This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Arrived at T3 around 1600 for a 1715 departure (cutting it close!). Arrived to an almost completely empty check in hall and didn't wait more than a few seconds to be called over. Both my bags were overweight, and man at bag drop very politely told me I would have to pay extra (fine by me, I knew they would be over weight). He did mention that Virgin generally won't say anything if your bag less than 2kg overweight, but each of mine weighed in at 28kg, so I of course had to pay. My bike was just fine, and of course was free
. I made my way to counter 10 to pay for my bags where a very nice woman took my card for payment. There was a little confusion about whether or not I had to pay for a third bag, but once I told her the third one was a bike, it was all sorted. There were two other VS staff standing around talking and had a casual chat with them as my card was being processed. We had a little joke about the person a few counters down trying to repack their overweight bag full of.....cadbury bars! Yes, Cadbury bars!! Someone must love their chocolate!
Once that was all sorted I was told to make my way to gate 22, which was Iwarned was a long walk. Went though security which took no more than 5 or 10 minutes. They did a random drug/bomb swab on one of my bags, but that only took a few seconds.
Went straight to the gate as they had already began boarding, and what a long walk it was. Gate 22 is the last gate!! A minute or two after I arrived, they closed the gate right as an American family came running towards it, shutting just before they got through. They let them through and closed it again behind them. However, a few minutes later more people were allowed through, so not sure what the point of closing it then in the first place was. My boarding card was scanned but the system didn't beep or light up green. Something was checked on the computer, and for a few seconds there I thought I might get a mythical op-up. I was earning Ag on this flight, so my hopes were a little higher! But alas, my boarding pass was handed back to me and I was wished a pleasant flight.
There was a longish wait on the jetway, so not too fun with my heavy carry on bags, but I was soon in my seat, 33A, which oddly enough is almost always the seat I sit in when I'm on a 346. There was a kid in the row in front of me who was probably about three, but luckily he stayed pretty much quiet except for 10 or 15 minutes towards the end.
Push back was on time and it was only a 15 minute or so taxi out to the runway. Our route took us over Bristol then across the southern coast of Ireland, a few turns over the Atlantic, then down Newfoundland, past Boston, and into JFK.
Dinner was served about an hour or hour and a half after take off. The choices were: chicken with a bacon cream sauce, stewed beef with veggies, or macaroni and cheese. As I usually have the beef, I decided to change it up a bit and have the chicken. It was flavourful, but the potatoes were a bit soggy from sitting in the sauce. I had a bit of a headache so I stayed off the alcohol the entire flight and just had soda/juice/water.
After dinner, I slept on and off for the rest of the flight, missing a few juice/water rounds. CC came around with ice cream about mid way though the fight, and cookies/brownies towards the end. The usual sweets were offered just before landing.
We landed on time but then sat on the taxi way for 15 or 20 minutes! Finally after we arrived at the gate, I made my way towards immigration. A JetBlue flight from Jamaica just beat us in, so had to wait for that to clear. There was a couple in front of me who took almost 15 minutes to get through passport control (I luckily took about 30 seconds
), so that was a bit annoying.By the time I arrived at baggage reclaim, bags were already coming out, but mine were nowhere to be found! They ended up being two of the last few off! It took so long for the last bag I thought Virgin might have lost it! Then I made my way to oversized baggage reclaim where the crew and a few other passengers were waiting for their bags. But the baggage Gods frown on me again! A feeder belt and the compartment door were broken, so we had to wait for them to be fixed. There were a few kids playing which the crew chatted with and the parents generally kept them entertained. Finally, my bike showed up and I loaded it on to the trolley ($5, not free like LHR) and headed to the pickup area where the car service my parents had booked for me (and who I were visiting) was waiting. They are great and will generally wait for you as long as necessary without a boatload of extra charges. Finally after over an HOUR from reaching the gate, I was on my way out of the airport.
All in all it was a good flight, minus the headache, both literally and at JFK. The cabin crew were great, probably one of the top crews I have seen. Always friendly, nothing was too much trouble, chatted with the little kids, etc. If it wasn't for the friendly ground staff at LHR, they would have gotten one star....
