This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
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This was our family trip, me, my girlfriend and her daughter who is 11. It was 200 days of waiting for a short 7 night trip to Sydney, a kind of "trip of a lifetime" for my girlfriend's daughter - albeit down the back of the plane as £6k each for UC was a little too much for the upgrade.
My girlfriend and I were so excited about the trip we left for the airport directly from picking her daughter up from school, I'd managed to arrange Clubhouse access for the extra guest at all stages of the trip so we planned to make the most of it by getting to airport nice and early.
Naturally, when we arrived at the airport and walked up to the UC check-in, the little one was gobsmacked and her jaw kept dropping as we took the elevator, walked down the private security channel and bypassed all the queues at security. I made sure she knew it wouldn't be like this everytime she travelled
We were also very kindly moved to the exit row from our pre-booked seats in row 56. We arrived at the Clubhouse entrance after getting snacks for on-board and after a short wait whilst they checked the little one's booking for the Virgin invite we were into the Clubhouse. We chose to sit in the gallery veiwing the airplanes outside and for the next few hours she stayed glued to the hanging bubble, gently swinging from side to side. The service was faultless, drinks and food were quickly supplied and refills were aplenty.
It was during this time that I noticed our onward leg from Hong Kong to Sydney had us all in different seats, me in row 34 and my girlfriend and her daughter spread across row 43. I asked the desk about this and they said they couldn't get access to the economy seats in their system, but would put a note on the booking for the Hong Kong team to try to bring us together.
All too soon it was time to board so we said our thankyous and goodbyes and headed to the plane. Priority boarding was working fine and I caught a glimpse of the plane's name just before boarding - Lady Luck - "Oh s**t!" I thought, that was the plane that I got stuck on at Newark a couple of weeks earlier. It was misplaced worry though because the flight couldn't have been better - mainly because I was actually able to fall asleep for most it. I wish I could comment more about the flight but I can't, which I'm actually happy about for once.
As we were disembarking I recognised the crew member from my return flight from NYC the previous week and he even remembered my name. I was impressed to say the least.
For this leg of the journey, I'm marking everything as excellent because the bits I did get to sample deserve that mark and any seat I can sleep in must deserve it.
