VS652 LOS-LHR 28 SEP 12 (Premium Economy)
Posted: 17 Oct 2012, 12:31This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
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My initial plan was to fly UC return, but at the last mi nute, I thought to myself that for the £1,000 fare difference,I could do away with the cake stand and treat myself to something nice, so I flew PE instead. Naughty of me I know, but considering the treat...
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Anyways. I checked in online the day before, but blessedly ran out of red ink (of all colours to run out of when you want to print a VS boarding pass) and I had a weird feeling that it had happened before. I didn’t have time to dwell on that (and probably that’s why it didn’t occur to me to ask the printer to print in black and white, but then that’s the amazing power of retrospect, it only allows you to realise your foolishness when it’s too late).
I’d have said that check in was a breeze, but there’s these annoying procedures at the Lagos airport where you have to go to one section of the check in area to weigh your bags, then answer security questions at a desk after which you get your passport data page and visa (where necessary) scanned before you finally get to the check in desks. After checking in, your bags are physically checked by customs officials before being tagged and sent in. The good part of the experience if that VS have about 5 guys on ground to make this process a bit more bearable.
Checked in, and with lounge invite in hand, I headed over to the immigration/security channel where even though I wasn’t flying business class, I charmed my way to the fast track channel. So from arrival at the airport to the lounge, I reckon was a total of 25 minutes. It could have been faster, but I took time out to say hello to a few people I know and chatted with a few friends that I ran into.
Boarding was called about 40 minutes before the departure time. I’ve noticed that they call boarding in the lounge after PE and Y have boarded. The great thing about that is that it makes it easy for UC and FC AU to board without the scrum, but I guess that’s bad news for AU pax flying in Y, that would mean a struggle for overhead luggage space. So it’s worthy to note that if you want to secure priority boarding, leave the lounge way before departure is announced.
Boarding was over quite quickly and we pushed off fairly within time. Take off wasn’t much later and we were soon cruising and IFE was turned on. There weren't a lot of additions to the movie selection since I last flew in June and I wasn't really in the mood to stare straight at the seatback in front of me with my shoulders hunched at an angle that would cause me discomfort so I had a nice chat with the lady beside me who was flying VS for the first time and unfairly comparing PE with EK's business class.
Cabin crew were efficient, not particularly friendly but I can’t fault the service. I can’t really recall what exactly the entire meal consisted of, but I had Chicken Tikka for my main, and it was quite good. Desert I think was a black forest cake which was just OK. I waited a while and went down to Y to ask for their desert
. It was a sickly sweet mousse. Yum. 
Landing cards were handed out, and to my astonishment, I wasn’t given any fast track voucher, so of course I asked for one and was given
, and that was a good thing too because a flight from China had come in before us and the “other passports” queue was teeming. So happily I went to the fast track queue and straight to the luggage carousel where I was happy to discover that priority luggage was well in effect. 
From plane to taxi was less than 30 minutes, which to me was a good thing as I’d asked the taxi to be there for 17:30 knowing that the flight was supposed to land at 17:15. The added bonus was that we landed at about 16:45.Another excellent flying experience on VS.
