This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
The long awaited day arrived, our limo arrived at 08:40, 20 mins early but no big deal as we were packed & ready. Id booked Jon & Geoffs limo for 09:30 (as they live closer to LHR) and was keen that we converge at LHR at around the same time. Theirs also arrived early and we ended up arriving at drive thru check-in within minutes of each other. Virgins new drive thru at LHR is fantastic, this was our first time through the new facility. We were meeted & greeted by friendly VS uniformed staff with baggage tags pre-prepared and through we went, via the dedicated VS security channel to airside. My reckoning is that we beat the car to lounge in less than 10 minutes slogan by some 3 minutes! No shoe circus to contend with, also immigration was unmanned, although a few minutes later when the others came through they had their passports checked.
Friends and family who have no idea of the sheer unadulterated fantasticness of the wonderful VS LHR Clubhouse, simply dont understand our logic in arriving so early for a flight that doesnt depart until 14:40! Of course, no need to dwell on this here on VFlyer [;)]
We had a wonderful few hours in the CH taking in a champagne breakfast and all of us having various treatments or haircuts. Even got hungry around 1pm and did lunch. All this was interspersed with Espresso Martinis, Champagne and many of the other fine CH offerings.
Our flight was called around 14:10 and off we headed to the gate only to find the area swarming with passengers still boarding. The gate staff advised us to move to the front of the queue but to be honest this was tricky, especially as the queue stretched all down the entire jet bridge. Anyway, within 10 minutes or so we had turned left and were installed in our suites on board G-VELD, African Queen. We had prebooked suites 1K-4K for the four of us who had booked last July, Neil & Andy were selected 6K & 7K as someone else had already taken 5K. In the event the nice gentleman in 5K offered to swap, so the six of us had the run 1K thru 6K. The day of our flight fell among a short date range when an A340-300 was servicing the BOS run and, although initially we were put out we wouldnt be on a 600, we actually realised that few numbers in the UC cabin would work better for our party of 6! To cut to the chase, you have a better time round the bar in a 300 than a 600 cause you aint got so many people wanting to use it! Also, unlike on the 600 where there is a WC either side of the bar, so making it difficult to perch on the end bit where theres no stool, on the 300 there are no loos by the bar meaning that the ends of the bar get fully utilised! As this was a day flight, and we were somewhat of a party crowd, the fact that the entertainment system was Odyssey rather than VPort was insignificant as none of us went near it!
The suites were all in good shape, bright, clean & shiny with no scuffs all in all absolutely fine given some of the recent TRs posted here of late, although I recall that many of the negative comments surrounding suite upkeep/maintenance relate to the LGW 747 fleet?
We pushed back virtually on time and were airborne around 15:10, not bad for LHR.
Excellent crew on board, they couldnt have promoted more the fact that we were free to eat when we wanted. This was perfect given the amount wed already tucked into back at the CH! Our chatty FSM, Sam Taylor (permission to use her name granted), did however get us to pre-select what we wanted in a few hours time so as to guarantee our choice of dish. The menu consisted of:-
Lunch
Starters
Baby gem salad
with peas, feta cheese, pea shoots and rocket dressing
Salmon ceviche
with rocket and cherry tomatoes
Main courses
Braised tender cut of beef in red wine sauce
with buttered runner beans, carrots and leek 8 potato dauphinoise
Poached flounder, steamed prawns and mussel en papillotes
with creamy citrus sorrel sauce, buttered new potatoes and broccoli florets
Slimmer vegetable lasagne with rocket and olive oil
Cheese
Served with assorted crackers and smashed apple chutney
Blacksticks Blue
Made by Butlers Farmhouse cheese company this soft, blue veined cow's milk
cheese is creamy smooth yet tangy in flavour with soft creamy texture
Joseph Heller Coloured Cheshire
Traditional, cloth bound, hand-made Cheshire, made at Laurels farm in Nantwich. Firm but crumbly texture with a delicate pale orange colour and rounded, acidic, full flavour
Somerset Rustic
Cow's milk cheese from Lubburn creamery with vegetarian rennet. Soft and creamy
in texture with a distinctive bloomy orange rind
Dessert
Dessert of the day - please ask the crew what's on board today
Orange ice cream
with dark chocolate sauce
Hot and Herbal
Served by the cup or in a mug, it's your choice.
We are delighted to offer FAIRTRADE tea and coffee on board today's flight.
Afternoon tea
Selection of sandwiches
Coronation chicken 8 cucumber, ham 8 Dijon mustard and egg mayonnaise __ chive
Apple and cinnamon scone
with Tiptree strawberry jam and Roddas clotted cream
Chocolate & hazelnut cake and cranberry & almond slice
From the Bar
Grey Goose Vodka, Bacardi 8 year old, Tanqueray No TEN Gin, Martini, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Dewars 12 year old Special Reserve, Aberfeldy 12 year old Single Malt, Jack Daniels, Otard Cognac, Graham's Port, Drambuie, Kahlua and Baileys
Heineken and Stella Artois
Special Guest at the Bar
Virgin Special Bellini
A tribute to Giuseppe Cipriani of Harry's Bar in Venice, our special cocktail today is the happy union of Prosecco and crushed peaches.
We ended up eating around three hours into the flight, I had the poached flounder and thoroughly enjoyed it as did Steve with the beef. Cant remember what the others had although Im sure one among us had the veg lasagne and said it was good. The dessert of the day was a lemon cheesecake served with ice cream.
This was Jon & Geoffs first UC experience and, thanks to the ultra attentive crew and overall excellent service, they were extremely impressed. The flight went pretty quickly, goodness knows how much champers we got through, but we all had the sense to drink plenty of water as well!
We would have arrived on schedule at BOS had ATC not put us in a stack for a good half hour, so landed around 17:30. No Immigration queues at all and straight through to baggage reclaim where our cases were already out. Got the courtesy bus over to Embassy Suites where we stayed the night before heading out to Cape Cod & Provincetown, via Wrentham Premium Outlets. For anyone who is interested we stayed in this wonderful cottage in PT for eight nights before heading back to Boston for last nights return PE (then to be UC) flight home. Return TR will follow soon.
Hope this has been an OK read
Cheers
James & Steve
