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#919991 by vic110
14 Apr 2016, 21:25
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This is my 1st trip report so I hope it's ok. This was our 1st time travelling via Atlanta to Florida and we were a bit nervous about flying economy as we've been in premium the last few times. We managed to get seats 50 A&C which are the extra legroom seats by the emergency exit door. Our teenage kids were behind us so no problems with anyone kicking the seat. I did consider upgrading to premium with my miles but I'm glad we didn't as these seats had much more legroom than the premium seats. I would really recommend these seats, we didn't have anyone standing around us despite being so close to the toilets and the room we had was wonderful especially for my husband who is quite tall.

We boarded on time and were soon in the air with a flight time of 8hrs 25 mins. I think the flight was pretty full with only a couple of empty seats.
The crew were really friendly and we had a crew member sat in the jump seat in front of us for take off and landing who was lovely and chatted to us for a while. The food was actually ok and better than I remember from our last economy trip. The choices were chicken in a creamy mustard sauce or meatballs and spaghetti. I can't remember what the vegetarian option was. We were all impressed with the food quality (even my fussy teenager).
I passed the time watching some programmes on my I pad so I didn't use the entertainment system but the others were happy with the film choices.

The flight was pretty smooth until they started the afternoon tea when the turbulance started and the seatbelt sign came on. After about 10 minutes the pilot told the crew to stop the service and take their seats. It was a bit scary for a bit and was bouncing around for about another 10 mins. The crew then resumed the tea round but were obviously late now so were having to rush. The choice was a chicken and bacon or cheese wrap which were actually quite nice but after the turbulance I wasn't very hungry.

We landed in Atlanta about 30 minutes early and we quickly departed into a fairly busy immigration hall. We had a flight to Jacksonville in two and a half hours time which we thought was plenty of time. Well we joined the line and waited and waited and waited. There were only 2 officers working and it was taking ages. We couldn't use the machines as it was our first time in US with new passports and esta so we had to wait in the line. It took almost 2 hours to get to the front and then it seemed to be a shift changeover which took forever. There were lots of complaints with people trying to push forward saying they had flights to catch. The staff just said "don't worry the airlines will just put you on the next flight. !" We eventually collected our luggage and put it back on the belt and had to go through security again. We now had 10 mins until our next flight was leaving. We jumped on the airtrain to terminal B and ran like the wind to the gate. We were lucky as there was a 30 minute delay on the flight. (never thought I would be glad to have a delay) By this time we were exhausted and just glad to be able to calm down.
The flight to Jacksonville with delta boarded quickly and the flight only took 35 minutes. It seemed to just go up and then straight down, the seatbelt sign stayed on the whole way.
It was quite stressful at Atlanta but going this way saved us quite a lot of money so I would probably do this again but I would probably leave a couple more hours for the transfer.
#919993 by ScoobySu
14 Apr 2016, 22:32
Many thanks Vic110 for a great trip review!
#920005 by tomthumb
15 Apr 2016, 10:17
Great trip review - and that is the lottery of US Immigration. I once got stuck behind a Russian Youth Orchestra which was a nightmare.... and missed my connecting flight.
#920008 by marshy11
15 Apr 2016, 11:09
Great TR, thanks for posting. Blimey, that sounded like a tight squeeze at the end!
#920011 by pjh
15 Apr 2016, 11:25
Thanks for the TR. Great to hear such a positive review of the offering in Economy.
#920040 by Karen w
15 Apr 2016, 21:28
We fly out UC in August on the same flight with a similar connection time - hoping that there will be more desks open and the first off the plane will allow a little time in the delta lounge!
#920243 by Maximus
19 Apr 2016, 21:54
Glad to hear you made it through in the nick of time. Connections stress me out so I try and vaoid them whenever possible!
#921063 by Fuzzy14
11 May 2016, 13:46
Hi vic110 thanks for the trip report, there's a real shortage of economy trip reports round here these days! I was particularly interested in your route as it's one I'm considering in future. I've sat in row 50 before, it's usually reserved for families with infants to use the bassinet, I'm wondering if that changed during modification to 3-class as there didn't used to be a crew member sitting there.

I've seen a few tweets warning about Atlanta airport including the airport themselves, taking up to 2.5 hours to clear customs and your experience confirms, that needs to be fixed.

Interesting to note that many of the PE and UC trip reports are noting a reduction in quality/wow factor, I've not noticed that in Economy reports.
#921085 by SlimpyJones
11 May 2016, 19:15
Quite agree fuzzy - I'm travelling to DTW in Y in a couple of weeks and plan to post a TR when I get back. Despite being in Economy I'm actually quite looking forward to the trip as it's been many years since I last sampled the "other" side of flying.
#921141 by Fuzzy14
12 May 2016, 13:11
SlimpyJones wrote:Quite agree fuzzy - I'm travelling to DTW in Y in a couple of weeks and plan to post a TR when I get back. Despite being in Economy I'm actually quite looking forward to the trip as it's been many years since I last sampled the "other" side of flying.


I've flown KLM, Emirates, EasyJet, BA recently and would say Virgin economy is the best out of them.
#921181 by vic110
12 May 2016, 21:47
Fuzzy14 wrote:Hi vic110 thanks for the trip report, there's a real shortage of economy trip reports round here these days! I was particularly interested in your route as it's one I'm considering in future. I've sat in row 50 before, it's usually reserved for families with infants to use the bassinet, I'm wondering if that changed during modification to 3-class as there didn't used to be a crew member sitting there.

I've seen a few tweets warning about Atlanta airport including the airport themselves, taking up to 2.5 hours to clear customs and your experience confirms, that needs to be fixed.

Interesting to note that many of the PE and UC trip reports are noting a reduction in quality/wow factor, I've not noticed that in Economy reports.


I don't think you can have a bassinet in row 50 as it has an emergency exit door. Maybe they would let infants in the middle rows but there is nowhere for a bassinet.
I was quite worried about flying economy as it was a while since we had flown economy but it was actually much better than I thought.
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