This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Clubhouse was exceedinly busy, and service not as a good as previous visits. It took a while to get a table, and over 30mins for the (admittedly very tasty) burger to turn up. The staff were friendly, but clearly under pressure and not coping that well. Still, it is an excellent faciity despite the slightly intrusive music and inaudible PA announcements.
Boarding was from Gate 19. No fastrack sign (do these no longer exist), but the Group 4 goon was prepared to let us skip the queue. Why do they have to check your visa, passport and BP again when it has alrady been done once before at check in. And why is there still a secondary security check at the Gate? Bizarre.
A short queue in the jetbridge before boarding. In a pleasant change to the bulk of my VS flights we had a friendly, helpful crew who were visibly working hard with a full J cabin to look after. Menus, bottle of water and amenity kits were already on the seat, sleep suits and a glass of water soon followed. A [y] to VS for not providing a pointless amenity kit full of crap samples. Controversial I know, but I find them a waste. I declined a treatment, sleep was the order of the day. The lack of centre bins on the A346 makes hand baggage space a challenge, the guy in 14A had a struggle finding room for his.
We pushed back on time, and took off promptly with the promise of a short flight time due to tail winds. When the seat belt sign pinged off, I was into the loo to change. Shortly after, it was bed down and hello to the land of nod. Sadly it look a while to drift off. The crew seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to serve drinks and dinner, accompanied by much clanking from the galley and thumping up and down the aisles. This, coupled with the lights gleaming overhead made sleep difficult to come by. VS really need to look at implementing the snooze zone on a flight leaving at this time. Most people don't want dinner at midnight. [ii]I eventually drifted off, and awoke 40mins before landing. [:D]6 hours sleep in the bag.
No-one offered me anything when I woke up, but as they were in full clear up mode that is hardly surprising. We landed 20mins ahead of schedule after a spell of holding. No queue at immigration, and my colleagues bag was first off. The Avis off (after customs) was ready for us, so within 10 mins of landing we were in a car and on the way to our hotel.
Overall, a very decent experience. Superb ground facilities at Heathrow, a decent seat, a better than normal crew (despite a couple of blips) and speed on arrival. Just what I needed, having only had 36hours at home between this flight and returning from China.
