VS010 JFK-LHR 13 Aug 07 (Upper)
Posted: 15 Aug 2007, 15:50This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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Once again we did OLCI the night before. My parents dropped us off at JFK just before 8pm. There was no line at the UC desks and everything went smoothly. The desk agent was very friendly. We took our boarding cards and CH invitation and dragged our bags to machine 2.
We had eaten dinner before going to the airport, so did not have a big meal in the CH. We each got a bowl of chicken noodle soup, which was just ok. Too much stuff in it corn, lots of spices, etc. We didnt have long before our flight was called. We headed to the JFK version of fast track security, which is a little strange. You get a shortened line for passport control, but then feed into the same regular line for going through the scanners. That doesnt seem right. However, it moved quickly so it didnt really matter.
Then we had to walkand walkand walkand, well, you get the point, as we were the furthest gate from security. There was no line at the gate; we just headed right on to Tinker Belle and found our seats, 8 and 9A. No extra plastic bits on the seat buttons, but we did have VPORT. We were given sleep suits and the CC came around to offer drinks, find out about what we wanted to eat/turn down service, and the IFBT came around. She mentioned that almost everyone on the flight was requesting a shoulder/neck massage and did we have a second choice? MrStars said no (but he is also of the dont wake me camp) while I agreed to a second choice of a hand and arm pressure point massage. The CC was great and the only negative for this part of the journey was that the announcements being made by the FSM were very hard to understand. It wasnt the FSM himself, but rather something with the PA system that was making the announcements inaudible.
We pushed back from the gate a few minutes early, spent some time on the tarmac, taxied for awhile, and then got the usual JFK evening flight announcement about being 20 planes back in the line for take-off. By the time we took off it was around 10:35pm, so nearly an hour late. The flight time was just 6 hours, so we were informed we would likely make up most of the delay in-air.
Once service was under way I requested a second pillow as I could see an empty seat from where I was and the CC happily obliged. The rest of the flight was uneventful. I had some tea and chocolates (marked down the food service slightly as the menu advertised Rococo chocolates, but Nestle were actually offered) and was the third person seen by the IFBT, who told me I was one of the only people who offered a second choice and would it be ok if she did my second choice. I didnt mind.
As I pretty much slept the rest of the flight, there isnt too much of note, except the following two things, which did not directly relate to me, but I think were worth mentioning:
When we were checking in there was an elderly woman at the counter next to us being checked in with assistance from her son. The check-in agent was putting a green sticker on her checked baggage and telling them it would be the last bag loaded, so if she had an anxiety attack and decided not to fly at the last minute, they would be able to take her bag off. It turned out this woman was seated across from me, and was travelling alone. Once onboard I realized that she was visually impaired and also mobility impaired. The crew, from what I could tell, really went out of their way to look after this woman. From my vantage point it looked like they were doing an excellent job, taking a lot of time to explain everything to her, making sure they leaned in close to her so she could see them, always telling her who they were when they came to help her. They assisted her to the loo, waited for her outside the door, and assisted her back. I think the woman was pleased as at the end of the flight she thanked all of them profusely and even hugged the two CC who looked after her the most. From my perspective, I was quite pleased to see how well they had looked after this woman - it made me feel like special needs passengers were taken seriously and well looked after.
The other (less) notable thing was there was a family of four seated across the cabin from me and the daughter (teenage) was still sleeping once most of the other beds were made up and everyone was preparing for landing. We soon realized why the CC had let her sleep a bit longer when about 5 members of CC arrived with a glass of champagne and a muffin and with a nod from this girls mother, woke her up singing Happy Birthday. The girl was quite surprised and everyone in the cabin clapped. It was a nice gesture.
I had a small moment of hesitation when scoring the crew of this flight, as overall I thought they were terrific. However, there was one flaw at the very end that annoyed me, though I could see how maybe it wasnt entirely within their control so I did not mark them down for it. As we were lined up to deplane, it seems as though one of the wardrobes was stuck and the CC were scurrying about trying to find some tool that would help unlock it. It seemed we were waiting a long time to deplane and as we moved up a bit I could see the door was open. It turns out that as most of the crew was trying to deal with the wardrobe, no one was holding back any passengers at the door, so there was a scrum of PE & Y passengers coming from the back, PE & J passengers coming down the stairs, and J passengers coming from the front. It was all very chaotic and it took way longer than it should have to deplane.
After finally getting off the plane we walkedand walkedand walked and walkedand after crossing three counties we finally made it to the immigration hall. The fast track line was short, with about 5 people in front of us. However, it took some time as there were only two immigration officers and one was tied up the entire time we were there with the same gentleman. The immigration officer, upon hearing MrStars was in finance, asked investment advice. A bit of an interesting moment as MrStars offered some very vague and noncommittal comments and later said to me Do you think if I gave him an answer other than what he had been looking for we wouldnt be let in? Truly a first for us in terms of lines of questioning at immigration.
As soon as we got to the carousel we spied our bags passing by and grabbed them and headed for the HEX. This is the last iteration of our theme of walkingand walkingand walkingand walking. Is it just the construction that is making the distance to the HEX seem so far, or will it always be that long of a walk, I wonder? Anyway, we grabbed a taxi at Paddington and were home sweet home shortly thereafter.