This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Turned up at EWR and joined the UC queue. One staff member is dealing with a wheelchair pax (not later seen in Club House or UC Cabin) whilst the other is dealing with a protracted issue with two other pax. We wait for a few minutes and watch as PE checkin ignore the growing queue in UC and stare into space, call to friends etc. A couple come to check in at PE and are kept waiting for a short while and are then processed. We're still waiting. After they'd been processed we were called across to PE and informed that Mrs D was in 2A in the snooze zone and that I was in 21A downstairs. WTF?! We're on the same PNR and despite all attempts had not been able to check in on line. How do they manage that? We explain that actually we'd like to sit together and are offered seats across the aisle from each other. We refuse this in favour of seats with the same letter which garners us a look as thought we were mentally deficient. We explain that this makes talking easier which sways our staff member into opening up a bassinet position. 20A and 21A are ours. Total check in time in excess of 15 minutes.
Off to Club House and install in a corner. During Mrs D's smoking expeditions she comes back with the intel that at least 15 people have been VDBed and that one of the ones Mrs D was speaking to was made up about it - a ticket anywhere in the world that VS fly other than Sydney, a night in a hotel with food allowance and the flight out the next morning. As they'd already booked the week off it was a no brainer for them and they couldn't believe their luck. Funny how perspective is all.
I know that EWR polarises opinion and I stick with my not really liking it. The lounge got VERY full it was a full flight and a 30 minute delay meant that SAS bods were starting to come in as well. The staff are friendly but the food doesn't really cut it and the lack of natural light is irksome.
At around 21:20 the flight was called and we joined the queue to get to the gate. Boarding was relatively painless and we were soon in seat. Once airborne (and interestingly we noticed in the US that Alka-Seltzer have introduced an 'Airborne' competitor which they are using 'we're better than Airborne because...' style advertising) Mrs D had the Hot Chocolate and went to sleep and I opted for the Alaskan crab salad on Melba toast. Whoever decided that the crab needs pre-plating onto the Melba toast (thus creating soggy toast) wants slapping.
A couple of glasses of wine and a chat to the FSM (top 40 seniority, 20 years with VS) and the CSS (15 years with VS) and it was time to hunker down. Bose on, head on ottoman and 4 hours later the Captain's announcement wakes me as we start to descend.
Remote Stand on landing and this is where seniority shows... the FSM ensured that BOTH aisles from PE were blocked to allow all 48 UC Pax off first. The member of ground staff said 'send me 60 please' to which our redoubtable FSM barked 'I can't say goodbye to my passengers AND count' and sent him away with a flea in his ear. So once ALL UC Pax were in the coach W/Y were held back and the coach left for the terminal. This is the first time I have ever seen this and I was impressed!
As ever Iris was a godsend and priority baggage worked. All in all a good high standard VS trip made once again by a quality management team on board.
