V-Flyer

Well, here is my first trip report. Our journey started on Friday 22nd with our epic 5 hour drive in peak traffic from Preston to London - Not sure it was the best thought out plan, but it did get me door to door with minimal fuss.

En route I got an email from London Heathrow Cabs, confirming the name, vehicle type and colour (blue) etc for the DTCI. Great stress free start.

Arrived at the Premier Inn on Bath Rd, a model of efficiency, luggage carts aplenty, 2 min check in, drop bags off in the rooms and off out for dinner.

Wanted to maximise our first UC experience, so had arranged the DTCI for 6:30-7:00am

Thing got off to a bad start when our cab driver calls me to say he is outside in the green mpv. That ruled out the DTCI experience. Went to normal check-in at about 6:45am, a quick call upstairs to cancel whatever they had prepared for us and we were checked in within 5 mins.

Went up the lift, scanned the boarding pass (plain, not purple) and the magic doors opened.

Had a few incidents in security, my watch set the alarm off and we had to take out the kindle and the kids DS's as they were confusing the operator.

All this meant was that we reached the clubhouse at 7am on the dot, only to see one person going in just before our feet hit the top steps - so it was SEQ2-5 for us.

Went straight in and booked treatments - hair cuts for the girls, shaves for the boys.

Had some breakfast (bacon sandwich), then as the girls went for their hair-cut, I started my journey thru the cocktail list. Ginger top first then followed a directive from @DragonLady and had a mojito - very nice. After the shave, went down to duty free to pick up some gifts, back up and had a little bit more to eat.

I have to say that the club house is amazing, so many different areas. I have only been in business class once before, that was with Emirates last year on MAN-DXB-BOM return and while their lounges are good, the Virgin one blows it away.

Few more drinks - redhead, another ginger top and a g n t - also blagged 2 limes for the plane.

Boarded Cover Girl with minimum fuss, glass of bubble and settled into my seat - 7A.

I felt weird in the seat, while it was all very nice, I feel some basic functionality was just not there. The little drinks tray on the left was way too far back for me. There was also no armrest on the left apart from something poke with a button on it (which I never did work out what it was for)

Our cabin crew introduced herself to us, told us the basic seat functions and we pulled off on time..... for about 10 feet. The pilot then announces that a computer has stopped working and that we are going back to the stand. About 30 mins later, he announces that they can’t get it to work and are getting a new one. At this time the cabin crew started taking lunch orders - the guinea fowl was still on the menu, so I opted for the risotto and salmon. We got one or two water/OJ runs and a little tray of crisps. After about 3 hours, and several attempts to integrate the new computers (they tried 2) failed, we were asked to go back to the gate where we will collect our boarding passes to let us back in the lounge.

While at the gate, had a good look at the other passengers and did a bit of celeb spotting.
The wife swears one was Madonna, we also saw Lorraine Kelly and 3 of the cast from Merlin.

Anyway, we all troop back to the lounge, time for another drink and something hot to eat - I had the chicken pie which was tasty, and another mojito and a G n T.

The worst bit was hearing the afternoon LAX flight being called while we were still in there.

Both Madonna and the cast of Merlin sat near us. It turned out that Madonna was not actually Madonna, but the cast were the real deal, we have James (Arthur), Colin (Merlin) and Katie (Morgana). They were sat in seats just 2 ahead of us on the plane.

We finally got called again and pushed off at around 6:30pm.

A drink of bubbly and the meals were confirmed. I switched from the Salmon to the chicken (not the fowl) and settled down.

The risotto was nice, the chicken less so - someone here described it as having moss on it - this is an accurate description. My wife and son had the Asian Veg meal and loved it - paneer, chickpeas and rice. The puds went down well too.

After dinner, the girls converted their seats and went to sleep, me and my son tried but after about 5 mins of fidgeting, we both converted them back to seats and got on with watching some TV.

I bumped into to Colin Morgan at the loos and asked him if you could say hi to my son who is a big fan - he did and my son was chuffed.

Got bored with the TV, so went to the bar to see if anyone was there, there were a few staff there so I had a drink and started to chat with them. I gave them the limes, thought they already had some on board. At this time - Bradley James (Arthur) came to the bar so we started having a chat - they were coming over for comicon. He was really down to earth and actually went to say hi to my son on his way back to his seat too. While we were talking (not loudly), LK came and asked us to be quiet 

We landed "on time", the pilot announced that we will be given a letter re compensation for the delay on our way out. On our way out, no letter was given, but by then, we were too tired to care. Immigration was very quiet, so we were in the baggage area before any bags came. Bags started coming and we waited. There was no priority unloading of UC bags, so by the time the first of our 6 arrived, the place was heaving.

While waiting, the kids grabbed the camera and were taking photos with the Merlin cast (after asking them of course) - I think they were the only ones who recognised them.

I think we finally left LAX at 11pm - so had been on the go for 24 hours by now. Our final destination was my sister-in-laws in Bakersfield - we got stuck in road works so didn’t make it there until 2am, and then sat talking for a further hour before finally hitting the deck.

It has taken me 4 days to get in sync, hence the delay with the trip report.

I dropped Greg a quick question on the FB page re what was in the compensation letter, and he replied saying that we are offered 10K miles as a goodwill gesture.

Shame about the delay but it looks like all in all you had a good flight.

Compensation would depend on how long the actual delay was and being in UC with access back to the CH you would not get meal vouchers as food is available there

BTW in no way shape or form is Lorainne Kelly a celebrity !

vji6697 wrote:I felt weird in the seat, while it was all very nice, I feel some basic functionality was just not there. The little drinks tray on the left was way too far back for me. There was also no armrest on the left apart from something poke with a button on it (which I never did work out what it was for)

That is your armrest. By pressing the little silver buttton, you can push the armrest down and increase the size of your sleeping area when the seat is turned into a bed.

The little cocktail table though, in my opinion, is too far back - I need to twist quite a lot to reach my drink(s). It needed to be a good 12 inches further forward - again, in my opinion.

The "vanishable" armrest is also a little uncomfortable - in terms of when it's configured as a seat, I actually prefer the PE seats - they are more comfortable for me - although, it is nice to put feet up (shoes removed) on the ottamun.

tontybear wrote:Compensation would depend on how long the actual delay was and being in UC with access back to the CH you would not get meal vouchers as food is available there!

I wasn't actually expecting any as apart from the delay, we were not overly put out as we were visiting local family

tontybear wrote:BTW in no way shape or form is Lorainne Kelly a celebrity !

yeah, I used the term in its loosest sense

Tinkerbelle wrote:That is your armrest. By pressing the little silver buttton, you can push the armrest down and increase the size of your sleeping area when the seat is turned into a bed.
!

Ah right. They didnt explain that. May actually make things comfortable on our return journey

Concorde RIP wrote:The little cocktail table though, in my opinion, is too far back - I need to twist quite a lot to reach my drink(s). It needed to be a good 12 inches further forward - again, in my opinion.

The "vanishable" armrest is also a little uncomfortable - in terms of when it's configured as a seat, I actually prefer the PE seats - they are more comfortable for me - although, it is nice to put feet up (shoes removed) on the ottamun.

I too had to twist back. in the end I used the main table most of the time.

I thought the seats were not as good as the emirate ones - but that could be due to me being on the ahem large side

vji6697 wrote:

Tinkerbelle wrote:That is your armrest. By pressing the little silver buttton, you can push the armrest down and increase the size of your sleeping area when the seat is turned into a bed.
!

Ah right. They didnt explain that. May actually make things comfortable on our return journey

I found this photo to show you the Suite with the armrest down.

Thanks for such a captivating TR

So much to comment upon-

Having your first visit to the Clubhouse unfortunately extended did allow you to really get the most out of it

What a great treat for your son to meet the Merlin Cast You can't expect that every time


BTW, LK was just as grumpy when I encountered her in Las Vegas a few years back

Thanks once again

buns

Thanks for the great TR, nothing beats a first visit to the CH.

Sounds like the flight was good and glad to see the Merlin cast were nice to you and your son (shame the same can't be said z-list LK!)

Thank you for the great first TR.

Good to read that there are some celebrities that are still down to earth. I assume they're going to the San Diego Comic-con.

Thanks for your interesting TR

cheers

alex

DarkAuror wrote:Thank you for the great first TR.

Good to read that there are some celebrities that are still down to earth. I assume they're going to the San Diego Comic-con.

Yep, Bradley James was really looking forward to it to

Followed a link kindly provided in my own TR since I encountered Colin and Bradley on their return from LAX. Though they'd been relegated to PE for their return trip. Colin did have the pleasure of sitting next to me for the flight so I'm sure that more than made up for the cabin change!