VS135 LHR-MCO 29 APR 25 (Upper Class)

[mitchja]

It was time for our annual trip to Florida and although many people were questioning why we were going, we were determined to go for maybe the last time, at least to the parks as we still had 3 months left on our Annual Universal passes. Without getting into politics, I can see why people are reluctant to go given the general price of everything there now, the busy roads and the ridiculous tipping culture.

Living in Cyprus, we flew over the day before from Larnaca with BA to Heathrow and stayed overnight at the Sofitel before we headed to the Upper Class Wing with Patrick Egwu cars. We’ve used them a few times but we’re noticing that a lot of the transfers are being subbed out. This was no exception and the Mercedes Estate which arrived was fine except he thought it was a cash job and was looking for money - a call to his office soon sorted that out. As I was dealing with that, Mrs M was having problems with the VS checking lady who was telling her that in future Silver members should check in downstairs as this was for Gold or Upper Class only. She advised her that we were indeed Upper Class which seemed to confuse her for a minute. “Ah, it is a reward flight” she said - yes but what difference does that make? “Ah, you must have changed it then” - no we didn’t, it’s been booked for a year! She then just passed us our boarding passes and that was that - no apology.

Security was a breeze and after a brief stop at Boots to allow Mrs M time to pick up some items we can’t get in Cyprus, it was off to the Clubhouse which wasn’t too busy and we had breakfast and a couple of Redheads to get us in the mood. Staff were super quick and efficient as usual.

Soon we were told the gate number and we headed down to greet Soul Rebel which was to be our ride. 1D and 1G for us and were soon being offered a welcome drink by the wonderful Gemma. No problems with the seats or the cabin.

I had pre-selected the pork which was very good and 90 minutes before landing, had the warm scones.

8 hours 26 flight time today and we arrived slightly ahead of schedule. GE was a breeze and my Avis App was offering me a choice of 3 cars. I chose one and within 30 minutes of arriving we were at the car hire garage, Florida Visitor Toll Pass in hand collecting our car from Avis which was showing my name on the board. Unfortunately, the car in my bay was not the one I had picked and the unhelpful guy at the kiosk told me I had to take it - what’s the point of giving me a choice then? Loaded up the car, started up and was presented with a “maintenance required” message on the dash. Back to the kiosk again and to be fair this time he swapped it out no problem and gave me a GMC Acadia.

We were soon at Champions Gate in our rental villa and even the I4 seems better now which some new lanes added.

Great trip over with a fantastic crew and brilliant aircraft.