V-Flyer

Called VS the day before departure as we were booked into PE but there was reward availability showing in Upper (thanks for pointing that out, DragonLady!). Depending on whom I spoke to at VS, the cost to upgrade using miles seemed to vary between a few hundred pounds and six thousand (!!!!) in order to upgrade from our discounted K tickets, so we decided to lump it in Premium Econ. Checked in online and then managed to stay up all night sorting out the things I needed for the trip. Taxi to the airport, bumped into two random friends who turned out to be on the same flight, very strange coincidence but a nice surprise. Checking in bags seemed a lot more chaotic than necessary, but eventually made it through to departures and grabbed a bite to eat before boarding. Flight was called while Chez Gerard were still faffing about (why do they find it so hard to serve edible food quickly in a location where they can reasonably assume people are on a little bit of a tight schedule??). On way down to gate we were rushed along by a member of ground staff who warned us we were about to miss the flight, as the doors would be closed without us in 4 minutes flat. Cue a panic stricken dash to the gate only to find everyone lazing around and a slow moving queue boarding.
Eventually go to board the aircraft and myself and my friend go to separate gate agents, both of us getting the magical 'beep' with the accompanying message that our seating has been reassigned. We look at each other a little uncertainly but one of the agents confirms that we've been upgraded - woo!
Get on board, seats 20 A and D - ideal to allow us to lean over and chat when necessary...
Service was good for the most part. CSM was very informal and chatty; he came over and sat down after takeoff and spoke to us as if we were mates from the pub who hadn't seen each other for a while. Which was possibly a little strange... I'm still not 100% convinced by the informal approach. However he was rather handsome and flirtatious so we grinned and revelled in the attention. It transpired that one of the other FA's *WAS* a friend from the pub that I hadn't seen for a while (try about 10 years) so it was good to catch up with him later in the flight.
Food was disappointing. I had the saute'd leather boot sole served in a muddy puddle, which was notionally sold as beef in red wine on the menu, and the rest of the meal was not particularly remarkable - to the extent I can't even remember what it was. I have a vague recollection of ice cream which tasted of nothing in particular at all.
I spent a large part of the flight completely unconscious. I had requested a sleep suit (as did my friend) and there was only one left in Large size - which we fought over briefly before I won, donned it and passed out. I did attempt to watch some of the IFE but after beginning to get into about 4 different films and falling asleep to all of them, I gave up and focused instead on the insides of my eyelids. Why is it I have no problem sleeping on day flights but can never drop off on night flights? Perhaps the lack of sleep the night before (and the generously flowing booze) helped me along the way...
I did wander down to the PE cabin at one point to see one of my friends who was travelling back there, and was surprised to see that there were quite a few free seats - including the seats we had originally been assigned. I though that operational upgrades only happened when the lower cabins were full, so I'm a little confused as to how we were fortunate enough to win that magical beep at the gate - but very happy that it happened!
We landed on time in San Francisco, and we managed to be the first off the plane and through immigration - handy as we had to dash over to Oakland for a flight less than 3 hours later.
All in all it was a good experience. The on-board ambience on Virgin still beats the other airlines I've flown on recently hands down, even if it does slip down the 'professional' scale sometimes. The food could have been better, but as usual the staff were friendly and helpful, the IFE was excellent (in spite of the occasional crash and reset), the UCS was great, and I'm still wearing my jim jams now.