VS103 LHR-ATL 12 SEP 15 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

As the VS103 is quite early departing at 09:30 I chose to stay the night before in the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow, which used to be the Jury's Inn near Hatton Cross on the south eastern corner of LHR with a great view over LHR’s Runway 09R and departing flights with the bonus of concorde parked just on the end of the runway.

view from Hilton Garden Inn room 456
DSC02256.jpg (60.07 KiB) Viewed 1626 times

early in the morning i made my way over to Terminal Three by UBER and made use of my Virgin Atlantic Gold status with upper class check in and the use of Virgins private security lane and was through to use the Clubhouse to have breakfast in less than 10 minutes from arriving at T3.

I started with a bacon roll an an orange juice say in a quiet corner near the bar.

and then moved on to redheads.


On boarding I saw that the crew member working my section of economy was one of the crew who used to be on the little red Manchester base.
the crew came round and offered everyone in economy a bottle of water for the flight which is a nice addition to the economy experience.
Once boarding was completed the flight service manager came over to introduce himself to me as I am a gold card holder and offered me a glass of champagne, which confused the cabin full of Americans who spent the next 12 hours trying to work out if I was anyone important.

We departed on time with a load of 214 pax 12 cabin crew and 2 on the flight deck.
Service was good thorough the flight with frequent drinks runs.

MENU (September 2015 UK outbound)

STARTER

Creamy Bean Salad (V)
creamy sweetcorn and mixed beans with crispy lettuce.

MAIN MEAL

Butter Chicken Curry
Punjabi dish of marinated chicken in a creamy tomato and cashew nut sauce. with cumin rice.

Pulled Beef and Boston Baked Beans
Marinated, slow cooked beef and creamy mash, with butter beans and pork bacon in caramalised tomato sauce.

Tomato and Ricotta Rigatoni (V)
Fresh rustic pasta tubes in a tomato and ricotta cheese sauce. With mozzarella balls and basil.

served with fresh bread.

PUDDING

GU Pud


AFTERNOON TEA
Enjoy your choice of wrap with Tyrrells Plane Crisps and a delicious home made Broderick's bar. Yum Yum. choose from:

West country cheddar and double Gloucester cheese with vine tomatoes (V)

or

30,000ft high club wrap: chicken and bacon with sweet chilli mayo.

served with your choice of tea or coffee.

I had the pasta for lunch which was good and then the chicken wrap for 'afternoon tea' which had a bit of a kick from the sweet chilli but was also quite good and a huge improvement from the cheese and onion sandwiches that have been on the menu for ages.

on landing we arrived to an empty immigration hall and I was through customs in 15 mins from doors open.

The connections process was really easy and I was sat at the gate for my onward connection in time to get a bite to eat before boarding.


and for those of you who remember my hi from the clubhouse thread I was still the one and only person on the upgrade list for the DL109..... Trip report to follow

sounds like a good one end to end

the glass of bubbly is a great touch, especially with an appreciative audience!

Thanks for the TR Chris, I loved the comment about the Americans wondering if you were someone important. Flight sounds nice and smooth.

Cheers

Thank you for the TR. Sounds like a solid flight with nice recognition of your au status. Also good to hear about the LR crew being accommodated on the long haul services