#947210 by SlimpyJones
25 Nov 2018, 15:24
Welcome back!

This is the return portion of my weekend trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts - my outbound trip lives here.

As mentioned in said outbound TR, these weekenders only really "work" if I can get an early flight back to LHR and sadly the VS departure is just too late in the evening if I am to minimise the amount of annual leave that I take. So thankfully at least, there is a Delta departure at a little before 7:30 that gets in 7am-ish. It buys me a little more Revivals time at the very least!!

As can be expected in Boston at pretty much all times of year, I was treated to some particularly changeable weather. The thunderstorms and rain that I was expecting to meet on my arrival on Friday materialised on the Saturday. My quest to find breakfast nearby was a bit of washout, but thankfully it cleared up by noon.

ImageNot the best welcome!

Even though it was still cloudy, one could still be treated to some lovely views of downtown Boston from the Charles River, or at least, the bottom half of downtown anyway...

Image

I think I've just about got these weekenders figured out sleepwise, a mid-afternoon nap on the Saturday means that I'm not beginning to fall asleep at 5pm!! This meant that I had enough fuel to venture out to a bar for some dinner. It felt like ages since I was last in a proper US bar and made me look forward to my New Year trip to NYC.

The final day saw me take a trip back over the river to Boston to procure some gifts, and pay a visit to Harvard. It was very nice, faux-European but it seems so much smaller than I was expecting it to be. After spending many years in Cambridge, UK, perhaps I am used to the university just being "everywhere"...

And so to the flight...

Before I even got onto the subway to head to the airport, I was treated to a bit of a planespotter's paradise, it seems that on this day most of the inbound flights to NYC from the Atlantic were passing over Boston, and so I managed to spy each arrival in succession from the ground, first an Etihad A380, KLM from Amsterdam, and finally this lady - G-VGEM at 38k feet serving the VS137:

ImageG-VGEM with Boston subway in the foreground!

I had checked in using the Delta app the night before to find that there had been an aircraft switch. DL operate some five different configurations of the 767s, this one was to be a low-Business configuration with a slightly larger Comfort+ cabin. Given it was a redeye flight I decided to switch up from a window seat to a middle aisle to give myself a little extra breathing room. The Comfort+ section was looking very full, and upon doing a dummy booking it looks like J and the rest of Economy was pretty full as well - the same could be said for the VS departure that day as well.

I took the red line from Harvard and connected to the Silver line bus, which handily drops you right outside of the terminal. Another reason to love BOS, it's just such a convenient airport.

Delta operate from Terminal A at BOS and have the lion's share of the operations from the A gates. The terminal is also shared with Southwest.

ImageCheck-in area

I arrived at around 3:45pm, about three hours before boarding. My first quandary was that my Global Entry/Known Traveller number was not added to my booking (presumably lost in translation from the VS systems...). Getting it added involved a visit to the Sky Priority desks after a short wait. It was certainly worth the wait as the TSA line was empty, and taking out my laptop and removing my boots and so on would have been a huge faff.

After passing the initial departure inspection from a very bored looking security agent, security was a little slow but TSA worked like a charm and I was straight through with no scrutiny.

Terminal A is separated into the two buildings. The 'Main' building housing the checkin desks, baggage reclaim and half of the gates, but also a satellite terminal with the rest of the gates. There was a Delta Skyclub in each of them and thankfully my VS Gold status would grant me access to either of them.

One thing I do like about US airports is that they announce the gates many hours in advance. I was to be leaving from gate A16 which is in the Satellite terminal. The screens outside the SkyClub in the Main terminal also advised that if you were heading out from the Satellite terminal that it's best to use the Skyclub over there.

It ain't no Clubhouse...

Transit between the two buildings is done via an underground walkway. After reaching the other side and grabbing myself a fridge magnet memento, I located the stairs to the Skyclub.

Image

Up the stairs, and follow the corridor...

Image

After proceeding through the nice glass doors, I was warmly welcomed by one of the (three!) staff manning the desks and given the Wifi password. I also asked if they happened to have a plug adapter (I had managed to bring a Euro one with me by mistake - rookie error!) not only did they have a drawer full of them, but they let me keep it with their compliments. It was a reversible one too so I stashed that gladly away in my bag!

The Skyclub is large and bright, with excellent views of the apron. It is however, everything that you might expect from a US lounge. Food offerings were a cold buffet selection, with a choice of two soups. There was also a bar that offered a small range of complimentary drinks, but most things were chargeable. There were no showers in this lounge, unlike the Skyclubs in ATL and JFK.

ImageSkyClub seating

ImageBuffet offerings

I managed to find some seating opposite the large windows and was treated to a lovely sunset view.

ImageSunset over Boston

I tucked into the some of the buffet offerings and some complimentary white wine, and posted a wave to you fine people! Shortly after our aircraft was pulled in from a remote stand.

ImageMy ride for the evening

The aircraft this evening was N198DN, a 20 year, 10 month old 767-300(ER). It had arrived earlier that afternoon from Paris. Here is the seatmap for anyone who is interested - I was to be in seat 16E today!

It is a shame that there is no airside connector between the terminals as this may have afforded me the chance to visit the VS Clubhouse over in Terminal E, but alas it was not to be this time. There wasn't really an awful lot else that could be said for the Skyclub, it was a perfectly good way to whittle away two or three hours but it does not have the charm of the Clubhouse, and the offerings are on a different planet. Still - I was pleased to have procured my plug adapter!

After catching up with general goings-on at home, I decided to up and leave for the gate at around 6:30pm. Coincidentally, this was right as the boarding call announcement was made over the PA in the lounge! It was a short walk to gate A16 where already the crowds were beginning to form.

ImageTime to go...

Boarding for Comfort+ customers is during the Sky Priority group - the next one after the Business customers. The queuing system was a little confusing and I had a feeling I was guilty of cutting right through the middle, which I was a little ashamed of!

A seatswitch gone wrong...?

After stepping on board I was warmly greeted by the Flight Attendants. There was a bit of a holdup while one of the J passengers stood in the aisle for what felt like ages. Agonisingly past Delta One which I would have very much liked to have had today. Alas, my focus was on Comfort+ for this trip.

ImageRow 16, with my seat 16E on the left

I do like the appearance of the Comfort+ seats, they are distinctly different from rest of the Main cabin and I do think that this is one area where DL have exceeded VS, in terms of the "exclusive" feel of the Economy Plus product.

ImageMy view from 16E

My first impressions of the seat were good. The legroom is stated as 35" on DL.com, compared to 34" for Economy Delight (on VS.com). I can't say I noticed this extra inch all that much until the passenger in front of me reclined during the flight - it was less invasive than on VS.

Waiting for me on the seat was a pillow, a blanket, and a small amenity kit. The menu was handed out by crew a little later - which I present to you below!

Image
ImageFoooood!

ImageLittle goody bag

The amenity kit contained an eye mask, ear plugs and a toothbrush and toothpaste.

The reason for my seatswap concern had just arrived. A woman with three children, and thus my seat neighbours were to be two little girls. Their mother was sat behind them. At first my heart sank and really wished that I had stayed in my nice window seat, but after a few minutes it appeared that these kids were seasoned flyers - so my initial concerns dissipated quickly!

I discovered in the lounge that I had lost one of the earbuds to my headphones - so I was hugely relieved when the crew came round with a basket of earphones - my saviours! They were poor quality though, with sharp edges that actually started to hurt the inside of my ear after a time. But it really was that or nothing and I needed music to help me sleep!

Doors closed, time to go

With everyone on board - a specific number was never announced - the doors were closed at 19:08 and a flight time given of only 5 hours 33 minutes. The cabin looked very full - only one spare seat in Comfort+, a middle seat, which I couldn't see getting poached as they were on my VS outbound!

We pushed back only a few minutes later, and the safety video began to play. I quite like the DL safety video, it's nice and simplistic. The DL crew were sporting their new purple uniforms which I think looked pretty good. After a short taxi we were up in the air by 19:26. The IFE became available and I tried to find something to watch. If there is one thing I could critique about Delta, is that I never usually find something that I want to watch. And so I fell back to what has become a Delta tradition - Bob's Burgers. During the episode a bottle of water was handed out. The seat at this point started to feel a little hard, and I was getting warm due to the leather seat - which was perhaps not the best time for the hot towels to come round, but after wiping the back of my neck, the air vents helped to cool me down a little!

Time to eat!

The meal service and first drinks round came at the same. If memory serves, VS had a similar setup, presumably due to the short flight. I have posted the menu above - I decided to go for the Chicken Piccata, and a Cognac to drink. The meal came with a bread roll, some cheese and crackers and a simple green salad, with some dressing, and a brownie for pudding.

ImageMeal service - Chicken Piccata

The salad was nice and crisp. The main was a bit average, it tasted okay but it was quite overcooked. The chicken was tough to cut (especially with plastic cutlery) and the polenta and green beans were quite watery. The bread roll would have been a good substitute for a cricket ball, god knows what they made it of! That being said, the brownie was a tasty dessert.

Overall I'd give the meal service 2/5. VS definitely have Delta beaten in the Economy food department.

Tea and coffee followed shortly after and, wanting to sleep, I opted for a tea, though it didn't occur to me at the time that this probably had caffeine in it as well... oops! The tray tables were cleared promptly. It looks like my little seat neighbours were not a fan of their kiddo meals - spaghetti and meatballs - they were hardly touched. I do hate seeing food go to waste.

I went back to another Bob's Burgers episode, when during the middle of viewing the lights suddenly went out. I guess that meant it was bedtime! The IFE stated our arrival time to be 6:05am, almost an hour early! We had around four hours to go, so sleep was definitely needed. It was during this moment that I missed the footrest from VS premium a little.

Sleeptime

Although I call this section "Sleeptime" - there really wasn't that much to be had. A few things conspired against me, the seat was a little hard and I struggled to get comfortable. My small neighbour also wouldn't switch off her monitor, and I have a feeling the tea was caffeinated and so I couldn't switch off myself! After trying for about an hour I failed to sleep, and so decided to get up for a little wander around the plane. It was pretty full as I expected. The Delta One cabin had long since bedded down.

I decided to give it one more shot, this time employing my eye mask. This was actually the first time in all my years of flying I have used an eye mask. Normally I find them to be horrible and uncomfortable, but this one actually seemed to do the trick a little and was not too tight. In the end sleep found me for probably about an hour.

The lights came on just as suddenly as they went off. It was about 5am UK time and we were just over the Southern tip of Ireland. My neck felt very sore, presumably thanks to leaning my head back on the seat. Another peril of being long-backed, oh well!

Breakfast time

The breakfast service commenced as soon as the lights came on. The menu described a "Continental Breakfast Box with Breakfast Bread and Yogurt". I have never heard of the term "Breakfast Bread" before so I was curious about this. In the end breakfast consisted of the aforementioned yoghurt, a small tub of orange juice, a muffin (presumably this is the breakfast bread?) and a slice of cheese, along with the choice of tea or coffee. I opted for the latter this time as I really did need to stay awake now...!

ImageBreakfast service

I took a coffee refill as I investigated some of the Wifi options. It seems DL have VS slightly beat in this department as there is a free messaging pass available for those who do not want to do "full" browsing. I did not take this option as everyone I knew would have been asleep...!!

We started our descent over South Wales and the crew distributed some pre-arrival chocolates. Near Heathrow the flight deck advised that we would be placed into a holding pattern for 10-15 minutes due to our early arrival. We turned around for final approach at about 6:15am, to approach Heathrow from the West, and the FAs completed the last of their tidying up duties.

We passed through the clouds just as the sun was coming up and touched down at 6:21am, onto the Southern runway. After a short five minute taxi ride later we pulled up to Gate 17, a little over half an hour early. We pulled up next to G-VGEM who had arrived ten minutes earlier as the VS4. Interesting that I had seen her in the air en route to JFK only 12 hours or so prior!

Arriving

There was also another aircraft letting off a full load of passengers, and so I was part of an enormous stream of arriving passengers. There must have been hundreds heading towards immigration. I was hoping that at least some of them would peel off towards flight connections so that I wouldn't have to wait forever at immigration.

Bizarrely though, the EU/UK stream was very empty! It seemed as though the majority of the "stampede" was behind me as within a few minutes the queue was backing out of the immigration hall. Bullet dodged there. And so within five minutes I was through immigration and customs. How nice!

My next destination was Revivals. The Delta breakfast had hit the spot at the time but I was in the mood for something a little more substantial. Plus a shower, of course. And another coffee to help me do the motorcycle ride back to Huntingdon. Staff at Revivals were friendly but seemed quite rushed off their feet as this was the height of the morning rush. Conversations flowed between arriving parties from Johannesburg, Detroit, and many others.

Feeling comfortably Revived, I headed back to the motorcycle parking and headed home.

A few closing thoughts on VS and DL on the "Economy Plus" front. First though, this was not much of a fair test, my VS outbound was quiet and a daytime flight, my DL return was a busy overnight. In the future I intend to repeat a similar trip but reverse the carriers (DL out of Heathrow, VS back) just to get a fair comparison. But off the top of my head...
  • I prefer the VS seat to Delta for comfort, the Delta seat started to get a little hard after a while and I got warm due to the leather seat.
  • Legroom on DL Comfort+ was better and reclining passengers are not as much of a hinderance
  • Food - VS won in this department. This surprised me as I've had some lovely food on Delta in J. So I am curious what their ex-UK offerings are like.
  • Crew - I do try not to place to much weight on crews, they are human, humans can vary widely. But as has been observed by others, VS and DL crews do differ mostly in terms of age and experience. I believe I remarked in another thread that the DL crews are a little bit like school dinnerladies - not in a derogatory way, they are just very efficient and lack a bit of sparkle that the VS crews are known for (except for one lady serving the Main cabin who was lovely).

So that's it really!

My next trip is EDI-JFK in Delta One (in just under four weeks), and returning in VS Premium EWR-LHR. So until then, happy flying, and thanks for reading. :-)

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