V-Flyer

oh dear!!!

what a let down - firstly LAX was a joke, 1 person dealing with UC, 1 with PE, and 2 with economy.

well we got to LAX with 2 hours to spare before take off, after a long drive from Vegas, via the Hertz car rental drop off and fortunatly found a porter straight away to help with our 6 checked in bags. He skipped us past the rest of the UC queue and couldn't himself belive how bad the service (or lack of) was. Fortunatly he leaned over the counter and got us UC bag tickets which as it turned out made a massive difference at Heathrow.

after 5 mins we were checked in and left the bags with the porter (best $10 tip of the whole journey)

We found the Air New Zealand lounge quite easily, obviously this was a big let down after Virgins UC lounge in Heathrow. However it sufficed ok and as we were only in it for an hour or so it was fine.

As for the plane - Lady Luck - A340 600 - what donkey designed the layout of the overhead bins. On our 747 we had 1 whole bin per seat, on this we had 1 bin between 4 seats, infact Christopher Biggins who was sat opposite us had to use a cupboard [:o)]

Their was also only 1 loo down our end of the plane, so you can imagine the queues at our end.

Food - well fortunatly me and the missus had stuffed ourselves earlier in the Planet Hollywood buffet in Vegas just 8 hours earlier as the food on the plane was completely unappetissing (sorry bout spelling - jet lag!!!)

I ordered a Kosher meal for the hell of it, and never touched it as even the cabin crew said it looked revolting, and my breakfast was frozen!!! Forgot to take the menu home from this flight so I can't give you more details than that as neither of us atr.

The drinks service was as before impecable (spelling - see above)

The rest of the flight we slept or I tried, I think I got 2 hours, and got into Heathrow exhausted.

Our bags where off pretty much first, but the porters want 16 so sod that. [:(!]

It would have been lovely if the recovery lounge had been open as I almost fell asleep on the M25 on the journey home!! [|)]

In conclusion, as I said on my outbound review (VS-007) I would not pay for UC - this was a points upgraded flight - the service is just lucklastre, when you're not on the plane there is no advantage to UC, and apart from the Heathrow lounge the rest of the experience was quite frankly dissapointing.

On a 11 hour(ish) flight I would expect better food and a recovery lounge that is open 'normal' hours.

No IFBT on either flight, and noise reducing earphones( which I own anyway) and a slightly lager TV screen do not justify the extra 2k atleast that Virgin require.

OH WELL - back to PE / Cattle Class [y]

Sorry to hear it was so disappointing.

On the IFBT, you'll never see one on any flight in future I'm afraid - so that's an 'expectation' that needs to be 'managed' now... [;)]