This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
It turns out, this is another bug in the VLR system in that anyone who connects from a VLR flight to an international VS flight and they are flying in Premium or Upper, the system issues you boarding cards for Economy for both flights if you check-in online.
Anyway, back to the flight. I was issued a lounge pass along with a priority sticker on my boarding pass.
Before going though security, I collected my pre-ordered currency from Travelex. Security was deserted this time and I was through in less than 2 minutes, much better than my previous inaugural VLR flight.
As has already been mentioned on here, the Escape lounge in T3 at MAN has now moved to what was the FlyBe lounge (next to the BA lounge) on the upper level above the main departure area. The lounge is nice, offering great views on the airfield. There are self-service snacks as well as a waiter service offering hot and cold snacks. There are no announcements in he lounge so you do need to keep your eye on the screens. VLR flights still depart from gate 18 so it’s approx a 5 minute walk from the lounge to the gate area.
MAN has now introduced biometric photo checks for pax flying on domestic flights (the same as LHR & LGW). Your photo is taken as you enter the security area and is then verified at a checkpoint as your approach the gate area.
VS3042 was soon called, offering connecting pax flying in Upper and FC AU card holders priority boarding which seemed to work very well. There where 96 pax on todays flight (most of which seemed to be connecting to international VS flights – more on that later)
It didn’t take long to get everyone on board and we pushed back on time with the usual short taxi and within minutes we where airborne. The cabin service soon started other hot/cold drinks from the bar along with a snack. The flight was the usual 40 minutes or so and before long the cabin was being cleared and secured for out landing into LHR.
With this being the first time I have connected from a VLR flight to an international VS flight, I wasn’t 100% sure how it worked, but in actual fact it’s very easy. Everyone leaves the aircraft as normal but at the top of the jetway there’s a sign and a VS ground staff member directing any pax who are connecting onto an international VS flight. You turn left at the top of the jetway and walk down the stairs, outside to the awaiting bus. This bus, which takes only a few minutes, then takes you directly to T3 airside dropping you near gate 24, so no security to go though. It’s then a short 5 minute walk to the Clubhouse and/or the main departure area in T3. Total time from leaving VLR aircraft to Clubhouse – 10 minutes
By the looks of things, most of the pax on todays flight seemed to be transferring to another VS flight as a couple of busses where needed to transfer everyone.
All in all a great VLR flight and I really do hope they continue to go from strength to strength. There really is no reason now not to use VLR if you are connecting to an international VS flight
Regards
James Mitchell
James Mitchell
