Had an idea of upgrading at ticket desk to Upper so tried to arrive in good time. Arrived at about 07.50, some selfridge's designer type dressed girl was in the short queue with what seemed to be her boyfriend, she took an emotional walk to the ticket desk where a guy was standing who with his glasses looked like shostakovich -'ho, how are youuuuuu'.
After about 7 mins the rotund girl at the end gave me the eye so I went over. 'Hi, is there any chance upgrading to UC on VS3 at all?' -'hold on I'll just check for you'.
With phone resting on ear and eyes elsewhere, visions of 'computer says no' were passing through my head. ' Computers say's yes but the engineer says table tray has failed on one of the suites, and the IE has failed on the other suite, we can put you on VS3 in PE or would you like to upgrade to UC on 45?'
I made the decision that it would be better to arrive in NYC slightly earlier than 45 so I took 3.
'Have all the bulkhead's gone?' 'Hold on I'll just check for you....hi can you release me 18...
I said my thank you's and went over to check in for proper. 'Have all the bulkhead's gone -'we usually reserve those for babies and small children'....oh i see she's already done it for you[:)
After my last trip in March, security seemed somewhat more laid back[?] They didn't even ask me to take my laptop from out of it's case, strange. So with not much time to spare I walked to the gate, lucky I thought to get on 3 as with an hour to spare in Newark last time I had missed my flight and had to trudge to JFK and wait seven hours as paperwork had all been done, my fault i suppose[:?]
Gate 7, mmmm nice and clean and spaced out, free newspaper, no taking off of the shoes again and the laying on of hands.
I like these airbuses at least they are newish, though im glad im not on the Sydney route trapped in the middle of economy, that must be pure hell [B)] ! Parked in 18H watching the people traffic flow past, always looking up, a japanese couple, a couple with Bond St Hermes bags making their way to the back of the bus, a lonely teenage traveller, and elderly couple in barbour type navy jumpers.. 'we're not in here are we john?'
The fact that we now have to wait for clearence to leave Heathrow from the authorities in the US via a telephone call, adds to the excitement and my impatience is quelled by the fact that 18k is still vacant and all the paperwork has been done and we are still waiting for clearance.
'Would you like some breakfast?' This is the 1st time i've had breakfast in PE on an outbound flight, it is ok though the raspberry yoghurt type thing with the cereal is abit of a mix up, I suppose I could have asked for skimmed milk but just carried on eating as i couldnt be bothered to ask. Why is the coffee so tasteless?? The banana/mango puree drink is a nice touch but I'd like a larger muffin
and the scrambled egg in the hot meal is too runny, salmonella i thought[:$] following the breakfast which actually did the trick I suppose, I lay my tray on 18H because by now I had moved into K. Regarding the food for this 7 hour flight, I think Virgin can offer PE passengers a little more than an ice cream and some shortbread which is what followed the main meal, certainly it's not only what my head thought but also my stomach [V]
'If you're following the IFE with the magazine provided, we must point out that the magazine has not been updated as from today the IFE has changed'
That's the announcement that came from Kim, the Inflight Supervisor, well I thought that's not good, but funny enough to slip on something like that, something so basic, but i wasnt too bothered as i had bought my book and I had seen many of the comedy shows that were offered and couldn't handle a film at that time of the day to be honest; played some blackjack which passed the time. Have they updated the toilets? They seem to have a newness about them?? PE was not full, all four seats in the middle at the back were empty so it wasnt just my luck.
Arrived about 15mins late due to the earlier departure clearance at LHR.
'LEFT !!' so I moved my body left, 'No, LEFT!!' she meant my finger, so i put my finger on the scanner and managed to smudge it by accident which she tutted at, 'RIGHT', no smudge this time. 'LOOK UP'.
'Thank you'. No questions asked this time, like why are you coming to the United States, nothing like the going over I get at LAX.
To sum up, great check in, ok ish food - but needs to be worked on and not too bad service, nice clean aircraft [:p]
{edit:mitchja - added airport codes to title to show the route map}
