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#924130 by rajpop
21 Jul 2016, 15:19
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
This was a trip that I’ve been planning for a good few years now, for my 30th birthday. Where better to go than my two favourite cities in the Americas; New York and San Francisco. I booked my flights with Virgin Atlantic (VA) in August 2015 for an outbound flight in June 2016 and a return flight in July 2016 – this for once wasn’t due to my love for planning ahead it was simply due to the fact that I wanted to use my Flying Club (Virgin’s loyalty scheme) points to upgrade the flights to Upper Class. I booked my flights over the phone and the booking procedure was straight forward – going through all the options that provided me best use of my points vs cash.

Booking Upper Class meant that I could use the Upper Class Wing. Arriving at Heathrow (LHR) at 6:30am, rather than heading to the drop off point, my driver (AKA sister) took the slip road for the Upper Class wing and up a ramp to the VA Upper Class wing. Pulling up outside the doors in this swish little private area, my bag was taken from the car, tagged and on a conveyer belt and I was promptly handed my boarding card and directions to the VA private security wing and Clubhouse. It was seamless, stress free and calm, exactly how they describe it on their website. From arriving to the Clubhouse it was a matter of minutes, something I sure could get used to. Tim Enjoying a glass of champagne before his flight.

On arrival at the Clubhouse I quickly booked myself in for a complimentary beard trim (certain services are complimentary to Virgin customers). While waiting for my appointment I quickly settled into a glass of Lanson Black Brut NV and a Full English Breakfast. After the beard trim I spent a few moments exploring the lounge and stumbled upon a Lanson branded Table Tennis table, after quickly finding an opponent at the bar we had a quick game (I won’t reveal the score, it was embarrassing… for one of us, I won’t mention who.). On a more serious note the clubhouse staff were all superb, drinks were regularly refilled (with no judgement for my Champagne at 7am) and always smiling with a positive attitude.

A quick walk to my gate, and I was met by Emmeline Heaney a 10-year-old, Airbus A340-600 – the whole process from lounge to plane was as easy as my car to lounge process, I normally end having a “random” secondary search at the gate but this was not the case today. Walking straight on board. I was shown to my seat by **** the cabin crew member, who would be looking after me for the flight and quickly offered a glass of Champagne (I didn’t want to offend ****, so I took him up on this). I had asked **** if it was possible to visit the flight deck before take-off for a quick picture and after asking the pilot both Tim and I were escorted to the flight deck by the Flight Service Manager (FSM) – after a quick chat and photo with the pilots I went back to my seat to settle in for the flight and finish off the glass of champagne.

We pushed back from the gate on time with an estimated flight time of just over 7 hours, after the usual queue for take-off (seriously LHR really does need that 3rd runway) we were in the air by 9.21am. Drink and snacks were quickly dispensed once we were in the air and I had now opted to switch to VA’s Raspberry Mojito which is refreshing and not too sweet. Orders for lunch were taken at this point too. I was quite disappointed with VA’s entertainment system, it all seemed to be quite dated compared to other carriers and the choices of movie on the flight weren’t that great. They did however have a film I missed in the cinema Dad’s Army which did pass some time whilst waiting for lunch. Lunch was timed well, with my table being set just as the film was in it’s final credits.

The menu was as follows: Starters Marinated prawns with avruga caviar Classic Nicose salad Italian tomato and basil soup Warm breads Mains Roast chicken and gnocchi Fillet of beef and sweet potato mash Roasted sweet pepper Kiln roasted smoked salmon salad Pudding Lemon curd sponge pudding Strawberry cream pannacotta slice Cheese and port For starters I opted for the Marinated Prawns with Avruga Caviar, these were served with juicy silverskin pickled onions, shaved radish, pea shoots and a lemon aioli dressing. And for the main, I opted for the Roast Chicken and Gnocchi, served with blanched asparagus and wilted spinach. I tried a bit of the starter and the main due to still being full up from my breakfast in the Clubhouse, the starter was excellent and quite an interesting flavour with the lemon aioli dressing. The main however I was less impressed with the Chicken and Gnocchi individually were fine but together as a dish I felt was too dry, there needed to be a sauce that added something to two dry components. After a disappointing main, I opted for the Lemon Curd Sponge pudding which looked so good that I forgot to take a picture sorry folks! The sponge was light and fluffy and filled with lemon curd, served with double cream, I must admit I was tempted for an Oliver Twist type moment and ask for another helping but resisted and opted for the cheese course before retiring to the bar for another Raspberry Mojito and a chat with fellow passengers.

Overall I was quite impressed with my Upper Class experience with Virgin Atlantic, my overall view is that the staff both on the ground on both sides and in the air are fantastic, they really do enjoy their jobs and for me were fantastic promotion for the brand. Happy, smiley, efficient and bubbly. As a passenger I couldn’t ask for any more. The seat albeit dated was comfortable and I ensured I picked seat 10A where there was a partition so that I could have some privacy.

The main negative would be on the entertainment system, it’s very slow/clunky, the screen is too small compared to other Business Class and you can’t use the entertainment system on the ground either which is annoying too, especially when you land/take off at LHR and JFK two very busy airports where you are often stuck on the tarmac waiting for a gate or to take off. I believe they are due large overhauls soon as some of the older A340-600’s like the one I was on are due to be replaced shortly. I look forward to seeing the changes in the future.

Sorry I know that's a bit wordy, after being a voyeur on this website for a few years I thought I'd give you guys a bit of a detailed post, I've got pictures etc on a travel blog I launched a few weeks back but don't want to upset the Admin folk her by sharing the link (is it allowed??)
Last edited by honey lamb on 21 Jul 2016, 17:28, edited 1 time in total. Reason: Edited to remove staff names as per forum rules
#924140 by SlimpyJones
21 Jul 2016, 18:39
Welcome to the forum!
Very interesting TR, especially from a first-time Upper Class passenger. Agreed with your comments re: the A340-600, they have the weakest entertainment system of the fleet, though will be gone in a few years.
Thanks for posting! :)
#924143 by virginboy747
21 Jul 2016, 21:00
Hmm the ife should be gate to gate the same as the rest of the fleet. Should be available straight after the safety video right up to arrival at the gate the other end. Seems the FSM didn't switch it on when they should have. Glad you had a good experience
#924145 by rajpop
21 Jul 2016, 22:10
SlimpyJones wrote:Welcome to the forum!
Very interesting TR, especially from a first-time Upper Class passenger. Agreed with your comments re: the A340-600, they have the weakest entertainment system of the fleet, though will be gone in a few years.
Thanks for posting! :)


Thanks, full reports at http://www.thetworoads.com/virgin-atlantic-upper-class-review/

I've been on UC with VS quite a few times with work, but this was one of my first trips personally.... will be doing a report on the SFO to LHR flight soon..... the team on board did say that the planes are on the way out over the next few years.... I'm heading to Mumbai soon for work but VS no longer do that route, and the codeshare flight is with Jet who I'm not a big fan of. May have to opt for BA or a VS flight to Delhi and an internal.







edit by mod to tidy link............ Nick
Last edited by rajpop on 23 Nov 2016, 19:00, edited 1 time in total.
#924180 by tomthumb
22 Jul 2016, 21:24
Thank you for the TR and having followed your link, what a great time lapse film with your Go Pro.
Thanks for sharing
#924195 by mikethe3rd
24 Jul 2016, 14:10
virginboy747 wrote:Hmm the ife should be gate to gate the same as the rest of the fleet. Should be available straight after the safety video right up to arrival at the gate the other end. Seems the FSM didn't switch it on when they should have. Glad you had a good experience


I'm wondering if the OP is referring to the angle of the UC screen.
#924565 by rajpop
04 Aug 2016, 22:21
tomthumb wrote:Thank you for the TR and having followed your link, what a great time lapse film with your Go Pro.
Thanks for sharing


I'm glad you liked the GoPro link, I'll have one soon of the flights from JFK to SFO (Delta Economy... very impressed) and SFO to LHR on VS UC.... although due to the latter being a night flight I did remove the camera as didn't want anyone to get disturbed by shades being open.

I'll post the other two TR soon.... still have a few things to post about on the blog.
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