This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
So got to LHR at 0810 and faced the scrum which is the drop off at T3 so I could leave my car with the Valet Parking people to break, grabbed my bags and strolled into the building, rounded the corner to the Virgin desks and my heart sank, the queue at UC checkin was out of the roped off area, nothing at PE (and no one behind the desks) and a crowd for economy.... However the queue moved at a pace and it was long before boarding card in hand I headed to fast track, and seeing the queue for security I was glad I had the magic pass for fast track. Security was fine, but I was close to a sense of humour failure with the new shoe screening, I guess it's faster than everyone taking their shoes off at the normal machines, however I thought I was home and dry with just Travelex between me and hiding in the lounge....
Anyway 40 minutes after getting into T3 I was in the lounge and passing on my congratualtions to John (and leaving my shoes with him) before grabbing a magic Eggs Benedict prior to my haircut.
Oh, did I say haircut, no I was booked in for a shave a massage, not a bad thing in itself, but I hadn't had a haircut since my last lounge foray in November and really needed it.... no dice, shave or nothing (and to be fair, I was being lazy and hadn't shaved for a few days anyway, maybe the cowshed people were telling me something.)
So with the shave done it was time to leave the sanctuary of the lounge and join the fight to get on the plane, as other people have posted this is one area of the whole UC / PE / Au experience that really needs work, boarding was at gate 35 and even going through the priority channel left me joining the middle of a long queue to get through the desks before the jet way.... could do better.
However once that was out of the way I was happily settled in my seat, checking through the new duty free listing, *curse* a couple of things I was going to order had been removed and then checking the magazine for some films to watch - except that when the entertainment system was switched on the film listing on v.port and the magazine weren't related to each other at all. Still nothing wrong with a bit of 'Best of Top Gear' - I'm so sad....
The food was great, I had the Crab Cakes (new year, healthy start) and then the Hot Pot (not so healthy but very nice) followed by some cheese (there goes at least one new years resolution)
The crew was great, and although I didn't get an in-flight treatment I did get a priority pass for my return flight on Thursday... (so SFO clubhouse for sandwich, massage on the flight before sleeping into LHR and then a shower / shave at the arrivals lounge, but I digress)
Flight was good, long and I was missing my wife and daughter after spending the Christmas break with them, 'luckily' I had some work to do and soon it was the 10 minute warning before final approach....
SFO is a great place to arrive into the USA the immigration queues are normally non-existent or fast to get through, the only real comedy moment was the baggage claim boards showing our luggage arriving on claim number 10, which as the slightly stressed out security guard was pointing out every passenger from the flight didn't exist, the luggage arrive on 11, so my bet on 9 was wrong and I had to wait a while to be able to get to the belt, not that the UC luggage was first off...
Overall, a great flight and a good start to the year, only the additional shoe screening at LHR and the delay in the luggage at SFO put a downer on the journey.
