This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
After a wonderful 2 weeks in British Columbia, first week in Vancouver, a city I just adore, followed by a week in Victoria on the island, we were set for travel back home.
As an aside, what's the most interesting way you can hop over to the island without having to spend 4 hrs on a coach / ferry, or fly with one of the big airlines? Well, you can go by seaplane direct into Victoria harbour, but that's no good if you have heavy suitcases as there's no guarantee of checking them in because of limited space and weight unless you want to send your luggage ahead a couple of days in advance. Best alternative (but certainly not the cheapest) - take a one way whale watching tour. Fanfrikkintastic, but a bit of bumpy ride across the Straits of Georgia!
It was our second whale tour, so I knew what to expect though.For our journey back from Victoria to Vancouver we hadn't planned anything in advance as we wanted to decide whilst there and so options were coach / ferry (long time on a coach as the whole journey is about 4 hrs again), seaplane, with the restrictions above, whale tour but then you’re looking at 4 hours into Vancouver harbour before getting to YVR. We'd thought about seaplane and sending bags a couple of days ahead to be stored at YVR for us. But, on this trip we shopped. A lot. So much in fact that we had to buy another suitcase and only just got everything in!
In the end I, being the organiser in our relationship, opted to fly with Air Canada from YYR to YVR as they had good prices and the timings suited us 'cos we could spend a good portion of our last day in Victoria before hopping over to the mainland again in the afternoon. And that meant some more last minute shopping from the First Nations traders in the harbour. I'd had to book and pay extra baggage with Air Canada during OLCI to avoid paying 4 times the amount at the airport! Well worth it though.
As before I'd done my research for the VS flights, particularly with regard to the sleep suits as we were taking a red eye back to LHR. The more I read on the forums during our holiday the more I was convinced the sleep suits or ninja suits as y'all affectionately call them wouldn't fit me (I'm not the smallest person), plus I'd read about their man made fibre construction and electrical conductivity, and that proper put the wind up me! Lol
. So, I decided I needed to get me some jimjams 'just in case'. Off I went to the Hudson Bay Company in downtown Victoria and bagged myself a nice pair of bright blue Ralph Lauren Polo jimjams in the sales for peanuts (it's surprising what passes for currency in those parts of the world hehehe 
).Onto the airport and flight experience.
I'd checked in online (and had previously selected seats before leaving UK) but hadn't printed a boarding card. Ground Crew were very helpful and friendly, and bag drop was a breeze. We were given our coveted purple boarding cards and invites to the Plaza Premium Lounge as VS use a shared lounge at this airport. It had been a very long day and I was hot and sticky. In my hand luggage I had my jimjams, some stuff to freshen up with and a spare shirt etc for arrival at LHR and a long onward journey to Lincolnshire in what I understood was temperature hitting nearly 30 degrees. I asked the ground crew if the lounge had a shower, and after a short confab they assured me there was. Off we went to the lounge. Very comfortable, plenty of drinks to help yourself to, some food but limited choices. I looked all around the lounge and couldn't see any sign of a shower
. Still feeling hot and bothered, we had a fair amount of spare dollars we needed to spend as we won't be returning to Canada next year. So off to the duty free we went, trying hard to spend it but with nothing we really wanted beyond some maple syrup and a couple of extra little gifts. I hovered over the Montblanc boutique but my other half had banned me from spending my hard earned money on what I really coveted, which is a nice hand built watch. There were threats of divorce if I wasted money on such an item saying that it's all "an image thing", so I avoided the conflict! (He wasn't best pleased when I treated myself 2 years ago, lol).In the absence of being able to take a shower (so I thought) I decided to buy another t-shirt and freshen up in the lounge loos and change. Then blow me, if I don't hear someone asking the concierge if they can take a shower (which Dilbert here never thought to do
), followed by something along the lines of "yes, but there's a waiting list". I've no idea where the shower is, but it appears they have only one and you have to book it. By this time, listening to the conversation, there were 3 people waiting for it and now no time for me to get my much desired shower. Ho hum .In the meantime we’d got talking to a nice woman who’d got mobility problems, whom we found out had lived in Canada for more than 30 years and was going back to the UK to visit her grandchildren and her grandson had kindly paid for a UC ticket. She was well looked after both by her kin and by the VS crew on board.
So the flight was called for boarding and off we went, me feeling reasonably fresh and reasonably tanked up on a large glass of wine and a couple of VATs
. We were flying on African Queen. We got settled into our seats, CC came round offering sleep suits... now remember, I'm carrying a few extra pounds than most, so I ask about sizes. "We've only got medium and large". No good for me then, I need XL at least, so I tell her I've got my own jimjams with me just in case. My partner is offered a sleep suit but says he probably won't wear it. "No problem" says the CC, "you can take it home and give it to the wife", (no gaydar, and her a flight attendant, shocking 
). A few people are accepting sleep suits and some folks are already bedding down by the time we take off. Not me mind, I'm on the champoo, 'cos you just have to. Push back and take off all seem to go ahead on time and we're off, officially on our way home. But my holiday doesn't end until I get there! I'm pretty sure I accept another glass of bubbles. I've got this lovely young female CC who has a bit of a northern accent so I instantly warmed to her and she smiled with a little glint in her eyes when I asked for another glass of bubbles .It's soon time for dinner and I opt for the smoked salmon starter (I think) and the chicken. No booze, I've had enough by now
. Food all very good for airline food. In fact the chicken is delicious. Dessert is a caramel cheesecake thingy, and is quite delish, nom nom. Service is excellent throughout.Dinner over with, more folks are bedding down and so I decide to change into my flash jimjams. I'm sure I get an agape look from the woman 2 seats down as I come out of the loo in them bright blue with the bottoms accented with green polo players, lol. But I'm comfortable and that’s all that counts.
CC start winding things down and lights are gradually being dimmed. It's very warm in the cabin and I can't stand being too hot if I'm going to sleep. I read for a bit, transfer my pics from my camera to my iPad, and try watching a bit of a film on the IFE. Incidentally, the screen in 5K on African Queen is a bit knackered. The screen surround is broken and loose, and as I found on the outbound flight, screen and picture quality is not that great. (Some of the crew on this flight are trialling the new uniforms, but to be honest, for what most folks pay for UC seats, I'd sooner see the investment made in repairs and maintenance than replacing an already smart uniform that doesn't need updating yet).
A couple of hours in I decide to try and bed down
![][|)](./images/smilies/icon_smile_sleepy.gif "Sleepy"){kind=icon}
. I'm not the best sleeper on flights, but I give it a shot. After maybe an hour of nothing but catnapping I begin to stir and realise sleep is evading me yet again, so I open up my iPad and get sorted out with what I'm going to watch. An episode of True Blood from season 5 I think. I pop up to the galley and ask for a mug of hot chocolate thinking that might also help. The CC who'd handed out the sleep suits said "you really do have your own pyjamas don't you?", and then asked if they were Ralph Lauren. Back to my seat. No one is at the bar at all through this flight so no one to talk to there. I settle down to watch an episode of TB and my hot chocolate arrives. Lovely. Afterwards, I try for more sleep, but it just isn't happening 
. I spend another couple of hours just cat napping at most. I've got ear plugs in, eye mask on, it's too warm in the cabin so I'm on top of the duvet, my feet are too hot so the socks come off. But it just ain't happening! My poor OH isn't having much luck either, but he does get more sleep than I manage.By this time I think we're about six and a half or seven hours into the flight, so breakfast service will soon be starting. Slowly, some people who have slept start to stir and others are still in dreamland. I'm fed up with the IFE and have started playing battleship and then poker on it.
Gradually more people start stirring some of whom have slept for hours gggrrrrrr. Some of them have ‘sleep hair’ so I chuckle to myself hehehe
. Folks start going to the loo to change so I take my turn, clean my teeth, squirt the old fragrance around, indulge in some moisturiser etc and return reasonably refreshed for someone who’s been trying to sleep but couldn’t.Next thing you know it’s time for breakfast. Orange juice and coffee, fresh fruit salad and yoghurt and a full English for me. Absolutely delicious. The scrambled eggs had to have been cooked to order because they were perfectly baveuse, perfectly soft and seasoned. I somehow managed to spill my coffee, but hey, I’m not good in the morning, especially if I haven’t slept!
All too soon after breakfast we started making our descent into Heathrow and were getting ready for landing after spending about 15 minutes circling. We had arrived early but I guess they were waiting for a slot.
Disembarkation was a doddle and passport control quick, I like to use the automatic gates but then I’m a sucker for gadgets. Baggage was quick to arrive and UC appeared to be first on the belt and we were off... pity the revivals lounge shuts when it does. It was somewhere between 1.30-2.00pm at this point and I would have welcomed that shower.
We headed for Heathrow Express back to Paddington and then the bloody awkward navigation of Paddington to get to the underground. Got it wrong once and were headed somewhere else, don’t know where, I was in a bit of a daze. But within an hour of boarding Heathrow Express we were at King’s Cross. Being the kind of guy I am, and because I’ve suffered the horrendous cost of buying a train ticket on the day because I’ve missed my booked train due to flight delays, I’d booked a latish train. We had another 3 hours to kill. It was also unbearably hot that day, and I’m just paranoid about being hot and sticky and looking / smelling bad (though I guess some of you will have figured that out by now). I was wearing my ‘flying trousers’ (Yes I really do have designated trousers for the job. They’re lightweight, loose and comfy with plenty of pockets), but I needed to freshen up yet again so changed into some shorts and the spare shirt I’d got whilst we hung around and had a drink, and told some poor woman who happened to sit by us on the mezzanine at King’s Cross about our trip. Thankfully, it turned out, she was due to visit Vancouver later this year to visit a friend, so the info was useful, but I think by this time I was just rambling deliriously from sleep deprivation!!
Footnote:
The VS sleep suit / ninja suit we bought home – I thought I’d try it on, and my suspicions were right. The words ‘trussed up chicken’ spring to mind, with bulges where I don’t want them thank you very much!
Oh, and some of you may be interested to know that they’re 100% cotton, no mixed fibres in sight.As I’ve said before, we're off to Japan next year and we'll be flying VS without a doubt, and one way or another, whether through miles upgrades or cash, we'll be flying UC, no question of that either. In fact I’ve been approved for the VS Black Amex so my first spend gets me 30,000 bonus miles, and 4 miles per pound spent with VS too.
Well done VS, and all staff we encountered on this trip and thanks to all v-flyers whose advice has been a great help in making this flight and our first experience with VS a fun and amazing one. As my partner now says, mirroring my V-flyer luggage tags “I don’t fly economy anymore!”
Sorry it’s been a long TR, I wanted to add some of the bits about our trip and not just the flight.
Last edited by Bretty on 05 Aug 2013, 23:53, edited 1 time in total.
At the end of the jetway TURN LEFT and... champagne, champagne for everyone 
Thanks for posting 
