This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
The PE and Upper check in are the opposite side now to the economy checkin and they also have a separate bag drop area. As we had checked in online, we used this facility as the queue was only about 3 deep compared to the PE one. We had requested our usual 79A&C seats as hubby likes his side tray table upstairs.
Had a little shop in duty free and spent a while in World of Whiskies tasting and then into the Servisair lounge which was really busy. Had about an hour to wait in there and then trekked to the Virgin hub. Priority boarding worked fine and we were soon in our seats. It was full upstairs as usual on this flight. Had a pre-take off drink - actually 3 sparkling wines for me and 3 orange juices for other half which was very nice. A drinks round came around shortly after take off and decided to have another [:D]. Settled down to watch Knocked Up as I don't like to get into too heavy films on flights, especially when it's the Nova system as it often crashes. It was a pain having the control locked into the seat though after being used to having a remote control that can be removed.
The meal service was very swift and for the first time they didn't run out of choices. We both had the chicken korma which tasted nice. Tried the red wine and didn't like the acidity so opted for the white which was marginally better. The Brandy/Baileys round followed quickly after the meal too.
Now was the timem to have a chat to the FAs and have a look downstairs. Caught up with the FSM and asked if we could have a look at upper and really liked the cosyness of this small cabin but the bar looked really tiny. Explained we were flying upper on the 346 in the future and wasn't sure about the seat size as hubby is quite broad. She was very kind and asked if a guy could stand up to check the seat width. I was concerned about this and she said don't worry, I know him well, he's one of our pilots. I still thought it was a shame though. We did end up having a good chat to him about the comparisons between VS and BA business seats and he's very tall and by far prefers the VS upper. After thanking both of them, we returned upstairs and had a chat to the two FAs working upstairs. They were lovely girls who trained together but hadn't worked together for nearly two years, with the exception of doing last weekend and this weekend's Vegas flights. You could tell they liked working together as they just gelled so well with passengers and really seemed to enjoy their job. We had a laugh with them and I told them about v-flyer and how I would write a report and said I would not be using their names. One of them said to describe them as 'the very blonde one and the dippy one' and we would do okay. They confirmed where they would be staying for a couple of nights and said they preferred the old hotel but confirmed the rooms at this new hotel had recently been refurbished and were a lot better now. It was difficult though with so many kids around when trying to sleep in the daytime for them.
Later, we had a pot of ice cream (toffee or vanilla) and a sandwich snack. As I was sleeping when this was served, one of these was saved for me which I thought was a nice touch too. Every time my hubby put an empty glass on the tray table to his right, it was replenished straight away - these two FAs constantly came round with water and juice throughout and didn't seem to have a break. They really worked very hard.
I think there were either 2 more seats occupied by either crew members or family as other FAs came up regularly to talk to them and one had champagne constantly in a long stemmed champagne glass, rathern than the usual stubby one offered in PE.
On Virgin, I felt this was the best flight we have ever had with the best FAs working upstairs. You realise now how it's the crew who make the difference not the plane/other passengers. Thumbs up all round [y]. A and J if you're reading this, you really are a credit to your job. Thank you.
