This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
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We proceeded through Fast Track security, and were deposited into the secondary passport check that was recently introduced. The new clubhouse invitations were clearly printed up before this change as they direct you straight through Fast Track and across the departures hall - this route is now closed as Fast Track security now deposits you behind the output of the regular security channel for passport checks, feeding you into the duty free shop. Nevertheless, the passport screening is relatively efficient, so this doesn't introduce much of a delay. I've never been keen of this BAA habit of depositing you into the (BAA-operated) duty free area - I'm quite capable of choosing to go there if I have any duty free requirements.
We reached the clubhouse just after 11am, with three hours to go before departure. Simon booked a haircut, and I opted for the Rhinestone Cowboy treatment.
Simon's haircut took 50 minutes, and was excellent. He'd been havering over whether to take advantage of this, but was very impressed with the service. Indeed, I somewhat regret that I'd had my haircut the day before as I think I'd have received a better result if I'd waited for the clubhouse.
The Rhinestone Cowboy treatment was not entirely as advertised. The face and neck massage was effective enough, but the vibrating chair was somewhat disconcerting - I'm not really sure what it was supposed to achieve. The shave was done twice - first following the hair growth, the second against it for a closer shave. Unfortunately, while the treatment overall was pleasant, the shave wasn't as close as I would have achieved myself. When I arrived at my hotel in New York some eight hours later, I was in clear need of another shave. The advertised eyebrow tidy wasn't offered.
Following our respective treatments, we settled down for a light lunch and champagne before the flight. The flight was called up on the displays around 13:15 and we made our way to the gate pretty much right away. There was a queue outside the gate area as we arrived, with a sign at the front advertising priority boarding. Use of this required us to shoehorn ourselves into the front of the economy crowd, much to their irritation. Again, this service doesn't seem to work as well in practise as it might - a separate cordoned off feeder channel would work somewhat better, but I guess that VS are somewhat constrained by the facilities available at each gate.
As we entered the gate area we were both selected for secondary security screening. Simon's bag was checked pretty quickly, but my laptop backpack with its numerous pockets took somewhat more time - indeed the security agent seemed to simply give up about half way through. As we were finishing up there, boarding was commencing. The announcement for this was somewhat confused, and resulted in numerous pax blocking the entrance to the boarding ramp prior to the announcement that they were commencing with UC, PE, Gold and special assistance pax. At this point, we again had to push through to the front where we were waved through.
Taking our assigned seats upstairs on G-VBIG - 71A and C - we were soon enjoying our pre-flight champagne while we waited for the remainder of the passengers to board. Boarding was complete quickly, and the plane was ready to push back ahead of schedule but - as seems usual at LHR - ATC weren't ready for us, so we had to wait. When we did push back, we joined a long queue of aircraft and eventually took off some 30ish minutes late.
The cabin service commenced promptly with a drinks round, and was quickly followed by a second drinks round before the meal was served. I was pleased to see the return of the second drinks round - I'd previously only encountered this on my first trip in PE, and had concluded that it had been dropped from the service after that.
Lunch was the usual excellent economy fare. I opted for my usual choice of Mushroom Risotto, while Simon had the Beef Stew.
Following lunch, Brandy and Baileys service was offered for the first time in my PE experience. I gather from other posters here that this service used to be offered in PE but was withdrawn a few years ago, in which case this is a welcome addition to the service.
We then settled down for the remainder of the flight, watching the League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse together (well, about a second out of sync) before making our own divergent V-Port selections. About half way through the flight another drinks order was taken - we opted for soft drinks at this point as we were worried about over-indulging before the pre-wedding party planned for the evening.
Arrival at JFK was slightly delayed as we were put in a holding pattern before being allowed to land. We reached the gate at about 16:45. Being among the first off the plane, we managed to clear immigration, collect our bag (about fourth onto the carousel) and were in the cab line by 17:00 local time. I was certainly impressed, as this is somewhat different to my usual experiences at US airports.
Traffic was a little on the heavy side, but we reach our hotel - the Marriott Brooklyn Bridge - just before 18:00, and got checked in, cleaned up, and arrived at the evening party in Manhattan right on time at 18:30, much to the surprise of our host.
