VS020 SFO-LHR 3 Jan 08 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

This flight got off to a very good start about three weeks before travelling when someone from Virgin phoned me to ask if I would mind very much if my wife and I were moved upstairs as two passengers were unable to make the stairs. I had tried to secure top deck seats when booking but there were none free and I had resigned myself to being downstairs - so 9 & 10K were ours! The less said about the outward trip from LHR - LAX on 23 Dec the better - foggy Heathrow day!
2 hour delay in Belfast resulting in missed treatments and less time in clubhouse, then another 2 hours on LHR runway waiting for slot - no fun at all! Slept for entire flight so a TR on this one is unlikely!
Checked out of hotel (SF Hyatt Regency - perfect spot for NYE celebrations!)at noon and arrived at SFO at 12.20, anticipating 12.30 check in (as per VA website info), only to find that check in would open at 13.25, and inbound flight was one hour late. Starting to panic slightly as we had a bit of a tight connection for onward flight to Belfast and any delays could cause problems. Check in eventually opened at about 13.35, third in UC queue, passengers in front a bit miffed about lack of seating upstairs! No problems checking in, agent was lovely, coming to front of counter to explain all the paperwork. Lounge was empty when we arrived, straight onto computer to check in online for BD flight to Belfast - be warned, printer still not working! Customary champagne, club sandwich and peach turnover, all good! Still keeping an eye out for arrival of inbound flight which eventually appeared about 14.30, but desk lady assured me that our flight would leave on time. Lounge very busy by about 16.00 but starting to thin out with boarding called at 16.40. Short queue at gate and got underway about 50 minutes past scheduled departure - more panics, but captain assured that we would arrive on schedule, with a flight time of 9h 25m. Flight excellent, cabin staff great, no complaints at all - loving that top deck!
Touched down at 11.30, as promised - feeling good about catching 13.20 flight to Belfast. Hadn't bargained for our stand being occupied for a further 30 minutes before eventually disembarking though! We were second and third off the plane, dash to immigration, through in about five minutes, dash to baggage claim where, unbelievably, the luggage was already on carousel only about 10-15 minutes after plane arrived! Two of our bags claimed, no problem, but no sign of third - it eventually appeared, frantic dash to T1, made BD bag drop with eight minutes to spare before it closed. Phew! (Note to self - allow at least three hours connection time in future.)

Thanks for the TR, and glad you got the Upper Deck seats too [y]

I always leave a lot of time if in transit esp at LHR! Glad you made the onward flight.

DMB

Originally posted by Mr Farenheight
arrived at SFO at 12.20, anticipating 12.30 check in (as per VA website info), only to find that check in would open at 13.25, and inbound flight was one hour late. Starting to panic slightly as we had a bit of a tight connection for onward flight to Belfast and any delays could cause problems. Check in eventually opened at about 13.35

I think that the website hasn't been updated since the VS20 departure time was moved back from 16.30 to 17.25 at the Winter schedule change.

I also noticed that even the SFO station itself hadn't adjusted for a month or so after the timetable change, check-in still being open before 1pm, and they were calling boarding and slinging pax out of the SFO clubhouse just after 4pm for the new departure time.

(Of course, when you got to the gate, you ended up milling around as they weren't boarding!)

Mike