Virgin Atlantic May/June 2003

[Lee Somerton]

Just a note to say that we have used Virgin Atlantic (independently and in conjunction with Virgin Holidays) for many trips to the U.S. and Caribbean and the service to Tobago was comparable to the standard of those flights.

Once comment: The check-in/chill-out facility at the Rex Turtle Beach was quite a stressful element at the end of a stress-free holiday. No announcements were made regarding either the security check or check-in queues and the procedure took about one hour to complete.

As Silver Flying Club members, we are normally entitled to Premium Economy check-in (very useful if you’ve seen the Economy lines at Gatwick/Heathrow and, particularly, at Antigua’s V.C. Bird airport at the height of check-in). No such system operates with check-in/chill-out. I am sure the procedure is quicker than waiting at the airport for Economy line passengers. However, I am also convinced that it is much slower for passengers who would normally queue in the Premium Economy and Upper Class lines.

That said, I believe the actual procedure was intended to be that we sit in the lounge and wait for a Virgin Atlantic representative come to us but as soon as the three representatives arrived, most of the people who had already dealt with the security questions bundled around them and so the queuing began again.

Still, the pickup from the hotel to the airport was not until 7.00pm so we had a whole day after check-in to indeed chill-out (made much better by the fact that we kept our room right up to departure).

Cheers...

[Lee Somerton]

I forgot to mention that, although the service was as expected, both the outgoing and return flights had the lowest level of entertainment that Virgin Atlantic provide, i.e. 8 rolling video channels, radio and no games.

Whilst this was adequate for the journeys (especially the night flight as lower selection means less distractions from sleeping!), having used their brand new system in Economy on another plane that allows on-demand selection of movies/tv/games/music, I can't wait until this has been rolled-out to all of their planes.

Cheers...