V-Flyer

After having a great week in NYC, it was time to check out the hotel and head to JFK for our flight home.

We caught the E subway train up to Sutphin to connect with Airtrain and were soon at Terminal 4 at JFK. Checked in at the upper class desk and with invite to the new clubhouse in hand, we made our way to security. We were directed to the priority line and out passports / boarding passes were checked. Very little conversation with the TSA agent, just to confirm full name and we were waved through. After screening, we headed to the clubhouse.

Now I was expecting something of a wow factor when entering the new clubhouse having seen some photo's of the place and to be honest I was a little disappointed, I was expecting something as impressive at the LHR clubhouse, but I found the JFK clubhouse to be smaller than I had expected.

This partly might have been due to the fact that I had a monster of a migraine, so wasn't able to fully enjoy the clubhouse, but my travelling companion was equally as unimpressed.

I'd checked on V-flyer and knew that Cosmic Girl was going to be the lady flying us to LHR and we watched her come onto stand from our seat in the clubhouse.

Boarding was called and we made our way to the gate. It's great that the clubhouse is just above the gates, makes for a quick boarding.

We had chosen seats in the A-zone again this time securing seats 14 A & K. We were welcomed aboard and directed to the A-zone. Knowing that row 14 doesn't have any overhead bins ( thanks v-flyer for making me aware), I asked a crew member to stow my case in the wardrobe and made my way to my seat.

The crew member serving my side of the cabin introduced himself and confirmed that I had ordered a special meal. Sleeps suits were offered and drink orders were being taken and thankfully my migraine had subsided somewhat, so I ordered a glass of Champagne which was soon delivered.

We were informed that our flight time would be 6 hours and 5 mins and we had 152 passengers on board. We were told that the taxi time was to be 30min depending on any changes by ATC. We pushed back at 7:15pm so slightly ahead of schedule. We did a slight tour of JFK but true to form we were airborne some 30 mins later. Result.

The Cabin Manager came round and personally introduced herself, shook hands and welcomed each and every passenger in the A-zone on board. I thought his was a nice touch.

About an hour into the flight was being served. The special meal I ordered was very nice , consisting of a pasta and veg dish. I chose not to partake in dessert, but some of the other passengers did and it did look nice.

Once dinner had finished and the tables and given that this was such a short flight, I converted my seat into bed mode to get some sleep. The cabin was rather warm, and we had an awful lot of turbulence during the flight, being thrown from side to side quite abit. Due to the strong tail winds we had.

I was woken for breakfast about an hour and half form Heathrow and was presented with a very nice cooked vegetarian breakfast, which was a surprise as I was not expecting that.

Before long we were making our decent into Heathrow. We touched down shortly before 7am, so some 40 minutes ahead of schedule. Soon off the plane and heading to immigration, there was a long queue, having an e-passport I joined that queue whilst my travelling companion joined the long normal queue. I have to say that I was not really much quicker getting through the e-passport gates then my companion who went through the normal channel.

We were soon out and heading to the revivals lounge for a nice cup of tea.

To sum it up, another great flight with great crew. Another example of Virgin getting it right.

A brace of decent flights Thanks for posting both TR's

Indeed a very nice brace of TRs!

Whilst I did get the A line from JFK to downtown a couple of times (this was pre-airtrain) I have always had too much luggage to try on the way back to JFK !

Thank you for the TR.