Virgin America Elevate - First VX flight in F - ordering food/weird experience?

Hey all,

Had my first VX flight in F on the IAD-LAX route. Weirdly enough, I've probably had better service in MCS (maybe this was a fluke?) mostly because the flight attendant for F seemed to disappear promptly after the meal service and turn off all the lights in the front cabin (there were 5 of us in F, and 4 of us were obviously awake, so that struck me as odd). I tried ordering food on Red like I would in MCS, but that didn't seem to be an option. It just asked me to contact a flight attendant. Was the machine broken?

I then tried pressing the flight attendant call button (first time I've ever done that) but no one noticed. I jumped out of my seat and found all the FAs in the Y galley, who didn't seem too happy to see me ask for another snack. I got up one more time for another drink (after trying to play around with Red... because I felt like I must've done something wrong!) and was met with the same none-too-happy FAs.

I really like VX MCS, so I thought I'd like F a lot. While the seat itself is nice, I'm pretty sure these aren't standard service procedures. I'd like to give them another shot because this might've just been a tired crew, but I might be sticking to MCS in the future. Also--are you unable to order food from the screen in F, or was my machine just broken?

Thanks for reading this. Sorry if some of this has been covered before!

No the RED does not allow first class passengers to make their beverage and snack orders because in the perfect scenario, the F/A should be checking on passengers frequently! VX is also one of the few airlines that encourage you to use the call buttons if you need anything!

They should also have set up a snack basket in F galley especially on a long flight!

Please email VX about this poor experience! I also think VX should allow passengers to order meals and drinks in first class because not every FA will do runs!

Hope you will have a nicer flight next time!

Carfield

Your experience is the same as mine on a few VX flights in F. Most of the time, however, the F service and attitude is good.

I would also like to see "Red" available in F.

Hey all,

Had my first VX flight in F on the IAD-LAX route. Weirdly enough, I've probably had better service in MCS (maybe this was a fluke?) mostly because the flight attendant for F seemed to disappear promptly after the meal service and turn off all the lights in the front cabin (there were 5 of us in F, and 4 of us were obviously awake, so that struck me as odd). I tried ordering food on Red like I would in MCS, but that didn't seem to be an option. It just asked me to contact a flight attendant. Was the machine broken?

I then tried pressing the flight attendant call button (first time I've ever done that) but no one noticed. I jumped out of my seat and found all the FAs in the Y galley, who didn't seem too happy to see me ask for another snack. I got up one more time for another drink (after trying to play around with Red... because I felt like I must've done something wrong!) and was met with the same none-too-happy FAs.

I really like VX MCS, so I thought I'd like F a lot. While the seat itself is nice, I'm pretty sure these aren't standard service procedures. I'd like to give them another shot because this might've just been a tired crew, but I might be sticking to MCS in the future. Also--are you unable to order food from the screen in F, or was my machine just broken?

Thanks for reading this. Sorry if some of this has been covered before!

Definitely sounds like you got an unusually bad crew. All the FAs on my FLL - LAX/SFO flights have been very pleasant and hard working even when F is often fully booked.

Was this a redeye flight? I had a similar SFO/JFK experience. I used the call bell.

Was this a redeye flight? I had a similar SFO/JFK experience. I used the call bell.

This was an afternoon/evening IAD-LAX flight. I could see more reason for this happening on a red-eye maybe, but not so much afternoon/evening.

So today, VX wrote back to me and said that I could have used the FA call bell and order food on the screen (but I think all of us established that you can't do this in F, so it's probably a computer talking to me). If someone responded to the call bell, that would've been alright too, but I guess people were asleep at the switch.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll hope for a better crew next time... and if I don't get one, this is probably a much better thing to be unlucky about than anything else I can think of at the moment. :D