This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Aircraft: A340-600, G-VWKD, 'Miss Behavin''
Did an Online Check In for the flight the previous evening - I noticed that my seat allocation had changed from my chosen PE seat to just 'Window', and it wouldn't let me select a seat on the seat map. I found out why when the check in completed, VS must have been going through the flight doing the op-ups, as I got given 15A and a message 'You have been upgraded to Upper Class'. Nice New Year present! I did change from the originally assigned 15A to 11A, because I wondered if 15A may be a bit too close to the bar for an overnight flight.
I got to Logan a little early, shortly before VS check-in opened at 15.30, because that was more convenient for my friend to drop me off - otherwise I'd have had to take the Logan Express. There were already queues of people waiting to check in at the Economy line. I wondered how long they had been standing there! The staff showed up about 15.15 and started to open up check-in, along with the security staff who check off the documents, who had to work through the backlog.
I waited patiently at the podium for the security person to come over, while someone else (obviously more important than me!) pushed past to get on the red carpet, only to get scolded by one of the security staff - straight to the back of the line! The security person who asked me the questions seemed a bit officious, but thorough, and I was called straight over to a check in desk, where I was checked in within a matter of seconds, by a friendly check-in agent, who gave me my lounge invite, which I noted was endorsed with a '900' - which I take to mean Gold Card holder, rather than my fare class (e.g. G or Z, etc.).
Headed down through the 'secret' security lane which puts you out on the same level as the Northwest lounge, and quite some time in there sorting out photos on the digital camera, and populating a new iPod, while enjoying a few glasses of Becks (which later ran out). Nice that there's unmetered booze in the NW club, quite unusual for US airlines in my experience. Sure, it's no Clubhouse, but it's comfortable enough, though it will be interesting to see what the BOS Clubhouse looks like when it's opened. I wouldn't be surprised if it's quite small and intimate.
One issue with the shared lounge is that while VS provide a dinner buffet for their passengers, it was often attacked by gannets from other airlines. This time I noticed that the Alitalia, Air France, and Northwest Trans-Atlantic flights had all been called (indeed, AF and AZ were departing) by the time the buffet was laid out. The dinner buffet was the usual hot soup (some pumpkin/squash thing), and cold buffet, and wasn't too bad, actually, high point being some really good cheese, with nice crackers and there was a chocolate bread pudding. Mmmm.
The inbound flight was a bit delayed - about 20 minutes late, because of a late start, which couldn't be clawed back because of headwinds, which meant that by about 19.10, almost all the flights had gone, there was just a NW to Detroit and the VS pax left in the lounge - and the catering staff were starting to clear up! I enquired with the VS rep in the lounge, as there had been no announcements made, she said that they were expecting about 25-30 minutes delay, and then made an announcement. I eventually decided that I didn't want to spend any more time in the NW lounge and had one last scoot around the shops, picking up a couple of magazines and a book, before wandering down to E8A, where they were just starting boarding of families with small kids, special assistance passengers, etc. Priority Boarding was clearly signed, with a red carpet, tall sign on a 7-foot high pole, and rope barriers, and after a couple of minutes waiting on the red carpet, was down the escalator, amid the strollers (interesting, that!), and after a small stroller jam, was the first onboard in J on G-VWKD, and settled into 11A, quickly offered a glass of champers.
I didn't notice a black shirt wandering around the cabin, nor an IFBT, and after much to-ing and fro-ing with paper work, and what looked like a couple more op-ups, we closed up and pushed back, about 35 minutes late, but that wasn't going to be a problem, as we had a 5h45 flight time tonight. I've done it a little quicker, but not by much.
The wind had been shifting from North-Westerly to South-Westerly during the course of the afternoon, so while they were landing 33L and departing 27 when I arrived at Logan, they had gradually switched over to landing 27 and departing 22L and 22R, so we taxied out to 22R and before long off into a clear evening, with good views of downtown Boston off to the right before making some left turns to take us out over the ocean. Our route would take us over New Brunswick and Newfoundland, starting the Atlantic crossing North of St Johns.
The introduction from the 'FSM' (actually the J CSS 'covering' for the FSM) revealed that we were four crew short on this flight. Quite amazing, really, as this flight had been slated for a 346 since I booked the ticket, and it was busy when I booked. Their outbound working had been on an 343 (G-VFAR) on the 1st Jan, so they were only two crew down (looks like the 'real' FSM and the IFBT), which equates to four down on the 346. They had a challenge on their hands, with Y and W totally full, and a healthy load in J. At least they still operated the flight!
Seat belt sign off pretty quickly, and welcome video played over the PA to save time rather than waiting for headsets to be distributed throughout Y, which, while it may have disturbed those who didn't want to hear it, was a good idea, as it allowed v:port to be fired up quicker, which can't be a be a bad thing! Shame it's a bit too long to be played during taxi (except maybe at LHR, where you get a good 20 minutes!).
I noticed a couple of people moved up from PE to spare seats in Snooze by the FSM, shortly after takeoff. I'm guessing it might have been broken seats or inop IFE - they were still served their choice of PE meal, even though seated in the J cabin (after all, it doesn't look too out of place anymore with real crockery and cutlery). I guess giving them J food too might have made things tight given the handful of what looked last minute op-ups too.
Service was started fairly quickly, with the 'snoozers' being offered a nightcap - though I think that Snooze had more op-ups than snoozers in it, judging from bits and bobs of meals being served up there.
The acting FSM came around with the 'amenity bowl' (toothbrush and toothpaste, small metal pens, sweing kit, that dreadful chocolate lip balm, etc) to top up our Scrooge Packs that were waiting on the ottomans for us. The crew did work hard to try and make sure service wasn't visibly affected - and I found myself warming to the crew, especially when I recognised the crew member serving my aisle, as I was certain we'd flown together before. Turns out, she thought so too, probably on a San Fran, but wasn't sure whether to say anything! Even after thinking about it, we still couldn't remember when we'd flown together before. What was nice is that we were addressed by name throughout the flight, once seated.
Went for a Ten and tonic to help induce sleep before dinner, where I chose to go for the GNF cold supper tray - sliced roast beef over a decent green salad with baby tomatoes, a bottle of balsamic and olive oil dressing, which was served with a small melon and fruit plate (very nice red grapes, a strawberry, and melon slices) and a seperate cheese plate (cheddar and camembert, with Carrs Water biscuits and some really heavenly bruscetta-like pieces of bread, melt in the mouth crumbly!). It also had a 'Crispy Caramel' chocolate, which sent me into another Python moment... (Anthrax Ripple, anyone?)
Unfortunately, the beef suffered from the usual VS disease of having been overcooked by the caterer - and being a uniform colour all the way through, including the outside (Just how do they do that? Cook it in a microwave? Sous-vide?), but it was otherwise an enjoyable and quickly served light meal, so you don't go to bed on heavy food.
The hot options were the chicken in tarragon sauce and the pumpkin/squash ravioli which are also part of the menu from the other US stations.
I decided to follow this up with ice cream, with strawberry sauce (though no sign of the advertised chocolate fingers), after which I went for 'bed mode' and some sleep!
Snoozing was punctuated by us hitting some lumps and bumps not long after crossing the Newfoundland coast, which were to be expected, and a peek out of the window showed that we had some company 1000ft above us and just off our left side, it's strobe lights blinking away! This plane proceeded to gently overtake us over the course of the next 10 minutes.
I went for a quick walk around, and went behind the curtain to see what the back was like. Pretty full load. G-VWKD now has the SuperSeat fitted, and very comfy they looked too. Noticed the two empty seats, which must have been left by the people moved to Upper. I think they look more comfortable than the very tight J suites on the Airbus.
This was the first time I'd travelled in J on a suite-fitted Airbus (I've mostly been flying on the Boeings), and it feels really cramped - you can't use the cocktail tray and the armrest at the same time, and the armrest is so far back, you'd need an arm growing out of your back for it to be generally useful. I felt generally 'wedged' in the seat in an angle, and the position of the document pocket feels simply bizarre - squashed down by your hips. It's almost like they've been narrowed to squeeze an extra row in, and it definitely feels worse than the Upper Deck on the LHR 744, probably because the bed is shorter and therefore narrower at the head end.
The reading lights continue to be next to useless if you ask me - and even worse on the tight Airbus seats where you always end up in your own light if you're working at the table, and I can't really understand why VS can't just go for some tight-beam overhead lights like NZ put on their 744s - they don't seem to cause significant light spill in the cabin.
The other thing was that the seat seemed to stealthily recline. I don't remember pushing the 'down' button, but kept ending up fully reclined about 15 minutes after pushing the 'up' to bring the seat more upright. Maybe I was catching it or something.
So, in all, I wasn't too impressed with the Airbus J seat. The lavs on the Airbus seem bigger than on the Boeing, and of course, the A346 lavs are all swish with blue LEDs and 'fade up' lighting!
Anyway, I headed back to bed, and snoozed for the remaining few hours of the flight, again it got quite hot at one point in the flight, which made me uncomfortable. I really think the UC cabin needs to be cooler at night if we've got duvets and things, otherwise you can wake up sweating, especially in those polyester sleep suits (I just wore my normal clothes, and didn't choose to go for a sleep suit).
I woke somewhere over Ireland, and it wasn't long before the cabin-wide 'wake up' announcement was given, and the lights came up. I'd opted for no breakfast, instead planning on using Revivals. This was followed by an announcement from the Captain, who apologised for not managing speak to us earlier in the flight because of the late departure from Boston - they were working flat out to get us away, and then being caught out by the IFE being started up quickly before he could say anything after departure!
No delay over Ockham meant we were set up for a 7.05am arrival, which was almost exactly when we landed on Runway 27L, after having some unusual clear views over the street lights of London on the way in. A quick taxi-in put us on Gate 40, and the long hike into Immigration hall. Fortunately all the escalators and travelators seemed to be working just fine. Zipped fairly quickly through the IRIS booth, though the chap in front was having some real problems working out where to look, and had to be talked through it by a staff member - 'Please look into the mirror' and a big flashing arrow pointing which bit to look at, obviously not being clear enough. Priority bags were working - indeed the bags had already started to come out just as I arrived at the reclaim, and off to Revivals for a nice shower and some brekkie.
The good news at Revivals is that there have been some menu changes: Firstly, the 'proper' Signature dish is back - the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, now coming with toasted brioche bread and pancetta. The slightly odd 'baggatino' rolls for your bacon and sausage have been replaced with regular baps, and there's a couple of new hot dishes, including a 'crumpet melt' with kassler ham, cheese and sundried tomatoes. Service was great, as usual, and one of the staff mentioned that so many people had commented about the loss of the proper Signature dish that it had been reinstated. Power to the people!
So, not a bad flight, most things seemed to work okay, including IFE (though I didn't use it much), and despite the late start, we were early into Heathrow. Got some interesting feedback from the crew about how the new PE service was working - to be honest, I think the PE flight attendant could do with their own mini-galley, as I mentioned in the outbound report, as it seems to increase pressure on the J galley. The only thing I thought let things down was that I saw a couple of crew members having a 'play fight' over a pile of sleep suits. While I know VS is supposed to be a more laid back, casual experience, horseplay among the crew really lets them down. Look at this way, at least they didn't call me 'mate'!
