V-Flyer

This flight had its ups and downs, and they followed each other pretty much in turn! I hope that the misbehaving passenger described here isn't a v-flyer...

After a long and pretty uncomfortable journey from Penn Station, I arrived at T4 via the AirTrain and a packed shuttle bus (courtesy of Hurricane Sandy). I found the VS ticket sales desk and asked whether there were any Gs available to upgrade into and was amazed to be told that there were -- on a Friday, at the end of half term, following major disruption which had cancelled all flights for two days earlier in the week! Blimey! It cost around $320 + 10k miles to upgrade my K to Upper Class, which I thought was a reasonable deal.

Pleased with this, I went to bag-drop where it became immediately apparent that the new ticket had not been issued correctly. So the lady phoned back across to the ticket desk several times and we waited, and waited... and waited. To pass the time I asked about seats, and she invited me to name a seat I would like, and she would tell me if it was available. A bit like battleships, but with an A346. I kid you not! It was fun for the first 4 guesses, but then it got a bit silly. Nevertheless, I appreciated the attempt to make light of the ticketing difficulties, and eventually I hit upon a free seat and then it was just a question of waiting until the ticket was sorted. I was standing there for well over 10 minutes before she gave up and clambered out of her seat (over the baggage belt!) and walked across to the ticket desk herself. Eventually all was sorted and with an apology for the delay ringing in my ears, off I went to the Clubhouse.

The Clubhouse was quite busy but not packed. On asking if I could sit anywhere in the restaurant, I got given an odd look and told 'of course you can, darling' in a rather sultry tone. My order was taken, and water and champagne brought swiftly, but then it was back to the waiting game. Some 20 minutes later no food had arrived and others who had arrived since were already on their main courses! I tried to catch my server's attention but short of getting up and walking over to her, it was impossible. Eventually a very polite and competent waiter enquired if all was well. Evidently my order had been forgotten. He set about making things right and eventually food did arrive, together with some wine. When my original server returned at the end of the meal to clear things away, she said nonchalantly 'you never got your bread'. No kidding! So all in all that wasn't very impressive. Had I been on the VS4 or VS46 I would have had to cut things short in order to catch the plane! By now the wifi, which had been working very slowly initially, had completely packed up. Later there was a PA announcement that said they were having problems thanks to the restoration of power in Manhattan.

I was pretty early so there was plenty of time for drinks. It became clear at this point that some of the other passengers in the Clubhouse were really going to town with the booze, and there was a fair amount of effing and blinding. All Brits, I am afraid to say. I am not prudish but I do think there are standards of public behaviour which should be observed, especially in an environment being marketed as refined and exclusive. Sadly those adjectives couldn't be applied to all the clientele. You'll see shortly how this panned out in the flight...

By this stage I was feeling pretty grumpy about the wifi and the slow service, but I was actually looked after very well for the rest of the time, and the flight was called on time.

So the initial pleasure of the upgrade had melted away in the lounge, but happy feelings returned when I got onto VFIZ. I was greeted by name (not Hello Mr Grumpyguts ) and on entering the cabin I suddenly felt just really happy to be back on a 346. I know I go on about this, but I really like this aircraft, in all cabins. I know people think it is like a dorm in UC, but it looked clean and impressive; such a contrast with VBIG on the outbound. It is such a shame they are leaving the fleet so young -- although I understand they are desperately uneconomic. A glass of water was requested, and a sleep suit, and the very competent young lady who was assigned to my aisle did a great job sorting everyone out.

My increasing happiness was then dashed again. Nearby was a passenger who had clearly had far too much to drink in the Clubhouse. She was with her daughter and the flight was (I think) some kind of present, and daughter was deemed to be not suitably grateful. This triggered lots of voluble verbal abuse (e.g. 'you're a selfish little s**t', 'I'm going to get you put into economy') as well as throwing herself crazily onto the daughter's seat, sitting on the ottoman, in an attempt to hug her. This all started pre-take-off and continued afterwards, and got increasingly disruptive, much to annoyance and disbelief of all around. When it got to the point where someone was clearly going to have to say something (and boy did I have some good lines ready!), a crew-member stepped in and despatched the mother to the bar. This was actually done rather well, I thought, and it saved embarrassing anyone any more than already had been achieved. So well done to the crew -- not easy.

All of this malarkey serves as a welcome reminder that UC is first and foremost a business cabin, and on a late-night red-eye most people are in that cabin to maximise sleep. The crew, of course, knew this and did a great job in getting the service done in an hour, and then lights out. I managed 4 hours of sleep, on and off, and that is after having eaten a main course on board! V-Port assisted me in this by not working... I woke up when the lights went on, about 90 minutes out of LHR, and had a soggy bacon roll and a foul cup of builders' tea. The main food in UC is quite nice now, I think, but this semi-breakfast was a poor effort, and other passengers were discussing it with the crew.

We landed early and apart from the door between the gate and the concourse being locked, all went smoothly from then on -- very quickly through the e-passport gate, and then the priority bags worked brilliantly. No Revivals for me this time as I just wanted to get home.

So there we are: a mixed bag. I love the timing of the VS10 -- it really works if you are on US time. The Clubhouse was underwhelming, which is a great pity as it is normally such a strong part of the experience, and I do wish that some of the other people who fly VS would behave a little better. Maybe I just got unlucky in this respect.

On the positive side, as I've said before, sometimes you get on a flight and you just know that the crew will be good -- and so it was. The FSM exuded calm authority and the crew-member looking after me was first-rate. Brilliant stuff; without a decent crew this would have been a pretty average experience.

Thank you for this TR have not been on the 10 in ages... usually a bit late for me. Good to get this insight.

Have you warmed to the new(ish) JFK CH yet? Any green tea?

As for the troublesome pax some people need to know their limits - good job it was a sound crew.

I also like the A346, it is especially good if you are travelling in a group, hence the appeal in the dormitory feel

Cheers for posting

joeyc wrote:Have you warmed to the new(ish) JFK CH yet? Any green tea?

Yes! A nice cup of it. Then two redheads.

I liked it more this time -- in the winter it feels quite cosy. In the spring/summer I still much preferred the light feel of the old one. Perhaps there should be two.

Thanks for the interesting TR

As you say, a truly mixed bag of experiences, which given the backdrop of Sandy and the obvious problems for those who live and work in Greater New York makes some things excusable but not the poor behaviour of those passengers in the Clubhouse and on board

I take my hat off to the FSM and the Crew for the way they discreetly handled the "trollied" passenger

buns