This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
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After 5 days exploring Washington, it was time to make our way home.[n] Had booked our Super Shuttle for 15:00 and it showed up about 15:10. Unfortunately I had miss-placed the return part of the voucher that we were given on arrival, and although the driver had our names and details I still had to pay for the journey again. I know it was my own fault for losing the voucher, but you would think with all the technology available today, and the fact they had all our details they could have done something about it!
Got to the airport at about 16:20 and made our way to the check-in area. It was fairly quiet and we had done OLCI the night before so went to the bag drop. The check-in guy was not the friendliest in the world, in fact he never said a word to us and took forever to check us in.[n] After what seemed about nearly 10mins he finally handed over our boarding passes and simply said Gate B32
We made our way to security and the lines were huge, and it was the usual, shoes, belts off etc. Finally got through and the security agent asked why we had a large letter P in a circle written on our boarding passes. We didnt know why nor did she! After this it was the longish walk underground to get to the boarding gates.
The gate area was fairly quiet, and G-VBLU Soul Sister was waiting for us once again, as she was on the way over. We had a quick snack and did a bit of last minute present buying. We then started to board on time and we were in seats 62A+C this time. There were quite a few empty seats on the return flight and the couple that were in front of us moved to some bulkhead seats, so my mate took advantage of this and moved to the row in front, so we had two seats each, which was great as the seats seemed a bit more cramped back here, although they probably were not.
We pulled back from the gate at about 18:30, about 10mins early and the captain said we had a flight time of 6hrs 21mins so we should get into LHR early. The V:Port system was ready to go when we were on the ground, and as soon as we were of the ground we could use it, and they didnt show Sky News first.[y]
Virtually as soon as we had levelled off the crew started the meal service. There was no drinks service before this. I had the Beef and Rice which was lovely (as airline food goes!) and once they had finished clearing this away they did the duty free round, and we didnt see them again until they served breakfast.
I amused my self with V:Port, watching Flight Plan which I thought was OK but a bit far fetched and the last few episodes of the Catherine Tate Show which was hilarious (or at least I thought it was!) .
The crew then reappeared and served breakfast and shortly after 6am we were in the holding pattern above LHR. Whilst we were in the holding pattern I wished I had my camera with me as I could have had a superb shot of a VS747 glinting in the early morning sunshine as it was banking towards us in the holding pattern!
We were on the ground at about 6:20, about 45mins early, and made our way to the arrivals gate. As we pulled off the runway I looked through the window and saw a VS 747 land behind us, it was G-VBIG Tinker Belle, probably the same one that I had seen above us a few minutes earlier.
We arrived at gate 40 something, so had along walk to arrivals. Got through customs fairly quickly but had a 15 to 20min wait for our luggage. Then off to collect the car for the long trip back to West Wales.
Overall, another good flight with VS, although we didnt see much of the crew on this flight.
On another note, this trip was booked through VH some months ago, and it was not a Mega Deal so I was a bit disappointed to find out when checking my VS FF account a few days later that I only got 1TP and half the miles for this return flight.[n] I know its better than nothing, and its been mentioned in other threads, but I thought all full price holidays with VH would earn the full amount!
