V-Flyer

I was going to San Francisco for a mere 6 hour summit but ended up staying over a Saturday night so the company could get a decent fare They would only pay economy and in my opinion an L fare counts as economy so I phoned up Virgin and got an L flight and upgraded with miles to PE out and UC back. No problems and talking to Virgin reservations on the phone was a pleasure.

Unfortunately, several days before departure I was hit with flu and almost cancelled.. My doctor didn't have much sympathy though so I decided I'd try and make the trip if I could upgrade the outbound leg to UC. Again, Virgin reservations excelled and it was all set! I didn't receive a new/updated e-ticket but decided I'd sort it out at the airport. Stayed at the Marriott Heathrow which was a pretty nice hotel for the money. Smart, but hair in the bed and typical ripoff Internet access let it down.

Up and out at 6.30am so I could sort out the e-ticket problem. UC check in sent me down to ticketing and I got the taxes paid. They also checked me in there but were about to send me off without any e-ticket print out for my return leg.. so I had to ask for one. I never received an e-mail e-ticket at any later point in the process

Fast track security as fast and friendly as ever. A big slice of the value of UC is in that, IMHO. Grabbed some dollars and odds and ends from Boots and then fled to the CH. Didn't notice big changes since my last visit in 2009. Went straight to B&B to grab a hair appointment and they had me in the seat within minutes. Had a nice chatty young lady give me a trim, but it ended up taking half an hour. Had so much time to spare so it was a good experience. Gave her a fiver tip as it's a 'free' haircut after all. Felt a bit guilty when she was asking me about the UC experience as she hadn't flown on it.

Next off to the dining area for a fruit salad breakfast. Rest of the CH time was taken up with those pre flight toilet breaks, e-mail checks, phone calls, and general milling around. Before long, boarding was called at gate 13. Uh-oh! Straight through and past an epic Y line at the gate and on to the plane. Crew seemed upbeat and cheery. Only thing of note was it was a mostly 'older' crew (where older is 30+ in my experience) and more men than on previous trips. All seemed to be going well until ground crew stormed the plane and explained to me they'd be ripping a hole in the floor next to my seat (19A). They did this and two guys disappeared down a ladder into a painted-white industrial looking corridor in the belly of the plane. I didn't get a picture but it wasn't that exciting.

10 minutes later, the men came back up seemingly unable to fix whatever they had gone down for. They sealed up the hole and went off. In the meantime we found out that the toilet behind 19A was out of service. Then the other toilet also became out of service so given the delay, I nipped upstairs.

The guys came back and went down the hole again. About 10 minutes later they came back up again talking about a 'fault code 21416' on the radio. The person on the other end of their radio noted the parts they'd requested were one out of stock and the other had an unrecognizable part number. They were told, however, to 'go and nick' the 'cards' they needed from another flight (sounded like 'flight 90') but they never came back again.

During all of this, another crew had set to fixing at least one of the loos and this took another hour on top of already being late. Once the door was shut, it was 10 minutes before we pushed back, where we reversed several minutes to the taxiway, and another 20 minutes queued up behind about 7 other planes waiting to take off. In all, our 10.35 flight took off about 12.20 or so.

Despite the wait, it didn't feel too long and the cabin crew were quite attentive, eventually bringing around menus and getting orders from everyone. One FA spent a long time studying a menu herself as she hadn't flown in UC for a long time and wasn't familiar with the new meal service

Standard takeoff on 9R with the seemingly crazy roll to the right once barely off the ground! Seemed to be over the Severn bridges in no time and a standard flight was under way. Started to watch the Ricky Gervais Show on my iPad and got a few episodes in. My usual flying experience is to turn the IFE to the map page with the flight data/altitude and leave it there..

Food service took until off the coast of Ireland to get going but FA were attentive with drinks, etc. Declined the amuse bouche as it looked like it'd massacre my insides (food allergies..), some sort of salmon and cream cheese thing. Had a 'grilled beef' main which had some asparagus, carrot, and mash. Dinner quickly cleaned up before a massive crash came from the galley. Didn't see any FA for a good 10 minutes after that so assumed a bit of a spill! Then I settled down to write my notes on the iPad.

Few hours of off and on sleep. Didn't go to the bar or really leave my seat other than for a couple of wees! Got up once we'd crossed the Hudson. Skipped the tea and coffee and cheese tray but had a couple of slices from a big BLT sandwich they were rolling around which was surprisingly nice and better than anything you'd get at Starbucks, etc.

Cabin was pretty dark for the last few hours of the flight as everyone had their blinds shut. Lights were on once tea service began. Didn't see many FA during the last portion of the flight but perhaps the friendliest FA of the whole flight (I think he may have been FSM) came around and personally thanked all of us prior to landing. Seemed a standard landing coming in over Point Reyes then down the peninsula to over Mountain View before doing a 180 setting us up for a landing.

Was the third person off the plane (19A is great for this if the jetbridge comes to the door behind you) and got through immigration and customs very quickly, especially as I had carry on only! From wheels hitting the runway to being in my downtown hotel room was an hour to the very minute.

The immigration guy had an interesting technique though. All the usual questions and fingerprinting, but he started asking me about my PRIOR trip during the fingerprinting, so I was being taxed in two ways at once. Guess that's an interesting way to make the liars all confused, but it was pretty bad even for me I seemed to pass the test though and was out in no time.

A very nice TR, thank you for posting A great way of getting around the company budget by booking an upgradable fare...crafty I love it

Plane toilets are just about acceptable when they are working but when there is a problem....good reason a for a delay imo

Sounds like the immigration team are as bright, breezy and welcoming as always

Thank you for the TR.