VS027 LGW-MCO 3 OCT 12 (Upper Class)
Posted: 23 Oct 2012, 17:29This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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A little background, Myself My Fiancee and my parents were flying, And The Upper Class flight was a surprise 60th Birthday present for my usually Economy flying parents!! (the surprise was nearly not a surprise due to a little mix up in the ordering of some v-flyer tags, but some creative excuses got us out of a sticky situation, and alls well that ends well!)
We Booked the flights way back in December through the Continental Website on a codeshare in VS upper, this saved us £270 per person over the advertised fare on the website, I managed to get the VS reservation code easily enough and i was then able to manage my flights through the VS site in the Normal Manner, after seeking advice from fellow V-flyers I selected seats 6 a&k and 7 a&k for our trip, these were all but secured when I completed OLCI at T-24 and bagged SEQ1,2,3,4, Yay!!
By this Time I had Learnt we would not be flying on a refit, which i thought was quite unlucky considering 2 747's were away for Re-fit at that time and 1 was Operating the manchester flight, which gave us a 4 out 5 80% chance that day out of gatwick, But unfortunately we were the 1 LGW Flight that day that wasn't operated by a refit, I was quite concerned about this ahead of time, Not so much with IFE but having read stories of non operational Upper Class suites and very tatty cabins I was worried that My parents may not get the full Upper Class service and feel from their likely only Upper Class trip (excepting the Rtn Flight.)
Anyhow Moving On and after telling My Parents the Night before (By the Moonpig Method) We were up bright and early for the taxi from the south coast to LGW, a Smooth taxi journey had us at Bag drop just after 7am, after off loading our luggage and swapping paper boarding passes for the Proper boarding cards, we trotted off to security armed with our fast track passes only to find that no fast track was open!! This wasn't a problem though as we were dealt with swiftly at a very quiet regular line.
Heading to the Clubhouse now and having read on here i knew not to take the escalator down from security and instead took the passage on the right and we were soon in clubhouse reception, we were greeted warmly and told that the clubhouse was very quiet and needed livening up, were we up to the task? I said we were
and also left details for a fellow V-flyer and partner to enter as Guests a short while later. With the Clubhouse being quiet we had no trouble booking treatments all of us going for paid treatments and then with it being so quiet being offered our freebies afterwards as well
For breakfast I had 2 Baps (I was Hungry) and despite the early hour washed them down with Champagne and a couple of Peroni's, Shortly afterwards i had The Pleasure of meeting Vflyer Serena and her partner Dave who were off to Jamaica on a refit lucky lucky!!!!
The clubhouse Staff were great and we were all made to feel like VIP's, Mum and Dad loved the experience, all to soon though our flight was called so we left the clubhouse and headed down to the gate to find Ruby Tuesday waiting for us, Upon reaching the gate we had our passes scanned and some sort of confusion (of un-specified nature) ensued, involving us being asked to wait in a corner for some 10 minutes without explanation, Knowing that UC was full I was Dreading being told that we were about to be downgraded, but after 10 minutes we were given the all clear and sent on our way without being given any explanation for the delay, but Hey Ho i've said it before and I'll say it again "alls well that end well"
By this time Boarding was well under way and we had missed the priority boarding so we piled in with everybody else, and for the First time ever my Parents turned left at the door
The cabin crew greeted us on our way into the upper cabin and thanks to more advice from V-flyer i didn't make a fool of myself trying to open the non-existent Overhead lockers above rows 6&7 
instead we managed to find space in row 8's bin. We settled into our seats and soon had a glass of champagne each, On inspection of my Suite I was relieved that it was fully operational and not tatty at all, the same could be said for the other 3 suites we had, Perhaps i worry too much but having read some reports about the LGW fleet this was a great relief to me.
Darren The Flight service manager (Permission sought) introduced himself to us and along with another Female Cabin crew member (Permission not got, but hopefully if they read they'll know i'm talking about them) explained the operation of the suite to my parents and other first timers in the cabin, and then took drinks orders before take off.
It was my first time sitting so far forward in a 747 and i found the taxi and take off a novel and slightly strange experience but fun none the less
Once Airborne Drinks were served along with the little pots of crisps and dinner orders were taken, I had the Beetroot salmon followed by the Steak and then the Chocolate and caramel pudding, I even managed too squeeze in some cheese and biscuits and it was all very nice indeed, Mum and Dad were in there element loving the space of the suite and the level of service given by the crew.
The IFE whilst old and on a loop did work without fault and i settled down to watch Prometheus which was ok though not as good as i had hoped, at the end of the film i converted the seat to bed and had a nap for an hour or so, waking in time for afternoon tea, which we all enjoyed.
After a couple more hours we began our descent into a fairly sunny Orlando, descent and landing went smoothly as we were soon on the gate, whilst taxiing i'd seen the A330 from manchester on stand and feared the worst for immigration.
Before leaving the aircraft we thanked the crew who had been looking after us, they were truly great and nothing was too much trouble, and its so true that a good crew make or break the flight, i'm pleased to say that this crew made this flight a memorable one for the right reasons and Mum and Dad really really enjoyed the flight.
Priority disembarkation was in force as well as it could be with everyone between us and the exit let off first but upstairs and the rest of the economy cabin held back for us to exit, we walked into the immigration hall to thankfully find just the last 15-20 passengers from the manchester flight waiting to clear immigration, so we were through to baggage collection in about 10 minutes and onwards via the shuttle to The rental car in another 10 minutes where we got a free upgrade
, we were in the Villa within 65 minutes of landing which was great!!All in all a great experience for all of us, when Virgin get it right they really get it right, this was one of the best flights I've had with them and on a Non-Refit aircraft that I was so worried about too!!!
Thanks again to the crew, and if any Virgin management do read this you should be very proud of the service Darren and his crew provided.
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