This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Due to the sale fares Virgin were offering back in October, I decided to treat myself to my first flight in PE.[:D]
Due to having to travel from west Wales, I headed up the day before arriving at the Gatwick Hilton at about 5pm (Thanks to AlanA for the GEX upgrade vouchers). I checked in, and was upgraded to an executive room in the newer building because I had a Hilton Gold VIP card that Virgin sent me in the mail some months ago, I dont know why I had one as I have never stayed at a Hilton hotel before, but I wasnt complaining. The main advantage for me was that I could now use the executive lounge, which had free internet access, so I could now check-in online. I did this, but for some reason some of the API info I had previously entered was wrong, like my middle name, sex and passport expiry date. I redid these and checked in.
Got to the terminal at about 8:30am, the lines at all counters were horrendous,[n] probably due to the fact that they were now collecting all that extra information. Wasnt sure weather to go for the PE line or the DIY line as there were at least 80 or so people in each line. In the end I went for the DIY, but it still took about 45mins to check-in, with several people mentioning in the queue if it was actually worth while doing it. When I finally got there the check-in lady was very efficient, and I was on my way with my boarding card for 74K within a few minutes.
After a quick bite to eat, we were called to board. If I remember correctly it was gate 36, where G-VROM Barbarella was waiting for us. We boarded fairly quickly, and was quickly offered my pre-flight glass of champagne. The upstairs cabin was full, as was the whole flight.
We left the gate a few minutes late, but we were soon on our way, with a promised flight time of 9hrs 38mins. As soon as the seat belt lights went out the crew came around with headphones and amenity packs, and then a couple of drinks services. The main meal service was just over an hour into the flight, I took the roast chicken option, which was OK but the potatoes were a bit to herby for my liking. After this we had the brandy/baileys round and several juice and water rounds.
I flicked through the films that were on but nothing really took my fancy, so I watched a couple of the comedy channels and then resorted to my ipod nano. After having V:Port on my last couple of flights, the Nova system is a bit of a let down.[n]
The crew then came around to start taking orders for duty-free. This is when all the fun began. Without any warning we hit the turbulence, the captain immediately ordered the crew to their seats. For about ten minutes we were thrown from side to side, even veering quite sharply to the left on one occasion. Things remained fairly calm passenger wise upstairs, but we could hear some shouting going on downstairs. Things eased off slightly after 10mins, but it was still fairly bumpy. In all it went on for just over an hour.
After that things calmed down a bit and the crew came around to check if everybody was OK., although the fasten seat belts light remained on for another hour or so. Most of us upstairs were fine, but a few people were feeling a bit under the weather and the crew gave them some water and had a chat with them to reassure them. After that they disappeared for a while, which we later found out was to go downstairs and to help clear up down there. Nothing was mentioned about the stewardess screaming we are going to crash downstairs, and I definitely didnt hear it upstairs, and nobody mentioned it when we were getting off the plane, so I cannot confirm, or deny, if it actually happened.
After all the commotion died down, the rest of the flight was fairly uneventful. We were offered Ben and Jerrys Ice cream, and then about 90mins before landing they came around with afternoon tea, which I choose the chicken and cucumber roll. Whilst they were serving the tea and coffee during this service they also came around with the hot Panini sandwiches which we should have had earlier, but due to all the fun and games they didnt have time to serve them, but they had now decided to give them out as they would only go to waste.
We landed shortly after 1pm, about 25mins early. I left the plane at about 1:15, and had cleared immigration etc and was sitting in my room at the NY-NY Hotel by 1:45pm, pretty good going I thought.
Overall it was a memorable flight, the crew serving us upstairs were excellent[y throughout[y], the only things that let things down was the scrum at check-in, and the Nova entertainment system.[n][n]
Im just hoped the flight on the way back on the 27th Feb would be a little smoother.
