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#238063 by Vegascrazy
25 Sep 2005, 01:07
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I had been told by a friend who works at VS that this flight was substantially oversold, so our hopes of asking for a cash upgrade were dashed from the outset. I also checked Expertflyer a couple of days before and was presented with a mass of zeros in all classes! So being worried that we might get bumped off the flight I used OLCI at the Bellagio on the morning of the flight to secure our seats. I had tried the previous evening but the system was saying 'on line check in is not available for this flight, your seats will be assigned at check in'. This got me even more worried that there was a problem load wise with this flight! Thankfully all was OK when I logged on in the morning and I check-in on line and secured 80H&K. Intrestingly, even after check-in is complete, the confirmation still states that your seats may be changed at the airport for operational reasons. Has anyone had this happen to them, i.e. check in on line and then have their seats switched later?

Dropped off the car at Dollar and took the bus over to McCarran T2. All very organised at check in with clearly signed queues for DIY, PE & UC. As had been the case at LHR on the outbound the queue at DIY was longer than any of the others, nonetheless we wanted to use a proper check in just to make sure there was no chance of paying for an upgrade to UC. The check-in agent said 'no way, the flight is full in all classes, sorry'. Not to worry we were happy to be in 80H&K upstairs but bemused when she confirmed our seats and said 'right, youre down stairs in 80H&K'. When I tried to correct her by saying that this pair of seats was in fact the last row upstairs she wouldnt have it, but eventually realised she was wrong when her colleague at the adjacent counter butted in the conversation!

Straight through a well organised security search area where at least three sets of people examined our boarding cards and passports. Clearly they had all been on a 'communication' training course as I was addressed by my first name on each occasion 'thanks James' they would say. Never had this from a security person before! Bought some jelly beans in Duty Free forgetting that they would be stapled into a bag and I would then need to claim them when boarding the plane! We saw the inbound 747 arrive just 10 mins late at 13:40, we would be flying on G-VAST Ladybird.

As is always the case when flying back from USA there was much hustle & bustle at the gate desk with announcement after announcement 'please would xxx makes themselves known to staff at the podium'. Always fascinates me, why does this only happen when flying home, it seems you never get such frenetic activity around the gate desk in the UK? Anyway boarding commenced very early at 15:00, given that departure time was 16:10 and was handled very well with clearly signed priority boarding channels. Indeed, the first announcement could not have been clearer in requesting all economy passengers to remain seated while UC & PE only were invited to board. I collected my jelly beans just before the jetty way and on we went. Settled in to 80H&K and awaited the pre-flight champagne offering which eventually came round after about 20 mins. Perhaps they had boarded the plane too early and the crew werent ready? The flight was indeed bursting at the seams, so much so that one passenger ended up on the jump seat just behind us (one of two jump seats by the upstairs galley). Later in the flight I heard him saying to other pax (who congregated in that area when collecting water, OJ etc from the tray by the galley, that 'a load of people were left behind'. So the flight was well & truly oversold, but to be stuck on a jump seat for 10 hrs must have been awful! All I can say is that he was not crew, nor friends of crewthey did their best to take care of him including offering him a DVD and making sure he was OK for food and drink. Made me wonder what would have happened if (a) we hadnt used OLCI in advance & (b) hadnt arrived at the check in 4 hrs early.

Right, down to hard facts of the flight: Drinks service was good, an initial service straight after take off and then again during the meal. Food was great, had the vegetable cannelloni and Steve opted for the salmon. Both were fine and, as mentioned in my UC outbound TR, the actual food in PE was absolutely on a par with what we had in UC. Just take the PE cannelloni out of the plastic dish and serve on a UC white china platter instead with a choice of fine wine! One problem though, why come round with the team and coffee less than 5 mins after serving the food, everyone was still eating! Reading other TRs this seems to be in line with what so many Vflyers have said about the crew on UK bound night flights being overly eager to get the service out of the way and lights off even in UC? Dont forget this was at 17:30 last night after a 16:10 departure, the sun was still high in the sky outside! Ive also read that Brandy & Baileys is served after the meal service in PE but this did not happen on last nights VS44. Breakfast was served 2 hrs before arrival, a tasty egg & cheese croissant along with fruit salad and blueberry muffin.

As far as our seats went - do 80H&K in PE on the LGW 747s have a restricted recline? We opted for these as they appeared to be a sound choice, i.e. nice and private at the back, nobody on your left, close to the stairs for quick exit on arrival, extra storage bins. However Im positive they dont recline as much as the other seats in PE? Yes, they were very comfortable but when it came to trying to sleep we both felt they did not recline as much as they should, it looked like everyone elses seats had a better recline than ours [:(] Having said that, the 747 upper deck is 'the' place to be, a truly peaceful environmentits like flying across the Atlantic in a private 40 seater!

Arrived at LGW on time only to be greeted by what appears to be the typical Gatwick welcome. There were no available aircraft stands so we parked on what must have been the most remote stand at LGW. The VS crew made no attempt to allow UC and PE pax off first, meaning that the first bus was nearly full of economy pax. This of course had a knock-on effect at the wait at Immigration and then to cap it all a one hour wait for a baggage belt to be assigned followed by another half an hour for bags to arrive. From what I could see the bags that emerged first were not UC or PE! While we were away I was texted by a friend who had just arrived at LGW from MCO, he & his family had pretty much exactly the same experience, i.e. remote stand followed by a very long wait for luggage.

All in all a perfectly satisfactory flight, the crew were great, food was good, and everything worked fine. Slightly disappointed with 80H&K but the overall PE upper deck experience is, in my opinion, unbeatable, apart from UCS of course.
#313360 by JAT74L
25 Sep 2005, 01:42
Great TR - Now, the recline on 80 H&K? I thought EXACTLY the same as you on my NAS trip! I went out in my usual favourite 80 H but came back in 79 A and I was CONVINCED it reclined further.

Regards

John
#313365 by jilly
25 Sep 2005, 03:11
I agree with you about the seats but after using them outbound last year I decided to change them for the inbound flight for the very same reason.

I thought that anyone who wasn't staff wasn't allowed to travel in the jump seats but stand to be corrected.

Agree about the food, I have often thought the same thing when looking at Y and W food that if it was presented better it would be just as edible as J.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Jilly
#313368 by onionz
25 Sep 2005, 04:28
Originally posted by JAT74L
Great TR - Now, the recline on 80 H&K? I thought EXACTLY the same as you on my NAS trip! I went out in my usual favourite 80 H but came back in 79 A and I was CONVINCED it reclined further.


That's interesting. When I was in 79C recently, I was fairly convinced that row 79AC didn't recline quite as much as other rows. Perhaps it's human nature to be suspicious that everyone else is getting more than you are? [:D]

By the way 79C is a good one because there's no one behind you (crucial on the MCO route to avoid having a brat kicking your seat) and for some reason there's a little side table next to you which no other seat has. Having said that, the A and K seats have the side bins which are even better...

Nice TR by the way. Did this route a month ago and I was in 74C. Had my usual problem of getting to sleep in PE on the night flight - it does seem as if all of a sudden its lights out and everyone fast asleep, except me...gets a bit spooky up there to be honest [:)][;)]
#313467 by declansmith
25 Sep 2005, 22:07
passengers cannot travel on jump seats.

You would not have been offered a jump seat you would have been bumped off than offered a crew seat.
#313469 by Vegascrazy
25 Sep 2005, 22:34
That's what I thought, however it certainly didn't look as though he was crew or a friend/family of crew, mainly because we heard lots of apologising going on at the outset (about the seating problems) and also what we heard this chap say later in the flight to others on board, ie. about other pax having to be be left behind in Vegas. We just assumed he was a regular fare paying passenger who had been squeezed in owing to the lack of seats. Nonetheless if that is the rule I guess we must have misinterpreted the situation & stand to be corrected.
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