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#937898 by CommanderB
30 Aug 2017, 12:57
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The return TR...

Chauffer arrived to pick me up in a timely fashion.

As expected, the lounge at ANU was medicore at best. Doesn't rank on my mental list of 'Best third party VS lounges', but it did have an outdoor area... which is a rarity, so there is that. :cool:

Boarding took far too long after being called. 45 minute delay after being called from the lounge, which was not good.

Travelling on a refurbed A330 again... G-VSXY, Beauty Queen. Sat in 10A which I was quite happy with as it was a night flight, although the loud child and equally needey mother sat in 8A and 9A - not so much. They literally had the crew doing everything for them, which was disturbing. I think I enjoyed the tranquility of my outbound flight a little too much! It was much fuller this time too... 264 onboard (with some shuffling pre-boarding I'd guess with all the passenger calls to the gate), 10 crew and 2 pilots, one Captain and one female first officer.

Both the outbound and inbound flights had onboard mobile & wifi service, although I did not use them. They've been fine on previous occasions, but I had no need for them this time.

Climb out of ANU was standard, out on the 07 runway. Not much to see as it was dark already.

I was quite pleased with the food offering... the Red Pepper & Tomato soup was lovely, albeit not quite hot enough for my tastes. Steak was juicy and flavoursome, and the Peacan butter cake dessert was tasty too.

Plenty of sleepsuits to go around, only managed a few hours sleep before being awoken for breakfast 90 minutes outside of Gatwick.

After having a few different cooked breakfasts onboard a few different airlines, I have come to the conclusion that you just cant cook a good English breakfast on a plane. As I expected, it wasn't tasty at all. If only Gatwick had an arrivals lounge for breakfast! ;-)

Arrival into Gatwick was smooth, with little waiting, straight in on the 08R runway.

Baggage was quick, mine was off 3rd I think. Due to an accident on the M25 earlier, Tristar jigged the booking a little meaning I was waiting in arrivals 7 minutes (first world problems) for the driver to appear, but once he did he was a lovely chap and got me home in decent time.

Overall a good trip. I will definitely return! A330 new config out of Gatwick certainly beats BAs 777-200 that trails the VS service usually.

Commander B, out.
#937912 by TimCrawley
31 Aug 2017, 02:59
Enjoyed reading your OW & RTN reports, thanks for posting.

We were in the new ANU lounge last November but must have spent too long in the duty free so the outside area was closed (or maybe they have got a bit more generous in keeping it open after sunset now?).

Bad luck on the 'noisy' return flight, sometimes the amenity kit earplugs aren't enough and you have to try to sleep with the headphones on too :-/

Hoping for a refurbed 330 for at least one leg of the trip out to ANU at the end of October, guess the odds will improve if they do manage another refurb or two before then but with the 787 issues it seems some of the 330 refurbs are likely to be delayed.
#938014 by tomthumb
03 Sep 2017, 20:23
Thanks again for the Trip Report and shame about the needy passengers next to you.
Have to say the new lounge is a vast improvement on the old one, the downside being those nice little duty free shops have gone
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