This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
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This was my first ever trip out of LGW (not just on VS) so I was a little out of my element in that sense. We were on a Z fare, so no CDC. This was a group trip for a wedding and had been booked by a travel agent so there were some complications, ticket-wise, along the way. We had selected 7A & K, but we were unable to do OLCI and at some point on Saturday my seat reservation was blown out of the system (either during a phone call to the premier team or an attempt to do OLCI). It turns out the TA had a paper ticket for me. During in the early trip planning stages, a PA who had been handling the bookings misspelled my middle name when giving it to the TA (completely unrelated to this incidence, she no longer works for the company, Im happy to say). Im not sure why she even put my middle (maiden) name in the booking as I dont use it, but by the time we were able to see our reservations on-line and notice the misspelling, the tickets had been issued. We were originally flying PE, but the TA explained that when we upgraded to UC they had to issue a paper ticket due to the misspelling. Confusing, but none of this was actually VS fault, so I have not graded them poorly on check-in. The TA who had booked the trip was, commendably, at the airport when the check-in counters opened and sorted out the seat situation and made sure that everyone at check-in was aware of the issue with my ticket so there were no real problems there. I know Ive used a lot of space explaining all this...but it does come up again on the return trip
We arrived on the GEX (using the 25% off codes from VS website) fairly early and immediately found the TA who gave us my ticket and the printout for MrStars e-ticket and we proceeded to the UC check-in. There was no line. The very nice woman at the check-in did comment on the misspelling but I explained that there should be a note in the system and she did not seem overly concerned as it was one letter in my middle name (an L that should have been an I). The boarding passes were printed out with the correct spelling, which Im certain was helpful for security. Worth noting, as we were checking in I overheard the conversation at the PE counter next to us where the couple checking-in were given fast track stickers on their boarding passes. The man commented that when they last flew, they flew UC but fast track was closed, so the fact that VS can now issue fast track stickers to PE made up for that. Im not sure if it is common at LGW for PE to get fast track stickers, so I thought it was worth noting. Sorry to say on this morning they were useless.
After noticing extremely large queues for Y check-in, we headed for security. It was all rather confusing - security looked closed and staff were telling people to go upstairs. We didnt really know what was going on, but looked out for the Fast Track sign. Someone there indicated that Fast Track was closed and we should head upstairs. As we had just seen hoards up people head upstairs we waited a bit and heard someone else being told Fast Track was set to re-open shortly. We stuck around. Fast Track did not reopen, but regular security did reopen and since we had been lingering about by the roped off area, we did not have much of a line. We headed for the CH where I had a facial booked for 7:30am. This was our first time in the LGW CH and I thought it was very nice. I went for my facial while MrStars had some breakfast and chatted with some of our friends as they arrived in the CH. The facial was lovely I only wish the therapist had made a bit more effort not to get cream in my hair as it made it look a bit greasy at the hairline. Our flight was called, and then called a second time. At that point we went to find one of our friends who has having her nails painted. Her boyfriend was getting antsy but the woman doing the nail painting said not to worry, they always call a flight twice. When we said it had already been called twice she still seemed unconcerned. At our friends urging (hold the plane for us!) we set off for the gate. The monitors indicated that our gate was closing and we set off at a near-run to our (very distant) gate only to find a long line of people slowly boarding. Priority boarding was in place so we went to the head of the line and were on the plane rather quickly.
Our plane was Jersey Girl (VGAL). The LGW UC cabin surprised me it has such a different feel to it then the LHR configurations. It really feels more like a private room than an airplane, with the shape of the cabin and the bar in the center. On a side note, I was the one who started a thread recently asking if people preferred to sit side-by-side or across the aisle from each other in UC, and I can now see that in the LGW cabin your answer might change depending on which rows you are in. On this flight, 12 out of 14 UC seats were occupied, and of those 12, 10 of them were part of our group. Only the two women in 6A & K were not part of our group.
The TA had told me the day prior, during my seat/ticket shenanigans, that this would be the case and so I decided to make sugar cookies with the bride and grooms initials on them to share with everyone in our cabin. The cookies were very well received and we shared them with the two non-wedding group passengers and the cabin crew, which set things off on a pleasant note.
Amenity kits were on the seats when we boarded, drinks were offered promptly, and I noticed the basket of extras on the bar during most of the flight. I thought the flight was VS at its best, but I also understand that our experience was probably to some extent related to our group and that we set the tone for the crew. As we were off to a wedding, despite the early hour, champagne and bellinis were being enjoyed all around. One of the CC put the cookies out on plates on the bar so we could enjoy them throughout the flight. The FSM came around and introduced herself to every passenger in the UC cabin and kept remarking that she had never had a flight where all of the UC passengers were part of the same group. We had to mention that that wasnt actually the case, but close to it!
The wheels were up at 9:15am, so pretty close to on-time. The moment the seatbelt sign was off we were all up and about talking to each other, having drinks, cookies, etc. etc. It actually reminded me in a strange way of the scene near the end of the movie The Wedding Singer and someone did ask why hadnt anyone invited Billy Idol along?! There was a ton of laughing going on and one member of our party had a particularly loud laugh. I have to admit that I did think about the reviews on here when people have mentioned adults behaving badly and I really hope that it wasnt the case. I was cringing a bit but no one was being rude, and the women in 6A & K didnt seem to mind (I apologised to them on our behalf & gave them more cookies!). Another set of our friends was sitting in the first row of PE (they would join us in UC on the flight home) and later told us that it sounded like a quite a party was going on as they could hear all the laughter.
The main meal on this flight was lunch, so they did wait until an hour or so after take off to serve it as the crew indicated We dont think any of you want chicken curry this early in the morning! When lunch was served, we all sat with our partners, and the cabin really felt like a little restaurant. The starters were a delicious smoked salmon which most people had, and some kind of potato soup. One of our friends opted for the soup and remarked it was a little on the salty side, but this was tongue in cheek as he had just accidentally dropped the contents of the salt shaker into the soup! Mains were chicken tikka, bangers and mash, and vegetable cottage pie. I forget what the desserts were as I didnt partake. MrStars had the chicken tikka and said it wasnt bad. I opted for a cheese plate instead of a main. After dinner, probably to everyone elses relief, most of our cabin decided to take a nap so the cabin lights were turned down.
Probably worth noting, earlier in the flight there had been an announcement about IFE having problems and needing to be reset, which would take an hour. I didnt pay much attention as I was enjoying chatting with friends, but had I been in a different cabin Im sure I would have been more annoyed. When everyone settled in to sleep the IFE had begun working again, and so I watched The Pursuit of Happyness.
Ice cream was offered during the movie, and then, when people started waking up from their naps sandwiches and cakes were offered. At this point most of us were back up at the bar chatting so the crew asked if we would like them to set some sandwiches and cakes out at the bar for us, to which we agreed.
Total flight time was 7 hours 45 minutes. The flight was pretty smooth with the exception of the last 10 or so minutes of our descent. We deplaned from two sets of doors, had about a 7 minute walk to the terminal, immigration was fairly smooth, and UC bags were out first.
