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#914282 by Kraken
11 Dec 2015, 02:34
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Did OLCI at a shade under T-24 via the Virgin iPhone app – it worked very well on a pubs wifi, so it proves that Virgin IT (or more likely the company they paid to create the app!) can do some things right. Got SEQ 2 & 10. Interestingly the text message to pick up the mobile boarding passes came from a +45 (Denmark) number. Denmark is a very nice country, but it is not cheap – i.e. there are cheaper places to host IT systems, as Virgin are looking to save money.

Uneventful journey up to Leeds followed. Then the following morning an early start and drive over the Pennines in terrible weather – just hope it does not make the recent flooding situation in the UK worse. Needless to say on a day like this, we are quite happy to be going to Florida.

Got to the very quiet check-in area and walked straight up to the Upper Class desk. Bags dropped, lounge invite, customs forms & boarding passes issued. Up to security where we both got what must have been random pings as the only metal on each of us was jeans button & zip (& a belly button piercing in the case of the other half). No pat-down, just an explosive swab of hands and ankles which we both passed and were on our way.

Did a little shopping and took great pleasure in p*55ing the lady in WH Smith off by presenting my mobile boarding pass (which their tills cant read) when buying items that have VAT on them. We all know it’s a big con – they charge us the VAT but then reclaim it if you are travelling outside the EU.

Up to the Escape Lounge, sent to the right hand “Business” lounge. It’s quiet in here at the moment – only 7 of us in here all with VS tags on their bags. Had tracked Jersey Girl on it’s positioning flight up from Gatwick on Flightradar24 & it’s on a stand very close to the lounge, so quite convenient for when it’s time to board. Breakfast service was just finishing as we arrived at about 10:55am – was not too bothered. They then put out quite a good spread of sandwiches, grazing boards with charcuterie & cheese, salads and soup of the day (chicken today). Clubhouse dining it is not, but it beats the food offering in the Orlando Delta Sky Club (and probably most US airline lounges) hands-down. It certainly filled a gap, given that we had an early breakfast in Leeds & won’t get lunch on the aircraft until at least 2pm. The most annoying thing about the lounge is that the piped music appears to be the “Now that’s what I call Christmas” CD – aargh!

Boarding was uneventful – but I cannot work out why the Swissport team cannot work with the Escape Lounge team & make an announcement when they are actually ready to board Upper Class passengers. When the monitor says “Go to gate” they are just starting to board the special needs passengers – and Orlando flights do have a higher then normal number of these due to The Mouse.

Noticed that the VS75 had taken off over an hour late – immigration will be fun for those passengers when they arrive in Orlando. We have a pretty quick 8h57min flight time with 409 passengers onboard. The Garden Brut was wheeled out and we both had a couple of glasses – it’s not Lanson though! The FSM came round and introduced herself to all the UC passengers before takeoff – it’s one who I have flown with several times before and she remembered me.

We’ve had a passenger with a severe nut allergy warning PA announcement – so what is a passenger on the other side of the UC cabin doing? Eating a Snickers bar! I guess it matters more when airbourne & the aircrafts air-con system is recycling air, but even so. Sure, the passenger is not in the UC cabin as we were told it’s a child (only 13 adults in Upper & 1 empty seat).

Pushed back bang on time at 13:10 and were airbourne about 10mins later. Drinks were offered & accepted, followed by lunch orders being taken. I’m not particularly hungry so just ordered a beef main course, but told the crew to give it to someone else if they run out. Current Upper Class menu is as follows (December 2015 menu cycle for what looks like most US / Caribbean flights)

Starters
Chicken & smoked duck terrine
Waldorf salad (v)
Tomato and basil soup (v)

Mains
Chicken Biryani
Garlic and herb marinated beef
Fillet of Atlantic cod
Spinach and tomato tortellini

Pudding
Toffee apple pecan sponge
Chocolate brownie

Cheese
Brie
Applewood wedge
Stilton

Extra Bites
Classic gourmet beef burger
Spinach and ricotta quiche (v)
Prawn wontons

Extra Bites to share
Warm vegetable pakora and samosa (v)
Cold charcuterie

They had not run out of beef, so mine was delivered as others were having their starters – it was surprisingly good (for airline food) to be honest. Passed on the pudding and had the cheese (just stilton). The cheese portions are miniscule, even when they double up on one cheese. Take a leaf out of Emirates book on cheese portion size!

It was interesting to note that about half of the tables in the UC suites had to be jemmied open with a knife by the crew – or – have the microswitches under the seat fiddled with so the seat did not think it was in bed mode (when it will not release the table). Maybe these suites are starting to show their age / in need of some TLC? Visually the suites look to be in good condition, but it’s not good when half the tables need crew assistance to open.

I don’t know if anyone else had noticed this, but on pretty much all my ex-MAN flights, after the meal service the cabin suddenly seems to noticeably cool down. People were commenting on this to the crew & putting on jumpers / getting the duvets out. The cabin warmed up after a short while and started to go into “quiet mode” as people watch films / sleep. I watched Jurassic World as I had not seen it before – it was enjoyable enough, but more importantly passed two hours of the flight.

We’re now at 38000ft and have passed between Gander & Newfoundland. 4hrs still to go until Orlando. The crew have done the ice cream run & kept us topped up with drinks. This is the time for me when the flight always seems to drag, but at least we’ve got comfy seats to idle the time away.

About 3hrs out of Orlando the crew came round actively offering the uneaten Extra bites / Extra bites to share food. They had even taken the trouble to split the cold charcuterie into individual portions. Have never seen this happen before – can only assume that Virgin are trying to reduce wastage.

It then got a little bumpy for about half an hour over Maine which led to the seatbelts sign being turned on – for the first time since we left Manchester. Just over two hours to go and we’re flying over Long Island. The cloud has cleared too so those on the K side of the aircraft should get a reasonable view of New York City.

About 1h45mins out of Orlando it was time for afternoon tea – yet more food. As always in Upper Class, there is no way anyone is leaving the aircraft hungry. Two slight notable differences with afternoon tea – no menu card & the placemat thingy they put on your table is now a thin piece of cardboard, it looks cheap & tacky.

As we approached the Florida coast, the Captain came on the PA advising we’d been allocated a 5:28 landing time. In the end we landed about 4mins before that as were on the taxiway at 5:25 when the FSM did the welcome announcement. The immigration hall was totally empty – through in about 3mins max. After about 5mins the UC / PE reclaim belt started and our bags were the second and third off. So from docking at the gate to cleared US Customs in about 10mins – you cannot fault that.

We then made our way to the car rental counters – one tip here, don’t book with Alamo. A 40 deep queue with 5 desks open. After waiting for 30mins we got served and the guy tried to start the usual upgrade / add-ons sales patter. We just told him “getting off plane to cleared customs in 10 mins, 30 mins to rent a car – forget the upgrade”. In the end, we did get a free upgrade in the garage as there were no cars available in the class we had booked.

We’re now doing the normal first evening thing of unpacking, having a shower to freshen up then sit outside and drink beer for a while before crashing out. Oh, we got an upgrade on the accommodation too – for reasons unknown to us they have given us a 2 bedroom apartment that sleeps 8… for 2 of us.

But back to the flight, I’d say it was in the top 3 Virgin flights I have done. The best one was from Gatwick to Orlando a few years back. But todays flight was No2 or No3, probably the latter. The crew were very attentive and led by a switched-on FSM. The amount of food on offer was just stupid (I did manage to order 3 of the light bite burgers & take them back to 3 friends in Economy!) And the flight was bang on time too. Letter to Crawley Towers on our return to the UK for sure.

I know this has been a long TR (how do you pass boredom on a 9hr flight?!) Thanks for reading.
#914283 by buns
11 Dec 2015, 07:23
Kraken

Thanks for such a detailed TR.

Interesting point about the segregation at the MAN Escape Lounge - perhaps customer feedback has prompted a beefing up of the offering for VS Upper pax.

Grerat result on arrivng at an empty Immigration Hall in Orlando - and one way of getting round the Alamo Queue is to go to the "B" Side when full of VS passengers who have got off long flights ;-)

Enjoy what is likely to be a very busy Orlando

buns
#914286 by hiljil
11 Dec 2015, 08:38
Thank you for an enjoyable TR with lots of interesting observations. I really liked reading it " in real time " ! Made me feel I was there.

So pleased it was such a good flight. Enjoy Orlando.
#914288 by David
11 Dec 2015, 09:58
Hi James,

Good to hear of yet another great Orlando flight - seems the iffy ones are the exception now.

Hope Orlando is good to you - we're suppossed to be going around the 1st/2nd Jan but havent found any decent priced flights yet - the pressures on ;-)

Nice to see they are proactively offering the light bite menu, which is of course a recent addition to the LGW/MAN departures.

many thanks again and enjoy the sunshine

David
#914289 by pjh
11 Dec 2015, 11:06
Thanks for the TR, and glad to hear of a top class experience, including the car and accommodation upgrades.

Agree about the cheese plate - I'm not a great fan of cheese but I will ask for it when on Emirates. Speaking of whom, I wonder how they would handle the nut allergy issue given that that the bowl of warm nuts is a standard feature of their business offering, both in the cabin and in the bar.
#914297 by Kraken
11 Dec 2015, 14:00
On the Alamo front, we were the only "Virgins" in the queue - everyone else was from a flight from South America - come to think of it, there was a TAP plane at Airside 4 when we arrived. Virgin Hols customers now have their own Alamo desk on the A side of the terminal. With hindsight, we should have tried our luck at that desk, or walked over to the B side of the terminal - but sods law says the queue would have been as bad there.

It was probably just a case of unlucky timing - much like immigration can be when 2 or 3 flights land within 10mins of each other. If most of the pax on the TAP flight had booked cars with Alamo, then we were doomed.

As to Emirates & a nut allergy issue, I suspect they would ignore it. I know a few ex-EK cabin crew and they all have similar things to say. Google search to find what the EK cabin crew attrition rate is and that will tell you a lot.

Right - we're off to Universal Orlando now!
#914298 by marshy11
11 Dec 2015, 15:04
Thank you for a very detailed TR. I certainly wish I was in Florida right now, dreadful here in Cornwall.

Your menu was much more interesting than our flight two weeks ago to the Caribbean. I did find a menu from the LGW-BGI flight in the magazines on our flight home which was different again…..seems there are a few different ones floating around at the moment.

Enjoy the sunshine.
#914301 by Bretty
11 Dec 2015, 18:33
Thanks for a fascinating 'in the moment' TR James, very interesting and good to see that all was well.
#914311 by horburyflyer
12 Dec 2015, 10:21
Thanks James for the great TR. When I was through MAN a few weeks ago the Escape lounge to the left at the top of the stairs was in use for the VS109/DL235. This use to be the Air France lounge until they moved out of T2. That said it was due to close for refurbishment over the winter. I quite like the Escape lounges, knowing what to expect, I also find the team are generally welcoming and really friendly.

I also like the food offer post 11am.

Having been on a few LHR flights recently, yes the CH is a great perk, but I still believe that the service on the ground and on-board out of MAN is so much better. I know the crew tend to remember their regulars and that makes a huge difference but consistency is a big plus for me on the MAN flights. I have a flight coming up out of MAN very soon and personally can't wait after some disappointing experiences out of LHR recently.

Really pleased the service was fantastic on board and the food offer sounds generous and great - perfect selling points for UC.

Have a great time in the sunshine state.

Jon
#914429 by Luke12
16 Dec 2015, 20:41
Great TR thanks.

We've not bothered with the Alamo desks for years, you can do Online Check In now allowing you to head straight to the parking garage, select the car from your row then all you need to do is show your paperwork, credit card and licence at the gate upon exit.
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