V-Flyer

A 2 week trip to Hong Kong was booked in September. The day of departure to Hong Kong started with me going to work in the morning. At 1530hrs on Friday 18 May 2007, I quickly left the office with my large suitcase to catch the 1540hrs Midland Mainline Chesterfield to London St.Pancras service. I treated myself to the 1st class service on the HST of Midland Mainline. The service included frequent tea/coffee run with the occasional orange juice or selection of biscuits. The service was slightly delayed en-route and arrived at London St.Pancras at 1800hrs. The station has changed vastly since my last visit and it took me 15 minutes to get to the underground station. The Piccadilly line service to Heathrow costs 4 pounds single and the journey time took an hour.

I arrived at Heathrow Terminal 1,2 &3 underground station at 1930hrs and took me a further 10 minutes to get to Virgin check-in at Zone A in Terminal 3. I already completed an online check-in the night before so I headed straight to the bag drop line. There were approximately 10 people ahead of me but some how it took 30 minutes of queuing [V]. There were 3 check-in agents but one of the agent ended up helping another who was dealing with a couple checking in to SYD. The couple took as much as 10 minutes checking in. After the long queue I was finally checked-in and I enquired about my 20 pounds voucher for paying APD online. The check-in agent hasn't got a clue what that was and asked me to enquire at the ticket desk. I told her there was a long queue but there wasn't much she could do. I headed to the ticket desk and I envisaged another 30 minutes of queuing so I gave up and walked straight to departure.

The queues to security weren't long to the normal Heathrow standard. It took me 10 minutes and through to passport control. After passport control came the 'shoes off' procedure. The shoes went through the x-ray machine and detected no hidden C-4 in the soles. In the departure lounge I met up with my friend who was flying to Singapore with his family on SQ321 departing 15 minutes before me. We waited at the departure lounge for an hour and then headed to our gates. I said my farewell and walked to gate 19 to board the VS200. At the gate was a secondary sercurity check which basically a body search and a quick look at your carry-on. The awaiting aircraft at the gate going to take me to Hong Kong was G-VSSH 'Sweet Dreamer'. You could clearly see the pilots doing their work onboard and the cabin crew bringing them drinks.

Time for boarding and annoucment was made for priority boarding followed by economy passengers. I was greeted at the door and proceeded to do my usual 'right' turn to economy. I headed striaght towards the rear of the aircraft and parked myself at seat 62C. The flight turned out to be 230 passgeners onboard the A340-600 with 148 passengers in Y. Luckily for me majority of people sat at the front and I had 2 seats for myself. The 3 seats in the middle were empty and many people grabbed them for much needed space. With the new config on these A340-600 I can clearly appreciate the extra legroom provided which for economy is adequate.

The safety video was broadcast as we were pushing back 3 minutes behind schedule. As we were taxiing to runway 27R, I saw my friend Singapore Airlines 747-400 rotating beside me. With approximately 10 aircraft ahead of us ranging from Emirates 777-200 to various BA 747-400 and a Virgin A340, finally our turn after 30 minutes. We took off to the west and immediately banked right to head East for Hong Kong. After the seat belt signs were turned off, amenity kits and headphones were distributed by the cabin crew followed by the first drinks service. I have noticed the bag size of Penn State Pretzels have shrunk some what. V:Port was switched on with 65 movies and 120 music albums to choose from. I started with Rocky Balboa which in my opinion is quite a good watch. The evening meal service started with a choice of roast chicken, stir fry chicken and vegetarian meals. I had the stir fry chicken which I find OK. I noticed my tray was quite empty and I didn't have any butter for my bread. I couldn't quite pinpoint what was missing until the tea service which turned out I didn't have any cup for the tea and of course butter and milk are stored in the empty cup. I quite like Virgin linking up with 'Gu' in providing dessert for their inflight meal service [y]. Nothing exciting happened throughout the night of the flight, I was given a questionnaire to fill in by the FSM which was addressed to seat 62A (an empty seat) but of course I was sitting there. Always wandered do they just pick a seat at random for the questionnaire [?]? The usual snacks and drinks were placed in the rear galley for passengers helping themselves. With only 2 hours outside of HKG, breakfast was served with a choice of chinese congee, english breakfast and omlette meals. I had the english breakfast which was as good as you can get on a plane.

The plane was preparing for landing and the pilot came on the speaker to announce our arrival into HKG at 1720hrs local. The fasten seatbelt signs came on and the plane was hitting large turbulence. It was like a fairground ride with sudden drop and you momentarily leave your seat. Alot of the passengers gasp and then laughed. The pilot came to say we were in a holding pattern due to poor weather in HKG. After circling for 40 minutes with the engines spooling up and down, we touched down at HKG at 1752hrs local. The 4 Rolls Royce Trent engines kicked into reverse thrust upon touched down blowing sprays of a very wet runway. After a short taxi, the aircraft was parked at gate 36 ready for departure to SYD.

Deplaned took abit of time and the onward passengers travelling to SYD were separated at the gate. Overall it was a good flight with me occupying 2 seats. The flight was as good as I was expected from VS, the only draw back was the amount of time queuing at check-in and I didn't get my money off voucher. Virgin really need to speed up bag drop line during busy period. 30 minutes queuing for someone who already checked-in online is way too long. The holding pattern above Hong Kong was indeed interesting and one of the most bumpy approach I have ever experienced.

Return flight to follow next week with some UCS comments.

Thanks for the TR [y]. I'll be doing this trip again in November in Y.

The usual snacks and drinks were placed in the rear galley for passengers helping themselves

...so the snacks are back now are they? Last time I did HKG in Y there was absolutley nothing to eat for the 10 hours inbetween dinner and breakfast [n]

Reagrds

Great TR!!!

Mitch, that's got to be actionable in the International Court of Human Rights! [n]

GJ

Good and informative TR, well phrased!

Thanks for a very detailed Y TR Sky [y] I Hope your return trip is as good.

Originally posted by mitchja
Thanks for the TR [y]. I'll be doing this trip again in November in Y.

The usual snacks and drinks were placed in the rear galley for passengers helping themselves

...so the snacks are back now are they? Last time I did HKG in Y there was absolutley nothing to eat for the 10 hours inbetween dinner and breakfast [n]

Reagrds

Didn't know the snacks were missing. There were plenty of short bread to eat. I didn't see any bread rolls or whatever they were available though.

Glad about the snacks being back, thanks [y]

For those on here who dont fly in Y, 10 hours is a long time without eating anything.

Regards

sky

thanks for the TR[y][y][y]

I found your writing style easy to follow, and your TR gives a good level of detail [^][^]

There were approximately 10 people ahead of me but some how it took 30 minutes of queuing .

If airlines wnat passengers to adopt the system (which is beneficial to them of course[}:)]) then they should ensure that it runs swiftly. This is not just a comment against VS, BA have similar problems with their self check in[V][V]


buns