This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
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The BMI flight from AMS to LHR was uneventful, on one of their newish A319s (G-DBCH) with blue leather seats. At one point, we were set up to land at 0735, 35 minutes early, but a lap of Lambourne and waiting for a stand meant we didn't land until 0750, and didn't make the stand until just after 8am.
The flight connections centre in T1 was total chaos, with very long rescreening queues. I really don't understand why it's necessary to rescreen connecting passengers. They have just come from a plane which usually means they have already been screened. Why is there a need to rescreen (liquid/fluid ban aside, for a minute).
Not all of the screening lanes were open either. The current system just can't cope with the present rules. As usual, there seems to be a blame culture existing, with the airlines blaming BAA, and BAA choosing to blame the DfT, and anyone else that they can point a finger at.
Having finally got through that, it was downstairs to the bus for the transfer to T3 - I had to wait for 2 buses to leave before I could get on one. I guess the only highlight of this whole procedure was the trip past all the baggage handling machinery in T2 and T3 [;)]. It gives me total respect for the people working down there, it looks like working inside some giant machine.
Getting from the bus stop up into T3 isn't very pleasant - the corridor seems to be a dumping ground for old, damaged and trashed seats. Once you get into the transfer desk area in T3, it's all quite nice, as it's obviously been refurbed, but otherwise the flight connections process at LHR is pretty dire. I think I could have probably made it just as quickly, maybe quicker, going landside in T1 and crossing over to T3 through the tunnel.
As a Brit, I'm really ashamed that we present such a scummy image to people who connect through Heathrow.
Finally in T3, off to our oasis of the Clubhouse. It had taken almost an hour to get from the BMI plane to there. One thing I noticed is that there's some promotional replica of the 'Ashes' urn, but our V-Flyer award is nowhere to be seen. Sheesh.
I didn't really feel like a treatment today (!), so I just relaxed with some breakfast and coffee, and then progressed to the harder stuff - the excellent Clubhouse Mojito, and before long it was time to go, to the usual deepest depths of T3 - Gate 36, where G-VWOW was waiting to whisk us off to SFO.
There was a long queue leading to the gate, and couldn't see any obvious Priority Boarding, so I just got in that. A few minutes later, I heard a voice call for Upper, Premium Economy and FC Gold, and so I cut the queue, and it turned out there was two seperate queues, one either side of the gate podium, but that wasn't entirely clear when you approached the gate. I think there's a need for some tensabarriers and a red floor mat to make things clearer.
I didn't get a gate search, just a very brusque G4S person ask me if I had any of the list of banned items, before I went to join the snake down to the jetway. Why is it that G4S at Heathrow have to employ such sourpuss people? It's possible to be a security person and be nice. All you have to do is fly out of London City to see this. Even the screeners at Amsterdam are G4S employees, and they are nice enough.
Finally get down through the boarding scrum, and head for 8K, which was changed from my initial allocation of 18K. Settled into the seat, and recognised two of the crew from previous flights. I noticed that the table was hanging open, so I closed it, and it made a loud 'clunk'. It then refused to release again, so I quickly got reseated to 15K, which despite being close to the loo, wasn't that bad actually. If there's no queue for the loo (which there wasn't for most of the flight), it was quite private. One thing I did notice on this plane was that the chrome work, like the reading lights, seemed to be very clean, and there weren't pen marks all over the place. It looks like the lamps and monitors are polished properly now. Indeed, it was probably the best presented VS aircraft I've been on in a while, as far as cabin cleanliness goes.
11am approached, and we got ready to get going, finally pushing back at 1103, so almost dead on time. I hoped my bag had made it to the hold! [;)]
We taxied out to join the long queue for 09R, where we waited some 30 minutes before finally being off at 1138 local, on the BUZAD departure which took us out over London before turning left and heading straight up the middle of the country. The delay wasn't all that bad, as we were promised a fairly quick 9h30 flight time today.
The new menu was loaded on this flight, and not only are the contents of the menu new, but the design is as well.
The cocktail snack selection was improved as well, with a mixed nut (peanut-free of course) selection, some sort of little garlic/herb bread snacks, or crisps.
The service seemed very good, and the first round of drinks was served quickly.
I noticed that I hadn't seen an IFBT, and before long, the FSM was in front of me, introducing himself, apologising for the lack of IFBT, who had gone sick at the airport - saying that he could have waited an hour to 90 minutes for a standby IFBT to be provided, or could leave. He said that it was his decision to go without the IFBT, and so if anyone had a problem with that, then they should let him know. Now, I wish I'd taken a treatment at LHR! The FSM was a nice guy, quite chatty. He was also offering the various bits and bobs that should make up an amenity kit, from one of the chrome bowls. Nice bit of work that.
I wasn't over impressed with the 'Mediterranean'-style menu, to be honest. I chose the tapas plate, which was a bit lame if you ask me, and the steak was a dreary, grey, tasteless bit of meat. Even the pour over sauce was bland. The portions seemed to have decreased in size as well.
The high point was the 'bread and butter pudding' - or a Mediterranean take on it anyway. In fact the desserts and snacks on this flight raised things from 'Very Poor' to 'Below Avg'.
The only high point was that it was served with a smile.
Watched a couple of episodes of Supernanny - I'm a big Jo Frost fan. She has a very pragmatic approach to dealing with kids and discipline problems! One of the episodes on V:port featured a couple who work at Heathrow (the guy works for SAS, judging from his tie), and their demonic 4 year old twins! Jo soon sorted them out.
Switched the suite to bed, slept a bit, I think 15K (and therefore 15A, I assume) is a little bit shorter than the other B zone window seats, but it doesn't have that grille thing up against the side wall.
I got up and hung out at the bar for a while, before the seatbelt sign came back on. While I was at the bar, I noticed there was an announcement made in Y and W, about 3 hours out, that alcohol service had stopped. Maybe we had some stag and hen element back there bingeing as well on this flight?
I was pleased to see a better fruit selection on the bar, plus the return of the Rococo chocolate squares.
Afternoon tea was quite disappointing, with play-school-like micro-sandwiches, though again saved by a warm apricot tart with chantilly cream.
Top of descent approached as we headed for Point Reyes, and we started down into the Bay Area, with the usual approach over the city, and then down the Bay, a right turn to take us over the San Mateo Bridge, giving us a smooth landing on Runway 28L at 1305 local, some 45 minutes early.
Unfortunately, we hadn't beaten the BA flight, this had landed just in front of us, which meant we'd be seeing more queues at immigration... oh well.
Taxi in was a little slow, SFO seemed quite busy with departing traffic taxiing around, and we finally pulled onto gate A8 at 1317 local. Dual jetbridges used for disembarking - nice to see SFO keeping this up - though some long immigration queues meant that I didn't get out much before 2pm, though I was reunited with my bag which had made it through in one piece and had already been pulled from the carousel and was waiting on the floor.
Airtrain to rental car, and out on the road in no time - I'm liking Avis Preferred so far, even if they did try and give me and someone else the same car - we both got to the car at the same time! They upgraded me to some ridiculously sized SUV. If I hadn't been half-asleep, I'd have probably asked for something a bit more fun. Oh well.
Not a bad flight experience. It did almost everthing it said on the tin, except for the lack of IFBT, and yet more iffy food.
I think VS need to take a long hard look at the quality of ingredients which are going into their J cabin food. It's pretty awful I think - that beef was dire - stringy and tastless. I was quite disappointed by the total lack of a salad too. It is possible to make tasty well presented food - look at that braised beef I had on UA last year. On the upside, some things were better which redeemed it a little, like the return of some better snacks on the bar, the mixed nut selection, and the presence of filter coffee rather than that instant powdered stuff - I noticed the J galley on G-VWOW has a proper coffee brewer.
The connecting process at Heathrow seems disorganised and shambolic if you ask me, and the state of some of the areas connecting passengers pass through is totally unacceptable. Shame on you BAA!
Cheers!
Mike
