This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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This Christmas/New Year trip to NY was booked back in September 2014 and I had been on count down ever since! I had (have) an excessive amount of miles gathering dust and decided to use them for two full reward bookings into Upper with my BFF who was travelling over from Europe to go with me. The flight was a “gift” to her but she had no idea that we were flying in Upper! She’s quite tall, so I told her I’d booked extra leg room seats for us. She also said, if possible, that she’d like an aisle seat…no problem I said!
Fortunately her flight to Heathrow from Europe landed at Terminal 3, so it was a short walk over to the Virgin wing to drop off our luggage. I’d already checked in online, but hadn’t printed boarding passes. I explained this to the greeter in the main area and he directed us to do bag drop at any counter (pointing toward the economy section). I headed over to the Upper queue, which actually had the shortest line anyway. We did the whole passport, boarding pass thing and my BFF still didn’t seem to have clocked that we were in “Upper” check in area. The check in agent was lovely and full of Christmas cheer; as she handed back our passports and boarding cards, she asked if we knew how to get to the Clubhouse. At this point I said to the BFF; “you know how I said I’d booked extra legroom? I’ve actually booked beds!” She was suitably shocked; she had noticed that we were in the Upper section but just assumed that we could bag drop at any counter. Check in agent then got excited for BFF and started telling her about what we could do in the Clubhouse. Our holiday was off to a great start!
Some of you may recall a previous thread around the issue of our original flight being cancelled and being rebooked onto another that left 6 hours later; I was unsure about spending the whole day in the Lounge. By the time we bag dropped it was around 10:00 and the NY flight didn’t leave until 20:00. BTW, there was no problem dropping bags off so early. Security was a breeze and we were through in less than five minutes. A quick stroll through Duty Free but neither of us wanted anything so we headed straight to the Clubhouse. Greeted warmly and a remark made that we’d arrived “nice and early”. I didn’t get the impression that it was an issue but I did briefly explain about the European flight and our original flight being cancelled.
Anyway, the Clubhouse was fairly empty, and stayed that way for most of the day. We booked some complimentary spa treatments for later in the afternoon and then settled in for some light refreshments and a good chinwag. We’re both the same when it comes to flying and didn’t want to get dehydrated so mainly had soft drink with only a few glasses of Lanson to dilute them!
Throughout the day we probably sat in all the different areas of the Clubhouse and it went surprisingly quickly. We had lunch; I had soup followed by the mushroom burger and chips. Later on we had salads; all the food was gorgeous.
We ventured out once for a quick walk around the main departure lounge but that was heaving so we quickly returned to the tranquillity of the Clubhouse!
I know I’m letting the side down, but we left for the gate at the first call as the BFF remembered something she wanted from Boots. By the time we arrived at the gate most everyone had boarded. There were a few passengers ahead of us at the aircraft doors…who turned right and then we made the magical left turn. I don’t recall the passenger count but recall that there were 14 crew members on board.
I’ve flown Upper once before so knew what to expect; first time for BFF and she was pretty awed. Take off was about 40 minutes late as they had to offload the luggage for a passenger who had decided he no longer wanted to travel!! This made me panic a bit as I had seen that there were three other international flights scheduled to arrive around 30-40 minutes after our original arrival time and I didn’t want to get stuck behind them in the nightmare that is JFK immigration!.
We decided to dine together, which was a nice touch.
The menu was:
Starters (all served with warm breads)
- Carrot, ginger and cardamom soup
- Smoked salmon cuplet
- Mushroom gnocchi
Mains
- Christmas dinner
- British fillet of beef
- Paneer Musallam
- Grilled salmon fillet and puy lentils (with Spanish pork chorizo and asparagus)
Pudding
- Warm Christmas pudding
- Chocolate yule log with raspberry compote
I had the soup and the Christmas dinner. Soup was lovely; dinner was “nice”. The flavours were lovely but the turkey was a tad dry.
BFF had the beef, but left most of it (ate the mash and veg though).
Neither of us had pudding, nor the cheese and port or anything from the Extra Bites menu.
There was no Santa on board giving away free tablets this flight, but they did hold a Christmas competition; children were asked to draw a Christmas picture and adults to write a Virgin inspired Christmas poem. We didn’t win.
Neither of us used the in flight entertainment, so I've rated it Average.
We both slept and before we knew it they announced that we were starting the descent into JFK. At this point we handed over a couple of bags of chocolates and cookies we’d bought in Duty Free to give to the crew (I started a thread about this also). It turns out they would have Christmas day in NY but were on a flight back to London on Christmas Day evening. The crew were all lovely throughout. A couple of them came and thanked us for the goodies just before we landed and also in the luggage hall as they walked past us in JFK, so the treats were well received (thanks for the advice!).
Almost there…
Once we were off the plane we speed walked to Immigration…to find it relatively empty; phew. JFK now has the “self service” computers for returning ESTA holders. I could have gone through one but as my BFF was a first time ESTA user I decided to queue with her. Keeping an eye on those who did use the computers, they didn’t seem to get through any quicker; they still had to queue to see an immigration officer (there only seems to be two working that area) to get their passports stamped and answer questions, so I’m not sure of the benefit, although maybe it’s better staffed during the day.
A short wait for luggage (which came off first) and then we were officially in New York for Christmas!
