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Your entire A330 transcon gourmet "The Business" dinner choice tonight is CARROT SOUP

Your entire A330 transcon gourmet "The Business" dinner choice tonight is CARROT SOUP

Old Mar 15, 2016, 6:12 am
  #16  
 
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Pathetic complainers

Originally Posted by mad_atta
I agree it's a bit poor, but I don't think it's a complete outrage - after all it's a late evening redeye flight of less than 4 hours actual flying time (block time is 4h 10min), for which one proper meal (breakfast) *is* served. It's far from unheard of on other airlines with short, late-night departure redeyes in premium classes to have only the breakfast served without any real alternative option. At least VA does give you some kind of option: the soup + chicken + bread + dessert is at least a passable light supper, and could be augmented by the pantry offering (if only your FA wasn't too lazy to offer it).

On that flight, I think the vast majority of pax would want to go straight to sleep, so VA's offering reflects that. It seems to me that the FA's handling of the situation is the main problem here... though I agree that given VA focus on high quality food as a differentiator, they could have tried a bit harder.

On the other hand, I'm interested (and heartened) to read that you rated the breakfast highly. When I flew the route in the middle of last year, the SYD-PER breakfast was utterly lacklustre, while the PER-SYD dinner (on the mid-afternoon departure) was sensational. Service from the FAs was exemplary on both, as it happens. I'm flying it again on the same flights in a couple of weeks time, and was not particularly looking forward to the breakfast offering, but based on your account I'm hopeful it has actually improved. What was on offer for your SYD-PER flight?

Oh you're kidding aren't you?
The way the lounge guests Hoover down the food and wine as if they've never seen food before and go to lengths to get their 'value for money' is embarrassing. The true high tier frequent flier isn't interested in dining onboard as sleep or work or just rest is far more beneficial than stuffing your face
The value you get is the comfort factor , room to move and priority - on a less than 4 hour red eye flight what are you wanting ? To pig out for the entire flight with the lights on just so you get your 'value for money'? You have economy class first time flier mentality. I bet too you use points from your company paid ticket to upgrade into business!! You fork out the cost of the ticket yourself?
Pathetic!
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Old Mar 15, 2016, 7:44 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by marhaba
You have economy class first time flier mentality.
What an "interesting" first post. I bet Admin will find a match to another handle here, if they check the IP's.

You might be right of course. And you might not be. The opinions of a one post troll are of little interest to me actually.

Originally Posted by ozstamps

Ive flown over three million airmiles in my life, near all of it in premium cabins, on pretty much the full gamut of global carriers. So I have a good idea of what is 'normal'.
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Old Mar 15, 2016, 8:51 am
  #18  
 
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I am not surprised by this negative reaction. Virgin Aus are clearly keeping all their costs down by any means possible. On holiday in Aus, we went from Sydney to Cairns. My bag went to Hobart. I have never been so badly treated by an airline losing my bag. (I have travelled a lot, and lost a few bags during that time). The long story is too long and awful. Terminological inexactitudes, broken promises, not answering phone calls, you name it, they got it wrong. It is very difficult being on the other side of the world from home with no baggage. Refusal of any sort of restoration of anything.
I would avoid them. The place is clearly run by the beancounters, and customers are not high in their list of priorities.
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Old Mar 15, 2016, 11:22 am
  #19  
 
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Thank you

Originally Posted by markis10
Some people cannot see the Forrest for the trees, sigh.

The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution. Paul Cezanne.


If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy. Thich Nhat Hanh
😂😂😂😂😂 Thank you for this reply - I needed a good laugh today!
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Old Mar 15, 2016, 1:06 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by ozstamps
What an "interesting" first post. I bet Admin will find a match to another handle here, if they check the IP's.

You might be right of course. And you might not be. The opinions of a one post troll are of little interest to me actually.
Hey ozstamps, great handling of a troll that was directly going against your opinion on the (lack of) service offered on the flight.

Whilst agree that most people would probably want to get on board and gat to sleep ASAP, there will always be a small sub-set of passengers who have not had the opportunity to have had dinner prior to boarding, and who need to be fed something more substantial than carrot soup (and what if you don't like carrots anyway?)

It was clearly inappropriate, and your reaction is probably something along the lines of what I would have done.

After all, not every flyer is working on the same time zone as the flight.

Dave
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Old Mar 15, 2016, 2:12 pm
  #21  
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The more I think about this the more it seems the FA was trying to avoid having to work as much as possible. No mention of the chicken. No real reference to the 'Pantry' menu. I wonder how much sleep they got?

I do hope ozstamps that you put in a complaint to VA. Reference the specific (now known) service failures - at least the FA may find the likely follow up discussion with a supervisor uncomfortable.
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Old Mar 15, 2016, 5:48 pm
  #22  
 
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Quick question; was a full breakfast offered on this flight before landing?

If yes, I can quite understand why there was only a snack available after departure. If you look at the 7 hour overnight flights on SQ J to Australia, there is really only one service offered. Either a quick meal on departure or a breakfast service.
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 4:34 am
  #23  
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Originally Posted by MEL-World
Quick question; was a full breakfast offered on this flight before landing?

If yes, I can quite understand why there was only a snack available after departure. If you look at the 7 hour overnight flights on SQ J to Australia, there is really only one service offered. Either a quick meal on departure or a breakfast service.
The real problem here was the reported poor attitude of the FA, not the catering on the red-eye.
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 4:44 am
  #24  
 
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Reminds me of when 1 hour and 23 minutes in Pam-Ann grilled the Virgin Atlantic FA about their Upper Class menu and all they had was Carrot & Coriander Soup - Im sensing the Virgin group of airlines is trying to appeal to the bogans and team with the theme on VA

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Old Mar 16, 2016, 6:05 am
  #25  
 
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The PER-SYD red-eye is usually pretty quick. I have done it in 3.5-4 hours. I do prefer sleep, but still carrot soup is just a bit too low, even for Economy, let alone Business.

They should at least offer pies or pasties etc. or small pizzas.

That's why normally I normally stuff myself with food at the lounge before shortish overnight flights (eg SQ231 SIN-SYD) and go to sleep straight away after takeoff.
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 7:35 am
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by thadocta
Hey ozstamps, great handling of a troll that was directly going against your opinion on the (lack of) service offered on the flight.
Shame he didn't respond to my non-troll post that also differed with his opinion - perhaps he was too busy adding to his awesome total of over three million airmiles flown

Originally Posted by MEL-World
Quick question; was a full breakfast offered on this flight before landing?

If yes, I can quite understand why there was only a snack available after departure. If you look at the 7 hour overnight flights on SQ J to Australia, there is really only one service offered. Either a quick meal on departure or a breakfast service.
My point exactly. While I don't love this as an approach, VA is far from alone in this.

Originally Posted by serfty
The real problem here was the reported poor attitude of the FA, not the catering on the red-eye.
Agreed. And why they didn't hand out menus (which would also list the pantry options) is a mystery.
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 1:46 pm
  #27  
 
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Considering the time of departure and the length of haul, the offer of soup and light breakfast doesn't seem unusual. Most pax would have already eaten dinner, so if a full-on, multi-course dinner had to be catered for all pax, there'd be a lot of waste. Frustrating of course if this back of clock flight was marketed as offering a full dinner service. Flew SIN-SYD in SQ F Suites a few months back and was quite surprised by how limited the food offering was.
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Old Mar 17, 2016, 7:50 am
  #28  
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Originally Posted by SFO_FT
Considering the time of departure and the length of haul, the offer of soup and light breakfast doesn't seem unusual. Most pax would have already eaten dinner, so if a full-on, multi-course dinner had to be catered for all pax, there'd be a lot of waste. Frustrating of course if this back of clock flight was marketed as offering a full dinner service. Flew SIN-SYD in SQ F Suites a few months back and was quite surprised by how limited the food offering was.
I would agree. It's all in the expectations, and perhaps that's where the marketing fails.

I hate it when airlines try to stuff me with food in the early AM and the have a feeble breakfast, then again I hate red eyes, yet still keep booking them. What's the definition of a fool......

I flew the mid morning departure ex PER this morning and very much enjoyed the food, coming of a multi leg J flight in Business to Asia and the Middle East, it was somewhat ironic that the best flight when it comes to comfort and food would be a domestic leg. Cest la vie.
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Old Mar 17, 2016, 7:57 pm
  #29  
 
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Question

Originally Posted by serfty
The real problem here was the reported poor attitude of the FA, not the catering on the red-eye.
Sorry; I must have misread the title of the Thread. I thought it had to do with Carrot Soup.
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Old Mar 17, 2016, 7:57 pm
  #30  
 
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The VA website appears to note the different service levels offered http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en...stic/#business
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