V-Flyer

Hi all,

When flying Upper, I'm aware the crew hold back passengers in the 747 'bubble' but I wish there was a way to hold the downstairs premium economy passengers when disembarking. I find there's potentially 46 premium passengers in front of us when queuing at passport control.
Wish there was a solution.

Gavla

Impossible, given the PE cabin is between UC and the door!

Not a problem for too much longer anyway: the 747s haven't got many years left.

You could always get Global Entry (for the US) - no queueing then!

now that most US international airports have the automatic machines I find the queues to be a lot less lengthy than previously so it's not always such an issue.

The machines seem to have smoothed the process out. Those that know what they are doing get through a lot quicker than a family trying to manage with kids.

As above, impossible to hold back the main deck PE passengers without using door L1, which the ground equipment could handle, but the airport stand layout (am assuming you are referring to MCO) cannot as the aircraft has to be further away from the terminal.

On our last MCO flight, a PA was put out on landing clearly stating the order of disembarkation. Main deck UC & PE, then upper deck PE & Y, then the remainder of the main deck. It was enforced too.

We've never got through the APC kiosks successfully - either arrive early on the VS75 when they are not in use, or get the X on the receipt, or have the kiosk claim the UK passport is an "Invalid Country". Will see what happens next time in 12 days time.

The thing that really annoys me (replace with words of choice) are the "special needs" passengers in PE leaning on the gate at MAN to board at the first available nanosecond as they need extra time. 9 and a bit hrs later they are making very good time - at considerable speed - to US Immigration. The curse of the "Lourdes Jetbridge" again! The same used to be said of a certain Irish LCC who used to invite parties with "children" to board earlier... the definition of a child was as loose as what we have seen in the UK press about Calais in the last few days. Slapping the £10 priority boarding charge on put a stop to it on Ryanair in an instant though.

If you must be off first then fly PE downstairs. Row 19 on the LGW 747 and get off first. I have done it once and I must say it was a great feeling to stride off down the walkway with no one in front of us.
Otherwise just chill out and go with the flow. I'd rather fly upper and have a few in front of us.
Getting off first often just means a longer wait for the luggage carousel to start.
Probably one of my favourite memorable experiences was an Air Malaisia flight to Oz when we got bumped from business to First and got to use the front door when we had a short fuel stop

Dick D

tontybear wrote:now that most US international airports have the automatic machines I find the queues to be a lot less lengthy than previously so it's not always such an issue.

The machines seem to have smoothed the process out.

Sadly all airports and terminals are not created equal.

T4 at JFK, which VS uses, must have about 100 machines. T7, which BA uses, has less than a dozen. I've sailed through both and queued for ages at both. It really is down to pot luck, and whether another international flight's landed just ahead of yours.

if you really must be first off the plane book row 25A Thur C as they the first people off the plane on a 747, i know this from experiance from when i went to Vegas with my sister and her husband
but tbh i'd rather be at the pointy end and be off a few mins after PE

This is actually great news for us as we will be in 19A/C on our way to MCO in January so should mean that we will be the first ones out ...

Do you go though immigration at MCO before collecting your bags or vice versa?

SteveU wrote:Do you go though immigration at MCO before collecting your bags or vice versa?

Immigration first, then luggage and then customs.

Immigration, then collect bags, then customs and then straight onto the train (with your bags)

David

[list=][/list]I dont get the rush off a plane...
to rush to the luggage belt where you case may come out first, or last or anywhere in between.....

If you don't want to waste time at MCO, do not put your luggage on the conveyor belt at the bottom of the escalator that goes up to the monorail that takes you to the main terminal. If you can manage it, take your luggage onto the monorail with you or you could wait for up to an hour for it to reappear at baggage reclaim. We found this out the hard way one year!

On our flight last month, they let all areas disembark together so upper were off after PE, most of the upper deck and a good chunk of Y.

We got to see the MCO holding room for the first time and 90 minute wait, but that's due to the volume of flights they've got coming in at the same time now.