Check in was at the Virgin desk at LHR and was fairly quick. They were doing US security checks for people in line but this seemed very superficial and no indepth questions were asked. We queued and were checked in in under 10 minutes.
I wasn't expecting much from Delta as the last time I flew with them, probably a decade ago, they lived up to their disparaging acronym and did indeed manage to lose my luggage (although they did return it within 12 hours!) The flight from LHR was actually not bad at all. For starters, the cabin crew were extremely friendly and very approachable. One PAX fell asleep during the food service, and rather than rouse her or have her miss out, once she woke some time later, a member of CC actually brought her food down to her without any prompting.
That brings us to the food itself. I ordered the ovo-lacto vegetarian meal, as having not flown on DL for some years I didn't know if there would be a suitable option. As with most airlines, I've noticed that the ovo-lacto veggie meal is distinctly lacking in any eggs or dairy; I'm assuming this is a cost cutting method so that the same meal can also be offered to vegans and the lactose intolerant etc. I was given some cheese which was made with animal rennet; I hope other veggies read the ingredients before taking a bite
The main meal was tofu (not bad, just plain) with mint flavoured mushy-pea-mashed-potatoes and were as awful as they sound. I'm not a picky eater but did not finish eating it. I actually felt like I deserved a medal for even starting it.The seats on this first leg were actually very comfortable. Both my partner and I felt they were roomier width wise and in terms of leg room than the last VS economy flight we took. We didn't bother much with the IFE and both slept on and off for most of the journey. We had two seats at the side of the plane, fairly close to the front of the economy cabin for a swift exit. We like two seats alone together as it means not having to worry about waking someone or them waking you if anyone needs to stretch their legs or use the WC.
We arrived at JFK feeling remarkably OK and fairly chipper. A 4 hour layover in an overcrowded T2 with few seats, even fewer decent food options and basically no shops put paid to that. JFK really needs a makeover. I will say that customs and immigration was remarkably swift. We originally were scheduled for a 2 hour layover, but the new security rules regarding electronics in the US scared a few airlines into giving longer layovers. I was very concerned 2 hours wouldn't be enough time so I was relieved when a few weeks before the trip we were given a 4 hour window instead. I needn't have worried--we cleared immigration in under 30 minutes, collected our bags from the carousel and immediately rechecked them. I think we did this prior to changing terminals but can't quite remember, sorry. The bus from T4 to T2 was quick and all-in-all it took around an hour to an hour an fifteen minutes for the whole procedure which meant the 4 hour layover was unnecessary. But you can bet if we'd only had a two hour layover, our flight would have been delayed, queues for immigration would have been a mile long and various other issues would have arisen. I'd always rather have too much time than too little, given the option!
I can confirm that about a week later we received 2 TP each for the flight, plus the full miles.
On to our VS4755 flight...
