This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Departure Time: 16:30 PST or 12:30am GMT
Managed to arrive at the airport at just after 10am, a good 2 and a half hours before the Virgin check-in opened in area 6. At least there were seats and a few power sockets around so that I could use my laptop whilst waiting.
Just after 12pm, the staff started to appear and start to set things up, and pretty much on time, check-in opened. Only people in the queue in front of me at this time. Went through the usual security check on the passport and got another sticker on the back of it.
A few minutes later and I was putting my case of the scales which came in at 26Kg and got a 'heavy' tag added to it. A few more minutes waiting whilst the machines had to be fixed after going down for a bit....nice to know the person putting the bags on the conveyor belt knew more about them than the woman on the desk.
The woman mentioned I had a frequent flyer card, but nothing else came of that probably due to the fact I didn't have the points needed for any upgrades at that time. Could have asked about paying for an upgrade to PE but didn't bother for some reason.
The flight started to board around 50 minutes before departure time......the usual UC, PE and assorted going on first before the calling of selected rows.
The plane wasn't quite as full as expected. I was sitting in 44a, a nice window seat (well, 2 windows) just behind the port side wing. 44b was empty and an American man was sitting already in 44c. There were a few other seats scattered about including 41a and b from what I could see.
Unlike the outbound flight to NYC, the amenity bags were already on each seat - still no headphones though (although these were given out later). The bags seem to have shrunk by 4 times, and the notepad is no longer in them - just the toothbrush + paste, ear plugs, socks, eye visor, pen and charity envelope.
We took off around the correct time getting some nice views of the surrounding area. Nice to know the man sitting in front of me fully reclined his seat prior to the seatbelt signs switching off as well - meant I had to do the same later on in order to get a bit more room and to watch the screen properly.
Just over an hour and a half into the flight, or around 17:40 PST, the cabin crew came around with the standard bag of Worcester Sauce flavoured pretzels and offering soft or alcoholic drinks. Most people seemed to favour the alcoholic variety, the man in 44c going for a can of Stella.
It was around 18:15 PST before the V-Port system on Cosmic Girl (V-WOW) was fully functional.....had to sit through adverts, and about 1/2 an hour of Sky News before it was usable.
Dinner was served around 18:35 PST, although specially ordered meals were given out a few minutes before they reached me.
Choices were the standard in bound choice......salmon with some sauce, pilau rice and green beans, some beef dish and a vegetarian option. Why do they also do salmon on inbound flights to the UK? Exactly the same the last time I flew back from EWR!
I had the salmon which wasn't too bad. Don't like green beans so had to waste them.
Full dinner consisted of:
Tray of salmon, sauce, pilau rice and green beans
Small brown bread roll
2 sesame seeded crackers.
Piece of orange cheese.
Round container of spring water.
Slice of key lime cheesecake.
Container of Caesar salad dressing and separate container of salad.
Small Cadbury Caramilk bar (or Cadbury Caramel over here in the UK)
+ wine or drinks.
The cheesecake wasn't too bad. Possibly from a packet mix but still more than edible. The bread roll wasn't frozen or heavily chilled, and the salmon was moist enough, as was the rice for the most part.
Coffee, tea were offered at a couple of occasions after that.
As this was an overnight flight and it ws starting to get darker as we moved east, the cabin crew asked for the windows blinds to be lowered as the light began to fail. The cabin lights were eventually dimmed to allow people to sleep.
As for the toilets, not sure if all were working as there seems to be a constant stream of people queuing for them especially after food or drink was served and only 1 or 2 cubicles seemed to be getting used.
Seatbelt signs came on a few times due to turbulence which made sleeping awkward to say the least as you can't adjust your position much. Stayed up and watched 'Unleashed' (after watching Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy prior to that) as I couldn't get comfortable at all due to the noise of the aircraft and having to wear the seatbelt - something like PE or UC may provide the means to sleep a bit easier. Not the easiest thing in Economy.
The cabin crew pretty much vanished during the night. Once or twice they came around to check seatbelts but that was it. No drinks or anything offered to anyone who wasn't asleep. Not sure if this is standard practise as to not wake passengers, or they're asleep themselves?
Around 8:41am GMT, 8 hours of so into the 10 hour flight, breakfast was served. The windows blinds were opened and cabin lights had come on a while earlier as it was light outside.
This consisted of:
Egg/Cheese Croissant
A Small fruit muffin
Small round container of orange juice
Small container off fruit - 2/3 grapes and a few bits of green/red melon
Ketchup satchet, Milk carton + coffee/tea was offered.
The croissant was no worse than the sort of thing you would buy at McDonalds and everything else was fine. Would have prefered more orange juice as you only get about 120ml? in one of those containers.
As we flew closer to Heathrow, the pilot announced that eeven though we had made up time during the flight, we would around a 20 minute wait in a holding pattern (turned out to be a problem with the landing gear on a earlier plane), so we flew around a bit, getting a reasonable close look at the Millenium Dome etc.
Smooth enough landing and then a bit of taxiing to the terminal which took a bit longer as we had to wait for another aircraft to vacate our gate.
Few more minutes waiting to get off, smile and thankyou from the staff at the door, then the long walk to passport control and a further wait there whilst 4 people checked the passports of at least 1 or 2 planes worth of people.
5 minutes waiting for my case and bag to appear on the carousel, and then a really long walk to the underground - they really should put this nearer as it's not easy to get to with loads of luggage especially trying to get through the ticket turnstiles after navigating stairs and corridors.
