This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Was checking in online, and as always recently I check the outbound LGW flights. The outbound flights were all 3 hours delayed, and the seat map has been removed which is always a sign of an aircraft swap on MCO. Checking the Manchester flights we were getting the inbound Manchester flight, which was great for us no delay, but not so good for the MAN folks as they now were leaving at 10pm
Checkin was great, the UC line was empty and the checkin staff were really friendly and helpful. Nice touch was to confirm the limo for my return
The security lines at MCO were terrible, but I always sneak to the other side of the Hyatt lifts and managed to be placed into the empty employees line.
Boarding was also very smooth considering there were 10 wheelchair passengers !, and UC was called first and boarding went smoothly. Had a short delay on push back, as a new flight plan was needed. The captain said there was a restriction on certain airspace up the eastern seaboard.
The crew on arriving in the UC cabin, were superb, coats and bags stowed for every passenger, and very attentive service. They were apologising for the lack of amenities on board this aircraft, as MAN had, had a lack of items boarded for the return, so no in-flight papers, seat back magazine, and no UC amenity packs, so hey ho we all got on with it. Manchester evening news was a amusing read neatherless :-))
So up in the air and the crew continued a fantastic service and the FSM came around and made sure we all had what we wanted and asked for feedback on her crew, and how they co improve. For me text book service so far so no complaint there.
Interestingly all the passengers were in a chatty mood, and most of us were all talking and taking advantage of the champagne........ that soon ran out and the inbound had pretty much cleared the bar also. So once in the bar bottles from the duty free were used, nice MOET, which tasted better than the other stuff they serve.
Food was pretty good had the veg option the ravioli, great sauce, and was then heading to bed as the flight time was on 7 hours......... now I had been chatting to a really nice couple that were returning from a birthday treat, and we all finished and were getting some sleep
About an hour into my sleep, the chimes and emergency calls were going out over the tannoy for any medically qualified doctor/nurse on board for a serious medical emergency. It was the lady on her birthday treat in UC we had all been chatting with, basically was in pretty bad shape.
All the medical equipment was gathered, and boy there was some serious kit onboard, which made me feel confident that Virgin were well equipped and the defib was brought into the cabin.
Luckily there was a doctor and nurse on board who assisted the crew immediately and worked on the lady. Drips and the such were administed and medical treatment was started.
I have to say the crew on board this aircraft need medals and totally recognition for they way the handled this emergency and initially got this lady help, it was totally amazing how co-ordinated they were and the training they had had paid off, so BRAVO to the crew, OUTSTANDING.
When all this started we were now about 1 hour off the eastern seaboard of the US and the skymap showed the captain had a good tail wind and some serious gas on the pedal going, airspeed on 685 mph.
On landing at LGW they lady was looking so much better but medical teams arrived and were board to assist the lady, who I hope is now making a great recovery.
Bags were on the belt as I got through security, really great they have IRIS at LGW now, and off to collect my limo to take me home.
I cant say enough how totally impressed I was with the crew from start to finish, they are all stars, as I have put in my letter to the virgin CEO.
Otherwise cant fault the flight what so ever [oo][oo][oo]
