This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Haven't written up the outbound trip to SFO yet -- it was quite a saga and wasn't anywhere near as impressive -- but this return flight was excellent.
I arrived at JFK quite early -- around 6.30 pm. Was seen straight away at check-in and whilst the welcome wasn't exactly friendly or warm (as usual), it was efficient. I had chosen seat 2A in the snooze zone at OLCI but asked to change, and the lady offered me 9A, which is a good seat and much better than anything else available when I'd checked in online.
After a quick look round the duty free, I headed up to the Clubhouse. I really, really like the JFK Clubhouse. Terminal 4 is not at all bad as US airports go, but the Clubhouse improves the experience immeasurably. It's obvious just from watching the staff that there is a good team spirit -- and the service is good.
I had a quick shower and changed clothes -- it had been 30-degree heat in Manhattan, and it was impossible to walk more than a block without sweating. I took a seat at the dining-table area very close to the bar. VS46 was called whilst I was in the shower, so the place was quiet by the time I sat down, and it remained very quiet until VS10 was called. There were a few passengers for the TAM flight to Sao Paolo, and a very small number for an SQ flight.
I had some work to do so I got on with that with just a fruit juice for company. The staff were tidying up and resetting the Clubhouse (it had obviously been busy earlier) but they kept checking I was OK. Eventually I gave in to their advances and ordered the talapia and a glass of wine. The portion was tiny but the fish was good. I had mango sorbet as a pudding. And then cheese and biscuits. And then a fruit salad. And eventually I ordered the pound cake too. At this point I realised I'd eaten EVERYTHING from the 'Naughty but nice' section of the menu. :-) So I moved over to a more comfy seat to read a book.
The staff had kept us informed about the likely boarding time and at around 9.30 pm they advised gold-card holders who weren't travelling UC to go to security since it was busy. Quite a lot of people departed the Clubhouse at that point. At around 9.45 pm the flight was called for UC passengers and we all trooped down to security. As usual the fast-track was busier than the normal lanes, and the lines beyond it were very slow.
At this point something funny happened. The lady behind me who'd come down from the Clubhouse asked if I was on the London flight and whether the slow security was normal. We chatted a bit. She said she'd been in New York working for ITV. She was keen to get on the plane and I pulled her leg about missing the flight. She was very friendly but I am not a great one for small talk and I was in 'get-on-plane' mode so I wasn't really concentrating. Security was incredibly slow and eventually we got through and I marched off to the gate, which was right at the end of the concourse.
Straight onto the plane, and more or less straight into a sleepsuit. As soon as I saw and heard the FSM I could tell this would be a good crew -- and so it was. Dinner orders were taken, champagne provided. The lady who'd been talking to me then went to the bar where she was photographed with cabin crew. At this point pennies began to drop. I asked one of the crew who she was; apparently it was Lorraine Kelly. I confess I do not really watch TV and I'm not into "TV-presenter-celeb" culture so this didn't really mean anything to me, but when we got to LHR and were in the passport control queue you could see that for an awful lot of other people this was a big deal. The cabin crew were enthusiastic too. All I can say is: she was very nice and down-to-earth, and maybe it was nice for her to speak for two minutes to someone who had absolutely no idea who she was :-).
And that's about it really. I think there were about 295 on "Queen of the Skies". The suites looked well used, but they were clean. I had a nightcap and then bedded down after take-off and managed to sleep on and off for the whole flight. I was woken by the landing announcement. I grabbed a cup of tea but more or less missed breakfast. This was a mistake. Whilst holding outside London I suddenly began to feel very travelsick. (Empty stomach is a classic aggravating factor.) This has never happened to me before on a plane. Eventually I had to ping the crew and ask for sickbags -- the guy responded very quickly and professionally, both to the call and the request :-) . Fortunately I was OK... never underestimate the power of concentration.
Landed more or less on time, and a quick taxi to the gate. Immigration was not too bad, and the bags were just arriving as I got to the belt. My case was in the first batch, so it was off to Revivals for a shower and a full English breakfast to line my stomach for the journey home! The food wasn't all that great, really (cold bacon, messy pot of baked beans), but it did the job. Revivals was very very quiet, apart from a guy who was clearly having a bad day and was giving a VS staffer a really hard time about (I think) a lost bag. At one point he said, "effing bull*** Virgin" (to himself, not to the staff, I hasten to add), so I guess another one bites the dust.
I popped my head in at work at 1.30 pm and then headed off home. Didn't feel jetlagged at all -- my best-ever overnight flight. It's really noticeable how a good FSM instils professionalism in the crew -- I'm not kidding, as soon as I saw the FSM and her demeanour, I knew she meant business. Top marks to her and her team.
