VS006 MIA-LHR 16 Aug 07 (PE)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

August 16th came, and it was time to return to the UK after a very enjoyable cruise and a stay at the fantastic Loews Miami Beach. Thankfully it was PE again, and a van came to collect us, $50 from South Beach to MIA, not bad compared to the hotel offering a van for $145! Entered into concourse E, and joined the PE line, served by 1 person who was taking care of a group already, so we were invited round into the UC check-in desk and were checked-in very quickly. The security queues looked very long, but it was all done very well with 6 of 8 scanners open, and the queue moving quite fast. We were led over to the far left queue, where there was a funny looking compartment with glass doors. The very friendly security guy was telling everyone 'Do you want to step inside? It blows air at you, and it's a lot of fun!' My mum decided 'ok' and the sudden noisy squirts of air from about 10 different nozzles (accompanied by a small scream) were a bit of a shock for her! The security guy then told her how it analyses the air around you for explosives. We proceeded down the concourse, where there were a fair amount of shops, and enough as we would only be waiting there for about 45 mins, including a Samuel Adams Bar and Grill (like in JFK terminal 4), a Pizza Hut and several outlets selling water, sweets and magazines. At around 6.40, Passengers requiring extra time to board, including those with children under 10 (unlike the children under 6 at LHR), UC, PE and Gold Card Holders were invited to board G-VYOU (so had new Y seats which looked much better than the old ones). At LHR, Passengers requiring extra time to board were called before UC, PE and AU. At MIA there was also a separate line with a red carpet, similar to at JFK and LAX but not like LHR. However the main line wasn't too long so we just waited there as no-one else was using the priority line, even though it looked open.

I was seated in 20G this time, as we were greeted on board with champagne or orange juice, and the bottle of water on the armrest table. We pushed back at about 7.15, and were in the air at 7.30, with no wait for take-off - excellent punctuality for a 7.25 scheduled departure. The Captain gave us information about the flight, like scheduled flight time of 7'59', the fact that we were on G-VYOU and how full the plane was (though I can't remember what he said), PE was totally full bar 2 seats and UC was about 60% full, Y looked very full. As we were taxiing, an American man got up when the seat-belt signs were on, and just could not understand why he wasn't allowed to visit the restroom. [ii] t'was rather amusing. Soon after the CC were released they began to bring round a drink, pretzels and dinner menus. I hate the worcester sauce flavour, but it was cheese and onion flavour instead! [y][^], and by the looks of things, the 'other flavours section' doesn't list worcester sauce flavour so it ain't coming back!

This was, without question, the best cabin crew I have ever experienced on any flight. Nothing was too much trouble and it was always presented with a friendly smile. This included the menus, and we found out that for dinner we would be having... Lincolnshire sausage with hash browns or Vegetable crepe. Huh? Well they were the breakfast menus, and soon we got our dinner menus; the options were:

Bangers and Mash
Saut_ed Chicken with rice
Vegetable noodle stir-fry

served with asian style salad, warm bread roll, banana swirl cake with chocolate sauce, cheese and biscuits and tea and coffee.

I chose the chicken, which was great, and the bread roll was a nice addition. The salad was ok, the cheese and biscuits were very unlike the ones my mum requested and received (from UC) on the way over, but adequate. The banana cake was disgusting, maybe I had been spoiled by the delicious Jamaican banana cake! Something in the food hadn't agreed with me though, and I urgently needed the toilet, and with extreme agility and skill [:p] I slid out of the seat, but the CC member saw me and helped by taking my tray - very helpful. I went into the loo (still love 'em with those lights) and the plane started to shake a lot - not helpful at all. Soon the seatbelt signs were switched on and so I had to struggle back to my seat. The PE loos were used by Y pax quite a bit, but there was never anyone waiting outside the door. PE loos is certainly an improvement over the old cabin. As I settled back down to watch 'Shooter' with Mark Wahlberg - very good, the guy in front reclined his seat all the way to go to sleep - fine. So I did the same, and saw the same problem that has been highlighted here before about problems with the TV picture. So I slid down in the seat, where it was normal, but even if I hadn't the picture would have been watchable. After that finished, a cappuccino was happily brought along with a chocolate square by one of the 2 dedicated PE CC members (different to the way over when we only had 1) I then watched the 2 available episodes of 'The New Adventures of Old Christine' - very funny.

Sleep then kicked in and I slept until '''breakfast''', seriously how hard would it be to provide something like a bacon roll to their PE passengers? I just took some tea and ate the fruit salad, which was good but the blueberry muffin was awful. After finishing I watched the 1 available episode of '30 Rock' with Alec Baldwin which was also very entertaining. We touched down at around 8.10 BST after some circling, 40 mins ahead of schedule. Through customs and out to find my driver, who was standing next to a Royal Caribbean representative (sniff, not for me [:p]), who took me home.

PS something which I forgot to mention in the first report is how I was annoyed that we didn't fly down the US coastline, providing no views of places like NYC, as we did when we went to MCO. Instead we flew over the Atlantic, and the first piece of land after waving bye to Ireland was the Bahamas. Thanks for reading.

[Neil]

Thanks for an excellent TR Chris[y] Glad you had a good flight.

It blows air at you, and it's a lot of fun!' My mum decided 'ok' and the sudden noisy squirts of air from about 10 different nozzles (accompanied by a small scream) were a bit of a shock for her! The security guy then told her how it analyses the air around you for explosives.

They have these at the Statue of Liberty before you are allowed to go into the Statue - very weird things.

Agree about the new PE seats when the person in front is reclined, you have to recline your seat also to be anywhere near comfortable and to see your TV screen. Guess thats why I like Row 18 best.

Cheers
Neil

[buns]

Chris

Thanks for an excellent TR, full of detail and observations to aid fellow V-Flyers[y][y]

PE is the start of a slippery slope you know[:w]

It would be really helpful if you could add your seat rating for the PE seat - many thanks

buns

Thanks for the TR, oh I love Miami and South Florida ... about time I sampled it again. Sounds like a really good flight, glad you enjoyed.