This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Arrived fairly early to make the most of my first visit to clubhouse. I've been an Au since last year but never flown Virgin since and status lapses at end of this month.
Impressed with CH, airport was humming outside, so the peace , quiet and refinement was bliss. Had the braised steak and champ , few red wines and beers then a few games of pool with my colleague. I'm travelling UC to Sydney later in the year with the missus, so this trip gave me a chance to recce the place and check the menu to see what she might like (v fussy!)
Flight was full, so I had a faint hope of being upgraded and as the boarding card went though the machine at the gate sure enough I was reassigned another seat. Unfortunately, just somewhere else in cattle 32d. This put me near the front of economy and my colleague at the back. But gate attendant retained our boarding cards to see if they could get us back together. So sat back down and waited. By the time she came back to us everyone else had boarded and she said she would come onboard to see if anyone would move. But we didn't want to cause any hassle and told her to just leave us as we were now allocated.
Parked my bum in 32d, the 3 seats next to me were empty but had the kiddie backpacks in them. A FA then appeared and asked if I would move to allow a nanny and 3 kids to sit together. Agreed, and then ended up in the aisle bulkhead, so at least had more legroom. Noticed later at immigration that the mother was also on the flight, I would hazard a guess she was travelling in UC, whilst the Philippine nanny and kids in cattle. I must suggest that to the wife the next time we take our kids somewhere !
Sat back and stretched legs, my right foot travelled PE and the rest of me in economy. That was the end of the musical chairs. Only two seat empty in whole of economy, and that was due to the seat belts being broken so they were out of commission. Being in the bulkhead, there were a couple of under two's located around me. Apart from one ear piercing scream shortly into the flight they were admirably quiet on the journey. The IFE wasn't working on one of the parents seat so two portable DVD's were provided and they were allowed to use the two decommission seats whilst the seat belt signs were off.
Chicken and penne pasta for dinner which was fine, but did seem to take a long while before clearing trays away, but that's a consequence of being in the front row I guess. Listened to the Eurythmics and must of dozed for 3 or 4 tracks then read the newspaper. Had problems getting the IMAP working, just had message 'please wait' for ages. Several attempt and about 30 mins later it did appear.
Decided to watch film, picked Firewall with Harrison Ford. Standard thriller stuff, but will have to wait for return flight to see the end, IFE system was switched off over an hour before landing, just as the film was reaching it's climax. Won't mention the plot except that Harrison's son in the movie suffered from a peanut allergy (same as my little boy) and the baddies fed him cookies with nuts in . An evil thing to do but I couldn't help thinking that the film might help people understand a little more about how serious the condition can be, as they were frantically begging the baddies to give them back the adrenalin injections as the little boy had stopped breathing. Certainly reminded me how lucky we have been so far in avoiding a serious incident.
Arrived at 5pm local time. Had taken off around 3pm so 7 hours in the air. Had to wait a while for landing slot otherwise it would had been 30 mins early. First out of economy but waiting for colleague who was last off, so joined the back of the immigration queue which took about an hour.
We're now searching for somewhere to watch the England game, most bars don't open to noon on a Sunday so we are planning to watch the first half in the hotel then scoot to a bar over half time for a bit more atmosphere.
