This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Due to living in Guernsey, I flew to Gatwick on 19th April and caught the National Express up to Heathrow for an overnight stay at the Hilton at Terminal 4. The trip up on the coach was uneventful taking about an hour.
I attempted to check in online using my mobile, but when I tried I got the dreaded message that check in could not be completed and check in at the airport. 
Not want I wanted to see as I had pre-selected seats 12 A & K and 14 A & K and hoped to get those seats. I gave up trying to online check in as we were approaching Heathrow and thought I'd give it a try again once I got to the Hotel and could use wifi.Made it to the Hotel and checked in, then it was off to the room to dump our cases and importantly try and check in again. Got to the room and having connected to the wifi was able to complete the check in with the pre-selected seats secured.
We headed downstairs to the bar for a drink and I'd forgotten how expensive a drink in the hotel bar was, two Vodka's and coke came in at £17.80, 
wow , would have been cheaper to have two glasses of champagne! Needless to say, didn't have anymore Vodka after that!Morning of the flight,
Had a somewhat restless night, so not a great deal of sleep, but enough to allow me to function and the excitement was building for heading to the clubhouse and of course to being back in New York again. Had a little bit of breakfast in the hotel to keep us going till the clubhouse. We checked out of the hotel and made our way into Terminal 4 to catch the inter terminal express to T3. Had to wait about 13 minutes for the train to arrive, but we were soon onboard and making our way towards the clubhouse.
Arrived at T3 and headed to the upper class check in desk to pick up our boarding passes. Handed over our passport and having completed 3 of us, there appeared to be some issue to the 4th passport, which apparently wouldn't scan right, once scanned, we were informed that the computer stated that the 4th passenger was traveling on a Parole letter.
ERM, hello what?!? Apparently, this was a somewhat common occurrence as the check in lady informed us and not to worry. That was easy for her to say knowing we were heading to JFK and the impending interrogation on arrival that ensues.Anyways, check in formalities completed and soon on our way to the private security channel. We cleared security quite quickly with only one hiccup where someone hadn't removed the liquids from their case. Made our way through the departure area making a beeline for the clubhouse. Ascended the stairs and was met by the lounge dragon, asked if we had been before and when we said we had, we were welcomed back and headed on in. Found some seats behind the bar and waited for a server to arrive, I needed some champagne by this time, a short wait and before long champagne was in hand. Clubhouse burgers were ordered and some further champagne and before too long, the first call came to begin boarding. I knew that we didn't have leave yet so settled back down to another champagne, we left on the second call and made our way to the gate, which I can't remember the number of but it was a long walk, but we were soon boarding Tinker Bell who would be the lady carrying us across the pond today.
We walked straight onboard and greeted at the door with a smile and a welcome back and directed to turn left. Stored our cases in the wardrobes and settled into our seats. Cabin Crew arrived with drinks and champagne gratefully received.
We were advised that the flight time today would be 7 hours and 18 mins, with 355 passengers and 14 crew onboard. Our routing today would be southern out of Heathrow due to the strong northern winds, so would be flying out over Wales. We pushed back and were airborne at 2:30pm, so 30 minutes late, not to bad.
Half an hour after take off and drink orders were taken, champagne duly ordered and the menu's handed out today's menu was :
Starters
Flaked peat-cured Salmon with Shaved Black Radish, Cucumber and wasabi mayonnaise
Pea and Mint Soup with Creme Fraiche
Main Courses
Roast Rump of English Lamb with Pearl Barley, Spring Vegetables and Black Olives
Pan-seared Breast of Chicken with Mac 'n Cheese, Sautéed Leeks and Mushrooms
Lemon and Ricotta Tortellini with Pea Shoots and Basil Cream (V)
Desserts
Mascarpone and Clotted Cream Torte with Strawberry and Lime Compote
Warm Sticky Toffee and Chocolate Pudding with Toffee Sauce
I'd requested a special meal (lacto-ovo vegetarian) and was informed that the meal would be from the menu as they are trying to serve from the menu rather than have different meals. Erm ok, fair enough, but what if I couldn't eat the option on the menu, hence the reason I requested a special meal.
Not to worry having seen the menu before the flight ( thanks PJH) I actually quite liked the veggie option. I selected the Pea soup to start with followed by the Tortellini and then the Mascarpone Torte.I was trying to decide what movie to watch, when the cabin crew member serving my side approached with a tray ladened with goodies for me, namely, a bottle of pink champagne, 4 lemon cupcakes and champagne truffles curtesy of my travelling companion who had organised this as a birthday treat.
It was a lovely surprise, I was asked if we wanted to have the champagne at that time as it had been chilled, however, we said we might have it later. Headed to bar for a drink and had a good chat with the cabin crew, who asked about our trip and a many few Happy Birthday were said as the crew passed through the bar as they were going about their duties. Always like the feeling of sitting at a bar 37,000 ft up in the air.
About an hour later, we were advised that the food was being served and asked if we wanted to eat at the bar or in our suites, we decided to return to our suites and eat there. Table was laid and wait, where were the black Wilber and Orville? I thought these had been introduced in UC? We still had the silver ones, had they escaped from PE? Food was served and by all accounts everything was very nice, a sentiment shared by my fellow travelling companions, so all in all, we all enjoyed the meals we had.
I couldn't decide which film I wanted to watch, there were four that I wanted to watch, I started watching Jack Reacher, but just couldn't get into it so switch and watched the Borne Legacy instead, though by the end of the film I was somewhat disappointed in it, not the same calibre as the previous Bourne films, anyway Ice cream was delivered, this was about 4 hours into the flight.
The cabin crew were visible throughout the flight and I was asked at least 2 further times if I wanted the pink champagne opened, we'd decided to save it for when we got to New York, which wasn't a problem, the crew boxed the champagne up and bagged it with the cupcakes and truffles and put it in the wardrobe with our cases.
It was very bumpy coming into JFK and we were being thrown around a fair bit, but eventually we touched down and made our way to the gate. Priority disembarkation in place and having collected our cases we headed to Immigration, given it was about 5pm local time, I knew we were likely going to face a full hall and indeed we did, we joined the snaking queue, which was 8 lines deep, I expected to have a good 2 hour wait to get through. The line moved at a good pace and even more so when the opened additional stations after the US citizens had been done on the other side of the hall. All in all, we we were only queuing for about a hour, so pretty good to say we were on the VS45!
It was my turn to face immigration and having handed over my passport and had all my fingerprint taken, I was ask what my purpose for visiting was and then I was asked where I was from, when I said Guernsey in the Channel Islands, the immigration officer asked me what currency we use, when I said pounds sterling and that we printed our own, I was asked if I had an example, as I did, I duly produced a Guernsey £1 note and handed to the officer who looked rather intrigued by it. Having returned the note to me and saying that he was just curious, he waived me through. Erm, what was that all about
Catching up with my traveling companions they inquired if I had tried to bribe the officer as they had seem the whole episode of me taking money out of my wallet and handing it to the officer. Totally bizarre. Anyways, we were soon out of arrivals and heading for the Air train to connect to the E Subway train to take us into Manhattan and the start of my Birthday stay in NYC.Overall, another great flight with Virgin, with excellent service, good food and good interaction from a great crew.
A Purple Boarding Pass and a glass of Champagne thank you very much :-)
