tuapekastar
In memoriam
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2005
- Posts
- 4,424
Okay, some might say they never had any in the first place 
, but I've been 99% happy and impressed since starting to fly DJ last year, especially so with MEL-PER A330 flights in J. Prior to the weekend I had taken 2 returns to PER (one via SYD) using comp upgrades and was very impressed both times, with the service, food, FA attitudes, pretty much everything. It is worth noting that at least 3 (maybe all 4, cannot recall) of these flights had only 5 to 8 pax in a 27-seat cabin. This was not the case this weekend just gone, and maybe that is relevant here.
This is not a whinge session (the sky certainly did not fall in), just some observations with a view to trying to see if there may be some sort of trend (I just coincidentally noticed Cruiser Elite's post in Open Discussion re his recent VA international experience) or whether my experience was one-off.
I had a small excuse to go to PER and that was all I needed. Points and pay one way, flexi fare and comp upgrade the other!
Booked OK only 5 days out, that was a plus having the relevant inventory available.
First minor disappointment was the sub for PER-MEL from new config 330 to old config 330 - I have not been able to crack it yet for a new one.
Still, no big deal. Selected 2D out, and 2F back (banking on 2E remaining unsold).
MEL lounge was fine, plane was late getting to gate, maybe a 30 minute delay. No worries for me, and we ended up landing a little early anyway. Got on board and into my seat with no fuss. And sat there for an eternity while FAs seemed to randomly scuttle around the cabin delivering bits and pieces to different pax. Eventually someone came to me with drinks and I took a glass of fizz, which was OK. I noticed a large pile of newspapers being offered down the RH aisle, but they never made to the LH aisle where I was. Around door-shut time an FA handed me an amenity kit - sort of like an afterthought. I got no menu though, and in hindsight should have asked for it then, because the next time I saw the FA was when she approached me, pen and paper in hand to see what I had chosen for lunch and to drink. I had to inform her that she had not actually given me a menu - she did not offer to get one, just quickly reeled off the choices, which of course means you have no time to consider what you want, nor get the complete picture of what is available (accompaniments etc.)
I chose the tandoori lamb entree (OK, but not great), and was offered beef cheek, snapper or a vege option for main. I chose snapper because they never stuff up fish - or so I thought! In all honesty I wasn't initially even sure I had received fish! I eat snapper a bit at home and this piece of tasteless, very dry, tough-as-old-boots thing that was dished up bore no resemblance and was almost inedible. This coming from someone who cannot recall the last I did not finish an airline meal - it is very difficult to serve me a meal I won't finish, but they managed it here. Ate some accompaniments and tried several bites of the alleged fish but that was all I could manage. Dessert was OK whatever it was. I had a quick browse of 2F's menu, but did not ask the FA for one, as I noticed it contained Eastbound and Westbound menus, so I figured I'd just get one on the return trip (I should have known better).
Drinks were fine (though she served me the red I didn't choose) and the rest of the trip was uneventful. On previous trips the CSM had always come around at some stage to individually thank the pax for flying VA, even shaking my hand a couple of times. I can live without any of that stuff, don't need it, but just noting it as a difference here, in that it did not occur.
As noted earlier the J cabin for my previous trips had been lightly loaded, maybe 5 to 8 pax each time. This time we had about 15 or 16 - not full but still a considerable increase, and I wonder if this contributed to the service differences and possibly the state of the fish. Oh and as an aside, the guy across the aisle was not happy re not being able to 'free upgrade' someone travelling with him. From the snippets I caught, my best guess is he wanted to use a comp upgrade for them, but was told there were 'no seats'. And he gets on and sees 11 or 12 empty seats. I suspect appropriate inventory availability was his problem.
The return trip was running 30 minutes late as well, no big deal. However I got quite a surprise when I got to the end of the bridge and saw through the window a red plane :shock: The plane downgrade had gone from new 330 to old 330 and now to a 738! Now 27 seats into 8 do not go - it probably would not have been a full J cabin on the 330, but almost certainly more than 8. I had heard a couple of women with some small kids at the gate talking to each other about 'a downgrade' - I suspect they had been shuffled behind the curtain. I was fortunate enough to have 2F which exists in J on both configs. I have no idea how they select the people to miss out on J in these situations (I checked in on the totem pole at the airport), but I imagine having a seat which exists as J in both planes may help in this regard.
This may or may not have had anything to do with the crew, but the FA seemed to know immediately she saw my seat number, that the seat was occupied by someone else. She motioned to the guy that he would need to move, and he seemed to be expecting it. I stopped him as he stood up and said is this (indicating 2D on the aisle) your assigned seat, and he said yes it was. So I said I'm happy in the aisle if you want the window, and he thanked me and sat back down in 2F, and I took 2D. Two minutes later the 'real' 2D arrived, so I had to turf the window guy and move into 2F myself. I suspect a lot of confusion existed after the plane downsize, but I did specifically ask the original guy if 2D was his (I didn't even notice where he ended up, across the aisle I think).
So now that it was a 738 there no pre-takeoff fizz, and no menu of any description (but damn sure I won't be ordering the alleged snapper in future
). The meal was quite nice (a chorizo bake sort of thing) though there was no butter for the roll. Drinks kept coming (only one red available but it was OK). Got a digeplyer and watched some sci-fi thing.
Plane subs happen, and while sometimes it is disappointing (this case, and say a 747 for a 380) I can live with that and got home in one piece, fed and watered (not sure I would been happy ending up somewhere back in Y though, compo or not). And the little lapses in service and food can happen from time to time and individually they are no big deal, and there were not many.
But really, and this is the nub, the crew just seemed somewhat flustered, overwhelmed, and a bit ragged, struggling to cope, especially on the outbound. The inbound flight being late to the gate may have contributed, but that happens all the time. I'm wondering if they cannot handle reasonably full J cabins on the large planes, or whether as the thread title alludes to, maybe the honeymoon is over and this standard of service and food may become the norm. I certainly hope not, I have bye and large enjoyed (very much so, in fact) my DJ experiences in the past and will definitely be using my comp upgrades for transcon again sometime, in the hope that this weekend was an exception.
, but I've been 99% happy and impressed since starting to fly DJ last year, especially so with MEL-PER A330 flights in J. Prior to the weekend I had taken 2 returns to PER (one via SYD) using comp upgrades and was very impressed both times, with the service, food, FA attitudes, pretty much everything. It is worth noting that at least 3 (maybe all 4, cannot recall) of these flights had only 5 to 8 pax in a 27-seat cabin. This was not the case this weekend just gone, and maybe that is relevant here.This is not a whinge session (the sky certainly did not fall in), just some observations with a view to trying to see if there may be some sort of trend (I just coincidentally noticed Cruiser Elite's post in Open Discussion re his recent VA international experience) or whether my experience was one-off.
I had a small excuse to go to PER and that was all I needed. Points and pay one way, flexi fare and comp upgrade the other!
Booked OK only 5 days out, that was a plus having the relevant inventory available.
First minor disappointment was the sub for PER-MEL from new config 330 to old config 330 - I have not been able to crack it yet for a new one.
Still, no big deal. Selected 2D out, and 2F back (banking on 2E remaining unsold).MEL lounge was fine, plane was late getting to gate, maybe a 30 minute delay. No worries for me, and we ended up landing a little early anyway. Got on board and into my seat with no fuss. And sat there for an eternity while FAs seemed to randomly scuttle around the cabin delivering bits and pieces to different pax. Eventually someone came to me with drinks and I took a glass of fizz, which was OK. I noticed a large pile of newspapers being offered down the RH aisle, but they never made to the LH aisle where I was. Around door-shut time an FA handed me an amenity kit - sort of like an afterthought. I got no menu though, and in hindsight should have asked for it then, because the next time I saw the FA was when she approached me, pen and paper in hand to see what I had chosen for lunch and to drink. I had to inform her that she had not actually given me a menu - she did not offer to get one, just quickly reeled off the choices, which of course means you have no time to consider what you want, nor get the complete picture of what is available (accompaniments etc.)
I chose the tandoori lamb entree (OK, but not great), and was offered beef cheek, snapper or a vege option for main. I chose snapper because they never stuff up fish - or so I thought! In all honesty I wasn't initially even sure I had received fish! I eat snapper a bit at home and this piece of tasteless, very dry, tough-as-old-boots thing that was dished up bore no resemblance and was almost inedible. This coming from someone who cannot recall the last I did not finish an airline meal - it is very difficult to serve me a meal I won't finish, but they managed it here. Ate some accompaniments and tried several bites of the alleged fish but that was all I could manage. Dessert was OK whatever it was. I had a quick browse of 2F's menu, but did not ask the FA for one, as I noticed it contained Eastbound and Westbound menus, so I figured I'd just get one on the return trip (I should have known better
).Drinks were fine (though she served me the red I didn't choose) and the rest of the trip was uneventful. On previous trips the CSM had always come around at some stage to individually thank the pax for flying VA, even shaking my hand a couple of times. I can live without any of that stuff, don't need it, but just noting it as a difference here, in that it did not occur.
As noted earlier the J cabin for my previous trips had been lightly loaded, maybe 5 to 8 pax each time. This time we had about 15 or 16 - not full but still a considerable increase, and I wonder if this contributed to the service differences and possibly the state of the fish. Oh and as an aside, the guy across the aisle was not happy re not being able to 'free upgrade' someone travelling with him. From the snippets I caught, my best guess is he wanted to use a comp upgrade for them, but was told there were 'no seats'. And he gets on and sees 11 or 12 empty seats. I suspect appropriate inventory availability was his problem.
The return trip was running 30 minutes late as well, no big deal. However I got quite a surprise when I got to the end of the bridge and saw through the window a red plane :shock: The plane downgrade had gone from new 330 to old 330 and now to a 738! Now 27 seats into 8 do not go - it probably would not have been a full J cabin on the 330, but almost certainly more than 8. I had heard a couple of women with some small kids at the gate talking to each other about 'a downgrade' - I suspect they had been shuffled behind the curtain. I was fortunate enough to have 2F which exists in J on both configs. I have no idea how they select the people to miss out on J in these situations (I checked in on the totem pole at the airport), but I imagine having a seat which exists as J in both planes may help in this regard.
This may or may not have had anything to do with the crew, but the FA seemed to know immediately she saw my seat number, that the seat was occupied by someone else. She motioned to the guy that he would need to move, and he seemed to be expecting it. I stopped him as he stood up and said is this (indicating 2D on the aisle) your assigned seat, and he said yes it was. So I said I'm happy in the aisle if you want the window, and he thanked me and sat back down in 2F, and I took 2D. Two minutes later the 'real' 2D arrived, so I had to turf the window guy and move into 2F myself. I suspect a lot of confusion existed after the plane downsize, but I did specifically ask the original guy if 2D was his (I didn't even notice where he ended up, across the aisle I think).
So now that it was a 738 there no pre-takeoff fizz, and no menu of any description (but damn sure I won't be ordering the alleged snapper in future
). The meal was quite nice (a chorizo bake sort of thing) though there was no butter for the roll. Drinks kept coming (only one red available but it was OK). Got a digeplyer and watched some sci-fi thing.Plane subs happen, and while sometimes it is disappointing (this case, and say a 747 for a 380) I can live with that and got home in one piece, fed and watered (not sure I would been happy ending up somewhere back in Y though, compo or not). And the little lapses in service and food can happen from time to time and individually they are no big deal, and there were not many.
But really, and this is the nub, the crew just seemed somewhat flustered, overwhelmed, and a bit ragged, struggling to cope, especially on the outbound. The inbound flight being late to the gate may have contributed, but that happens all the time. I'm wondering if they cannot handle reasonably full J cabins on the large planes, or whether as the thread title alludes to, maybe the honeymoon is over and this standard of service and food may become the norm. I certainly hope not, I have bye and large enjoyed (very much so, in fact) my DJ experiences in the past and will definitely be using my comp upgrades for transcon again sometime, in the hope that this weekend was an exception.
