V-Flyer

What a difference a week makes

Despite my flight being the last flight out at 23:25, I decided to make use of the clubhouse at JFK and arrived there ready to check-in at 3pm (I had a lot of work to do, honest).

Check-in was smooth and again I was moved, without charge, from my pre-assigned seat to the exit row. I made my way swiftly to the clubhouse and chose a seat in the TV section up the back and plugged in my laptop and started work. No sooner than I had sat down, I was being offered drinks and food and there was even some friendly banter - much, much better than the LHR service.

The following 7+ hours flew by, the service was attentive but not intrusive and towards the end of the day it was the manager bringing me drinks with an equal level of friendliness to the rest of his staff. There were various jokes between us about the length of my stay and I was never made to feel unwelcome. Must say, those soft, doughy, white chocolate chip cookies do go down a treat

So after many glasses of champers and bottles of beer, I finally said my goodbyes at around 10:45 and made my way through the priority security channel and to the plane. I didn't think I could use the channel as I wasn't flying premium or business, but the announcement said gold card holders could use it as well and sure enough I went straight through (albeit that the non-priority channel actually had fewer people in it).

The priority boarding worked well and I was straight through to join the queue on the air bridge. The plane this time was "Soul Sister". When I reached the door, I showed the stewardess my boarding pass and she welcomed me back by name and thanked me for flying with them. I thought "hang on a minute, that's not happened to me when turning right before", especially as I had not heard them saying it to the other passengers. A smile crossed my face as I felt that little bit special

There was more to come though. Immediately after take-off, one of the stewards found me in my seat and also welcomed me back, by name, and said "As one of our gold card holders, whilst we're getting started with dinner, would you and your colleague like something to drink from the upper class bar?"

"I would love a glass of champagne thank you" was the first thing that blurted out of my mouth, almost instinctively

He came back with a couple of glasses and a number of the chocolate truffles. You should have seen the look on the faces of those around us. I couldn't stop smiling.

For dinner, I chose the cottage pie option and do you know what, it was actually rather nice. Admittedly, I liberally coated with seasoning, but the veggies were not bleached of colour, were still the correct texture and the cottage pie brought back memories of school dinners (which I quite liked).

The rest of the flight was perfectly uneventful, V:Port worked without a problem, the loos were kept clean and the crew were smiling whenever I saw them.

And joy of joys, after we landed, I was through Iris and collecting my bags within 15 minutes - what a relief compared to the outward journey.

So for this journey, everything gets a good (including the food) except for the cabin crew who get an excellent for the inflight service.

Thank you Virgin for a wonderful experience. My trip to Sydney next week no longer fills me with dread

Thanks for the trip report. It's great to read the ones where both ground staff and cabin crew go that extra mile to make you feel welcome. Simple things like that make all the difference.

Pete

Thanks for the TR

THancock wrote:
He came back with a couple of glasses and a number of the chocolate truffles. You should have seen the look on the faces of those around us. I couldn't stop smiling.

The time I had this happen to me in Y on the way to IAD felt really really good too. I could hear pax sat near me asking each other 'Who's that and why has he got champers and chocolates?' etc etc

Also had it happen to me once in PE too.

As has been mentioned countless times before, it's simply things like this that make me and other pax come back for more time and time again

Thank you for the great TR.

Would have loved to seen the other pax faces when you got your champagne and truffles.

Nice TR, and I hope this is a sign of how Virgin plan to treat Au members in a non UC seat.

Only ever happened to me on a LAS-LGW leg in PE. Although I saw it quite a few times before I got to Gold.