V-Flyer

Since not many people on this board submit trip reports in economy and especially to IAD so I thought I will do a quick one.

Well it is the August bank holiday and not expecting much traffic in the early hours to LHR, I decided to leave home at 6am from the East Midlands knowing it will take 2 hours to travel down the M1 and M25. It took exactly that and I left my car at NCP Flightpath next to Park Inn.

Arrived at the terminal at approximately 8.30am with the flight due to leave at 11.30am so I am in plenty of time. I headed straight to zone A for check-in and the area has done up very nicely indeed [y]. It was exactly a year ago I came through LHR on my way to JFK and it was like a war zone back then [n]. I have already done OLCI so knowing I will only need a bag drop and noticed every counter is now a bag-drop. Seeing that the economy check-in was heaving with people I decided to use my priviledged Ag status (thanks Amex [:w]) and queued in the PE check-in. There was only 1 family ahead but the 2 PE check-in desks appear to be held up for some considerable time. The family ahead finally went to the counter and checked-in and I was called to the UC check-in desk as it was empty. I was greeted nicely by a smile and check-in went smoothly but I left without a purple boarding pass.

The usual security procedures happened with shoes off and finally arrived in the departure lounge. Not often if at all I am at LHR at this time of day and it is definitely more quiet than lets say during the evening rush.

I headed to gate 25 at around 10.45am and there parked 'Diana' G-VFAR with 'Rainbow Lady' G-VSUN next door at gate 27 operating as VS039 to ORD. I was hoping to be on G-VSUN as it is equipped with V:Port but I am not so lucky. It has been a long long time since I was on a non-V:Port equipped aircraft. The flight was approximately 75% full with the rear 5 rows of centre seats virtually empty.

The journey time was just under 8 hours and we took off on-time. A drink service was followed quickly after take-off served with the usual Penn State pretzels. A few hours later, lunch was served with a choice of beef stew, chicken or spinach pasta. During this time I was entertained by the Odyssey entertainment system. I guess when one has been spoilt by V:Port nothing can live up to expectations. The time came and went and this 8 hour flight appeared to be very long. A look at the watch and the flight was only 25% completed and a further look and I was only half way. At this point the crew came round with choc ice which was nicely greeted. With about 1.5 hours out of IAD, a quick snack was served with either GU brownie or a cookie. Well there is no competition there....GU all the way [y].

The aircraft landed into IAD on time and taxiied straight into the gate. It took abit of time to deplane and I walked off onto the jetway...I thought what were all these mobile lounge stories about. I followed everyone else and went round the corner and low and behold a mobile lounge awaits [:0]. I was practically on the last mobile lounge and not many people were on it and I followed the instructions on this board and stayed near the door that we came in. I was practically first off the mobile lounge and immediately greeted by the immigration hall. The queue wasn't so long and was only a 20-30 minutes wait. After collecting baggage it was straight onto the Washington Flyer to West Falls Church metro station and jumped onto the metro to Union station for the hotel.

Overall a generally good flight with everything as I expected [y]. The only disappointment is no V:Port [n].

Thx for the great TR and ...

Originally posted by sky0000547
I was hoping to be on G-VSUN

oh how times change ... [:w]

Originally posted by McMaddog
Thx for the great TR and ...

Originally posted by sky0000547
I was hoping to be on G-VSUN

oh how times change ... [:w]

I was thinking exactly the same thing! I remember when that plane was as popular as a fart in a spacesuit [}:)].

Mike

Greatly appreciate the the TR[y][y]

As you rightly point out, we can always do with more TRs featuring the Y Cabin and of it is good to hear that apart from V-Port, the experience lived up to expectations.

Hope that the same can be said of your return

buns

In the past three months there have been about 3x more UC TR than UC so there is a difference. It IS good to get more Y TRs of course

Well I came back from JFK yesterday but will not write a TR for it as it is a very popular route.

I think I want G-VSUN because of V:Port fitted on the aircraft since I am getting an A340-300. I would much prefer the 600 though.

I am surprised though with the seat pitch between the A340-300 and the 600. The 300 definitely has more noticeable seat pitch in Y than a 600.