This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I haven’t flown out of JFK since they moved the Virgin check in area. Check in used to be right down on the left hand side but now Economy and Premium Economy are close to middle and Upper is down the opposite end to the right of the hall. There is a sign for Upper but it wasn’t that easy to spot at first, however there was a Virgin representative standing below it who then directed us down a long carpeted walkway which lead to a joint check in area for Virgin and Delta Upper and Business passengers.
Check in was quick and painless and the new Upper check in/bag drop is right by the “priority” line for security. Not quite as pleasant as the dedicated security point back in London. When we got to the end of the first line in the snake the staff member there stopped us and put the barrier up to allow some ‘non priority’ passengers cross over to join the end of another queue. Being the Brits that we are, we waited patiently, but some one behind us called out “Isn’t this supposed to be the priority line??!” and started tutting. We’d literally only been waiting about a minute but I guess some people feel they shouldn’t have to! Then another passenger tried to bypass the economy queue totally but was swiftly ejected by the staff managing the line.
I’m never overly impressed by the shops in JFK. We did a quick walk through, BFF bought some hand creams from Victoria’s Secret (more about these later), and then settled in the Lounge. As we planned to sleep on the flight we decided to eat dinner there.
I had the carrot and parsnip soup followed by Guyanese chicken curry and rice which were both lovely. My BFF had the salmon starter followed by the chicken curry.
We didn’t eat on board (so average rating given) but the menu was:
Express Cold Supper
- Tandoori chick salad
- Spiced apple cheesecake
Hot Supper (served with a mozzarella and sun blushed salad)
- Beef Wellington
- Butternut squash cannelloni
The menu also had Cheese and Port and additionally savoury nibbles and treats were available at the bar.
As BFF would be spending some time Heathrow before returning to Europe, we also decided to wait and have breakfast in the Arrivals Lounge.
Flight time was 5 hours 40 minutes. After landing we had to wait roughly 20 minutes as another plane was at the gate and we couldn’t park.
Luggage came through fairly quickly. Before heading up to the Virgin Arrivals lounge we went over to the BA check in desk so BFF could check her cases for her flight back to Europe. Her flight was at 13:45 and it was now just after 10:00. They refused to take her cases; said she had to return after 11:45!!
A big difference to the Christmas Eve flight with Virgin when they took our luggage ten hours prior to our flight! So we traipsed back to the arrivals terminal with luggage in tow and headed up to the Lounge. Warmly welcomed and quickly offered drinks and breakfast.We relaxed there until 11:45 when we went back to BA check in and dropped off BFF’s luggage. The VS luggage tags were still on the cases and the desk agent actually said “Let’s take these off as we don’t like Virgin!”
At this point I bid my BFF farewell and headed home and she headed back to the Lounge where she says she had a fantastic shower before heading to departures for her flight back to Europe.
This is where the report would normally end, however upon attempting to go through security BFF realised that she still had in her hand luggage the creams purchased at JFK Victoria’s Secret. Oops. They were over the 100ml limit so she went back to BA check in to see if she could check in her small hand luggage case; “sure, we can check it in for £65!”. Well, the creams weren’t worth a quarter of that, so she decided to take a loss and offered them to the female desk agent. They were still seal wrapped and in the bag with the receipt from JFK but the BA desk agent wanted nothing to do with them and was quite rude about it apparently. So, BFF went back to the Virgin Arrivals Lounge where the rep at the entry desk was delighted to take them and agreed to share them out to the wait staff on duty.
The service from the Virgin staff was brilliant throughout; they were professional and friendly. I’ve already booked my next flight. It’s a US destination that Virgin doesn’t fly to directly; I could go direct with BA but I’m sticking with Virgin and getting a short internal connection to the final destination. It’s worth it to me just for the level of service (and it helps that the VS ticket agent was able to get me a great deal on a premium economy booking).
To be fair, I've experienced downright unpleasant UA staff, rude VS staff, indifferent EK staff, wonderful EZY and Ryanair staff....and on my recent BA flight to Sao Paulo in Economy (TR to follow) utterly charming and engaging BA staff (checks with self..."Did I just say that?" "Yes you did").
