V-Flyer

Oh what a day, if you can't look back on a day like this and laugh then you'd probably end up having a heart attack.

It started great, I got to Heathrow at around 1.30pm, walked straight up to an empty UC check-in desk, was met with a smile, questioned why I had chosen such a bad seat (56H) and promptly offered a move to an exit row which was gratiously accepted.

I was through the empty security channel in a matter of seconds, bought myself lunch for the flight (a nice duck wrap, some wasabi peas, a bag of crisps and a piece of lemon cake - yummy!), grabbed a new PSP game to play on the plane and then headed straight for the club house to settle in for a couple of hours. No problems yet.

The clubhouse was a tail of two halfs. I sat down near the fireplace to start work, got my laptop out and started working away. Now I've moaned about this before, but the clubhouse was pretty empty on this occassion and nobody came over to offer a drink. There was a couple of chaps "serving" the TV and pool table area, well when I say serving I mean standing around moaning about "you'd better not let the management get one over you" and various other gripes - right in earshot. There were a few ladies standing at the end of the bar having a chinwag, not even paying attention to customers who may be in need of service. So I ended up visiting the bar myself and stood at the bar waiting for their conversation to finish before politely requesting a drink and something to eat. The first glass went down so well I was soon in need of another and again the lack of service led to another visit to the bar.

At this point I thought that maybe there was some kind of two way mirror in front of me and I could see them, but they couldn't see me, so I moved to the gallery behind the bar and suddenly the service improved no end and I was being offered timely refills for the rest of my time there.

The flight itself was uneventful, I skipped the meal of course and you should have seen the look of people's faces as I pull out my lunch whilst they peel back the foil lids to peer upon their "food". Priceless

It was at landing that everything started to go to pot. We were diverted into Newark because of high speed cross winds at JFK, we touched down at 7:20pm and we taxied to a remote stand where we were told it would be a little while before they knew if we would be disembarking or flying over to JFK. After about an hour, the Captain announced we would not be flying to JFK but due to the number of planes being diverted we had to wait for planes that arrived ahead of us to be processed first.

I'm not sure of the precise timings, but there were various announcements in the next 3 hours about customs not accepting the plane because they didn't have the right "package", then changing the steps because they were maintenance steps rather than passenger ones and then getting buses out to us.

We finally got off the plane 4hrs later and onto a bus at 11:30pm local time. Then the bus just sat on the tarmac because the driver didn't know where he was supposed to take us and we had to wait for an escort. We travelled about 200 yards and alighted into the main immigration hall.

At this point, people were just happy to be off the plane and fully anticipating being able to pick up our luggage and make their way to their destinations. Doh!

Everyone gathered around the baggage carousel with all the expectation of a young child at Christmas, there were smiles and laughter and even an orderly queue around the perimeter!

And the clock kept ticking by, people started to look around, whispers grew into conversations and the bags did not appear. Announcements kept coming over the tannoy that our bags would be here in 20 or 30 minutes - every 20 or 30 minutes.

Needless to say a few people were getting angry and taking out their frustrations on the ground staff who were trying to explain that Virgin had their own baggage handlers and that is why flights coming in after us were getting their bags and we weren't. After about an hour and a half, 3 VS staff appeared and immediately felt the wrath of the passengers, mainly because they were giving out information which was contrary to the announcements we had been hearing and as it proved, also false in its predicted timescale. I think what annoyed people most though was the lack of refreshments available, it was only in the last hour that water was available, but only if you sought it out.

At around 2am local time, they had moved the plane to a stand and started off loading the bags, the whoops and cheers from the crowd were funny to hear when the carousel started up, but they quickly changed to groans when only the crew bags came off It was a further 10 minutes or so before the passenger bags came off and everyone was able to leave.

What topped the whole day off for me was the taxi ride. I loaded my bags into the cab when the driver asked me "do you mind if I do someone else a favour and pick up more people to go to Manhattan?" I didn't mind, it saves the planet and me some cash so why not? A lovely Irish couple joined me, we asked how much the fare was and the driver said "$66" for me and "$65" for them plus tolls. "er hang on a minute, we're going to the same place, why are you charging us twice?" He replied that we were separate fares. What a scammer! There was other choice language to use but this is a public forum. So the couple and I told him to take us back to the airport, where we all travelled together as a party of 3 for the grand total of $63 plus tolls.

I got to the hotel at 5.30am local time to find out I had been put down as a no-show but after I explained the situation they found me a room and I even got a free upgrade

So it was 6.5 hours to cross the Atlantic and 10 hours to get from Newark to Manhattan

Oh, and the plane, its name was "Lady Luck"

Gee that is the arrival from hell!!!!! Having been in an airport at the hands of ground agents before, its surprising the lack of information that is forthcoming.

Wow wow wow. I know that the weather was atrocious in New York and New Jersey over the weekend (my company's data centre has been knocked out for one, our office building flooded for another) and that many flights were affected. But you really hit the dust with the on the ground delays - does VS really have it's own ground handling at Newark? What a disaster. Then the taxi driver from hell, I hope you reported him.

He sped off as we got our bags out, the taxi rank official had a look of bemusement as we got out of the taxi he packed us into only 10 minutes earlier but we explained why and he said that he would make a note about it.

Having been on a diversion once myself to another US airport during bad weather, I can agree with you about how frustrating it is as you are completely at the mercy of the US Authorities about whether you can disembark or not.

AFAIK, VS do not have their own agents at EWR - they use Swissport.

That is a scam and a half.....never had that one before! And what a nightmare arrival into New York - good news on the hotel though!

Wow, that's an arrival from hell! With a con-taxi driver to boot.

Thank you for the TR and I hope the rest of your trip is a good one.

We were also in NYC over the weekend (arrived Thursday afternoon and left Sunday evening). We had dinner reservations on Friday night at Daniels but could not get a cab anywhere (had to share a privately rented hummer with someone else to make our reservation about 20 mins late or so). As we were outside the Sofitel with the doorman trying to arranage cabs, the drivers were all refusing fares, particularly to the airports and the only way anyone was able to secure a ride was by offering to pay well over the standard rates for the ride.

JFK was a nightmare on Sunday and the clubhouse was standing room only as so many flights had been cancelled/delayed from the previous day.

Hope you have a good time in NY and the weather has improved for you!

re NYC area taxis--always ask the fare charge before setting out. It's also a good idea to really be sure that the cab driver knows (really knows) where you are going....but nothing much you can do about it other than holding your breath enroute, wearing a seatbelt and memorizing the cabbie's id number. A mobile with google maps helps.

Ouch. My sympathy, and I hope your return worked better.

I don't know if it's any help, but it could have been worse - you could have been on this Virgin (America) flight, I guess.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/ ... 4899.shtml" target="_blank

I have seen the Taxi scam before in the snow in DC. 4 fares, each pays the meter, the driver pockets the 3 additonal fares.

As he took so long ro drop off the first 3, I did n't have enough cash to pay the meter, as I was last. He took a token sum, as he realised I had cottoned on to his trick.

This was done in conjunction with the Taxi Rank Dispatchers at Dulles.

What a frustrating journey but at least it finished with an upgrade!