This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Arrived at LGW around 2pm the previous day and checked in using the twilight check-in service which was fast and efficient (I was the only one there!). Got my pre-requested seat 10K and was given my Clubhouse invite.
Next it was off to the Yotel which, as I was travelling alone thought I really must try. The room is actually bigger than I expected and surprisingly quiet. It has Sky TV and free internet access. The only problem I found was the air-conditioning was not very good as the room was a little too warm for my liking. Having said that I had a good nights sleep waking around 6.30 ready for my day ahead.
Went thought security around 9.00am with fast track not in operation, although it was so quiet it was not needed and then it was up to the Clubhouse.
Clubhouse was about half full and I quickly found a seat. The service was its usual high standard as a hostess arrived within 10 seconds of me sitting down. I declined anything for the moment as I had a treatment booked for 9.45.
Had a great chat with the beauty therapist whilst she did my Hot Hands treatment, she told me she used to be a IFBT but gave it up in 2006. She also said that as a result of the withdrawal onboard of the treatments both LHR and LGW will be getting additional staff and treatments over the coming months.
Accessing the gate was the usual Gatwick scrum, I walked to the front and was told to go back and get in the queue by the security agent, luckily one of the VS staff spotted my UC boarding card and let me through.
UC and PE were called first along with anyone who needed assistance or had children (which seem to account for about 75% of the aircraft) so I decided to stay seated and let the mayhem die down.
On boarding Hot Lips I was greeted by a very friendly female crew member who offered me a drink, took my jacket, offered to show me how the seat worked and then told me if I wanted anything during the flight to just ask.
We finally took off about 1hr 45mins late but the captain announced a shorter than advertised flight time which meant us making up about 50 minutes. He also told us we could keep track of our progress on the sky map but we were not allowed to all use it at the same time as he needed it to work out how to get to MCO, which raised a couple of laughs in the cabin.
First drinks round and hot towels were served pretty much as soon as the seat belt light went off this was followed directly by dinner orders. I can confirm the Freedom menu is still in operation as I declined lunch and this time. The crew member took my order and said to give her a call when I was hungry.
Had a quick nosey through the entertainment system, I had forgotten how bad it actually was as I had been spoilt by my last few flights flying out of LHR with Vport. Luckily I had my Ipod Touch with me as well as my laptop. Watched Have I Got News For You and Dr Who which I had downloaded onto the BBC i player the night before.
Had lunch about half way though the flight, opted for the mushroom soup for starters and the Chicken option for main course both of which were good. Passed on the dessert and cheese in favour of a couple of hours of sleep.
Was woken by with the offer of afternoon tea, which I declined, the next thing I knew was the Captain making an announcement that we would be starting our decent in about 5 minutes. Quickly got myself organised and before I knew it we were making our final turn into land.
Once on the ground the FSM (who did not make an appearance in the UC cabin) announced we should all hurry to the immigration desks as the VS015 was only 5 minutes behind us and that several of the other airlines normally arrive around this time. Once the door opened it was the usual race to get off, one thing that did annoy me was they did not hold back the economy passengers as they usually do, so half of the plane was off before the people in UC.
Luckily there was no other flight at immigration and only about 5 people ahead of me so I was through in about 10 minutes. Luggage was already off and going around the belt (it was good to see two belts in operation one for economy and the other for UC and PE.), so it was off the aircraft and into Hertz within 30 minutes
-Steve
