This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
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First thing to mention is that about 4 days before the date of departure, I had checked the OLCI and surprised to see that seating booking had suddenly become available for no apparent reason.
There was only one set of four seats together (in the middle toward the back). I thought I'd better select these just to ensure we got a row of 4 together, but was hoping for something better when the seat booking opened 'again' 24hrs before departure.Anyway, a bit like on the incoming flight I checked about 29 hours before departure and low and behold, seat allocation was available again! There was very little at all available in economy, but much to my surprise quite a few rows of available economy seats upstairs in the 'bubble'! Suddenly I was excited. A quick check on V-Flyer confirmed that it's a nice place to be as an Economy passenger since you get the same crew dealing with you as the UC passengers. ie hopefully very attentive! So quickly a booked row 78 - three together, and one adjacent on the other side of the aisle. Told the kids we were 'upstairs' in the aeroplane and their faces lit up!
We arrived at Barbados airport with plenty of time to spare. In fact probably too much time if truth be told, since our flight was due to leave at 5.40pm local time and we got there about 3pm to drop off the car and get our bags dropped.
The airport isn't bad but once you've had a snack and a look around there's not much to do except wait (I suppose this is true of most airports!).
There turned out to be a boarding delay of around 20 minutes due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft (Tinker Bell, BTW).
The announcer asked Upper Class passengers to start boarding and then added that families travelling with young children (under 4) could come up too. So we approached the front of the queue with our children only to be told that we should sit down because only UC were being boarded.
I pointed out that the person on the tannoy had stated families with young children could board. The man looked at my kids suspiciously and asked how old they were. I told him my youngest was three and a half and he slightly grudgingly waved us through!
This meant we were very early on the plane. We made our way upstairs (trying to pretend we were UC!) and starting settling into our seats. However I noticed that the door was open to the cockpit and you could see right in. An UC passenger was telling his wife to 'get the camera' since his young son was being beckoned into the cockpit to have a look by the friendly captain!
Of course I had to have a piece of this action, so I took my 8 year old up and the Captain couldn't have been nicer. She was allowed to sit in the pilot's seat(!) and I took a photo. Really made it very special and a moment to treasure.
Anyway, it was ages until our area filled up, but of course it was completely full. The legroom was okay - standard economy basically. We'd had 'extra legroom' seats on the way over so I did notice the difference, but being in the upstairs made up for it. The take-off seemed exceptionally smooth. Not sure if that was too do with the 'bubble' factor and being more insulated from the wheels/undercarriage.
The service was amazing really. Almost too quick and efficient. We got our meal at the same time as our first drink. Choice was Beef and Mash, Chicken and Rice and Vegetable Pasta. Opted for the Beef and it was really very nice. The kids both got their kids meals which hadn't materialised on the inbound flight, so that was good.
I swear I was probably been offered coffee before some people downstairs had got their meal, so very happy with the service and would heartily recommend the bubble. Minor downside is lots of staff 'traffic' walking past with meals on sliver trays and glasses of champagne for UC at the front!
Seemingly usual probably with V:Port and resetting etc. But all ours worked in the end.
Slight awkward moment for me was when the lady behind complained to me that my seat was 'too far back' and could I move it forward more. As politely as I could explained that it's not unreasonable for me to try and make myself as comfortable as possible on a long haul economy flight and she had the option of doing the same thing.
I did make a big mistake of forgetting to put my watch back to UK time when we set off. So got totally confused with what was going on when we got the 'wakey wakey' lights on, your breakfast is ready, routine at Midnight on my watch! Of course it was 4am UK time, but at this stage none of us had really slept much and were all at the point of wanting to go to sleep!!
The bacon roll offered was not bad, but desperately needed some ketchup!
We landed more or less on time (around 5.50am I think) having made up about a 25 minute delay on departure.
A final piece of luck was that at LGW there was some technical issue with getting much of the economy bags of the plane, but somehow our bags escaped this. Not sure if it was to do with where we were sitting, but glad not to be hanging around the airport at that time with two very tired kids.
So all in all I was very happy with both flights to and from Barbados. Virgin have not done anything to make me think of choosing another long haul carrier for any future expeditions, on the contrary, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.
Tokyo may be next for me and my wife later this year, but nothing firmed up just yet...(need to check if there are any pennies left in the bank!)
Paul
