This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Following some advice we reserved seats 6A, 6K, 7A and 7K so that we'd be a nice family unit at the front of the cabin where the seats are closer together. This was nearly a year in advance of the trip. Throughout that time I had kept checking our booking and our seat choice remained. So, imagine my surprise when, with less than 24 hours to go, I perform an online checkin to find that it is now suggesting rows 11 and 12! Luckily I was able to re-reserve our original seats but I was a little nervous that this would happen on the return too.
We arrived at Gatwick South around 3 hours before the flight. My online checkin had directed us to the fast bag-drop but that was chaotic. So we just headed straight for the UC checkin desk which had 2 other parties waiting. We were greeted (intercepted) by the UC checkin guard to check our credentials and then, realising we were genuine, he grinned at the children and said that they were going to be spoilt today. At the desk we received our Clubhouse instructions, our bags were UC tagged and promptly returned to us since the conveyor belt had broken! This, added to the false fire alarm that now proceeded to ring, just completed the picture of mayhem. We had to take our bags to some other set of officials across the hall who loaded them onto crates for us. I did wonder whether we would see them again.
Onwards to security. I'd booked treatments for my wife and daughter so we were keen to get through quickly. I saw no fasttrack (and nobody had mentioned it) so we joined the end of the long queue. I must say, however, that it did move pretty quickly. We must have been through in about 30 minutes and found our way to the sanctuary of the Clubhouse. It was smaller than I'd imagined but a very pleasant place to be. The service was good and we were soon tucking into a hot breakfast and shortly afterwards the girls were summoned for their treatments. Time seemed to pass pretty quickly in there and it was not long before we were being called for our flight.
I'd heard about priority boarding, but didn't really know how it worked. Was there a separate lane ? Maybe a special announcement ? Maybe someone can explain ? I can only assume that the Clughouse call your flight well after it is announced in the rest of the departure lounge. When we arrived at the gate everyone seemed to be boarding. The only 'priority' that we recognised was that we were allowed to join the huge queue any time we liked.
Once on board we were invited to 'walk all the way through to the left' into the UC cabin. All seats were occupied and we enjoyed an initial settling-in period of chatting to fellow passengers. The initial impression I got was that it was a pretty relaxed environment. Nobody was rushing around trying to cram things into the overhead lockers and getting in the way. We seemed to just make ourselves at home at our own leisurely pace before being offered a glass of champagne. The children were in their element having their own huge space and all those gadgets to play with. The cabin crew were excellent with them.
Sitting in those nice big seats is a little strange at first. With the seat in upright position you can see over the top of the partition. So if you're sitting at the front (as we were) it's almost as if everybody on the other side of the plane is looking at you. However, you only have to recline your seat slightly to be submersed into your own little world. From where I was sitting (7K) I could see most of my wife (7A) and nothing of my children (6A and 6K). Perfect.
I don't remember how long we were on the runway but it wasn't long enough for me to finish my champagne...which was whisked away as we were about to depart. Oh well, there was plenty more where that came from.
Since the seats do not face forward we both felt a little strange during take-off - a bit like motion sickness I suppose. I'm glad to say that this totally disappeared once in the air. By this time I had my shoes off and feet up and was contemplating how to use the IFE. Luckily my children had already figured it all out and gave me an idiots introduction. I think it was the Nova system (?) - games and movies. You have to be quick otherwise you'll miss the start of your movie and have to wait a few hours until it comes around again. I must say that the entertainment is just great for kids. We had brought a portable DVD just in case of IFE failure or boredom but it wasn't needed. I don't know how many rounds of hangman and millionaire we played.
For lunch I had the steak which was really very nice and a selection of 6 wines (3 red, 3 white). We'd pre-booked kids meals for the children and I think they just got the standard economy meal. Whatever it was, they were happy. After lunch the children converted their seats into beds (that's pretty cool when you see it for the first time) and went to sleep for a while. I tried to watch a film but the combination of Sea Legs and alcohol had me snoozing in no time.
Later in the flight I was offered afternoon tea. I was told it was a cream tea...but it turned out to be sandwiches. Still, very welcome. The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, the only bit of excitement being the announcement of the winners of the in-flight competition to think of the best chat-up line - nice.
Whilst my table was horizontal I also took the opportunity to complete our visa waivers. I didn't realise how long-winded that would be!
Before long we were landing and gathering up all the momentos of the outward journey (Virgin kids packs, Ozwald Boateng packs, menus etc.). Now I know why the UC baggage allowance is so huge.
We were first off the plane and ended up second in-line at immigration. Good job too, since that whole process takes a long time. By the time we were through there were big queues at each desk. And so on to baggage reclaim for the first time. There were two belts - one for UC and PE and the other for economy. Collected our bags and on to the next bit where all luggage is scanned again and then it disappears again and you have to catch a monorail and eventually find the final reclaim. It seemed to take forever so goodness only knows how long it took for the last passenger to get out. We had forsaken our Virgin transfer in favour of a private taxi. I must say that it worked out really well. We were greeted at the final baggage reclaim and were on our way to our hotel in fantasyland within minutes.
OK - to summarize then. I thought the flight was fantastic. I can't find fault with anything really. I suspect that's because I've not flown UC before and it's so far removed from economy travel. The staff were excellent - particularly with the children. I guess my only grumble is the way we nearly lost our seats at checkin. I'll post the return trip report separately.
