V-Flyer

I have to start off by saying VS did it almost perfectly on this flight!

After counting down for many months for my move from New York to London, the day had finally come. I arrived at JFK about three hours early to deal with my very heavy bags. A very nice member of ground staff asked if I had any questions, and I asked if it would be possible to weigh my bags before I went to bag drop. (I used OLCI the night before, 23hr 55min before my flight to be exact...so you can tell I wasn't excited at all ). As it turned out, every one of my bags except for my bike were overweight by 1-2kg per bag, but he told me not to worry. Once that was done, he found some tape for me to re tape my bike box which had begun to come undone. Finally, after I was all ready, he helped me move my bags, and took down some of the tape barriers so I didn't have to walk all the way around. He even put my bike off to the side and watched it for me until it was time to get bag tags, at which point he brought it over.

I arrived at bag drop where I very nice women put tags on all five of my bags. There was a little confusion at first as to whether or not I had paid for all my bags (I had paid for three as one was included and the bike was sporting allowance) but this was quickly sorted. Thankfully she told me to go to line two to put the bags through the scanners, as line one stretched all the way to the doors of the terminal! The TSA agent who took my bags was also very nice, and joked around a little bit.

Security was a breeze, through in less than five minutes, and quickly to gate 26, where G-VOGE was waiting for me. I walked around the terminal for a bit and talked with a few other passengers until boarding was called a little early. Everyone was quickly on board and we pushed back exactly on time. We sat next to a bunch of Delta planes as we waited for G-VWOW to taxi in. Taxi to the runway was quick, less than 30 minutes from push back (a JFK evening flight record?). The FSM came on and asked us to all be patient as they were down one FA in UC and one FA in Y. To be honest though, I didn't really notice much of a difference besides only coming around once with drinks. But if you asked, they were all happy to give you seconds. I had a Heineken and a chicken curry, which was alright. It was a little dry, but better than most airline food.

I didn't manage to sleep much on the plane and listened to music on V:PORT and played a few games on my iPod touch. Unfortunately, we were woken up two hours before landing, which if I remember, was much earlier than my last VS flight. I had the danish they offered for breakfast, which was much more filling than the muffin top I had on my last flight.

Since it was before 6 when we got to LHR, we did the usual few laps around England before landing at 6:20. As I was up at the front of economy, I was quickly off the plane and on the long walk to passport control. When got there though, it was empty! There were literally five, maybe ten passengers in the whole hall. I didn't have to wait to go though and the nice boarder agent checked my passport and took my fingerprints as I have a biometric visa. I waited about 15 minutes or so for all my bags and bike, and was met by my driver to take me to my flat.

All in all, this had to be the most pain free flying experience I have ever had from start to finish. It's things like a sporting allowance, V:PORT, and so far, generally good service that keeps me flying on VS.

Thanks for the TR - sounds like good service all around .

However, the lights on and breakfast two hours before arrival malarky is just so VS ... I always question is it really necessary.

2 hours with the crew down sounds OK to me, I guess breakfast takes longer with fewer staff.

One thing about the curry, other posters called it a Biryani which if correct and you calling it dry makes it sound just about right? Must admit I prefer a dryer spicy curry to a wet oil slick.

McMaddog wrote:2 hours with the crew down sounds OK to me, I guess breakfast takes longer with fewer staff.

One thing about the curry, other posters called it a Biryani which if correct and you calling it dry makes it sound just about right? Must admit I prefer a dryer spicy curry to a wet oil slick.

The curry itself was good, but the rice and most other things in it were dry. Also the bananas in the banana pudding were hard and not really edible.

Thank you for the great TR.