This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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Anyway, the night before, I made my way to the Sofitel Heathrow. Love this hotel. Had a lovely corner room and enjoyed a nice dinner from M&S
Made my way on the HEX the next day to T3 and emerged into the usual scrum of the Virgin area. No one queueing at Upper Class though, so waved over, where there was no upper class experience to be had. The way I was asked "did you manage to print out your boarding pass" just sounded like they don't usually do BPs there, and she was going to do me a favour by printing one. No smile, no pleasantries, no explaining where to go.Quite a thorough pat down at security. Not sure they've been that 'feely' before, though soon on my way to the clubhouse. Another disappointment here, the Eggs Benedict had been removed from the menu. Almost worth flying from T5 to go to Plane Food for their breakfast!
Very busy in the lounge, I see they have removed the water from the fridges and you now have to ask if you want a bottle of water. More cost cutting I guess. Had a bit of brekkie and a few drinks then mooched around for a while. Service wasn't great, but seems to be normal nowadays.
IMG_20101107_101845.jpg by chistery, on Flickr
Set off for the plane, and not much of a queue at the gate, so soon on, except all the overhead bins seemed to be full of duvets, so not much room for all the bags, and the people further down had all put their stuff in, filling the bin above mine with about 6 duvets. No water in the suite either. I did get asked if I wanted a seat demonstration, which now makes me laugh as I think of Pam Ann taking the mickey out of it, and how businessmen who have travelled loads always say yes please, to get the VS cabin crew member leaning over and doing the whole spiel. One question that always seems to pop into my mind is why there are always fewer men at the front. I'm sure of course this isn't done on purpose, just seems that way.
Sat at the bar for a bit, and there were a lot of people from PE wandering in, helping themselves to drinks and just standing round chatting. Normally I'd mind, but they were all quite nice, we chatted, drank more, and generally made too much noise. The captain even joined us for a bit.
Others at the bar were complaining about children down the front end. I'd seen them go past from my 11A view, but they kept on going! (Whoo-hoo!). At one point, the captain made another appearance and had words with the crew, as she was trying to sleep, and was being disturbed. It seemed a lot calmer down the front after that.
Nothing much of note really happened on the flight. Got a great view of San Fran when coming in to land.
DSC01429 by chistery, on Flickr
DSC01260 by chistery, on Flickr
Cabin crew were all efficient, and had a good chat to a few at the bar, all very friendly and seemed happy in their work.
Off the plane quite quickly, and the usual sort of questions by the TSA. They then marked my customs form, which for once seemed to be the sign for "don't need to do a secondary search". Made my way to the BART and set off for 4 nights at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was very nice, if anyone needs a hotel recommendation.
OT:
Four nights in San Fran, then VX First to Seattle for three days, and I managed to squeeze in the Boeing factory tour, which was fascinating to see, with all the dreamliners scattered around the place, whilst they wait to finish them off, and the moving production lines of the 777.
Lots of Dreamliners and dreamlifters to see.
DSC01451 by chistery, on Flickr
I'd be quite tempted to fly Lufthansa to try the 747-8 once it's in service too, they still look amazing.
