V-Flyer

I seem to be making this trip with alarming regularity and am therefore trying various different flights. Normally I prefer the last flight out to EWR on Sunday but since I was not required in the office on Monday morning I opted for a more leisurely Monday daytime slot.

I had been checking on-line for a few days but no seat-map was made available - even 48 before so knew there was a real possibility of getting the refitted Cosmic Girl.

Parked the car at Q-Park and enjoyed a relatively quick and troublefree journey to T3 - one of the benefits of the VS45. Made my way to check-in and was handed a boarding pass for 30H - which I was pretty sure meant the new config. Made my way upstairs, picked up my pre-ordered currency at Travelex and headed past an absoloutly horrendous queue for security that staked all the way to the far end of the terminal and beyond. Luckily my regained Au status meant I could bypass this through the Fast-Track which was almost empty - I dread to think how long normal security would have taken.

Once airside I made a beeline for the CH. Seven trips through T3 earlier in the year during my transient Ag stage means that I have seen enough of the T3 shops to keep me going for quite a while. During my previous trip through in September (my first as Au for about 15 months) I only had time for a brief visit to the CH so was determined to have an hour or so at least on this trip.

Clubhouse visit was very pleasant indeed - boy I've missed it. I had a quick bite to eat - delicious shepherds pie - and then checked out v-flyer to confirm the seat allocation was new config. Eventually the flight was called and pleasingly it was at Gate 1 rather than my normal 35+ gate - so only a gentle stroll.

Arriving at the gate the first line of security directed us to one of two queue's to check passports, priority passengers were directed to the right. I should have looked ahead as once the passports were checked we remerged into a single queue that snaked away for the next 5 minutes towards the Boarding Pass check - I actually was now behind the Y passengers that I had previously been ahead of.

Boarded Cosmic Girl, made my way to the seat and had a quick look behind. As I was in 30H I was in the area to the right of the galley that had been PE in the previous configuration. Also since I tend to fly 346s more the seats themselves were no surprise as I am very used to them. However nothing had quite prepared me for the site of 6 rows of 8 abreast running across the cabin behind - it looked very civilised. The four in the middle skew the aisle a little bit compared with the Y cabin but do afford the passengers in 32D/G a little more leg room as they can stretch their left or right leg around the bulkhead. There is also a skycot position in front of 32D/E - not sure there was a skycot position of the previous PE configuration. 32 D-G where occupied by a family of 4 and was nice to see a family being accomodated within PE in this way for the first time. The mood lighting for the length of the PE cabin helped to further identify it as something different.

PE was full - which must have meant a considerable number of upgrades and I was a little dissapointed that this had not translated into a personal upgrade from PE to UC but them's the breaks. Unfortunately there was no bottled water on the seat - first time this has been missing in ages and later experience seemed to suggest that the new configuration was having learning curve issues for the crew.

We pushed back on time at 14:00 and had a slow taxi which resulted in a wheels up at 14:32. The seatbelt light did not go out until 14:50, which was surprising as there was no turbulence. However what was more surprising is that the cabin crew did not leave their seats until the seat belt sign was turned off - indeed some of the passengers were wandering around confused while the crew were still in their seats. There then followed a steady stream on disoriented passengers moving forward in UC looking for the restrooms and the crew continually pointing them towards the back of the cabin. Incidentally I cannot understand the configuration of toilets - the four to the rear of PE are in a position so that they could be curtained off to PE - indeed there is also a set of curtains between the toilets so you could have two for PE and two for Y. Luckily I was not desperate but it took a good 20 minutes for the queue to dissapear.

It seemed to take forever for the first drinks service - 15:25 in Y and 10 minutes later in PE. The meal was even slower and did not arrive until 17:15 - almost three hours into the flight. I do not normally fly the VS45 but this seemed very late into the flight. After this they seemed to be playing catch-up as ice creams arrived barely 20 minutes after the meal had been cleared and the pre-landing snack arrived about two hours after this - still a good 1.5 hours before landing.

I watched a couple of films, glad of the new October selection - Evans Almighty and Sunshine - both of which I enjoyed but not as much as the first half of Top Gear - US special - hilarious - especially when the team were set the task of sourcing their evening meal from roadkill - a definite watch. Incidentally when exactly are VS going to update the episodes of some of their drama's - I love House but they've been the same episodes all year.

Touched down a little early at 17:10 EST and waited patiently for UC to disembark - which now takes even longer. Immigration was luckily not too busy and I think we beat another flight in as it seemed to fill up pretty fast behind us. Baggage collected without incident and soon on the way in by SkyTrain, E-Train - 1 hour and 7USD later I was in midtown.

FM

Thanks for the TR Phil. Good to know you think the new config looks ok. How did you find the noise/foot traffic coming from the Galley? AL=lso how may CC were dedicated to the new PE layout, still just the 1 or has that increased to 2?

Neil

Originally posted by Attitude23
Thanks for the TR Phil. Good to know you think the new config looks ok. How did you find the noise/foot traffic coming from the Galley? AL=lso how may CC were dedicated to the new PE layout, still just the 1 or has that increased to 2?

Neil

There was a large amount of foot traffic. Really not a pleasant experience. I believe CC have increased to dedicated 2 but hard to see evidence of this - I guess it takes time.

FM

Oooh, nice report, Phil.

I guess we need to give it time for the Crew to adjust to the changes before we cam really see the effect, but what did you think of the new layout after this flight? Interesting to note that the toilets were not separated with a curtain (not that this seems to stop people of course) but you would think it sensible.

Did you manage to snap any piccies for the nerdy amongst us?

Thanks,
Sarah

Thanks for the TR, good to hear a positive report on the new config......

Dominic

Originally posted by DMetters-Bone
Thanks for the TR, good to hear a positive report on the new config......

I don't think it was that positive...

* Drink and Food service abysmally slow (1h after wheels up before the first drink round!)
* Lavs appear to be shared with Y (?)
* Like sitting in a corridor with people trekking up and down

Sounds like the config has not been thought through properly (like I said - put the PE lavs outboard opposite the galleys, getting rid of those awful seats no-one likes), the service flows seem need looking at or some extra training, and maybe extra curtains or signage are necessary to remove the corridor element and ensure PE pax get the advertised 'exclusive cabin' service.

Also looks like the pre-landing snack is still shared with Y and 'done from the front' which means PE get served *very* early compared to the landing time, despite the smaller cabin.

Mike

Thank you for the TR - interesting to hear about the new config.

I think Mike has some valid points - I'd like to see what the upper deck UC experience is like now...

Originally posted by HighFlyer

Did you manage to snap any piccies for the nerdy amongst us?

Unfortunately not - business trip and didn't think about it - much to my shame.

I agree with Mike it was not entirely positive. I would say that much of the foot traffic was CC as they are constantly moving out of the Galley area - especially on the right side as the left side is protected a bit by the low overhead of the staircase. CC going forward to UC and back to PE / Y make this area of the plane very busy.

The curtains by the toilet are strange as they currently cut PE off before the toilets - so you have to move the curtains out of the way to pass into Y and the toilets - if they had repositioned the rail this could have been avoided and given PE their own toilets - didn't check on the other side so maybe this is reversed there.

FM

P.S. Forgot to mention - not a single drinks service after the initial one and there was a lot of confusion over meals - The couple in front of me (front row of PE) had their meal provided by UC as their Beef choice was unavailable.

The foot traffic thing is what worries me the most. I get annoyed on the A346 when sitting in PE with the amount of CC foot traffic and can imagine that on this new config it will be the same and more than likely worse. More reason to only fly UCS from now on!

Thanks for the TR!

Originally posted by FamilyMan
Unfortunately there was no bottled water on the seat - first time this has been missing in ages and later experience seemed to suggest that the new configuration was having learning curve issues for the crew.

Mmm. But isn't the bottled water part of the PE service not the configuration ? Or do you mean they were just overwhelmed?

Paul

Originally posted by pjh
Thanks for the TR!

Originally posted by FamilyMan
Unfortunately there was no bottled water on the seat - first time this has been missing in ages and later experience seemed to suggest that the new configuration was having learning curve issues for the crew.

Mmm. But isn't the bottled water part of the PE service not the configuration ? Or do you mean they were just overwhelmed?

Paul

Yep - that's what I was getting at Paul - I assume that the CC put these out prior to pax arriving on board and guessed that their absence was due to crew being pre-occupied by other matters.

FM

Thanks for the TR [y]

* Like sitting in a corridor with people trekking up and down

As FM poined out, he was actually sat where PE would have been on the old config anyway. This has always been a problem with these seats due to them been so close to the galley.

Regards

FM

Thanks for the detailed TR, giving us nerds some insight of what to expect with the new configuration[y][y]

From your report, it does appear the crew were a little disorganised, perhaps a full load and a light crew[:?]

There then followed a steady stream on disoriented passengers moving forward in UC looking for the restrooms and the crew continually pointing them towards the back of the cabin.

That does not come across in the PE Ad campaign[n]

thanks once again

buns