Flight: VS022
Aircraft: A340-300
Registration: G-VAIR (3rd time on this aircraft, all three flights have been ex IAD)
Scheduled Take Off Time: 6.55pm
Actual Take Off Time: 7.12pm
Scheduled Arrival Time: 7.30am + 1
Actual Arrival Time: 7.03am +1
Well after an all too brief four days in Washington it was time to head home. I remembered why I loved DC so much, it is a fantastic place and IMHO very underrated in the UK travelers thoughts. If you are into your politics or museums then there really is no better US city. We stayed at the Washington Marriott in Foggy Bottom, a fairly bog standard Marriott, the staff were polite enough, the room recently refurbished and the location was good for exploring the Mall area/Dupoint Circle and Georgetown. Activities of our trip included four gorgeous days of weather, a moving afternoon spent at the Holacorse Museum (seems wrong to call it a highlight but it was very emotional), the obligatory tours of the White House and Congress as well as being witnessed to a very moving military funeral at Arlington (not a single person had a dry eye).
My parents were catching the jetBlue service down to MCO to start their six month stint so we had worked logisitics out to enable us to all depart at roughly the same time. This meant one CDC to the airport and a more leisurely afternoon together. At 3.30pm our Obamamobile arrived and we said our goodbyes to the over friendly concierge. The CDC driver took us a back way to IAD in order to avoid the traffic, a very scenic route thorgh a country park the name of which escapes me. With little hold up we arrived at IAD at 4.15pm exactly and were deposited outside the VS desks.
The children proceeded through to VS where an eagle eyed check in agent spied my silver luggage tag and immediately directed us to the W line. It was clear there was big party of school girls on the flight, who appeared to be returning from a cheerleading contest. We were seen by a rather unfriendly agent. When I say unfriendly, she did her job but was rather anal about it and wanted no chit chat. Despite being rather strict she still needed to be reminded three times that one of the bags was to be through checked, and transferred tagged, to MAN. For some reason she also insisted on taking the W tag off my brothers bag (despite it being tagged at LHR) because he was not a silver card holder. Within ten minutes we were all checked in and we trundled off to find the parents at the B6 check in desks.
With the main terminal not offering too much we decided to head through to the gate area. As has been reported on this site IAD has introduced a skytrain system that now runs out to the gate areas. The introduction of the new service means that there is a new security screening area (well new for me). Lines at security were minimal with a number of stations open, the only criticism would be the lack of direction from the TSA staff to other travelers. I had to go hunting around the security station for a box for my laptop for example. However I am just mainly nitpicking. The parents were departing from the B Gates, so we decided to take the skytrain system out to the A gates and then walk along the concourse to B. When we arrived at their gate we decided to just sit and wait until they boarded. Their aircraft (a lovely jungle jet) arrived on time and before long our goodbyes were being said.
I made my way back down to the A Zone and by the time I arrived at Gate 32 boarding was just about to begin. Priority boarding was well signposted and as with LHR, Silver FC members were given the option of boarding early. Now for my pet hate, why on the announcement of pre boarding do a whole range of people decide to congregate around the gate entrance? I have never understood their eargerness to get onto the plane, its not as if the thing is going to leave without you. Anyhow once a number of announcements were made telling the passengers to wait their turn, Y boarding began. I carried on reading my book until the whole aircraft had boarded and then made my way down to Maiden Tokyo. Extra security screening was in progress but I was not selected. A quick walk down to the aircraft, saw me welcomed on board by a rather gorgeous looking FA who was around my age. Sadly that was really the last I saw of her as she was working in J.
I quickly settled into 44 F and the seat belt sign was turned on. The Captain came on the PA system to welcome us on board, and for the second time this year we were given a rather amusing welcome introduction. The intro went something along the lines of this Welcome aboard this Virgin bound for London....tonight the first officer will be performing the ballet routine as we cross the pond.....the first officer will also be ensuring that we hopefully have a smooth landing at LHR.....conditions are good enroute flight ime of 7 hours however I do not need to tell you to keep your belt fastened otherwise you may end up with a soar head......I would tell you the weather at LHR, however it will only upset you and I do not wish for anyone to get off the aircraft now....so I will keep the weather update as a nice little surprise for you in the morning, bet you cant wait....we will be back on later in the meantime just sit back and enjoy the show that will be put on by the excellent cabin crew. This was the extent of the rather witty introduction which certainly was different to the bog standard dry type that is so common elsewhere. Our routing was up out of IAD on Runway 19C using the typical slow take off roll and climb of the 343 with very suttle right hand turns over Virginia before heading directly over JFK and out to the east of BOS, making land again over Halifax then across the Atlantic hitting the Irish coast coming in over Dublin, Bangor and Liverpool before turning right towards Birmingham, Milton Keynes and then into LHR over the M25.
Push back occured at 6.55 local time and the regular saftey demo was undetaken. As is normal all cabin lights were turned off for take off and the wait for our turn was rather short. The 343 trundled down the runway, using a fair amount of it, before lifting off very slowly. I was amazed at how smooth the take off was, not a single lump or bump in the air as we eased our way out of IAD. It really is true what people say about the 343, its take off power is very different to that of a 744.
As soon as the crew were released the usual routine was followed that being:
Distribution of Amenity kit
Distrubution of headsets
Starting up of Odyessy
Combined meal and bar service.
The meal service came around at about 7.45 and was a joined bar service. The options on the flight were:
Roast Chicken with all the trimmings
Vegetarian Canaoloni Pasta
Cottage Pie.
I went for the pasta again which was not great but not bad either. The usual pasta salad was present as was a chocolate cheesecake thingy for desert. I can understand the combined meal/bar service on these short flights, however I did feel that the crew were being rather stingy on the distribution of drinks. Other airlines *cough* BA *cough* offer passengers at least two drinks wit their meal, the lack of a second drinks service resulted in a lot of requests for extra drinks which surely just detracts from the crews main duties.
Nothing took my fancy on Odyessy although I did watch a briefr 30 minutes of the Inbetweeeners. Duty free was offered and in keeping with tradition a VS gemini jet was purchased. Lights were dimmed fairly early and it was time for me to attemptt o get some shut eye. It was at this point that I popped a couple of Nytol I the hope of getting a semi decent sleep, I reckon I did manage at least five hours but as we all know sleep and economy do not mix and I was not helped by the loud Welsh contingent three rows back whos topic of conversation all night was how crap the iPhone was. As I was asleep I cannot comment if water runs were done but am guessing they were.
Lights were switched on at around 5.30am local time and a rather brief snack service was offered. This was tea/coffee or juice and then the choice of an apricot cereal bar or muffin. Again as with the outbound I was under the impression we would be offered some form of Egg Muffin (like on the MCO flights) but this was not offered. I am unclear as to whether this is a cost cutting exercise or if it was due to the length of the evening flight. Once the snack was cleared away the cabin was secured for landing, I use the word secured hesitantly considering the Indian lady sat across the isle from me did not have seat belt fastened for the whole of landing (and it was blatant as her belt was hanging over arm rest). Usual double ping pong, crew were thanked for all their hard work (FYI 189 passengers on board) and we crusied down into LHR with no requirement for entering a stack. Wheels down at 7.01am local and we taxied over to gate 19 (IIRC) at T3. The usual welcome blurb was undertaken, including a part about the border agents strike and to expect long delays at immigration. The captain came on to inform us that we are ahead of schedule again, landing at 7.01am and will be on stand in 30 seconds, do not get out of your seats just yet.
Seat belt sign off, doors open and I was in the terminal rather quickly. A quick walk to immigration (with a good bye to my sister enroute as she transfered to T1) and we arrived to find huge lines at immigration. For once the foreign visitors line was huge, I was through passport control in about 10 minutes (with yet another cheerful passport agent! Hmmm!!!), quick pit stop and we found our bags doing the rounds of baggage claim 7.
Outside to the Q Park pick up area, and the longest wait of the flight took place, as we waitied for the transfer minibus. It finally arrived and by 8pm I was sat in the car at Q park getting ready to drive out, having just spotted a famous (or soon to be famous) F1 driver parking his car at Q Park and rushing to catch his GF flight to Bahrain for this weekend.
So my thoughts. Well check in was not very good, I felt the agent was pretty poor and not very well experienced. Food gets an average because it was fairly bog standard. Odyessy gets average as there was nothing I wanted to watch, and I forgot to stay that a couple of movies were unwatchable due to intereference from the tapes or something. The crew were good, they did what they had to with a smile. Again the same comments remain about the 343, she looks old on the inside, especially in Y where the seats have not been replaced since 1997! So all in all a bog standard VS Y flight overnight, nothing to write home about but equally, for once, no major complaint to VS.
