This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Been on quite a few VS flights recently and always mean to write a TR but never seem to find the time. Bear with me as i'm having to remember back 14 days! and through quite a fill of drinks in the CH! Anyway here goes....
As i am usually connecting through LHR from ABZ! I usually always have to endure the dreaded BA for my connection. Being both, the winter and with snow already on the ground amazingly at BOTH! airports, I usually like to not risk ANY possible missed connection. I usually book a mid morning domestic flight to ensure there are no hiccups (except after some fizz!) We arrive at T5 and navigate the way thorough the usual underground passages. BTW there has amazingly been some improvement there. Nice LED lit minimalist clean corridor. Used to instantly rile me, arriving back into the UK and the first thing you have to endure is a rediculously advert covered HSBC dingy glorified sewer stinking of p... Anyway, i digress.
Check-in was smooth but i did notice the lack of security stickers on my passport this trip. Have they been ditched? I never really did see the point of them and being a touch OCD, in my "virgin virgin" years I did try and peal them off. Now...as any seasoned VS pax will know, this has to become a "if you cant beat them join them moment" Peeling them is simply not either A. an option or B. worth having to deal with the glue residue long after the 10yr passport has expired. In any case, i've since grown quite attached to my passport's second abstract artwork skin and alas has been robbed of two more!
Off we pop to the CH. At the podium I got a "ooh, your early" (12.30pm for the 9pm flight). I was instantly thinking, just back in September, we arrived in from the MIA flight so early for connection to the DXB one that it wasn't even on the check in touch screens as an option button yet!!! 9am in the CH!!!
Either way, just time for lunch and enjoying various beverages in various areas of the CH as per normal. Great fun as usual, however I was chatting at the bar to one of the barman I recognise from having a few chats before. It's 2pm.... He asks where we are off to etc..."ooh, you're early". Running theme here. Around 4pm it happened again with one of the girls at the reception desk when i asked for the pool cues. I was beginning to get paranoid and started to wonder if it was a subliminal company policy to try and shame people into being there too long! Either way off to the aircraft we go (after 3rd call obviously). I was really looking forward to it as i noticed from choosing my seats it was the A330. I'd only ever been UC in the A340-600 every time with VS and I'd seen the pictures and it look amazing. Onboard, I'm heading for 1A (Golden Girl BTW) and it looks great. Suites all pretty shoehorned in, as referenced many times on VF. I sit down and BANG! how hard and uncomfortable is the seat. Instantly disappointed. I'm a bespoke lighting designer to trade and generally get the opportunity to transform some great venues with all kinds of effect lighting, LED included, ( I could make the clubhouse look outstanding BTW, I think it's time it had a tweak in that department) so i was paying loads of attention to the general ambiance of the cabin. Everything is the usual VS purple and looking good. Then just as your getting "cabin pressurised" sleepy pre take off all the lighting changes colour through to almost bright white and bright orange etc. Totally waking me up. NO NEED VS! Less is more. Leave it Purple!
Anyhow, up we get and I'm now awake, so lets try out the bar. Just as I get here, I'm quite impressed. The staff say there is less room which I can see from their point of view. But as soon as I get my drink... ping! Seatbelt sign. Now, here a thing.... I fly almost every other week and I'm pretty sure this is done occasionally just to get the Y pax to sit the "f" down whilst the food is being served?!?!?! As I predicted, no turbulence at all. Either way i'm back in my seat, sleep suited up and ready for a snooze. The seat would not convert, it stuck despite me ensuring there were NO objects in the way and the crew had to really use force to get it to convert. I asked them if this was usual and they pretty much politely said they hated them. My first obvious thing is the small and pointed nature of the Ottoman. It's a major design flaw. The duvet keeps falling off into the aisle and each time it woke me up. People were standing on my duvet in the aisle and it was waking me up too. All in all, the worst flat bed experience with VS yet. I was so disappointed, it was rock hard. I'm such a huge VS fan and champion them to everyone who will listen, but i was thinking I'd be more comfortable in PE.
Needless to say the bed would not convert back, and my table would not stow back after breakfast and needed forcefully bashed into place by the crew too.
Surely this is the best place for VS to get real customer research. People who are not going to unnecessary complain but give real opinions on the service. I have heard from VF that they may have been removing these Dreamliner destined suites and retro fitting the old ones.
I would say, if I knew what AC it was going to be before booking the ticket, this just might make me make a different decision.
Till the next time...
Scott :-)
Last edited by scruickshank on 02 Feb 2013, 12:23, edited 4 times in total.
