I'm a relatively critical AS 75k who recently flew his first three legs on VX. Wanted to share some observations and also to ask if these are normal.
Hard product. The planes look worn on the inside. On two of my seats, the leather upholstery had exposed foam on the side seams--one small one large. The seats themselves are more comfortable than the AS FC seats, but two (not the same two as had the upholstery damage) did not function correctly and none of the tray tables were properly cleaned. One, the "motors were out" and the FA had to help me adjust its recline. The upper part on the other worked fine, but the foot-rest would not move. Also, the reading light's "gooseneck" was worn out and it kept flopping. All three planes had somewhat dirty carpeting and the clear partitions were abraded. Similar to Alaska, Main Cabin passengers weren't discouraged from using the forward lav when the aisles were clear of carts. This may have contributed to the lavs being uniformly dirty, with debris on the floor, even right after take-off. That said, all the seats were incredibly comfortable and well padded and I loved the recline!
Update: As pointed out below, the seat condition is a known issue with the VX 319s.
Boarding: The cabin lighting reminded me a lot of B6's Mint--in a good way--but B6 keeps the cabin a lot brighter during boarding/deplaning. The lowered lighting on VX combined with keeping the shades down made the cabin quite dark. My seat-mate dropped his black phone and had a hard time finding it.
Food: The food is stellar for airplane food and more on par with international than domestic offerings. I've only ever had better domestic meals in First on AA's LAX-JFK transcons. Special shout out to the Miso Black Cod that was cooked perfectly and the standard scotch being something other than Dewer's.
Note: I've been on about 10 more segments since I returned from this trip and none of their catering was as good as VX.
Service: I was disappointed. I was consistently one of the last to be a) served drinks b) asked what entrée I preferred c) have my tray bussed. I initially assumed that this was deliberate and malicious on the part of the FAs as I overheard those being served before me being thanked for their loyalty but I, and the other AS elite, not getting acknowledged as we were served last. I posted as much and had the serving order explained:
It was deliberate but NOT malicious. VX serves based on fare paid and elite level with serving order going: Elevate Gold Full Fare, Elevate Silver Full Fare, Non-Elevate Full Fare, Elevate Gold Upgrade, etc. I've been informed that while AS status will be on the manifests in the future, currently AS elites show as non-status. Given that VX elites receive VX elite benefits on AS metal, this is more upsetting than when I thought it was VX FAs going rogue. However, I do not fault the VX FAs for this as they were simply following procedure.
Note: The info that AS status is missing from the manifests and the details on service order are from VXCabinCrew.
What it does not explain is why, on one flight, I had to bus my own tray. I had finished my meal, there was no food left on the tray and my glass was empty, and was ready to start working on my laptop. The tray was never cleared, although the FA walked past a few times and cleared other pax trays without them flagging her down. Initially, I was reading while waiting but by the time I'd finished my chapter and urgently needed to get to work, she was helping out in main cabin. So, I cleared it myself.
Finally, on one flight I was bulkhead aisle and my seat mate boarded relatively late. I put my briefcase and rollaboard in the bin, and took my seat. There was ample room remaining for my seat mate. When he boarded, he has two rollaboards and put one in the open space I'd left. Then he took my roll aboard down and put his second one up where mine had been. I asked him to put my suitcase back up but he ignored me and took his seat. I was then told by the FA that my bag had to be stowed. I tried to explain that it had been stowed but had been removed by another pax and now there was no room for it. She then tells me that it'll have to be put further back in the cabin, in the first open space but that I could access it inflight. When I mentioned that mine had been there first and that my seatmate's should be moved instead, she responded that I shouldn't worry because my bag was close by in row 8 and that the gentleman who had moved my bag was a valued Elevate member. I'm not sure if she just didn't see him move my bag/didn't believe me or what, but I'm still bothered by this. This particular passenger also raised his window shade every about 30-45 minutes for periods of a minute or two while we were at cruising altitude. This was jarring as every other shade in FC was down and with the mood lighting making for a dark cabin.
Passengers: I was unimpressed by the passengers in FC on VX, I understand that the airline has no control over the personalities but the VX FC pax seemed especially unpleasant. In addition to the passenger above, the most egregious was a young(ish) man who, when they called FC boarding, elbowed his way to the front of the line, cutting in front of most of the queued FC PAX. He was loudly on his phone right up until liftoff and a lot of what he said was personal comments about the other passengers. The most offensive (and ironic) was him loudly discussing the size of two slightly chubby young ladies who were in earshot. He kept referring to them as "heifers" and talking about how he couldn't believe their behinds (not his word, he used something much more vulgar) could even fit in the seats. They weren't very big and, ironically, he was large enough to require an extender!
My takeaway is that:
- The food is far superior to AS.
- The seats in theory are better than AS, but in practice you should avoid the VX 319s.
- The general cleanliness and upkeep is worse than AS. I'm going to speculate for a moment. I think things are going to get worse on the older airframes (like the 319s and the older 320-200s) as their leases start expiring in about 18 months and they'll likely only get the bare minimum of upkeep until they're gone. The newer 320-200s and the 321neos are probably a safer bet as they'll still be around through 2025+.
- The service, if you are a VX elite, is better than AS. If you're an AS elite, it'll get better once the manifests are updated. If you're a regular pax, you just have to hope that there are few elites on board.
UPDATE: Received a wholly unexpected call from VX tonight--glad they read the forums! I am very surprised by this because the in-person response to my concerns but VX was that nobody was forcing me to fly VX and the over-the-phone response was equally fruitless. Couldn't talk right then as I was about to jump on a conference call but they're calling back tomorrow to discuss and I will update with results. I've also taken this opportunity to clean up some of the more emotional language (I was pretty pissed off when I wrote this) but without removing any of the facts.