VT First Class - weekends

[telstarbox]

At Piccadilly yesterday VT were handing out 'Picnic Packs' to passengers boarding the First Class end of the London train. Is this a replacement for the 'Little Box of Snacks'?

According to this photo on Instagram the Picnic Pack includes "sandwich/croissant, chocolate, crisps, fruit juice and water".

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Link's down but they were being dished out at Euston yesterday, as well as by the onboard crew in First (on another route).

 

[Bag of Badgers]

I had one when I boarded at Birmingham New Street, exactly like telstarbox wrote, Ham Sandwich in mine, I couldn't complain and filled a hole.

 

[ainsworth74]

I hope they are planning on rolling these out instead of the 'snack box' as it's pretty terrible to be honest (especially compared to East Coast) and this sounds much better.

 

[breadfan]

I was on the 0848 Liverpool Lime St [LIV]- London Euston [EUS] on Saturday and was given a Breakfast Box which, IMO, is worse than the Snack Box.
There was (well, still is - it's still in my bag) a tiny bun, tub of jam, two small biscuits and some rabbit droppings. There was also a tiny can of Britvic orange, which is the only item I used.

For complimentary drinks one had to head to the buffet car.

 

[Muzer]

I was on the 1235 Piccadilly to London and got the picnic pack and a sandwich. I later overheard them saying that they'd completely run out of everything in the kitchen including soft drinks (!).

 

[Mojo]

I noticed them giving them out on the platforms at Euston and Manchester. Is there still a First class host on weekends, and are these available for customers boarding at other stations which don't have these staff on the platforms?

 

[Muzer]

I was given mine from a trolley on-train.

 

[TOCDriver]

Sandwich or not, they're still a very profitable item for an extra 15quid. Notice that nearly half of the total train is 1st class at the weekends and with weekend demand being what it is, it's a very clever profits booster for VT. But their brilliant station car parkiing at 2 quid for all day is very good value for money, I must say.

 

[Philip Elliott]

I noticed them giving them out on the platforms at Euston and Manchester. Is there still a First class host on weekends, and are these available for customers boarding at other stations which don't have these staff on the platforms?

These arrangements are for last weekend and this coming weekend only.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

These arrangements are for last weekend and this coming weekend only.

Do you know what the reasoning is behind it? Trial or just a random one-off?

 

[RAPC]

Shame it is a short term thing. I travel a fair bit at weekends thanks to Virgin Traveller and those do look like quite an upgrade on the usual weekend offer.

 

[Philip Elliott]

Do you know what the reasoning is behind it? Trial or just a random one-off?

Yes I do know but no I can't divulge but it is a one-off.

 

[MKB]

Got one on the 17:48 Liverpool to Euston on Saturday (21st). There was no first-class host on board, so we were told to go to the shop to get tea/coffee, which is a very long walk on an 11-car train.

The picnic bag is a huge improvement over the afternoon/evening snack box, which I noticed on the northbound journey has suffered yet another "enhancement". The garlic-flavoured pretzels have been replaced by a larger bag of flavour-free pretzels, and the toblerone has been replaced by jelly beans.

Travelling from Stafford to Liverpool on the 14:23 that day, the snack box was only available by going and seeking one out from the crew member sat at the back of coach K, and no tea/coffee was available for this segment. I don't know if this is another service cutback, or just the staff member not being bothered.

 

[Qwerty133]

Do you know what the reasoning is behind it? Trial or just a random one-off?

according to VT on twitter it's due to a staff shortage

 

[ssray]

It was because of the virgin partys, lots of staff at partys and not a lot on trains