V-Flyer

I shall try again to post this as the last three times I have tried, somebody has decided to pull down the overhead wires or people have been doing lemming impressions on my railway!! Had a lovely few days in Boston and unfortunately after what seemed like no time at all it was time to return home. Checked out of The Jurys Hotel (which was very good by the way) and made the short walk to Back Bay station for my Acela back to New York. Was once again pleasantly surprised that despite the very heavy snow the trains were running on time and we were soon speeding through the countryside enjoying the beautiful scenery. I really can recommend the train for this journey. The service in First Class is excellent, the seats comfortable, the food (and copious amounts of alcohol you are plied with!) and scenery is really good. Would certainly not consider an internal flight again for a trip such as this. After arriving at Penn station we took the much less impressive and rather packed LIRR train to Jamaica for the airtrain into T4 at JFK.

Arrived at check-in nice and early at around 1600 and there were only two couples in front of us at the Upper Class queue. Despite this a member of staff still apologised for the delay and said someone would be with us shortly which was a nice touch. Seen soon after by a pleasant member of staff who processed us very quickly, directed us to The CH and wished us a nice flight. I had originally been booked in 14 and 15A but managed to bag 12A/K at OLCI so that we could sit together and talk more easily. Was pleased that we still had these seats when we received our boarding passes. Had a quick wander round the terminal and did a bit of duty free shopping.

Arrived at the Clubhouse and decided to eat as we were both hungry. Sat down and eventually somone came over and asked if we wanted a drink. We both ordered champagne which arrived around 10 minutes later as all of the staff were stood congregated round the bar chatting. Ordered dinner which only took about 10 minutes to arrive. Had an Asian prawn skewer for starter which was very nice and we each had a club sandwich which was again pretty good. Also washed this down with another couple of glasses of champagne. Then retired to the computers and posted my trip reports from my Hamburg trip the week before. I also tried claiming my missing miles for this flight to see if it would work which it did. Was nice to finally see my Flying Club page change to gold! Just have to do my best to stay that way now. Decided to go for another meander round the terminal now and see if Natalie could spend anymore of my money which she as always managed without any problem!! When leaving the CH they applied a smiley face sticker to my boarding card so they know us when we return which I thought was a nice idea! Back to the Clubhouse for a Mojito as let the side down and did not indulge at LHR. [:#]

Was called at around 1830 IIRC so we made our way to the usual scrum at security. Joined the Business Class line and eventually got through to the other side. Natalie had managed to leave a bottle of water in my bag so I got a very stern talking to. [:I] Priority boarding was in place and were soon on board G-VBIG Tinker Belle. Made our way to our seats and got comfortable. Noticed that everyone had drinks and sleep suits except for us. Had to ask eventually and got my champagne although they had run out of Large sleep suits so had to make do with a Medium. The cabin crew member apologised for forgetting us saying that she always forgets the front two seats. Also you are served by different crew members which was a bit strange as we never got anything at the same time when we actually wanted to eat together. Can't remember quite what the flight time was but it was nice and short. Pushed back pretty much on time after being warned by the captain of the notoriously long taxi, although he was hopeful that it would not be as bad tonight as they were using an extra runway which they do not normally. Despite this we did seem to taxi round the entire airport and were in a massive queue for take off. One good thing about this was that the crew took dinner, drinks, breakfast and duty free orders whilst we were taxiing. I have often wondered why this is not done more often and it did make the service much quicker once airborne. Was a bit of a bumpy ascent and seat belt signs stayed on for quite a while. Once seat belt signs were off the crew came round with our drinks. Put our tables down and were sat talking to each other. Do like these seats as really nice and close together. Would imagine it is a bit too close if you are travelling alone though. Had a mouthful of my Stella before Natalies table catapulted it into the air and all over me and the carpet. Oops, appears it wasn't locked in properly. Cabin smelt of beer all the way back to LHR. [:I][:I][:I] Luckily I hadn't changed yet so decided to try the sleep suit. Trousers were fine and better than the large but the medium was a bit tight across the shoulders. Decided to keep the medium trousers on this occasion and will create a hybrid for the future with a large top! Dinner arrived and I had the gloop which was apparently the cold tray. [:?] This was quite good apart from being luke warm instead of hot. Once my tray was cleared away I converted my suite and tried to sleep. I can never seem to sleep well on planes and usually just doze. Was hoping I may manage this time as I was very tired and was in fact just dropping off when we hit a really bad patch of turbulence. This lasted quite a while and captain even advised the crew to remain seated for a good proportion of the time. This passed after a while and the rest of the flight passed without incident although try as I might I could not sleep. Just dozed on and off watching the Sky-map. Once again throughout the whole flight there were no problems with V-port at all. At least there wasn't in our section. Were woken up for breakfast just over an hour before we landed. Had a bacon roll and a coffee which was pretty good. Didn't bother having anything else as wanted a quick visit to Revivals when we landed. Natalie went off to find her duty free which had not materialised. Cabin crew returned saying that it was all packed away now and that they had cashed up so couldn't do any duty free and that they had brought it round earlier in the flight. Found this a bit difficult to believe as she had been watching films all night but never mind. Thought that the cabin crew throughout this flight were pretty disinterested. Have found a lot of night flights that it seems to be a case of throw everything at you quickly, turn the lights off, the heat up and disappear. This flight was certainly no exception. I know a lot of people want to sleep but many people don't and think it is a bit unfair on them to just ignore them throughout the flight.

Landed at LHR just before 0700 around 50 minutes early which was nice and were quickly on stand. Seemed to take an eternity to get the doors open today and always amuses me how everyone stands up and gets more and more impatient. Much prefer my nice comfy seat until the door is open! Immigration was nice and quiet and through in no time. Picked our bags up which seemed to take a bit longer than normal today and headed off to Revivals. Had a very long and refreshing shower and a smoothie there before taking the Heathrow Express back to Paddington and my Pendolino home.

A very average flight home after an excellent flight out. I am always quite disappointed with the service on night flights. Still it was only a short flight once we had eventually got off the ground at JFK. I am definately going to struggle to do anything other than UCS in future. It does indeed become very addictive. Just planning in all of my overtime for the next few months to keep my AU up, my poor wallet!

Very interesting - I did Acela from New York to Boston, and it's lovely. The meal in First Class was great. Maybe VS need to take a leaf out of their book!

dan

Thanks for the TR

quote:Thought that the cabin crew throughout this flight were pretty disinterested.

Regretably this is happening all too often

VS sit up and take note

Customer Service, if applied correctly, does not cost a single bean and can save you money

V- Flyers sit up and take note

Reading TRs can seriously damage your wallet[:D][:D][:D]

Thanks once again

buns

Good TR thanks. It seems to be too often that we are reading about disinterested crew. I think VS really needs to wake up and sort this problem out, sooner rather than later.

DMB

Thanks for the great TR![y]

Shame about the crew.[V]

I too have done the Acela both to Boston and DC, and I have to say that the 1st class meal tends to be tastier than the UC meals :-) I'd well recommend the Acela. It's such a pity that much of the US is myopic about quality high-speed train services. The continent is begging for one!