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#237543 by sky
23 Aug 2005, 22:58
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
So, this TR is written in an experimental style of being written as it happens.

12.44 Say goodbye to my friends, walk down to the cal train station and grab a cab out to SFO. The trip has been wonderful, 4 weeks on the west coast around San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma together with one trip to Portland for the Opensource Conference on Southwest and one to Seattle to meet an old friend on Alaskan, but now I have to face reality again.

13.10 Arrive at SFO, cab fare is a cheap 31 USD, give him 35 and he looks a bit grumpy. One thing I won't miss when I get back is this weird stress of having to get the tip right all the time.

13.12 Security agent gets very confused by my changed ticket (I have a ticket for the 14th of August but have now changed it 4 times delaying my return). He asks me some questions then sends me through

13.14 Checkin lady is all lovely and tells me that PE is overbooked so J will probably fill with people upgrading using cheap upgrade options or miles, we chat a bit and she asks me what a group of the commons really are, so I guess there is a bunch of VIP PMs on the flight. She says there is probably a ticket change fee, I tell her I am sure there isn't one but they have to revalidate it anyway. Lady from ticketing comes over, looks up the fare, confirms there is no change fee and takes it away for revalidation. In the meantime I ask if I can take a guest with me to the lounge and they say of course and give me a +1 on the invite. I also got the seat I requested, 1A [:)].

13.30 I get up to the lounge, settle in and ask for a glass of champagne, glass of water, the soup of day (mushroom) and the warm thai beef salad.

13.40 Had the mushroom soup (first food of the day), it was very nice, champagne is nice, lounge makes me happy. I think I could live in a airline lounge!

13.50 mmmmmmmm the thai beef (hot) salad was very nice mmmmmmmmmmmm, ordered some seasonal berries with creme fraiche as a desert.. the food on the plane isn't served until way later so lunch in the lounge is good

13.55 berries arrive, they look soo good, going to enjoy them now. They where very kind when I asked if there was any sugar in and the lovely server checked and confirmed there was none (except a tiny bit of honey, mm)

14.22 lounge is filling up a bit, seems to be a few families with teenage children here, quite odd for a tuesday flight Berries were lovely, I moved to one of the sofas watching the aircrafts outside and got a refill of champagne.

15:01 read Nottingham Nicks excellent TR, kind of wish I had been on the flight on Sunday but then I would have missed O'Reillys excellent ending of FOO camp so I guess maybe not. Champagne was automagically topped up again.

15:09 red alert, family with 4 kids walk in! hope they aren't upstairs or if they are that they are quite and well behaved, or that they get drugged. I am all for kids in expensive places as long as they behave. I have had parents removed from expensive restaurants when their children misbehaved too much, I feel if I am paying thousands of my hard earned pounds for a meal then I don't want some kid disturbing the romantic moment I am trying to engineer [;)]! The problem on a plane is that it is quite hard to throw someone else off. Maybe ritalin should be carried onboard for disturbing kids [:D]

15:30 Got a bit peckish a couple of minutes ago so I ordered the international cheese dish which promptly arrived. I have two food principles in my life (and one drinking principle), they are 'Happiness is a piece of raw fish' and 'There cannot be too much cheese!' (followed by 'Yes please, more champagne!') so cheese and champagne is always good, nice selection of very different cheeses.

15:36 preboarding announced, not sure I will leave yet... if I do then there won't be any more updates until London and I shall be sleeping at the very front of the aircraft in my black superhero costume!

15:45 boarding ** note anything after this is a mix of real time reporting and memories, it also includes quite a lot of champagne

15:50 take my seat, notice 2A is free, ask if I can switch.. neither of my luggage fits so it is kept in the back, but they promise to keep it accessible since I might need the laptop power adaptor (I take my 2 extra batteries out)

15:55 I run down to the bar, grab a champagne and a seat and watch the rest of the pax board, it is always fun to see the crew at work

16:10 We get told to take our seats, I run up, gets offered a ninja suit which I accept, size medium. I ask which bird we are flying on, the SCC runs off and asks and comes back and informs it is VBIG, so Tinker Belle.

16:20 We takeoff early, W is smack full, J is near full downstairs, half full upstairs. I find out later when walking that Y is 2/3rds full or so

16:35 Seatbelt signs off, IFBT comes by and gives new travel wallet kit, wow nice! Very nice design, doesn't take too much space and contains everything I need. I predict I will end up with far too many luggage tags though! The only thing I miss is the face moisturizer, thankful I bring my own! I ask for the hot hands treatment and say ok to wake me up.

16:40 down to the bar, watch the initial fray, grab a glass of champagne

16:50 ding ding ding turbulence ahead, time to go up again and lock myself in, continue to read my book 'The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life' which is quite interesting.. SCC comes up and asks me about dinner and breakfast, (the menu is identical to Nottinghams Nicks report from 2 days earlier). I order the Seasonal leaf salad with crab, oyster crackers, yellow teardrop tomatoes and black pepper dressing, and the Poached salmon with a medley of julienne vegetables, red bliss potatoes and Napa Valley sauce. No breakfast and wakeup as late as possible. Captain announces flight time is around 9 hours and we are scheduled to land at 9.30.

16:55 Down to the bar, where I continue to talk to the same person as last time, he is an interesting character and it is always fun to discuss random things with new people. The more business cards I get the better. Champagne gets refilled. Realise I have to watch out a bit since I am heading to work after I land in London.

17:05 CSS comes down and ask if I want to eat at the bar, since I am in the middle of a discussion I say yes please. I love eating at the bar.

17:30 Bar is empty, I ask if I can bring a friend up from economy, but no, the cabin crew I ask is grumpy and just says no. Oh well, it has always worked before. Come to ask of it, the virgin web page says 'Order what you want when you want from our Freedom menu, or why not invite a friend to join you for a drink or a snack.', why can't I invite a friend from economy. This time it was someone I didn't know was on the flight and whom I met by accident a day earlier and told me he was on the same flight. I mean, I understand catering limitations but a drink at my seat is not too much to ask for what the price a UC ticket is.

17:35 I head back to economy to find him, he is far back with an empty seat next to him, we chat a bit but then the seat belt sign comes on and a CC runs up to me and tells me to sit down! I sit down next to him and we chat about life and universe and everything. He is a BBC geek so I taunt him a bit about copyright as is always prudent.

18:00 I am tired of the Virgin Economy seats, but I must say they weren't as bad as some other airlines I have tried. He wants to sleep and so do I so I head forward, get caught up in the bar and drink another drink, sparkling water not champagne this time! One of the pilots is down and the cabin crew are chatting away, so I join them for a couple of minutes and go up to bed.

18:10 change into ninja suit, bed doesn't work so SCC comes and restarts it by flicking a switch underneath the bed, bed now works and she makes it for me

02:10 magic timezone shift happens just as I go to bed :)

I sleeeeep, wake up a couple of times, some mild turbulence, but all in all good sleep!

08:30 Woken up by the IFBT who takes me downstairs for my hot hands treatment, I am quite dazed and tired but this is perfect timing, what a way to wake up. I must have been quite amusing for her to talk to since I was still partially sleeping

~08:50 Ask for some yoghurt and fruits, go change into my civilian clothes and eat up when I come back

09:15 Pilot says we are approaching Heathrow, holding pattern for 10 minutes estimated touchdown 09:45

09:45 touchdown!

Get parked on a remote stand, bussed in.

No queue in immigrations, god bless this country.

Bags waiting for me.

10:30 Revivals! Hot shower, room number 7, how lovely with warm high pressure water! The cowshed products are pretty nice, maybe I should buy some home. Followed by signature dish without the muffin, which I top up with some more scrambled eggs. Much better than the breakfast onboard which is quite disgusting in my opinion. (The fruit and yoghurt is ok). I think that it is just the problem of me not eating wheat and the bacon/egg stuff onboard is hard to get tasty.

Heathrow express on off home! I hadn't seen rain for 4 weeks and London was a miserable shade of grey. Got a cab from Paddington who didn't understand the instruction 'One block south of Old Street Roundabout', swear a bit over the legendary bull**** that The Knowledge is and arrive home at 12.30 to discover both elevators in the lexington to be broken. GAH carry up half the luggages 4 flights of stairs, grab some money, down to Fresh and Wild to eat some Houmous (can't find decent one in San Francisco, they grill it or something) and off to work.


All in all an excellent flight and a splendid end of a fantastic 4 week holiday in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Napa/Sonoma. Two conferences, late night partying and excellent food.

And yes, French Laundry was good, but you can get better in London :) if you are willing to spend more than twice as much as French Laundry. My tip is just go to Bouchon instead for lunch, it is down the road from French Laundry but nearly as good.

Happiness is raw fish, I wish I was a Sealion.
#309276 by Nottingham Nick
24 Aug 2005, 00:04
Nice start to the TR, Sky.[y]

It is bringing back (very recent) memories already [8D][;)]

Nick
#309286 by Richard28
24 Aug 2005, 00:27
nice new TR concept Sky! - look forward to the next part...........

Rich.
#309389 by Jonathan
24 Aug 2005, 16:46
Good TR Sky[:D]

I did an inflight TR on SQ!, I dont know when VS will introduce in flight WiFi though! It'll be cool when we have realtime v-flyer access!
#309439 by buns
24 Aug 2005, 21:06
Sky

Love the 'Dragnet' style[y][;)][y]

With both yours and Nick's TRs singing the praises of the SFO CH, I cannot wait for the V-Flyer Social[:D]

Thanks for the first instalment.

buns
#309612 by buns
25 Aug 2005, 21:48
Sky

Brilliant report[y][y] which comes across as a very nice vignette of virgin's service.

Many thaks

buns
#309618 by mitchja
25 Aug 2005, 22:28
Excellent TR thanks sky [:)]

You know, having dinner at the bar onboard had never occured to me before...what a fantastic idea!! Thanks, I will have to try that next time [:)]

Regards
#309634 by onionz
26 Aug 2005, 00:30
Originally posted by mitchja
Excellent TR thanks sky [:)]

You know, having dinner at the bar onboard had never occured to me before...what a fantastic idea!! Thanks, I will have to try that next time [:)]


Yes, excellent TR.

Eating at the bar does sound good, but is it possible or advisable on the LGW aircraft bearing in mind the size of the bar (it's pretty small!).

I'm assuming that your next UCS is going to be on a LGW plane, James [;)][:D].
#309735 by mitchja
26 Aug 2005, 17:04

Eating at the bar does sound good, but is it possible or advisable on the LGW aircraft bearing in mind the size of the bar (it's pretty small!).

I'm assuming that your next UCS is going to be on a LGW plane, James [;)][:D].


Indeed it is Jason [:p]. Yeah I think you are right about the bar on LGW flights - you are more on show there. I even felt a little odd when I was sat there having a drink (or two). A different bar experience than on LHR J flights.

Regards
#309746 by BlackCat
26 Aug 2005, 17:46
We ate at the bar coming back from BGI. Well, I say 'ate'. More like poked and prodded some inedible food around our plates, but you get my meaning... With two people at the bar eating you pretty much take up all the space available.

BC
Virgin Atlantic

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