V-Flyer

This was my first UC flight for a couple of years so was looking forward to it quite a bit!

CDC booked for 6am - it arrived on time and being a Sunday we were down the M11 and at the DTCI before we knew it . The driver had input the number of bags so when we got out of the car we were greeted by 3 very pleasant and helpful staff who tagged and took bags. Formalities over (no "have you packed your own bags etc" questions?!) we headed through a quiet security channel. A few purchases in T3 and we headed for the sanctuary of the CH. It was now nearly 8am but it wasn't busy at all. First stop was breakfast - no issues getting a table. Tiny but tasty English breakfast arrived with OJ and coffee - it did the job .

Headed for the Sky Lounge (after booking a haircut), which was really hot, so headed down again to the sofas at the far end of the CH - great spot as ever to be based. Service was good and flowing champers ensued . Haircut was great - nice touch of washing the hair after the cut therefore no itchy flight!

A few games on pool and a couple more champers and we were called. We headed to gate 21 (I think) after the second call. G-VHOT was to be our chariot today (I have taken more VS flights on this aircraft than any other!) so she felt like an old friend as I boarded . Dual bridge boarding was in operation today which worked nicely. Declined the champers and settled for the bottled water. There was no welcome by name or welcome back. 12A (in fact the A zone in general) is a great place to be - so private.

Soon noticed that there was a leak coming from the ceiling - I presumed from the aircon - the CC put some paper on the floor to mop up so I assumed nothing sinister...

Soon we pushed back and after a relatively long taxi we were on our way. The captain informed us that there were 244 pax on board - UC and PE were almost full (what recession?) so Y must have been quiet. Flight time a little over 7 and a half hours.

Service commenced, orders taken, food delivered. I went for the pork (nice and juicy - not sure cabbage travels well though ) and the cheese, washed down with some white and a port.

The leak had now stopped, which was nice. Settled into watching 127 hours (not advised just after eating lunch). Once that was over I spent some time at the bar chatting to some pax and a couple of the Y cc who had come up so they had something to do. The cc in general were ok - service was efficient and friendly but something seemed to be missing. The FSM was barely visable and there was no tour of the cabin by him/her). Decided to check out the upstairs Y cabin while at the bar - this is cramped!

After I had settled back into the suite it was time for afternoon tea - a lovely warm scone was chosen with some strawberry jam. A brandy later we were starting our decent into JFK. Lovely views of Jersey's shoreline were on offer.

After THE smoothest landing I have ever had on any plane we were in the horrific queue for US immigration. We were well over an hour and a half and when we were done with that our bags were actually on the floor of the terminal as the belt was full with a later flight!!

CDC desk at JFK friendly, the car nice an big with friendly driver.

Overall a solid VS flight - being in the nose is so quiet and private I will always choose these seats from now on - much much better than the noisy 346 we flew back on (return TR to follow!).

Great Flight (other than the absent FSM!)

thanks for the TR sounds good! Hope the immigration at JFK isn't that bad on Weds !!

Interesting comment about the noise and noisy 346es ... I find 747s incredibly loud (wind rush and air conditioning) whereas the Airbii are a delight from a sound point of view ... so I guess you're talking about footfall and people?

Great TR

Shame about immigration

I love the note about cabbage not travelling well. It made me LOL

R-P

Thanks for posting a great TR :-)

slinky09 wrote:Interesting comment about the noise and noisy 346es ... I find 747s incredibly loud (wind rush and air conditioning) whereas the Airbii are a delight from a sound point of view ... so I guess you're talking about footfall and people?

I'll agree with you there Slinky. I tend to fly on the 600 a lot which I find really quiet compared to the 744.

Tinkerbelle wrote:

slinky09 wrote:Interesting comment about the noise and noisy 346es ... I find 747s incredibly loud (wind rush and air conditioning) whereas the Airbii are a delight from a sound point of view ... so I guess you're talking about footfall and people?

I'll agree with you there Slinky. I tend to fly on the 600 a lot which I find really quiet compared to the 744.

Normally I would agree that the 600 is quieter, however this was the first time I'd been in the nose of the 747 and it just struck me that the 600 seemed less quiet - perhaps as we were nearer the engines?

Thank you for the great TR.