This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
So after an interesting flight out and 2 very tiring but enjoyable weeks in Orlando, time had come to head home. Whilst disappointed that our holiday was ending I was also quite excited by the fact we had out first UC experience to come and this did soften the blow a little. I had checked the VS site before we left our villa to see if the outbound flights had all left on time and whilst the MAN flight was on time, both the Gatwick flights and the Glasgow one were all running 2 hours late.
We dropped the car back off at Dollar and made our way to the VS check in area that is now located in Terminal A. I had done OLCI the previous day, mainly to ensure the Luke's sister and family got their assigned seats, so they headed to the bag drop area whilst Luke and I made our way to the empty UC check in. I noticed on the board that thankfully our flight was on time and each of the other 3 had over a 2hour delay, lucky for us that VS decided not to do a swap over with one of the LGW flights. The check in agent was very efficient and chatty, sorting us out with no problems, we were asked if we were taking a guest into the lounge and passes were sorted accordingly with directions also given. Our bags were weighed and taken from us and we waited whilst Luke's sister finished their formalities before headed over to security.
Security was quick, with the usual shouting about removing shoes and placing everything in boxes. The excitement of my upcoming trip had obviously affected me as I had for some reason packed a bottle we were bringing back as a present in my new carry on (a bargain from the Samsonite store in one of the malls) and this was of course duly confiscated by the nice security lady, oh well, worse things happen at sea.
We headed over on the train and then up to the Delta Crown lounge. There were 7 of us in our party but we only had enough passes for 6 of us to get in (mine and Luke's UC invites +1 guest each, plus our priority pass cards). We were happy to pay the 15 for the extra guest but the very nice lady at the desk said she would just put us down as a 6[y]. We found a spot in the conservatory type area overlooking the runway and made this our home for the next couple of hours. Again the lounge is nothing special, free drinks and a few snacks, but boy was I glad we were in there when I went for a walk and saw family after family sat on the terminal floor due to the lack of seating.
About 5:15 and me now getting very excited, we headed towards the gate area and almost straight away a call was made for UC/Au pax to board. We started to gather our things and wish Luke's sister a comfy flight in Y, and then PE were called, thankfully they used the right hand normal lane and the left hand carpeted lane was kept purely for UC/Au pax[y] I know it has been discussed so many times, but why oh why VS can't sort this in the UK I don't know as it worked so well here. Straight onto the a/c to be just pointed to the left with 'all the way to the front' type grunt from the CC, not the best of starts I thought. We were the first into the UC cabin and were totally ignored for a minute or so by the 2 CC members stood talking, here my worry alarms started to go off, knowing what I had read on here about the so called attitude problems on CC on MCO flights, I started to become concerned. We sat down and Luke noticed straight away that his table had a big 'I'm broken, please do not use me' sticker over it, we mentioned it to the CC who had just come over to give us some drinks and we got a 'oh yer, I hadn't seen that' response, 'I'll speak to the FSM' . Great I thought, rubbish crew and broken suite, thankfully this is where the bad stopped and the good started.
We decided to swap seats as I was less likely to use the table and had another glass of champers whilst the rest of the a/c was boarding. The FSM came over and explained that she had spoken to the engineers and they were waiting for a part so the table was def out of action. I was offered 50 but asked for miles instead which was no problem, 15k and I said I was more than happy to eat with Luke at his suite (she said I could sit at the bar if I had wanted). Spent the rest of the time getting used to the suite, the CC member came over and gave us a demo of how to operate everything, the snooze pack was handed out (I must say, it is pretty crap) and sleep suits were handed out too. I found the suite in seat mode quite comfy actually although I did find the position buttons very sensitive and changed my position by mistake on numerous occasions throughout the flight.
Not sure if we took off on time as neither of us had a watch but the Captain came on and announced a rather slow 7hr 45min flight time was likely (I was hoping for longer to be honest[:I]). I really enjoyed the view from the UCS when taxing/take off, very easy to look out of the windows behind but also a great view out of the window opposite, although I imagine this was enhanced by the fact we were in 6A&K. I did however find the sensation when taxing quite weird, being in front of the wheel it looks like you are about to take a trip over the grass, quite weird.
Straight after take off the CC came round again taking drinks orders, the bar was set up with snacks etc and everyone in the cabin just seemed to start talking to each other, something that continued right throughout the flight until the lights went out, this really made the first part of the flight go really quickly and it was nice how the bar/ottoman allows the social side to come out more.. Drinks (champers again[:I]) received our food orders were taken, and I now decided to go change into my sleep suit. I had asked for a large and boy was it large, the sizes are VERY generous and I honestly think I could have coped with Luke's small. Back to some more chatting and the FSM came round with the basket of extras and to have a chat with everyone.
The menu was:
Starters
Seasonal leaf salad with smoked salmon
Carrot & Ginger soup
Main courses
Short-rib beef and Guinness Stew, thyme roasted potatoes & vegetable
Grilled scallop and shrimp linguini with clam sauce
Brie and roasted vegetable pie
Dessert
Apple & brown butter tart with caramel sauce
Chocolate ice cream with raspberry and vodka sauce
I chose the Soup and Beef and Luke had the Salad and Linguini. Luke's table was set and we continued chatting with the rest of the cabin whilst the CC prepared the meals and dishing out more champers. Soon enough our starters were brought out, Luke really enjoyed his salad and my soup was nice but nothing special and after about half a bowl it became a bit samey and I had to leave it. A good amount of time was left between our starter and the main course being served. My beef was tasty and well cooked and Luke enjoyed his linguini, although there was a lot of pasta. Neither of us had desert or cheese. We decided to take a little souvenir of our first UC flight and thanks to the CC who pointed out the salt and pepper pots had 'pinched from Virgin Atlantic' on the bottom of them we decided it would be rude not too! Overall I thought the food was ok/good, certainly nothing special but it was nice to eat on a proper plate and the way it was presented/served was good but I would have like to have seen more choice as apart from what I had, nothing else I would have eaten.
During the meal the FSM came round with the wine, and got chatting with us again, when Luke decided it was a good time (a good time = after 4 glasses of champers!) to tell her I would be writing a report about the flight and the crew. Well, she loved the idea, started asking about the site, was more than happy for her picture to be taken and posted and we had a really good chat with her. All of the crew serving us were like this, really friendly and nothing was ever too much trouble, they were without doubt the best feature of our first UC flight, and certainly at no point did we feel like we were being rushed to eat then sleep, something that is discussed a bit on here.
After a quick visit down back to see the rest of our party, and a trip back up front with Luke's niece (with the permission of the crew) who wanted to see what it was like, and she if the lad she fancied was in UC as the last she had seen of him was him turning left at the a/c doors, he wasn't so off she went and the CC sorted our beds out for us. This timed quite nicely with my head suddenly realising I had maybe had one too many glasses of champers [:I].
Into bed I popped, duvet over me and off I went into the land of nod. I slept pretty much through until 1hr 30mins before landing when I had just woken up before the crew came round to say breakfast would be served. I slept quite well in the suite, although did find it quite bumpy, not sure if this was due to bad turbulence or the fact the we were right in the nose and could feel the bumps that little bit more[:?] I did however find the seatbelt on the ottoman really annoying when I was trying to sleep, it always seemed to be where I wanted my feet to go and I knocked it more times than I care to remember. Also I thought that the pillow provided was a bit rubbish too, looked nice a fluffy but was very flimsy and my head was basically on the base of the suite (and no, that's not just because I have a big head!).
Now I was awake I decide to quickly nip and get changed out of my ninja suit whilst most of the cabin where still asleep, bed changed back to the seat whilst I did this and then had my OJ and bacon roll delivered which I consumed whilst I dozed a bit until my body started to feel more awake. Bit by bit the cabin woke up and I had another OJ whilst the FSM came over and completed the paperwork about my broken table and sorted out my details for the extra miles. Watched skymap until we landed, again this was the only time throughout the flight I used the IFE and after another very informative report from the flight deck we landed about 25mins early at MAN. Had a long taxi back to the remote stand we departed off, waited ages for the doors to be opened and just managed to squeeze onto the first bus, passing the FSM at the doors, another reference to VF was made and she promised to have a look in. The bus drove us right to the other end of the terminal, where we then had to walk right back down to the end near our a/c for immigration.
Immigration was a breeze, although I am glad I wasn't going to be at the back of the queue when our a/c had emptied. Down into baggage reclaim and within 2minutes both our cases were off, we waited a couple of mins to say out goodbyes to Luke's sister and family and headed through to arrivals. As we were booked on D fare we had a CDC to take us back home, our driver was stood waiting for us in arrivals, straight out to his nice Volvo estate and we were back at home less just over 2 hours after landing[y][y][y]
How do I rate our first UC experience, well, very good really. It wasn't perfect but the issue with the broken table was sorted well by the CC and as I said, the best thing about the flight was the FSM and CC. Yes the suite was nice, it was much more comfy to sleep/fly in the bed than in Y or PE, the food was ok, we both really liked the private feel of cabin with their only being 14 suites but I am not sure how exclusive it will feel when we go our SFO flights in the much larger UC cabin. I imagine it could have been a very different flight if we had a different crew and other pax on our flight, and of course this being our first ever J flight everything was so much better than we have experienced before and I am sure had a more regular J/UC traveller been onboard they may have had a different opinion on things, but I can only give our thoughts and in the main we both were very impressed.
We are both thankful our next LH flights are in UC and we are both looking to experience the 'full' UC experience with the CH etc - I imagine we will now try and fly UC as much as possible, especially on the inbounds and probably use PE for the shorter East Coast flight outbounds.
Overall two very different but good flights on VS. I am still of the opinion that VS offer a good product in all 3 cabins and still don't quite understand the whole 'poor MAN' thoughts that are quite often discussed, but that's just my opinion. Sorry if I went on too long, why say it in 100 words when you can do so in 1000!!!!
