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#927996 by dragonflyer
30 Oct 2016, 19:39
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
this is my first trip report so please go easy on me.
Spent the night at the Gatwick hilton so i could maximise my time in the clubhouse without having to leave home at stupid'o'clock in the morning, this did not work out too well as the person in the room nextdoor had a 4am wakeup call and then proceded to rearrange the furniture (well thats what i sounded like).i refused to get up then so i tryed to get back to sleep and ended up getting up around 6am, quick shower and shave before checking out and wandereding accross to check-in, imagine my surprise when i got to check-in to find a queue!!, after having a little chuckle to myself that even upper class has to wait sometimes, i was checked in after about a 5 min wait and wandered my way through the premium security channel.

arrived at the Clubhouse and asked if it was my first time here, given a quick tour and informed about the table service and free treatments i procceded to take a seat near the window and ordered a coffee and full english.
after i had finished those i thought "hey your on holiday why are you not on the bubbles" so when the nice lady came pasted to pick up the plate i asked for a glass of champagne that was quickly brought over spent about another hour in the clubhouse before leaving to do a bit of duty free shopping, on returning i ordered a bacon sandwich and a redhead( as i'd heard alot about them) found them a little dry for me so doubt i'll have another one.

Boarding was announced at around 10.05 so made my way down to Gate 31 but on my way i noticed the big boards in the departure area still had no gate number for VS29, got down to Gate 31 to find no other passengers here apart from a few who needed help getting on the plane.told the lady at the desk and she made a couple of phone calls (guess to tell gatwick op's to update the board) and a went onboard, well as you can guess i was the only one in upper at this time so had a time to push buttons and find out how stuff worked for the seat.
boarding was complete about 30 mins and 2 glasses of bubbles later. it was at that point i noticed what i think every passenger dreads.....a toddler sitting behind me who started to cry, and procceded to cry none-stop all the time we were at the gate, now i know the poor little fella could not help it nor could his parents (turns out he had just started teething) and i was glad that he stopped when we started to taxi.
took off on time and soon the crew came around taking orders for drinks, it was at this point i noticed they had Jack daniels "gentleman jack" in a cocktail, given that Jack and me are old friends i thought it would be rude not to say hello, i dont know what they put with it but it was yummy, think i had around 7 or 8 during the flight.
After drinks orders where taken they started to take meal orders, i had the chicken Satay and the Thai chilli beef salad followed by the Salted caramel pudding, the food was great and would have been happy to have been served that in a restaurant, after dinner i watched a film before wardering to the bar for another sour smash.
Sat at the bar talking the crew and some other people when the FSM came past and said some of us would have to go back to our seats as you can only have 6 at the bar including the crew member.
as i'd been at the bar for fair bit of time i went back to my seat to allow others to enjoy the bar, the crew member at the bar then quickly came over to me(with another drink) and told me she would come get me when space opened up again :-)
Never went back to the bar as i had a little nap and when i woke up they had just started taking orders for the Lite bites, so i ordered a burger that was tasty but a little dry.
about an hour later we were coming into land and was quickly through immergration and customs.

this was my first time in upper and apart from the crying toddler i have to say i'm impressed with the service and am looking forward to my reward flight in May next year.
#927997 by jfenney
30 Oct 2016, 20:46
Thank you for your TR, I'm there in 50 odd days and cannot wait. Glad you enjoyed all aspects of the upper experience and hope you have many more Gs to come , it's hard not to turn left :-D
#927998 by hiljil
30 Oct 2016, 21:09
Thank you for the TR. I am so pleased you enjoyed your first time in UC and that the toddler didn't keep crying.
Hope your return flight didn't disappoint.
#927999 by Bretty
30 Oct 2016, 22:43
Thank you for your TR, glad you had a great flight and your enjoyment shines through. I'm looking forward to my first ex-LGW UC flight in just a few days and the LGW clubhouse I've heard so much about,
#928001 by TimCrawley
30 Oct 2016, 22:55
Thanks for the TR, enjoyable read apart from the cry-baby, sounds like you got the usual great CH service at LGW and a smashing crew for the flight to make up for it .... enjoy the holiday.

Bretty is cutting it fine for the first LGW CH experience next week before the move from S to N terminal in January but hopefully it will be the perfect start to that Vegas trip!
#928042 by tomthumb
31 Oct 2016, 19:18
Many thanks for a great trip report and glad you enjoyed your first UC trip - no going back now!!!
#928065 by whiterose
31 Oct 2016, 22:58
Thanks for a really interesting TR. LGW CH is so good and clearly gave you a great start which the Hilton didn't. Glad to hear you had a good flight and a great crew. Remember what we all say - you'll never fly any other way again!
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