VS032 UVF-LGW 27 May 07 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

We had check in, chill out service at our hotel and so we proceeded to the designated place at the appropriate time. There were three people doing check-in and it all worked pretty smoothly. Of course, when it came time for me to check-in, there was an issue. The staff did not have a boarding pass for me and they were not sure why. Once I explained the situation with the paper ticket and the misspelled name, some phone calls were made and it was eventually decided that I needed to check-in at the airport. All I have to say is thank goodness we were flying UC. I thought I must be the only person on our plane not checked in, but apparently check in, chill out is only offered at certain hotels. When our transfer arrived at the airport we were asked if everyone was already checked in and when I said no the woman asking looked at me with alarm b/c the check-in line must have been a mile long. There was no one at UC, however, so it was not an issue. Took a few minutes longer than it might have due to the whole misspelled name situation, but again, this was not VS fault so I cant give them poor marks for it. There is no fast track, but the check-in agent indicated we should head straight to the front of the line and show our UC boarding tickets to the officer, which we did and were through security quickly. We headed up to the shared lounge which while no VS CH, was much nicer than I expected at such a small airport.

When our flight was called we headed to Gate 1 and there was priority boarding in place. Amenity kits were on our seats and sleep suits were stacked at the bar for us to take. The UC cabin was full, and on this flight there were 8 of us from the group in the cabin (but the person with the loud laugh was not with us!). We were delayed on the ground for an hour first we were told we were waiting for 20 more passengers. Then there was an issue with paperwork, and finally some people were booked into the same seats and were being moved around. We recognised one of the CC as someone who had been on our outbound flight so we had a nice chat with him. Lovely guy.

Again, our group got up to chat at the bar once the seatbelt signs were off. We were not as loud this time, as there were less of us, and we were more tired. Dinner was served pretty soon after. Starters were an asian duck salad with mandarin segments and almonds or roasted vegetable soup. I had the salad, MrStars had the soup. Both were good. Mains were chicken with some sort of maple orange glaze, and honestly, I cant remember the other choices as I did not have them but opted for a cheese plate instead of a main. I cannot remember the desserts as we didnt have any. During the meal service it was fairly bumpy, but not enough to have the seatbelt signs go on. After dinner the lights were turned down and everyone tried to sleep. It was extremely bumpy and the seatbelt sign remained on for a good portion of the time, from what I could tell (when I wasnt sleeping).

Not much else to report from this trip I skipped the breakfast service and tried to squeeze in a few more (unsuccessful) winks. I am not a good sleeper on planes, particularly bumpy planes (nervous flyer). We deplaned from the middle set of doors, after PE, so plenty of people ahead of us, but passed a number of them on the long walk to immigration. It would seem that MrStars and I were in the extreme minority not having British passports, as there was literally no line for us at immigration. Our bags were out within minutes of reaching the baggage claim and we were off home in the dreary rain so typical of a bank holiday Monday.

two good trs i am sure your party livened up the cabin. shame about the name issue but its good you didnt get down about it

As I had suspected, I didn't earn any miles/tps due to the name issue, but VS customer service was pretty good about it - it was sorted in a week. (they couldn't do it automatically b/c the person on the phone was not authorized to override the computer).