This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
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This was a Reward Flight that i've had booked for some time. We have friends in NY so we try to go out at least once a year - The build up to Chrismas over there is just great!
I live in Kent and woke up on the morning of Tues 30th to find a scene from "Narnia" outside the bedroom window. It was snowing quite heavily so I decided to move my car to the top of the road in preparation for leaving late morning. This turned out to be a waste of time as by the time I was ready to leave the whole A2/M25 area was gridlocked, so off we trundled to the station in the blizzard. We got one of the last trains up to Victoria, and felt quite lucky by the time we got onto the tube and then out to T3.
On arrival in the check-in zone we were greeted by a member of VS staff who immediately asked us if we wished to purchase any extra legroom seats or upgrades. I'd checked the seat plan when completing OLCI and the flight looked VERY empty, so I thought we'd take our chances and hope that the few empty seats around us stayed that way.
We checked our bags in and I asked what the load was like in Economy.... 81 pax was the answer much to my delight! We were told to make the most of the space and stretch out once we were airborne... (Quite a novelty in Y!) I've never been on a JFK flight so close to Christmas that has been so empty??
We boarded at about 16.15 in preparation for a 16.50 departure on G-VFIZ. The snow was falling heavily at LHR now, and although is wasn't settling on the taxiways there was a thin layer of snow on the wings so I knew we'd be delayed for a while for de-icing. The Captain came onto the address system to say that there were 28 aircraft infront of us so it would be a good 45 mins or so before we pushed back. This didn't really bother me as pretty much everyone on the plane seemed to have about 3 to 4 seats each and we were all pretty comfortable. He also advised us that the expected flight time would be a rapid 6hrs 25 mins due to a strong tail wind. The Cabin Crew were great and were constantly moving around chatting to various people.
We were eventually airborne at 18.09, over an hour late but due to the tail wind were still due into JFK ahead of schedule.
I settled down into my 60D/E/F/G "suite" and watched a bit of Top Gear before dinner. When the food came round I was expecting the standard "Chicken or Beef sir?" Much to my AMAZEMENT I was offered sausage and mash or tomato pasta... I nearly fell out of my "suite"! I opted for the sausage and mash which was pretty good to be fair. We were told that the flight had plenty of complimentary drink stock onboard and we were welcome to take advantage of this. I remember smiling to myself and imagining the same announcement on a full flight to LAS!!
Soon after dinner I managed to get a couple of hours sleep, and woke up just as the cabin was being prepared for landing. Considering the time of day it was a very short approach into JFK and we were soon on the ground and disembarking.
Overall the Cabin Crew were excellent... attentive, friendly and seemed to be a really good humoured team. I've flown about 25 VS flights and i'd say it was certainly the best Y experience that i've ever had. Obviously this had a lot to with the light load, but a big
from me!Hope I havn't rambled too much! Return flight to follow......
Matt
