What has caused the recent outburst of frustration is the decision to downgrade so-called amenity packs, which contained items such as socks, toothpaste and toothbrush, lip balm and earplugs. The amenity packs, designed by Ozwald Boateng, were highly prized by many travellers and have now been replaced by smaller ‘snooze packs’, which some travellers have dubbed ‘Scrooge packs’.
Business travellers who have contacted Times Online Travel say that the downgrading of onboard freebies is just the latest cost-cutting exercise undertaken by the airline, despite its innovation in other areas, such as the opening of the popular Clubhouse lounge at Heathrow.
David Doyle, who flies in Upper Class regularly, told Times Online: “I've been flying Upper Class with Virgin since 2003 and at that time was extremely impressed with their service and have since used them regularly for business and leisure travel since then. Unfortunately, I've felt that the service levels and subsequent appeal of Upper Class over Virgin's competitors has diminished in that time, particularly sharply over the last year or so. There's been a number of cost-driven, narrow-minded cutbacks directed from the top which have led many to believe that it's only accountants who are now running the airline.”
“The amenity kit/snooze pack (or aMEANity kit/scrooge pack as they've become known) has, for many including myself, been the defining point of the drive to diminish the Upper Class experience in order to make minimal savings in the short term, but with the effect of driving premium passengers away and at the expense of the brand in the long term.” He added: “It's been little bite after little bite taken out of various parts of what made flying Upper Class special, and the overriding, increasnigly arrogant view of Virgin appears to be ‘We gave you the Upper Class Suite and Clubhouse, what more do you want?’”
“The present amenity kit debacle illustrates clearly the downward trend of service from Virgin's premium offering, and has been, for many frequent travellers including myself, been the straw that has broken the camel's back,” he added.
A leaked memo from Virgin Atlantic’s management to cabin crew posted on the online V-Flyer forum, popular with both Virgin staff and passengers, says that the introduction of the new snooze pack was “a contentious and emotive issue”. The memo says that the decision to drop the amenity kits was made because of concerns over the amount of waste. “We were finding that passengers frequently left the old kits behind and discarded many of their contents. This was wasteful and not environmentally friendly, but it was also expensive and at odds with our Manifesto goal of driving efficiency and effectiveness. In fact we had lots of negative comments from staff and passengers alike complaining about the waste. We know that only 40% of items in the packs were used.”
However, the airline told Times Online that it has made concessions and is now offering passengers all the items, but only on request. A spokeswoman told Times Online said that the change was introduced following feedback from customers. “Regular travellers found it unnecessary to keep getting the same items again and again,” she said.
However, many believe that cost is the main motivator. The leaked Virgin memo says that the decision to replace the amenity kits will save the airline more than £1 million.
Another regular traveller who contacted Times Online is Dr Adrian Richardson, who flies six or seven times a year in Upper Class and is a Gold member of the Flying Club loyalty programme. He said: “Gradually cut backs have occurred starting with extra items such as pillows on seats and mini-hot water bottles all which were naturally marketing gimmicks but stood the product out. Virgin has spent a considerable amount of money on their new clubhouse at Heathrow which is exceptional but a place where you only spend a couple of hours compared with a much longer time in the air.
"Shortly after the food changed the extra touches disappeared such as fresh flowers on the bar. The recent change in amenity kit which is simply an envelope with socks, eyeshade and earplugs is the latest downgrading of the service where in fact economy passengers get better amenity kits and other airline premium passengers are offered a far better product.”
“A lot of people are starting to realise that apart from a flat bed there is becoming very little to differentiate them from other airlines despite their mission to inspire and lead,” says Dr Richardson. “I also find it upsetting that when speaking to crew on flights they are aware that a new level of management has set about ‘bean counting’ which we all need to do in this economic period but at the direct detriment to their premium customers who are going elsewhere depending on price and service rather than keeping loyal to a brand that a lot of people still believe are innovative and forward thinking.”
