VS015 LGW-MCO 7 NOV 12 (Upper Class)

[buns]

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

The subtitle for this TR is "A Day in the Life in the Clubhouse"

The Prologue

Whilst Mrs Buns and I had managed to get away for a few weekends, because of work commitments, neither of us had had a long break since March, so to be able to grab a couple of Gs to Orlando in November and combine with the VS offer to double up on Tier Points and thereby re-qualify had all the Hallmarks of a Lottery win

I thought I would be clever and burn some miles in getting a car to take us to Gatwick and bring us home from Heathrow (the only downside of grabbing the Gs was that we had to come back from Miami) but to pre book an Alamo Car at Orlando to drive to the Gulf Coast when we got there - bad move on Buns' part as it was to transpire

The Trip
Grateful in the knowledge that Tristar would be picking us up and fellow V-Flyer DeneM and Mrs DeneM had also grabbed Gs on the same flight and agreeing we would meet up in the clubhouse I was chilled when the Tristar driver was there 15 minutes before the appointed time and we were quickly on our way. 20 minutes after leaving home we were pulling in to the upper level forecourt at Gatwick and we made our way to check in

No wait and a very pleasant agent attended to us - as we finished I turned to see a new party coming along the PE Queue and after a double take realised these were some people I knew from scouting. This was a real chance meeting and after they had checked in Mrs Buns and i took great delight in saying they were to be our guests in the Clubhouse

Security was an absolute breeze and within 10 minutes (after using the door opposite the security lanes rather that using the escalator) we were entering the doors of the Gatwick Clubhouse with looks of amazement from our unexpected companions.

The usual warm greeting from the staff on the door (who have known us for years) and we were quickly settled in for our breakfasts. Mrs buns was able to book a treatment so everything was going according to plan. A little later DeneM and Mrs DeneM arrived and we had a brief meet up, with me explaining about the newly acquired guests - knowing we would be sharing the Upper cabin later

The celeb count for Mrs buns was maintained with the TV presenters reporters from Sky News clocked

Well time came for us to be called for the flight and I was then (and only then) a little excited we would be on a refurb We all got to the Gate and after checking our whole ticket was given to us - a little strange I thought, but shrugged it off as yet another change in VS service delivery

Greeted on board, but not by name, and got to our seats where we were able to at last catch up with DeneM (not before I had spied a delightful little girl in PE merrily kicking the seat in front with no intervention from on looking parents )

As I would be driving at the other end, I declined the Champagne (intending to save myself for a JD in flight) and went for the orange juice instead and were making pleasantries when an announcement came over the PA that the flight would be delayed by an hour as there was a technical issue to rectify. The crew were good with coming round with freshly brewed coffee and as time progressed there was great activity on the tarmac as the part / engineer had arrived from Heathrow

However all was to be dashed - a further announcement was made stating we would have to de-plane and go back to the Terminal whilst a replacement plane was made ready

£15 vouchers were given as we exited the aircraft but in the knowledge that the Clubhouse had re-opened to accommodate the Upper and Au passengers, i was not really interested

Top Marks to the Gatwick Clubhouse team Some realising that there might be a problem had stayed behind and welcomed us back and others came back in to work to make sure we were looked after. For the next 3 hours they did their best to look after us

Eventually the flight was called - and you guessed it -the replacement plane was the only one that has not been refurbished. Goes to show that the saying "it is not over until the fat lady sings" has some truth in it

Furthermore the Captain came on the PA and explained that the crew had worked hard to turn round onto the replacement aircraft and that as a consequence, there would be no main meal service (obviously the original main meals were no longer in a suitable state). This became a bit of a running joke on the flight between the crew and passengers in upper as we were able to choose from the graze menu.

Once airborne, drinks service commenced and shortly after took the burger from the graze menu (which was not all bad) and all credit to the crew who had volunteered to stay on prevent the flight being cancelled. Watched "Ted" on the IFE and perhaps it was good that I saw it on the loop system because I had been expecting so much and was disappointed.

"Afternoon Tea" (it now being close to midnight back home) was served and clearly the tiredness of everyone on board subdued most

Finally arrived at 10:30 pm and to add insult to injury, we were held on the aircraft for an hour whilst the Immigration Staff were recalled to duty. Being in Upper it was not too long to be seen by one of the 6 immigration officers on duty but by the time all this had been done we were entering the Car Rental after midnight and there followed a two hour drive to St Pete Beach - an experience I am not too keen to repeat and I will revert to my usual plan of staying in an Airport Hotel and picking up the car the next morning

All in all, a dire experience, but recovered by the professionalism of the VS staff involved - both in the Clubhouse and on board

Thanks for reading

buns

Oh dear. A delayed fligth is bad enough but your 'reward' for your patience to be an un-refurbished plane

But top marks for all the VS staff who stayed late etc to make sure the flight could operate

Thanks for the TR buns a cracking read actually. I know there were problems but VS really brought everything together by the sounds of things, despite being on the non-refurb

Were the Graze menu items big enough for the meal service? I find that when eating from this menu I always have to ask for at least two of the portions to fill my boots so to speak... I wonder what had happened to the food from the normal menu

Good to see you have not been too traumatised by the delays and that VS service shone through Just out of curiosity did you finish off the JD supply again?

Can't wait for part 2

[buns]

Were the Graze menu items big enough for the meal service?

The items on the Graze menu were being eked out - I only had one burger and Mrs buns got the last. At least the cheese could be used so that had to make up the shortfall

Good to see you have not been too traumatised by the delays and that VS service shone through Just out of curiosity did you finish off the JD supply again?

No doubt some on the flight will want to take issue, but my view is circumstances developed, people did their best and whilst not great, at least we got there. As far as the JD is concerned, as the plane was delayed and would undertaking a drive almost 24 hours after waking, I was not keen to do my usual

Thanks for your kind comments

buns

Interesting reading!
Was the 'plane VTOP? Was it a disgrace?

[buns]

Interesting reading!
Was the 'plane VTOP? Was it a disgrace?

Many thanks

Yes, it was VTOP and was a bit frayed at the edges so to speak - hanging on by the fingertips and her departure cannot come soon enough

buns

Thanks for the TR Buns! Glad to hear that the delay was dealt with so well, I hope passengers in econ and PE were dealt with equally as well for the delay.

Thanks for the TR. Sounds like a bit of an ordeal, but dealt with reasonably well by VS. The only time this has happened to me was flying to LA in 2003, when they solved the problem by reassigning passengers on flights to NYC to free up an aircraft and crew for us to fly a few hours later.


Per SteveOp21's comment, I wonder what the story was for those in the other classes? Particularly when some may have had to have their seat assignments changed, and the food situation may not have been quite as good.

Nice touch for the Scouting folks too. Did they get back into the CH with you?

Paul

[buns]

Per SteveOp21's comment, I wonder what the story was for those in the other classes? Particularly when some may have had to have their seat assignments changed, and the food situation may not have been quite as good.

Nice touch for the Scouting folks too. Did they get back into the CH with you?

Paul

Thanks pjh

Every passenger was given a £15 voucher (3 X £5) and i would have thought that would have given more food that you often get on a plane (in any class).

Knowing that usually the Clubhouse closes after the 15 has left and that staff would have stayed behind, I did not take my guests back - I think they came off better in the food stakes

buns

Thanks for a fab TR Andy

Buns,

Really glad the VS staff went the extra mile for you and your fellow passengers.

That was one loooong day you had, glad you made it safely, and the choice to limit your JD etc was probably wise!

I guess tech issues occur, what makes the difference is how the staff deal with it, and it sounds like all did everything they possibly could.

Anyway, thanks for reporting, and look forward to the return TR!!!

what a pain to the start of your break, it certainly sounds luke the CH staff went above and beyond....that drive is a real pain, especially after a long delay

Thanks for the TR Buns! Glad to hear that the delay was dealt with so well, I hope passengers in econ and PE were dealt with equally as well for the delay.

I'm coming to this very late, as I have only just stumbled across this site.

My wife and I were passengers in premium economy on this flight, and have a slightly less complimentary view of the experience.

Our primary objective, i.e. to get to Orlando, was eventually met, so that's good.

The almost complete lack of service during the flight was disappointing. Service consisted of one drink from the trolley, and about 3 walk-throughs with tumblers of water. That's it.

By the time we reached immigration, we faced at least a half hour wait to be processed. The poor devils in the back of the bus must have been there for several hours! There seemed to have been no planning or co-ordination between the airline and airport agencies for this flight's late night arrival.

We were slightly disconcerted by the captain's attitude to the issue. When the fault with G-VAST was first announced, he estimated the delay to be 1 hour, and apologised quite profusely. 5 hours later, having transferred to G-VTOP (and reading between the lines of his announcement) we were more or less told there would be little or no cabin service, but we should think ourselves lucky we were going anywhere. Great PR!

When we eventually landed at MCO, he announced that we were "just under 5 hours behind schedule." This seemed very deliberate, and we inferred this to be saying that some kind of compensation threshold had been avoided. In fact, the official flight statistics confirm that our arrival was 318 minutes behind schedule - 18 minutes over the 5 hours, not to mention the additional period we were held onboard, hostages to the lack of border control staff.

Anyway, to take the story further, I emailed VA to express disappointment with this experience, and was invited to submit a formal compensation claim!

After months in the ether, the formal claims have just been denied, and I find the given reasons to be interesting, if not incredible. They say the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances, which therefore fall outside of the relevant legislation.

The extraordinary circumstances alleged were as follows:

"...the flight was delayed as during landing of the inbound aircraft, warning messages came to light advising of vibrations in engine number 2. Our engineers investigated the problem, through various troubleshooting. After using specialist equipment to look deep inside the engine, accidental damage was found to the engine blades resulting in engine number 2 needing complete replacement..."

My questions would be:

(1) what time and date did the incoming aircraft land at LGW, as this is when the problem was allegedly flagged? The database on this v-flyer site does not go back that far - can anyone assist with the info please?

(2) why were we allowed to board the aircraft when the need for a maintenance investigation had already been signalled upon landing from its previous service?

(3) could G-VTOP have been deployed as a substitute sooner than 5 hours after VS15's scheduled departure?

If I seem like a dissenting voice within a VA fan club here, I really don't mean to be. VA is still our airline of choice. We have been flying with them since they started, and already have 2 separate trips to MCO booked this year, one consisting of 11 family members. We are silver members of the flying club.

I am left feeling they have fobbed us off.

[buns]

East

Thanks for your account and reminding me of a journey that I am once about to embark upon again - only this time no drive to St Petes Beach - so hopefully no repetition

Obviously, my take on the whole thing was that VS did their best to get us to our destination on the day albeit very, very late and one could counter argue that sending a plane the next day would have cost VS a lot more with putting people up and so on, so it was in their best interests to get the Flight off the ground.

At the time I thought it was not worth putting a claim in and your experience seems to tell I did the right thing - to me the response you got does not surprise me as that the the Customer Service front line response

Only too sorry that I had already used up my complementary invites to the CH that day

buns

East,

With the EU recently saying that technical problems aren't automatically extraordinary circumstances, and the fact they say there was "accidental damage" sounds like there might be a case to push it. That language sounds to me like it was an engineer lent on the wrong thing or something.

Could be worth asking what the damage was and what caused it.

But VS can be quite determind not to pay, as with all other airlines for that matter.

My questions would be:

(1) what time and date did the incoming aircraft land at LGW, as this is when the problem was allegedly flagged? The database on this v-flyer site does not go back that far - can anyone assist with the info please?

(2) why were we allowed to board the aircraft when the need for a maintenance investigation had already been signalled upon landing from its previous service?

(3) could G-VTOP have been deployed as a substitute sooner than 5 hours after VS15's scheduled departure?

Welcome to the site East. I am sorry you had a poor experience and have a great deal of sympathy with you. Just to address your specific questions:

1. Not sure but would guess it was that morning -- the VS fleet is worked pretty hard.
2. Probably because they thought they would be able to fix it and get you away swiftly -- given that they have food that will spoil, cargo and baggage to load, and crew that can go out of hours, they have to plan ahead and guess -- and here they got it wrong, unfortunately.
3. Possibly, but switching aircraft is not a trivial matter -- and unfortunately at LGW they would most probably not have a suitable alternative just standing by ready at a gate, as they sometimes do at LHR. It does take time to do it.

I realise these answers are not very helpful -- I am just trying to explain that the airline would have faced its own difficulties that morning and some of them are pretty much unavoidable when an aircraft has a problem. I am not defending the way it was handled or the compensation issue.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

I don't know what buns' impression was, but I had the distinct feeling the maintenance work was requisitioned by our captain, only as a function of his departure checks, and not by the previous crew who first saw the warning. This indicates a delay caused by VA.

I shall invite the CAA to take a look at the correspondence, although they appear to be swamped at the moment.

buns, have a better trip this time. Our final destination on that last trip was Marco Island, 4 hours drive from MCO, but we had already decided on an overnight in Orlando. Just didn't realise we would not be in bed until 02:00 (i.e. 07:00 GMT!).

If I seem like a dissenting voice within a VA fan club here

Have you seen our posts? Some of the most dissenting voices on Virgin are here, please don't think this is a fan club. Like you get on Apple forums!

If I seem like a dissenting voice within a VA fan club here

Have you seen our posts? Some of the most dissenting voices on Virgin are here, please don't think this is a fan club. Like you get on Apple forums!

To be honest I arrived here when I was searching for a database to find the historic itinerary for the faulty aircraft, and that took me to this particular thread.

The posts here seemed fairly complimentary of the airline and its staff in the context of the original poster's flight report, and I was perhaps overly apologetic in saying that it did not altogether mirror my experience.

Thanks for a smashing TR, I have always said to some VA detractors its not what goes wrong that is the measure of good service but the manner in which what has gone wrong is handled. Well done to the VA team .

Thanks for a smashing TR, I have always said to some VA detractors its not what goes wrong that is the measure of good service but the manner in which what has gone wrong is handled. Well done to the VA team .

If I seem like a dissenting voice within a VA fan club here

Have you seen our posts? Some of the most dissenting voices on Virgin are here, please don't think this is a fan club. Like you get on Apple forums!

To be honest I arrived here when I was searching for a database to find the historic itinerary for the faulty aircraft, and that took me to this particular thread.

The posts here seemed fairly complimentary of the airline and its staff in the context of the original poster's flight report, and I was perhaps overly apologetic in saying that it did not altogether mirror my experience.

You can feel free to criticise (Have you seen my H-Class thread?), and you can also expect some defenders, but it's all good natured. And actually, your post was a very interesting flipside.

Have we had two TR from the same flight before?

Thanks for a smashing TR, I have always said to some VA detractors its not what goes wrong that is the measure of good service but the manner in which what has gone wrong is handled. Well done to the VA team .

My guess is EGG read the initial TR that your comments are flowing on from.

Gotta say East, I'm sorry to read of your experience. Sounds like VS really dropped the ball on this one for all but their UC pax... pity

I suppose we are a VS fan club of sorts.. we all take the time to swap stories and comment on various VS experiences over the years. Don't worry though, VS def get raked over the coals a fair amount by us and they also get their praise when it is due. The differing ways that you and buns were treated in this mess only underlines the biggest gripe of all..... inconstancy!!

I do hope that VS customer service reads these forums as I am fairly certain any comments directed at corporate get a stock reply and then end up either in a burn bag or the shredder.. they do for me at least

Cheers for posting your experiences and do keep them coming

Have we had two TR from the same flight before?

Yes

(1) what time and date did the incoming aircraft land at LGW, as this is when the problem was allegedly flagged? The database on this v-flyer site does not go back that far - can anyone assist with the info please?

Just to add to my earlier post... I did some research -- G-VAST landed at 1040 that morning, having just operated the VS44 from LAS.

(1) what time and date did the incoming aircraft land at LGW, as this is when the problem was allegedly flagged? The database on this v-flyer site does not go back that far - can anyone assist with the info please?

Just to add to my earlier post... I did some research -- G-VAST landed at 1040 that morning, having just operated the VS44 from LAS.

OK, thanks for that at240. So, the maintenance crew was called to the aircraft approximately 140 minutes after the warning message appeared on the flight deck. I'm surprised they have effectively admitted this. Ironically - and I'm sure buns will recall this - the captain of VS15 said that other airlines may override this type of warning, but VA takes passenger safety very seriously. Seemingly the captain of the incoming VS44 had a different view...

Ah well, VS15 again on April 8th and then again on November 8th, so we'll be looking forward to resumption of normal service.