Boarding from the terminal commenced about half an hour before departure. Having got to the end of the walkway outside, we waiting for the best part of 5 minutes for fuelling to be completed before we were allowed forward onto G-VNYC for the return home. I am thankful to the allocation gods for swapping out G-VRAY, simply because I had flown on this to BGI 2 years ago and until its tech issues the week before (and presumably on Wednesday seeing as VS221/222 were cancelled), it had been solidly operating to UVF and ANU on alternate days.
Making the decision to book Economy Delight was a nice enough upgrade from the standard Economy seat and we both appreciated the extra few inches leg room. Had it not been for an impending house move later this year, I could have been very tempted by the reasonably-priced upgrade to Premium, especially as they are now the old seats that are wider than those on the A330neos and A350s. I suspect Economy Delight (or even an exit row seat) is going to win over PE moving forward unless there's not much to separate them price-wise. The narrowing and thinning of the PE seat on newer aircraft is making it less worth the money and I'd rather pay the excess baggage fee if it came to checking in two cases, though the poor GBP/USD rate makes the US less of a draw for shopping than 10 years ago.
Loading baggage was a bit slow and this contributed to late departure off the stand and late take-off. After reaching cruise level, drinks were served and meals came shortly afterwards. Mrs VS075's GF meal was one of the first to be served (a chicken dish of some sort) followed by the rest of the cabin. The choice was a coconut chicken curry or a veg dish which I've forgotten. It was much tastier than the "meal" served 2 years ago and I was happy to see that VS have ditched the boxes they used to serve meals in for a while and reverted to using plastic trays to put the contents on. There was also a salad pot, barm and cheese and crackers. 90mins in, I settled down to attempt some sleep.
5-6 shallow hours sleep later and about 90mins or so before landing, I woke up and had breakfast. Again, the GF meal was offered first and was given my breakfast of a fruit bowl, raspberry yogurt and a blueberry muffin, washed down with a tea. We descended towards LHR and after circling for a bit we landed pretty much straight behind G-VLUV from MCO. That went onto a remote stand, but luckily we were on to a gate.
After stepping off the plane and at the end of the jetway into the terminal building, we were all greeted by several offices from the National Crime Agency and Border Force who were checking everyone's hand luggage and passports. Not sure whether this was routine being a flight arriving from UVF or they were after something/someone who had been travelling, but once cleared we went to immigration and down to the baggage hall. They were quite slow to offload luggage (not sure if it's to do with the aforementioned search), but eventually the bags arrived and we got a taxi back to the Radisson to pick up the car and drive back.
This flight combined with the BA flight allowed me to compare each other's offerings. In all honestly, I don't think there was much in it. The BA crew were more sympathetic to Mrs VS075's GF needs than the VS crew we had to BGI were 2 years ago and the IFE screen on the LGW 777 in WT beats the VS A330 IFE screen in Y for size and resolution.
Other than that, it ws a decent flight. I should also add that G-VNYC seemed more presentable and less tatty than other A330s in the fleet, which is a bit unfotunate seeing as G-VNYC is one of two A330s set to be withdrawn for a new life at Thai Airways later this year.
