V-Flyer

Well, the trip to NZ and Australia was over, and I wasn't too looking forward to the long journey home in PE having done the outbound journey in Upper......
We arrived at Kingsford Smith approx 3 hours before departure and found the entire check-in area to be empty, so were relieved not to find a big queue!
One of my party needs special assistance and as we began to traipse down the tensa-barrier lane to PE check-in a lady (supervisor?) called to us by name (??!!) and invited us over to the UC desk to check in!
The young lady who proceeded to check us in can only be described as superb, I appreciate that VS may choose to put their best people on the UC desks but she really impressed all of us with her friendliness and attitude .
She apologised for the check-in having taken so long, as she had taken the liberty of filling in the Australian Immigration departure cards for each of us, and would we mind signing them?
Am not sure if this a standard thing they do for UC pax in SYD but it was a welcome relief to have someone do this for us.
We had been assigned the same seats all the way to LHR so armed with all boarding passes we trundled off to departures, where we found the Airbus Madam Butterfly waiting for us.
Time for departure soon came around and this saw priority boarding in effect, we were the first to board the plane and found our seats in 21G,H and K.
My seat was 21K which had not one, but two windows to look out from!
I was very pleased that the seats I had chosen months ago had not been allocated to anyone else (we couldn't do OLCI as we had a special assistance passenger amongst us), and felt very sorry for those poor souls stuck in 23D and G who had a fine view of the toilet doors .
The plane loaded up and pushed back at approx 2.40pm and as we departed Sydney some last minute views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House were made as we headed north-west across Australia....
There isn't too much to write about the next 9 hrs really, the CC were all very attentive and polite, offering regular drinks and juice runs.
The food offered was OK; the main course for me was chicken with szechuan peppers and rice , followed by dessert of baked cheesecake with cheese and crackers, coffee and Baileys to finish.
The flight was as smooth as silk for the entire duration, with hardly a single bump, we landed in HKI at around 11.30pm HK time.
The only aspect that irritated me was on landing in HKI the entire economy cabin seemed to stampede through PE, seemingly desperate to get off the plane?
I was led to believe that pax in Y were held back until UC and PE had disembarked? Am not being snooty in saying this, its just that with the forward doors being the only exit available it did put a lot of congestion needlessly into the PE cabin.
Feel that a bit of control by the CC would have resulted in a much more ordered disembarkation of plane?
We were soon issued with transit stickers and had to undergo security screening again ( rather a drag with laptop bag and rucksack etc) and found ourselves waiting at gate 36.
It was at this stage that I found myself gazing longingly up at the VS Club House, whose verandah overlooks the departure gate seating area, but I soon snapped myself out of it .
Time came to board Madam Butterfly again and as we were about to push-back the captain came over the PA system to advise us that as a heavy squall was passing over the area (it was lashing down outside!) ATC had decided to limit air traffic in/out of HKI for the next 10 minutes or so......
After what seemed like an eternity the captain came on again to say that this period had been extended for another 20 minutes and apologised for the delay.
Once cleared to take off we seemed to join a big queue and spent another 20 minutes waiting for a slot, the time eventually came and we were finally airborne almost an hour later than scheduled...
The HKI-LHR leg was not at all comfortable, due to the weather.
We were subjected to a solid 4hrs of turbulence,during which time the seatbelt warning signs didn't appear to go off once!
To make matters worse I think we ended up taking a more scenic route home to avoid a certain ash cloud? (Though I stand to be corrected?)
The route was HKI, north-west over China and into Mongolia , up again into airspace over the former USSR, and then west over Russia, St Petersburg, Estonia, Finland and Denmark, Germany before making land in Kent?
Anyway, I digress......
Cabin service soon started after departure from HKI and due to the bumpy ride I didn't feel like too much to eat.
The food offered was comparable to that offered from Sydney, I again chose the chicken option which comprised chicken in a hot pepper and paprika dressing served with roast spuds and pumpkin, with dessert of apricot trifle and cheese/biscuits etc.
Again the food was only OK, but having completed an Economy flight during my time in Australia with Emirates have to say that the Emirates Y flight food to me was just as good as the VS UC offering and better than the PE offering!
I do think that VS need to address this issue.
The flight settled down as we left Mongolian airspace and we then had a very smooth flight for the next 9hrs or so.
Again, I don't have too much to say about the actual CC service, they were all very polite and attentive, but as the blinds had been pulled down (as it was daylight outside during this 'over night' flight), and the cabins lights dimmed, the staff were behind the curtains for what seemed like long periods of time....
Having said that, there was one particular CC who never once appeared not to have a smile on her face , and who appeared to be more busy than some of the other crew, she was a credit to VS and nothing was too much trouble for her.
Breakfast was served about 1.5 hours before landing and I chose to have the chinese noodles ( a stir-fry of noodles , mushrooms,chicken and dim sum) which I must admit was very tasty.
My companions had the English breakfast, which they report to me was terrible........
Landing came at about 6.20 am which was about 1hr late, no fault of VS of course.
Disembarking at LHR was more civilised than that at HKI, although there was a slight problem in that all the UC pax ahead of us in the landbridge couldn't proceed to get into the terminal building as someone had forgotten to unlock the door .
A red-faced official soon ran past us brandishing a key and we were on our way again.
Am very pleased to report that priority baggage claim did appear to work and that courtesy of IRIS was able to walk straight through immigration.
Time from landing to getting in the car at T3 was only 30 mins or so was very happy to have such a quick getaway.
In summary the journey was very good, only let down by the quality of food served.
VS need to sort this out, if Emirates can offer delicious food on a bargain-basement short-haul (3.5 hr) flight costing a mere £75 then surely with passengers paying a lot,lot more for their seats VS can too?
Had thought that such a long journey was going to be a killer in the relatively cramped confines of the PE cabin, but it was perfectly OK, to anyone considering doing it I would say go for it.....

Thanks for the TR. A warm welcome at check in makes all the difference but a pity about the food. I keep meaning to register for IRIS and your TR has just reminded me again!

Thank you for the great TR.

Thanks Nessy for an excellent detailed report.

Pity about some of the food (terrible English breakfast)and the disembarkation at HKI, as always the latter is about good organisation/management by the CC.

Nessy,

Must have been 30 or so mins behind you at LHR as I landed early Sunday am as well!I used Iris for the first time and it worked well for me.

On my flight home we were spared the full english...

Thanks for the TR.

Mx

Thanks for the report. Really good to hear that the service levels were good but the relatively poor food seems to be a repeated theme in PE at the moment. Like you say if EK can provide a (more than) good meal in Y there's no reason why VS can't come up with something reasonable in one of their premium cabins.
DL

Thanks for the great TR. Am toying with the idea of a trip to Oz and who I would travel with, so detail like this really helps.

Great Trip Report!
when I did this jouney a few months back the flight really did fly by, and that was sitting in economy for 24 hours

Thanks everyone .

Great TR Nessy i think your concerns about the inflight food is being addressed as the new menu appears to be off better quality and larger in portions size istc on that though?

Welcome back anyway

cheers

alex