business class!!

Regarding being forced into the service, it is still your choice of 3 options:
1)Turndown service with drink and cold snack.
2)Cold express tray with drink.
3)Hot tray with starter and drink together.

The crew seem to think it will work well and will be easier on us!!

I've set up a poll in the clubhouse section here

Let democracy rule!

what do v-flyers think?

Originally posted by vscss
It's to cut down on the time it takes pax to get served on night flights. Virgin want to you to make the most of the largest flat bed in business class!!

I really quite like this bit of the proposed new service, otherwise it can be up to an hour after takeoff before you start your meal, even if you do ask for things to come on a single tray (which I usually do when I want to eat quickly then relax).

It cuts down on at least two sets of trips up and down the cabin too, which is good for people who want to eat quickly and then relax. I know that when I've eaten lightly and then tried to snooze, I'm disturbed by people coming up and down the cabin still serving the meal.

The VS service is very intensive on trips to and from the galley when compared to other airlines which do some of their service from a cart. This change in service probably aims to cut the disturbance from crew trekking up and down the aisle with food and stuff.

I'm glad to see that the menu choices will remain similar, and "Freedom" will allow us to have midflight (or is that midnight? ) snacks if we want them.

The breakfast should be modified, so that it is served at your seat, but maybe try and make it closer in to the destination - especially for the pax who just want to slug a cup of coffee and munch a bacon bap before landing (right now, starting breakfast 90 minutes out is too early for a short flight, e.g. from the East Coast).

I'll re-iterate, it really needs to be driven by a mix of departure time and the sector time that influences what service is offered.

Cheers,
Mike

As I said in my first post, I am not a UC passenger, but I really think that this is a bad idea. It seems much better to offer it as optional, and by that I mean have a dedicated cabin for sleepers, like I think they used to do.

Originally posted by vscss
The crew seem to think it will work well and will be easier on us!!

Although I understand what FA's must go through on each flight, I think this is a bad stance. The whole point of an FA or anyone working for the airline on the flight, should be to make the atmosphere better for the passenger, not necessarily for themselves.

Apols if I missed this but when does this start - I agree with many comments inc. that if a West coast US flight you have time, and I like, to socialise and rest properly. Yes it does has a whiff of cost cutting too. I wouldn't like to have the seats near the bar with a hoard of hungry UC passengers wolfing down bacon rolls - the idea of a breakfast card is so much better! But a quicker service on some flights is desireable ...

Am on VS24 in October and see that since the 343s are currently J2000 this won't apply but by then some of them may have been refitted with UCS, so will this apply?

I agree with someone else who said it would be a reason to not fly Virgin, if I'd known before I probably would have looked for alternatives.