Friday 13 June 2014

Virgin Premium Economy Flight

After spending 16 days in glorious Florida it was time for our flight home. Boo!

I knew I had to try and eat at least one proper meal before our flight just in case I had to rely on snacks until I got home. As I said in my previous post about Cookes of Dublin, We decided to stop at Downtown Disney to grab a quick scallop & chips take away on the way to the airport. That was me happy. I'd also baked a Daiya pizza while still at the villa and sliced it up to put in my bag Incas I needed a quick safe snack.

Flying home we were in the Premium Economy cabin. After a pretty good experience in Upper Class on our flight out I was interested to see how Premium Economy differed. As I said in my first post, I'd notified Virgin Special Assistance of my intolerance's before flying and they'd noted it on my booking. 

Early on in the flight we were served an evening meal. I was more than pleased that they had remembered my details and I was given a tray with my meal marked with my name and Dairy, Egg and Gluten free. I received a rice cake instead of bread. It was just a plain one with a small tub of butter alternative. I received a leafy salad with some lemon oil dressing for my starter. It was ok as far as lettuce and a tomato goes. My main course was lemon chicken with rice and veg. I was happy with this, nothing special but tasted nice and was filling enough. For dessert I was back to a fruit salad. Yes boring but again safe and filled a little sweet hole. Over all I was happy enough with what I was given. 


Towards the end of the flight we were served breakfast. I didn't quite have a positive experience with this. I was served a Gluten Free meal and possibly Dairy Free (it wasn't marked like my earlier meal) but I think it also covered vegetarian as it was Scrambled Egg (no good for me), Spinach, Beans and tomato. It also came with a mini muffin which was identical to my husbands so definitely not gluten, dairy or egg free. I obviously couldn't risk touching any of this and luckily wasn't hungry anyway so my husband was happy with an extra meal. He actually enjoyed it. 

I'd say the quality of the meals in Upper Class were definitely better which would be expected. I found the service was friendlier and more understanding too in upper class but maybe that was just down to the different cabin crew. The ones on the way back back didn't seem as approachable. 

Both main meals in both classes were tasty and filling. It's just a shame that the 2nd part of the dining later in the flights seemed to slip in both classes. Lucky for me it is just an intolerance and yes it wouldn't be nice to eat something I shouldn't and it would make me ill but for allergy sufferers you'd need to have your whits about you and ask questions if need be. The original email i received from the special assistance dept did say that anyone with serious allergies that required an epi pen should contact them further. Singular allergies/intolerance's would probably be fine but multiple foods seem to be a bit more difficult for them to cater for.

Overall though I was really impressed with Virgins service and the effort they did make to accommodate my intolerance's. I would 100% travel with them again. 


No comments:

Post a Comment