Hello from the LHR Clubhouse

[mitchja]

Off the New York today on the VS45.

Just had breakfast which was good and now sat in my usual place up in the loft.

Came down yesterday on the train and stayed at my usual T4 Crowne Plaza last night.

Nice to see mobile/cell coverage now finally showing in the tunnels and stations on the underground parts of the Piccadilly tube line between Kings Cross and LHR . Still parts of it lacking though so it’s clearly a work in progress. The over-ground bits work as normal obviously.

Arrived via drive-thru which was as good as ever. First time using the new Upper Class Wing scanner which was OK but several pax in front not removing things from pockets or taking belts off slowing things down. Got the shoe scanner again (which I seem to get every time so I’m guessing it’s based on your shoe type?)

Looking like it’s a busy flight as the J cabin on the A350 I’m on has 1 empty seat and Premium showing just 2 empty seats so far.

Service is fantastic so far in the Clubhouse even though it’s pretty busy.

There’s a display of all the different VS cabin crew uniforms over the years including the current ones by the Clubhouse entrance.

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Have a great flight, James.
Is there anything more annoying than pax not prepping for security scans? Surely the 'rules' have been in place for long enough.
Enjoy!

[mitchja]

To be fair though, there are no instructions given by staff as you enter security so it’s understandable people don’t know.

Full body scanners have always required you to empty your pockets. I always empty my pockets, take my belt and watch off by default before I get to the front of the line now.

A lot of the standard security lanes still look to be the old style x-ray scanners though there looks to be work ongoing on T3 security.

A couple of bags in front of mine also got pulled for secondary screening as well.

I can also understand the huge amount of work required to upgrade these scanners as the new one in the Upper Class wing is probably 4 to 5 times the size of the old one taking up a lot more space (there’s still only 1 single lane as well in the wing).

Did you get to the clubhouse more than 3hrs before?
And was the 3hr rule being applied?
Were off to Tampa in April and normal arrive about 4hrs before flight