V-Flyer

4th December 2005 Washington International (IAD) to London Heathrow (LHR)

On my return from the states I flew out of Washington from a connecting flight from Seattle. As this was a night flight nothing much happened so this will be fairly short compared with my outbound to SFO

After waiting over an hour for my bags from my NW flight from SEA, I made my way up to departures, there where 2 lines for Upper Class which was good to see. Had to wait about 10 minutes until a desk was free, this time I wasnt asked for a ticket even though I had one from my outbound flight to SFO. Within minutes I was on my way to the clubhouse (via the duty free). As I was in 6K on the A340-600 this was sleeper zone, this meant that I had to eat in the lounge, I grabbed a beer from the bar and ordered my Salmon, sorry I dont have a menu for this trip report but I needed some sleep. The food was very good after a few more beers downstairs in the bar area. I then made use of the internet access to check a few e-mails. The lounge was quite full as most of the business cabin was full (all of the non-sleeper zone was full and about 5 seats in my zone). After a couple of hours in the lounge boarding was called, the plane was on B32 opposite the Clubhouse. There was a priory board line but by the time I got on I was one of the last so I didnt matter. Got onto the aircraft and seatled into my seat. Before takeoff the usual was offered, drink and Vtouch treatments. As I wanted to sleep I just went for a orange juice.

As I got into my seat I was pleasantly surprised to see the seatback mag had the words Vport on it! Excellent finally I can check out one of the best entertainment systems in the sky. Another thing I noticed that the suite was in far better condition than the 747 that I had outbound. This suite looked new while the 747 has marks, chips and scathes around the remote.
Some aftertakeoff the cabin crew came around to convert the seats into beds. As there was no food on my NW flights I was still fairly hungry so I decided to go to the bar and get another meal. I went for the cold beef salad and a combination of both deserts. After the meal I went back to my seat and asked for the power lead for my inseat power. After a little bit of work I watched a couple of episodes of the green wing. I then converted my seat into the bed and good about 3 hours sleep. I woke up about 30 minutes before landing which was really good, I missed breakfast but it didnt matter as i was going to grab something in the arrivals lounge. Just before the doors where open I realised I hadnt got a FastTrack invitation luckily there were some on the bar as I left. This was quite lucky as ques in Heathrow were huge for EU. Got through imagination and went to the baggage reclaim where my bag was one of the first to come out. I made sure the check in agent in IAD put tags on this time as I know LHR baggage takes ages. I then made my way to the arrivals lounge, had a shower and a bit to eat. A bit later I made my way home.

The only negative side to the flight it wasnt longer enough I had 3 hours sleep but as I got off the flight I was still felt tired. But after the very nice shower I made a world of difference.

Dom.

Thanks for the great post. I really liked the hyper-link to the pictures. Happy New Year! Steven

Thanks for the TR!

I'm not suprised that the cabin was in good condition, as you were on G-VWKD - the latest A346 in the VS fleet - and would have been only days old when you flew her!

Rich.

Dom,
Very nice report. Belated welcome to VFlyer. Glad that your homeward bound journey was enjoyable and we look forward to seeing more of your posts on the Forum.

Regards,
Chuck-

I wish my imagination had fast track...i'm aways getting stuck in it. [:p]

Thanks for the TR!

GJ