This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
We spent the night at the Hilton at Gatwick and decided to bagdrop at about 8am, so that wouldn't be too unpleasant an hour to start the trip! Bagdrop was chaotic and I swear the PE bagdrop queue was longer and slower than the regular checkin queue. But nevertheless we were duly processed and headed through fastrack into departures.
We mooched around the shops for a while and got stuck in Fat Face trying to spend enough to get a free t-shirt and before we knew it, 9am had arrived and we headed to gate 13 for the 9.25 am flight. Usually we are at the gate really early and then have ages to wait until we are allowed on. Not this time. I was surprised on arrival at gate 13 that it was empty, and as we aproached one of the ground staff said 'are you Mr and Mr Goodenough?' we nodded before she said into her walkie talkie 'Its ok they are here - no need to offload'! I was so embarassed - even though it was 20 minutes ahead of sdt! Anyway we appologised profusely for our 'late' arrival and ran on to Barbarella and up the stairs to 80HK and litterally no sooner had we sat down the doors were shut and we pushed back.
We actually left the ground about 10 minutes early. A first for me!
I had studied the seat reviews and was worried what the old LGW PE seats would be like. They were a pleasant surprise. OK, they look a bit dated and the cabin was on the dirty side but it was comfortable.
At this point it all becomes a bit of a blur.
We were seated behind some off duty crew (I am guessing because cabin crew kept coming up to chat to them and talk about 'work stuff') which actually worked in our favour as the presumed off duty crew were having champers poured down their throats and because we had full view of this we were included in the generosity. Anyone infront of the 79hk residents who couldn't see, didn't get!
Anyway, dinner was meatballs which were lovely, the inflight entertainment was ok - not great but not bad, but the service was exemplary and before we knew it the 7 hours and 40 minutes flight time had passed and we touched down in Antigua an hour early.
I was thouroughly impressed with VS on this flight. Despite being too merry to remember much about it, I knew I was looking forward to my return flight.
I was even pleased to note that PE bags were off before upper - much to their displeasure which was made fairly vocally! We were out of the airport and off to Galley Bay within 15 minutes of the plane coming to a standstill.[^]
