This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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Well I've been back a few days now and note that others who travelled after me have managed to post their TRs before me. We were headed to NYC for 4 nights over Christmas, and our trip started and then seemed to continue with little blips. Nothing serious, but you know...
We took the train down to London from Newark as usual, and just outside Stevenage came to a halt. Virgin Trains were very good keeping us informed, and told us the train ahead of us had come across an obstruction on the line. We had to back up to Stevenage (rather slowly) and the plan was then to divert us via Hertford. However, by the time we got to Stevenage the obstruction had been cleared and we returned down the same track towards KGX once more, arriving some 90 minutes later than scheduled (thank goodness I never fly the same day I travel to the airport!).
Virgin Trains East Coast were brilliant all along keeping us well lubricated and on arrival at KGX every pax was handed a leaflet and form to claim back the cost of their tickets for the delay. Now I must confess to feeling a bit of a cheat claiming back our tickets, which cost the princely sum of £17.80 each for first class. This was mainly because, by the time we arrived I'd had a tasty hot meal, 2 glasses of wine and 2 double vodka tonics - way more than the cost of the ticket. But my hubby insisted I claim so I have!
Off we went to Paddington now for the HEX - got cheap first class tickets since they introduced cheaper tickets the further in advance you book, so £18 each return was a steal. Except we'd discovered a few days before travelling that HEX service was not running on the day of our return. On arrival at LHR we headed to T4 and the Hilton where I'd got a cheap deal on an executive room with lounge access (I don't yet have Hilton status). Very nice room, and lounge started serving hot snacks and drinkies at 18:00, so off we went. Had a nice time, didn't eat too much, returned to our room and promptly ordered room service and crashed in front of the TV.
After a pleasant stay we skipped breakfast in the lounge in favour of breakfast in the Clubhouse. We'd booked DTCI and I ordered an Uber, called through with the licence plate and 10 minutes later we were pulling up at DTCI and were very quickly through security and on our way to the haven of the Clubhouse by 08:00, and a warm welcome. It wasn't too busy and we found a seat quickly, and I did my duty as a v-flyer and posted a hello. No spa treatments this time, there was nothing I wanted. The next 3 hours consisted of eat, drink, rinse and repeat. I had a redhead in had within 5 minutes of arrival, then had another, then I'm pretty sure I had champagne, and maybe another... I lost track a bit. I know I ordered a margarita as my last drink and we planned to leave at first call, which we did and headed to board Soul Sister through L1 and into seat 4K & 5K.
Finally we're onboard!
The crew were all decked out in Christmas costume, and the CC who came to offer me champagne was wearing fabulous striped knee high socks like a little elf, and I complimented her on her choice. The lady and gent in 2 & 3K declared she was their daughter and pointed out her sister, also CC. It seems there were a few relatives or partners of crew travelling in UC that day, but it's fair to say I never noticed anyone getting preferential treatment over other pax. The 2 sisters were working our side of the cabin and they were delightful, you could have a good bit of banter with them and they worked non-stop.
Whilst boarding took place, as usual, they were refuelling the plane and had said they were taking on extra fuel as there was adverse weather in NYC and they might have need of it. We were ready for the off at the scheduled time of 11:30 except there was a problem. They couldn't disengage the jet bridge and close the door. After several attempts they had to call an engineer, and it transpired that when taking on the fuel, the nose of the plane dipped with the weight. The jet bridge is supposed to move with the plane but hadn't and so it was stuck! So the next 'blip' resulted in needing to jack up the plane so they could disengage, and then had to check and double check everything was working. We were an hour late leaving. Surprisingly, we made up the time and landed at JFK on time.
When we were airborne the FSM came around and spoke to every pax in the UC cabin (and it was full), and welcomed me back recognising my Ag status, which was rather nice. He was an excellent FSM leading from the front and very hands on, and was involved in service throughout the flight, and at some point must have also gone through to help in the other 2 cabins. He led an excellent team, everyone was switched on and service was great throughout.
During preparation for take off my IFE had played up when the safety video was shown, and I couldn't get it to work. The CC tried to reset it but couldn't, and offered to swap my seat with her father's which had a working IFE. I didn't want to swap as I'm quite partial to 4K! So she brought me an iPad instead to use (but no offer of miles as I've read others have had for faulty IFE).
More drinks and snacks followed (I had the blushing bellini - champagne with a funkin strawberry mixer) and orders taken for the main meal. I know some of you like the menu so here it is:
Starters
Chicken and smoked duck terrine with pickles and melba toast (which I had, tasty)
Waldorf salad
Tomato and basil soul
Warm breads
Mains
Chicken biryani, rice
Garlic and herb marinated fillet of beef, red cabbage & dauphinoise potatoes
Fillet of Atlantic Cod, cauliflower purée, buttered kale and piquillo peppers (which I had and very tasty)
Spinach and ricotta tortellini, black olive and tomato sauce, rocket
Pudding
Toffee apple pecan sponge with toffee sauce (was scrumptious)
Chocolate brownie with raspberry coulis
Cheese and port for those that had room!
I'd got a bellini on the go when dinner was served, and declined extra wine, but then the FSM came around and forced me to have some champagne too. In fear for the arm he had firmly twisted up my back I acquiesced. The flight passed quickly, plenty of drinks runs were made. I watched a film, read some. I went to the bar but no-one else was using it so quickly returned to my seat like a Billy no mates. I had a good chat with the couple next to us who'd been treated by their daughters to a break in NYC and tickets to The Rockettes Christmas Extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall.
Afternoon tea was served a couple of hours out, all nice and fresh and I sampled everything on the trolley, just to be sure it was safe for the other pax of course.
Embarrassing moment
I decided to get ahead of the rush to freshen up before landing and trotted off to the bathroom at the front of the UC cabin to do my ablutions and apply some deodorant. I took off my shirt to do so, which I don't normally do, and sprayed briefly. Then I heard the beeping noises that made me think the seatbelt signs had been switched on, and one of the CC was banging on the door. I quickly put my shirt back on whilst the door continue to be assaulted, and opened the door. She sniffed and said "have you sprayed?" and I said yes, and she told me that it had triggered the smoke detectors and the alarms and the pilot had sent her to investigate. I smiled and apologised (this hasn't happened before) and deftly headed back to my seat with my head bowed and a few pax staring at me. The FSM came round shortly afterwards topping up drinks, and said "did you get caught out doing your ablutions?" And when I nodded he said, "she's like a Rottweiler that one" and just laughed. Anyway, no harm done although clearly they initially thought I'd been smoking in the lav! (I hadn't btw, I don't smoke).
The next person to go in came out smelling like a perfumery, she didn't trigger the effing smoke detectors though!!
And so we prepared to land arriving on time at a very warm but soaking wet JFK and took our cabin baggage (a first for me travelling cabin baggage only) and were through the automated ESTA machines very quickly, maybe 10 minutes. I loaded the Carmel Limo iPhone app and confirmed arrival and off we went to get our car into lower Manhattan to the Conrad Hotel.
If you got this far, well done. Very quickly, before I conclude, this is where we hit another blip. I'd checked in using the Hilton app and chosen our suite, we collected from our key and headed to the 14th floor. The suite was fantastic, huge 700 square feet 3 rooms, almost as big as my bungalow! Then I noticed water coming in the bedroom window and there was a little puddle on the floor so we called reception, they sent a bod to check it and offered to move us to the 11th floor, same style room. Only when the bellman arrived he had a key to the same room on 10th floor. We proceeded to the room, opened the door, and then I quickly closed it again as it was clearly already occupied. Thankfully no one was actually in the room, because that would have been super awkward, more so for the hotel than for us as there would no doubt have been major ructions. As it was we headed back down to reception to get the correct key, the receptionist very apologetic, and returned to our new room on the 11th floor, to relax before deciding to go out for a quick dinner to Blue Smoke a Southern BBQ joint close to the hotel, where we had a fab dinner and some good banter with a friendly and sassy waitress, and 4 guys at the bar bought us dessert, but that's another story...
So, in spite of a few little blips, we had arrived for our super Christmas trip. The flight was fantastic, the crew excellent and we had a really pleasant flight. The return TR and a sample of our trip will follow ASAP.
Thanks for reading.
John
Last edited by Bretty on 03 Jan 2016, 12:52, edited 1 time in total.
At the end of the jetway TURN LEFT and... champagne, champagne for everyone