VS021 LHR-IAD 4 Mar 10 (Econ)
Posted: 09 Mar 2010, 11:47Flight: VS021
Aircraft: A340-300
Registration: G-VFAR 'Diana'
Scheduled Take Off Time: 11.30am
Actual Take Off Time: 12.01pm
Scheduled Arrival Time: 3.35pm
Actual Arrival Time: 2.31pm
I have decided to go for an A.Net style of writing in this TR, a first for me, but I felt it might appeal more to the aviation geeks of this great site and also be equally informative to the casual reader!
So in true A.Net style.......I would like to welcome you all to my 950th TR (no in truth I have no idea what number TR this is). In another first for me, I will be (attempting) to include photos, they will be taken on my iPhone, so apologies for the quality.
Well this wee sojourn to DC has been in the planning for a long while. Many of the members here will know that my parents, the lucky things, now in their retirement years, spend half the year in the States and the other half in the UK. This year the dear old man is approaching a rather large birthday....if Scrooge believes the end of the world is when he turns the big 40 then I dread to think what happens on the day my father turns 60!
Anyway as part of the celebrations my mother thought it would be lovely for her to take my father to DC for a little city break as they made their way down to Florida for the next six months. Mother started making the plans and before long she had decided that firstly she would attempt to arrange a party in DC for my father and their US based friends and secondly that it would be a fantastic idea if all three of the children could come out to DC as well!! Of course the plan of us children attending the DC part of the trip was kept very much under wraps, which was not always as easy as one may imagine. On more than one occasion too much wine was consumed at a family Sunday lunch and someone almost let the cat of the bag!
My brother and I booked our flights back in late January, we both debated long and hard over the paying the upgrade to PE but on discovering that the parents would be slumming down the back of the bus, we felt we could hardly be in higher cabin! My sister, who is currently studying medicine in the greatest city in the world (no Neil, not Hull), had the awful task of having to travel along the M62 to Manchester and was catching the early morning BD flight down to LHR and connecting onto IAD (for the record her bags were checked all the way at MAN).
I finished work late on Wednesday evening, which as always, resulted in a last minute packing rush. Why is it on the day before a holiday when you want a quiet day, do you have a stupidly busy day?! A quick record time pack and I was already for the flight the following morning. The obligatory phone call to the parents to wish them a safe flight to IAD (of course said with a grin as I knew I would be seeing my father a lot sooner than he thought) and it was an early night.
Next morning we were up relatively early and with the car packed it was up to LHR. I had pre booked the car into the Q Park on Bath Road, courtsey of the FC/Purple Parking deal. I must say I was very impressed with the service, and was nice to see that they had clearly adopted their arrivals proceudure off the likes of Alamo et al in the US. We walked straight onto a shuttle bus and after a quick stop at T1 to drop a couple off we had arrived right outside the VS Zone A check in. A quick look at the watch showed it took us less than 15 minutes from coming off the M4 to deposit the car and get into Zone A, not bad in my book.
Ignoring the queue dragons, we headed straight over to the W check in desks. There was one party in front of us, so we were quickly ushered over to a free J desk. A very polite and efficient young man took all the necessary documentation and asked all the standard questions in a most friendly way! Overheard a couple of the check in girls complaining about the new ACC service, during a changeover of staff. They seemed to believe the ACC service departed at 10am rather than 10pm....I did not have the heart to inform them that they were wrong. For some reason our seats had been changed from those that we pre selected but it was no biggy. With the bags tagged as W bags (is this standard for silver members?) we were on our way upstairs to departures. We stopped for a quick coffee fix at Pret and went straight through secuirty.
Since I last traveled through LHR in July, BAA had opened an extra security screening point which has certainly made things easy! By 7.45am we were into duty free land, so from the M4 to airside was less than 25 minutes! We had a quick look around duty free and then it was off to the transfer counters to meet my sister off her flight down from LHR. Within the hour we safely ensconced in Chez Gerrard for the most expensive breakfast I have ever had!
Chez Gerrard was to be witness of the surprise on our father. The plan was that, when they arrived from the Raddison where they stayed overnight, they would pop into Chez Gerrard for a coffee! Of course mother and father arrived, were in the middle of a semi domestic and father did not see any of us sat a few feet away for about 10 minutes! Of course we put him out of his misery- much shock was etched on his face- it was fantastic.
All too soon the flight was called for Gate 17, so off we trekked. On arrival at 17, priority boarding was clearly enforced and expertly laid out. Perhaps someone at VS LHR does read this site! There was a fair wait for the security screening process to be undertaken. We were all subjected to the fall body search, so to speak. Boarding was announced rather rapidly and within about 20 minutes we were sat onboard G-VFAR, A340-300 named Diana. The usual pre departure routine was followed. Captain on to inform us that flight time would be 7 hours 35, out of Wales, Cork and then straight across the pond with landfall over Nova Soctia, then into US American airspace.
G-VMEG pushed back beside us, on her way over to SFO I believe and the safety demo was undertaken. I noticed a slight change in the safety demo, something to do with door operations or something IIRC.
We were about 9th in line for takeoff form 09R, a quick taxi past a broken SQ 380 (engineers all examining the front set of wheels and airport duty manager in attendance) and at 12.01 exactly we were off. A short sharp take off, only 150 POB, and we were into the sky following the standard right hand turn. I had forgotten how slow the take off climb on the 343 is but pretty soon 10,000 was cleared and crew were released. Usual rubbish on Odyssey so I opted for window watching. A quick word about G-VFAR, compared to the newer 346's, she really is showing signs of her age. The aircraft seems to have a lot of plastic that has been stained a yellow colour after years of use. The toilets, whilst clean, did look rather outdated and the seats just looked so old fashioned it was almost rather amusing!
Bar service was commenced shortly after the immigration cards and amenity kits were handed out. Being the old mans birthday I opted for a beer and we all had a wee celebration. Odyssey was fired up shortly afterwards.
At about 1pm local lunch was served. The choices were:
Beef stew with dumpling
Chicken and vegetables
Veggie pasta
Starter was the bog standard VS pasta salad and desert was of course the Chocolate/Raspberry Gu pot. I opted for the veggie pasta which was washed down with another beer. Two rounds of coffee were undertaken and the crew seemed fairly easy on allowing refills of water and other drinks (something that I feel VS is particularly tight on compared to other carriers).
Cabin lights were dimmed at around 2 hours out of LHR. Duty Free service was done with its usual haste. At this point I decided to have a look through the entertainment on offer, nothing took my fancy so I attempted to get some shut eye using the good old QC2s.
As part of the celebrations my mother had purchased a bottle of champagne for my father. A quick conflab between my mother and a crew member resulted in the decision to drink the champagne onboard. 25 minutes later, five J glasses, a selection of chocolates and the champagne arrived. The crew were fantastic, 3 of them came up to present the gift to my father and wish him a happy birthday.
It was becoming rather clear that this afternoons service was going to be a quick affair, as the ice cream service was undertaken only around an hour after competition of duty free. The rest of the flight passed relatively quickly. I had a couple of glasses of champagne and two more beers and nodded off for a while.
I awoke as we were passing over Halifax so decided to head off for a walk round the Y cabin. I was rather surprised by the amount of connecting passengers from Delhi and had a good chat with one of the members of crew down there. We spoke about his favourite destination in the VS network (surprisingly LAS followed by LAX), the arrangements for the LOS service, the new ACC service, jetlag and about DC. He also started commenting about the lower crew numbers on the flights since last year, interestingly he said that it was a good thing, he felt that the flights were overstaffed last year and that the balance is now about right, especially down the back of the plane. After about 20 minutes I decided to bring up V-Flyer, the response was one of shock complete with the look of you boring sod. He did express some worry about the thought of passengers critically analyzing flights through TRs! After 25 minutes I realised I was outstaying my welcome so headed back to my seat.
As we cruised over Boston afternoon tea was served. To call it afternoon tea is being rather extravagant really. A cup of tea or coffee along with a choice of a Gu Brownie or a cookie. I was not sure if this is another cost cutting exercise, I always thought in Y on all eastern seaboard services that a selection of sandwiches were offered. Anyhow it was not that bad but I was left with the feeling of needing something a tiny bit more substantial, especially as it was around 7pm in the UK.
The seat belt sign was turned on as we headed over Trenton, NJ. The cabin was rather quickly secured and the First Officer was on to inform us that we were expected on the ground ahead of schedule (which was good seeing as we were 35 minutes late leaving) and that there was a fairly brisk crosswind at IAD. A quick looked out of the window revealed the extent of the recent snow in the IAD area, the whole approach was over snow covered settlements. The Captain gave the obligatory two bongs and the crew took their seats. It soon became apparent that the crosswind was a rather strong one as the aircraft was buffeted from side to side and the crew were told sit down some 20 minutes before we were on the ground. A couple of quick final right hand turns and we powerfully landed at IAD at 2.31pm local time, an hour ahead of schedule. The usual welcome to DC blurb was complete and we arrived at the regular VS gate, A32 in about 5 minutes. The Captain came on to welcome us to IAD to ask everyone to remain seated.
There was an issue with the airbridge that meant we were all waiting on the aircraft for an extra 10 minutes, however once R2 was open it was not long before I was back in the USA! A quick sprint to those spaceship type bus things and I had caught up with all those from J. Somehow I managed to be the last person onto said spaceship bus thingy and as a result was the first off in the brand new immigration hall (well new to me, the last time I came to IAD was 2002.).
On the journey over to the immigration hall I was stood next to a non uniformed VS staffer who seemed to be escorting a J passenger from the aircraft to landside. Being the curious type I began to wonder if he was firstly a V-Flyer (I don't think so as his journey was not in the calendar function), secondly if he belonged to the status above Ag that we hear so much about (he had a gold card on his hand luggage), or if thirdly he was a VS staff member. From the conversation that I overheard it seemed he had a very good knowledge of VS, referring to the 346 as the 600 and it was clear he flew regularly as the staffer was asking how his garden was etc. In the end I plumped for some kind of businessman in aviation possibly with VS, as he commented that he was off to SEA at the end of the week to go around the Boeing factory and having discussion about the 787.
Walked into immigration was impressed by the new facility, I was about 19th in line, we were ahead of BA and OU/LH/AF but slightly behind UA arrivals from GRU and GIG as well as an Avianca flight. In about 15 minutes I was through immigration to the baggage hall. The bags were already pilled up around the baggage hall so I have no idea if my bag being tagged PE meant that it was taken as priority, I do think it was prioritized as it was clearly with all the J bags and not with my sisters bag which was not prioritized.
We exited arrivals to be met by our CDC who would transport us, Obama style, to the Washington Marriott, in a black SUV. I was out running along the mall by 4.15pm, having checked in, so not bad at all.
So what did I think of the flight. Top marks to check in, excellent service and good to have the bags tagged W. It might not be much and certainly costs nothing, but was a little touch that would make think about trying to keep my Silver status. The crew were perfectly fine, they did their job and to an extent went above what was required of them. Always friendly and seemed to enjoy what they were doing. As for the 343, well she did look a bit tired. Odyssey does look very outdated and makes Nova look like the DBs. So all in all, a pretty bog standard Y flight but very pleasant none the less. Certainly my experience will keep me loyal to VS for that bit longer however surely the 343's need a bit of a spruce up if they are to remain in the fleet.