This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
We hired a car to see the best of Barbados. The beaches unsurprisingly were amazing, however we did not expect to find so many empty. If there was no resort there then people didn’t seem to venture on to them. One place was packed if you went to the right, if you went to the left not a soul for a mile – I am obviously not a social being.
Food was very good but incredibly expensive, well top London prices. Unless you go to the fish fries which are held at the weekend in all the fishing villages. Lots of great things to visit like the rum tasting at St Nicholas Abbey, Hunte’s Garden and Harrison’s cave to name but a few. Not just great sites but really interesting people there too.
Anyway off topic slightly, onto the actual flight. We didn’t do the checkin at the hotel, as we weren’t Virgin Holidays and to be honest saves you little time when you get there. So got to the airport with too much time to spare, and the airport was deserted. So it was only 10 minutes later and I was in the lounge. They have one lounge after security that both BA and Virgin use, but as an economy passenger you which you can pre-purchase through a site like http://www.tripextras.com . I was really glad we did as the flight ended up over an hour and half late. The lounge however was packed with an hour to go before the flight, but everyone had a seat and free food and drink so no complaints by me.
Eventually we got on the flight, it felt like we were in a sauna. I didn’t check the temperature on my phone but it was upwards of 35oc in there. The captain said that they had turned one of the engines off (can’t remember the reason) so economy were getting no air conditioning. This would have been fine if we only had to wait 10 minutes, however we started to move then stopped and the engine wouldn’t start so had to be done manually – 30-40 minutes later people were sweating buckets and asking for water. Luckily we had bought a litre each before we got on the plane so were all right. No one told us anything until we were moving again so everyone was not in the best of moods when we took off.
We had managed to get the 2 seats at the back and were relieved to see Vport was present on this flight. The couple behind me managed to get a sneaky glass of champagne from a friend who worked in UC. I was poised to pounce if they moved up there, although it sounded like that the champagne was the only perk. However after the meal, which was Ok not as good as the way out, the couple were moved up to UC. Was quite good to know that friend upgrades are done quite sensitively, they were not going to dilute the service they gave the paying UC passengers, but just utilising the space which I think is fair enough. Also a nother man must also been upgraded as his family were all in UC, bar him and again after the meal he got moved. All in all this worked very well for me, as I jumped into their seats and my husband and I both had 2 seats each. Watched lots of films and snoozed for a bit but did not really sleep, as the turbulence was really bad.
We got in an hour late but for once Gatwick ground staff were really on the ball and we were through immigration and baggage in 20 minutes from leaving the plane and we were right at the back, which is pretty amazing.
Apart from the manic heat an easy flight .
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; infact friends have told me it was now forbidden so when Virgin read this TR I would expect the FSM to be called to a meeting without coffee being served at Crawley
