V-Flyer

Aircraft Reg: G-VROC
Aircraft Name: Mustang Sally

Online check-in last night as straightforward as usual, but still up at the crack of dawn to get on the road out to Heathrow in plenty of time.

I'd booked valet parking as I'm getting back into the UK on Friday evening and the last thing I want is to hang around for a coach out to business parking. The forecourt of T3 is insane, and I sincerely hope that the work they're currently doing there is going to make a *major* difference.

Hit the UC check-in to drop my bag and pick up boarding card, as it had the shortest queue. For the first time in a while at Heathrow I had a check-in team member who was positive, and communicative instead of the surly and unhelpful experiences I've been getting used to.

Checked in to 76H, which was the only one I'd been able to pre-allocate by the time my flight was changed to today rather than yesterday. I really don't get the hatred for main deck PE seats in the V-Flyer seat ratings. For daytime flights where a bit of noise and activity don't really matter they're absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned.

Fast Track through security wasn't, very, but only really about fifteen minutes, so after a brief cruise round Borders, I headed to the Clubhouse. I stopped off at the Concierge desk to check on the possibility of upgrading with miles, and the team member there said that it didn't look hopeful, phoned the close-ups team and asked if they could sort me out if a seat came free when the flight closed. She told me to come back after that time to check, but said that it didn't look hopeful.

The Clubhouse was pretty quiet, but there seemed to be a marked lack of attention from the roaming staff. Unusually, it seemed to take a while before anyone came to take my order, but once they did, I was furnished with a sausage sandwich, a pot of tea and a Bellini with gratifying speed.

I had to get a bunch of work calls out of the way before switching off to head to the Cowshed for a treatment. The last time we went through the CH, My Beloved had a facial, and raved about it so much that I felt obliged to try it out. That was a good call. I approve mightily of that, and remembered to pick up a tube of Cowshed's fantastic shaving cream too for a change. It's not cheap, but it lasts and lasts.

By the time I got out of there the flight had closed, and the news at the Concierge wasn't good. 'Full in all classes, I'm afraid' after checking that I hadn't been moved as part of the fill-up.

So it was off to Gate 23 (I think the 'Please note this gate is a ten minute walk away' announcement assumes a seriously worrying walking speed.) where Mustang Sally was waiting. Second time I've flown on G-VROC in a month. Priority boarding was in effect, though by the time the CH passengers got down there it was basically just two equal queues.

On board and settled in, said hello to the German guy who was to be my companion for the next ten hours and twelve minutes (as announced), and had a glass of something sparkling. Total load was 381 passengers, and we pushed back a mere two minutes past scheduled departure for a pretty quick taxi.

V:Port was on almost as soon as the seatbelt sign was off, and in explaining how it works to my neighbour I realised how worn the handsets are looking. I think the NPE refit can't come a minute too soon for Mustang Sally.

I had a lot of work to do, so took advantage of in-seat power and hammered through a lot of it while the drinks round was running in order to get as much out of the way before lunch as possible. The drink round was actually two rounds, and my initial request for a whiskey returned a very healthy measure indeed!

Apart from the seats obviously, the only element of NPE missing was menus, but the crew made up for it by explaining very clearly what the options were to each passenger (in detail, not just 'chicken, beef or vegetarian'. I had roast chicken with potatoes and green beans which was really tasty. The pasta salad is a bit bland, sadly, but the Gu pot made up for it. Brandy and Baileys were offered, and the fruit bowl went round.

I started to watch Casino Royale with lunch, but it just wasn't engaging with me, so I switched to The History Boys and absolutely loved it. Highly recommended.

Back to work, and ice cream and pannini rounds happened, as well as three rounds with water and juice (which I was glad to see, as several TRs recently have noted that they weren't happening, and I think they're an important detail).

Throughout the flight my neighbour got to take what I hope were great photos out of the window, as it was a beautiful clear day and we had stunning views from flying over Iceland and then across the top of North America.

First time in living memory I bought from Duty Free - the Virgin travel wallet I was picking up for Airbus340 (got it! I'll put it in the mail Saturday when I'm back). I was also going to buy a teddy bear for Him Indoors, but they didn't have the right one on board :-(

For the last couple of hours I put the laptop away and watched TV fairly mindlessly. Afternoon tea hasn't changed except for the china cup, but was worth having as a top-up anyway.

Landed slightly ahead of schedule but had to wait for the North Western plane on our gate to clear it.

I was around tenth or twelfth off the flight, pausing to thank my main crew member, who had mentioned she was on only her sixth flight, bless her. But then it all went horribly wrong.

I've never seen SFO Immigration as busy - clearly we'd just followed another large flight in closer than I'm used to, because I don't think it's ever taken me more than ten minutes to get through. Usually I'm waiting for the bags. Today it took me forty minutes, and by the time I got out I couldn't tell whether priority baggage had worked or not, as everything was on the belt, fortunately including my bag, so at least once I was through I was out of the terminal an in a cab in about four minutes.

And here I am in sunny San Francisco. Flying back out of JFK on Friday - second TR of the week to follow then.

Nice amount of detail there Jon. 'Twas nice to see someone was able to accommodate airbus340 too. Sorry to hear about immigration - I do wish they'd bring back InsPass...

Good TR, Jon thank you. [y]

Thanks for the TR!

Great TR -- almost makes PE sound civilized. Almost.

GJ

Glad you had a good flight.

That sounds about right for SFO I am sorry to say, I may just be unlucky but it seems to go that way for me every time.

Apart from once being sent to a special room for further checks (no rubber gloves involved) I've never had a problem or long wait at SFO immigration, certainly better than JFK.

Jon

Thanks for a detailed TR[y][y]

I agree with you that having dedicated cabin crew for PE is a marked improvement and once all the refits have been completed, the product will once again be ahead of the game.