This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I decided to book these purely as award flights in Upper Class having accumulated a fair amount of miles over the last couple of years on Virgin. So dates were selected for November and I began the hunt for suitable award flights for my short 3 day trip, straight away the VS1 and the VS46 showed up and they were perfect (or they were until Virgin shifted the departure time of the VS1 by 3 hours and I didn’t fancy arriving on my own not knowing the area at night, but with less than a week to go I managed to find a seat on the VS111.)
I arrived at Heathrow on Thursday morning about 8:00am and just a brief wait before I got my hands on that all important boarding pass that gets you through the private security channel and into the Clubhouse. I had decided just to go with hand luggage and was right on the limit once my laptop, kindle, camera and various other electrics were packed. Not that it got weighed.
Security had a couple of people in front of me but I was soon through without any problems and headed off to the Clubhouse where I received a very warm welcome back. It wasn’t that busy so I had a bit of a stroll around to find a suitable spot to relax for the couple of hours I had in hand. I don’t think there was a single child in the Clubhouse and they children's play area was empty so I took the chance and set myself down by that looking out onto the ramp area.
I was quickly approached by a very cheerful waitress who took my order of a Clubhouse breakfast, orange juice and coffee. The Clubhouse emptied out even more when a Delta flight was called and got pretty quiet. Staff as usual were attentive but not overbearing and soon the time was up and I decided to get up and have a look at the board to see if there was a gate showing. Well the gate was up - 322, definitely not the closest so I decided to head off. It was as I was lugging my bag to the gate that I began having second thoughts about the wisdom of only going with cabin baggage as the moving walkways had all been boxed in and weren’t useable.
On arrival at the gate boarding had already begun and I boarded immediately through the Upper Class lane, once on board I began to stow my bag and sort out items I needed for the flight. I was approached by a cabin crew member who asked what I would like to drink and asked if she could hang my coat up for me. Within a minute she was back after taking my coat and with a glass of bubbly in exchange. Boarding was carried out in reasonable time but I did have the opportunity for another glass of bubbly before we were ready for departure.
We pushed back a few minutes ahead of schedule and taxied off for a 27R departure. That FSM came round and introduced herself to everyone shortly after departure as drinks were served. The cabin crew in our full Upper Class cabin were fantastic, highly motivated and always on hand throughout the flight.
The lunch menu was as follows:
Starters:
Leek & potato soup
Prawn, avocado and tomato tian
Tomato and mozzarella salad
Mains:
Fillet steak
Lemon and thyme chicken breast
Thai vegetable curry
Salmon fishcake
Pudding:
Warm brioche and butter pudding
White and dark chocolate cheesecake
I just had the fillet steak which while wasn’t the best I’ve ever had certainly wasn’t the worst and it was washed down with a very large glass of wine. I say large because there was a slight mix up amongst the crew and they forgot a few of us, when they discovered this they were mortified and so apologetic that we all got very full glasses.
The flight was very smooth and cabin crew were proactive throughout, a few people settled down to sleep and the crew were very quick to make their beds for them when they saw that was what some wanted. Mid flight and it was time for a tub of ice cream. An hour or so before landing and it was time for afternoon tea, which consisted of:
A selection of freshly prepared sandwiches, these were:
Prawn mayonnaise and rocket on oatmeal bread
Sliced chicken breast with a seasoned lemon and herb mayonnaise on malted bread
Falafel with mixed flame grilled vegetables, houmous and baby spinach on white bread
Warm scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam
Ginger cake and lemon frosting
Passion fruit and coconut slice
Red velvet and summer berry cupcake
Shortly after a very enjoyable afternoon tea we began our descent into Kennedy as we got lower we started to pick up some moderate turbulence and we could see the rain rushing off the windows as we bounced our way along catching occasional glimpses of the ground through the dark rain clouds.
Our landing on 22L was firm but given the weather conditions understandable and with that a collapsible trolley decided it was time to leave its storage cupboard and launched itself out in the direction of the Cabin Crew Supervisor who was seated at door 1R, he expertly fended it off but it made an almighty noise as it landed and a line of heads all appeared down the aisle looking to see what had happened, luckily he wasn’t hurt and it was soon back under control and locked away again.
Virgin came up with a unique way of getting us off the flight, with the following announcement “Ladies & Gentlemen, those of you on the right hand side of the aircraft may well have seen the Emirates A380 pulling onto the stand beside us. That aircraft can carry 500 people and they will all be heading to the same immigration area as you are, you may wish to get there first”. Quite a good way of getting people moving I thought.
So it was straight into the immigration hall and time for my first use of the electronic machines as I had previously used an ESTA into the USA. Apart from the fact it didn’t want to read my fingerprints but when it finally did it produced my ticket and much to my surprise no big X on it.
Immigration was quick and painless and after a short wait for Agriculture to sort itself out within 30 minutes of getting off the aircraft I was waiting on the AirTrain station platform to get the train to Howard Beach before getting the A train to Chambers Street station in the Tribeca district just a short walk from my hotel where I arrived about 4pm.
A really good start to my short trip to New York, an excellent flight with Virgin and great ground operations on both sides. The aircraft was an A330-300 and the seats were definitely narrower on this than on the B747 or A340-600 in my opinion. I can't comment on the entertainment system because I never use them and just listen to my own music and read.
The next few days were going to be quite busy and I have detailed that in my return trip report prior to me getting the VS46 back on Saturday night.
, she was the only member of the fleet I had the pleasure of flying on, hence the username.