Please use this forum is for Virgin Atlantic trip reports. There is a subforum for other airline reports.
#939351 by Francis007
29 Oct 2017, 19:21
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
This was our return flight after spending our usual 2 week vacation touring East Coast States in October. This is something we have been doing for over 10 years since retirement.

In the last couple of years, we have " done " Maine and Vermont, so have moved on to New York State and then Cape Cod.

After another wonderful second week in the town of Wellfleet on the Cape where we rented the same house as the one we have stayed in for the last 3 years. We awoke on the day of our departure to find a storm force gale whooshing though the Cape. We packed and had our last lunch, said goodbye to the Cape for another year ( with a little sob ) and decided because of the atrocious weather to leave for Boston at 15.30. A drive of about 2 and a half hours in usual circumstances. The rainfall in the first 30 minutes before we got off the Cap was monsoon like and traffic wasn't exceeding 30-40 mph.

After a long slow drive of nearly 4 hours, we got to the outskirts of Boston and met an enormous traffic jam that moved at a snails pace. We finally arrived at the Hertz desk where we dropped our car off and asked to be driven to Terminal E .

Now may we make some criticism of VA and how the operation works at Boston. And we have encountered this in every one of our departures from Boston. May we add that we are VA fans and will never ever consider another carrier to the States but we think that the Check In and Boarding process at Logan does not work well and lets the brand down a bit.

All 3 Check In desks opened at 19.00. The UC cabin was completely full for our flight and there were about 15 or so people in front of us. Only about 6 or so people in the Premier Economy queue and the same in Economy. So, we watched as those 2 queues moved swiftly and were checked through whereas the UC queue was slow and took a lot of time. Am I being picky in thinking that someone should have had the nous to move the UC passengers more quickly and use the other check-ins ?

And also later on in the evening, when we were called from the CH , we got to the Gate to find an absolute scrum of people waiting to board with no real seperation between the Cabin Classes. We have mentioned this before as others on this Site have done. A couple of years ago, we wrote a nice polite note to VA to make a point about this and they acknowledged it and would look into it. But it hasn't changed a bit .

That's my one single gripe out of the way and back to the good stuff. Immigration and Security at Boston moved pretty quickly and we arrived on the Boston CH at about 7 pm.

We think this is a nice little Clubhouse with a nice selection of booze and grub. We met a lovely guy who was the Head Chef there .....and a Brit...who told us he moves from the Washington, JFK, Newark and Boston Clubhouses to change menus and try to improve the food provided.

We tried a curry with a glass of red wine and it was lovely. Followed by our last American ice cream for a while. By about 8 pm the CH was pretty full.

We had been informed that the flight would be delayed to 11.30 pm because of a small technical fault with the plane that had delayed departure from Heathrow that day.

Boarded at 11 pm and we got away at 11.30 and the pilot informed us that he had taken on more fuel and the flight time would be 6 and a half hours.

And to end this in a lovely way....the plane was a 787 and what a change to the old config A330 it is. Lots of room with the 1-1.1 config and oodles of overhead bin space.

And the cabin crew were an absolute delight. The Cabin Manager was a tall lovely guy who had a great way about him. Wish I had made a note of his name. My Missus was a bit discombobulated an hour into the flight and headed to the front of the plane for a pee-pee ! This lovely young guy saw her and took her hand and led her to the loos at the back of the UC cabin. :-D

A great smooth comfortable flight . We slept almost the entire way and ordered a bacon barn and a cuppa for breakfast.

Only 1 hour late into Heathrow and we passed through Immigration quickly , our car picked us up and we were back in our home in Hampshire by 2 pm. Quick cuppa and then around to the Cattery to pick our pussy cat up....who we missed terribly.

So..here's to next Autumn and our next flight in VA UC to Boston
#939358 by roadrunner
30 Oct 2017, 02:00
Great TR, so glad you enjoyed Wellfleet again. The Cape is getting quite a beating in tonight's gale as well!- Very sorry about the queue at check-in. We have found that as well but just jump right into whatever empty check-in appears. I think some pax feel if they are flying UC then they are going to go UC all the way and do not take kindly to being sent to Y for check in. The 11:30 delay would have had us asleep on the benches so UC again a blessing as sleep on board is paramount!

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests

Itinerary Calendar