This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
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During summer 2010 I went on a round the world trip with Virgin Atlantic an Air New Zealand using “The Great Escapade” fare. My routing was LHR - HKG - SYD - CHC - IVC - CHC – AKL - YVR - SFO – LHR. As a medical student, we have a period of study abroad (our elective period). I elected to spend a few weeks studying in New Zealand and in Canada.
The total cost for the trip was £2100 which included upgrades to PE on the AKL - YVR and SFO - LHR sectors, as well as an independently purchased flight between YVR and SFO.
This trip report is for VS200 to Hong Kong on 20/6/2010, my first flight with VS. I was flying on “Queen of the Skies”.
I arrived at Terminal 3 ahead of schedule to find it fairly busy – there were large queues of people with outsize baggage. I joined a queue which didn’t appear to be moving, and several of the people in front of me appeared to have been holding spaces for several other members of their party. An older English couple were in front of me, muttering to themselves about the situation. The husband in the couple took it upon himself to complain to a member of Virgin Atlantic staff who opened another counter. I took the opportunity to go with them. I had only to wait about 5 minutes in this new queue before my bag was accepted, and my boarding pass was printed.
I had a limited amount of time left by this point, so I headed upstairs to collect my foreign currency (which I had previously ordered online). This took longer than expected as a new member of staff appeared to be undergoing training. I passed through security screening as fast as I could before heading towards the boarding gate for my flight. Only a few short minutes passed before we were called to board.
The flight was generally pretty smooth and V-PORT worked well. I can’t remember what food we were served, but it wasn’t too bad. I managed to sleep quite well on this flight. We landed in Hong Kong at around 6pm the next day.
My bag arrived quite quickly. Afterwards I jumped on the Airport Express into Hong Kong using my friend’s Octopus card. I stayed at the YMCA in Hong Kong for 3 nights as a break in travel on the way to Sydney. The YMCA is next door to the Peninsula, featuring views of the harbour for a fraction of the cost. During my stay in HK I visited the Peak, saw a piano recital in the Convention Centre, visited the night markets, met a friend for a curry in the Chunking Mansions (an experience!), had afternoon tea at the Peninsula, and generally relaxed around the Kowloon area. Having visited my friend who is from HK a few years ago I have done the whole HK tourist thing in the past so I didn’t feel the need to cram loads in.
Overall, a pleasant first flight with VS, and a nice few days in HK.
Last edited by dbrooks1 on 21 Dec 2010, 16:44, edited 1 time in total.
