VS009 LHR-JFK 2 APR 13 (Upper Class)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Off to the States on another work trip...

Check-in wasn't the best experience - I was given the once-over by an agent who was supervising the queues, and after she had glanced sceptically at my body-warmer she asked, "flying in Upper Class today?". I was tempted to answer, "yes, I've been saving my giro cheques since 1984." But of course I didn't.

Security was slow, but that was mainly because my colleague left all her liquids in her bag by accident. I feigned fury, which later came back to bite me on the backside at LAX when I forgot to remove a big bottle of water from my own rucksack...

Eventually, via the counter-intuitive 'direct' route through the duty free, we got to the Clubhouse, and had a very nice lunch. The menu had changed since my last trip, but as I was in a burger mood this didn't really matter. Champagne and a drinkable red were consumed, mainly for tasting purposes. Service was pretty good, and afterwards we played a few games of pool and then tasted a few Redheads and some of the new tapas (again for quality-control purposes), as well as dispatching the credit-card salesperson on her way - already have quite enough of those... The Clubhouse was incredibly quiet by this point - perhaps only 20 people in total. Bliss.

Boarding time arrived, and I'm pleased to say we made it to the plane. The gate crew timed all of this well, so sadly there was no opportunity to stagger past 200 Y passengers, loudly enquiring as to the location of the priority lane.

Onboard, Diamond Girl was in good shape, and so was I once the champagne arrived. I still like the new UC seat, which I find comfortable. Again I found I could not reach the end of the ottoman with my feet, contrary to the old seat. And I like the ottoman storage compartment - very useful. However, I do think the table could do with a redesign. The spring-mounting is far too brutal, and in fact most of the tables seemed not to stow themselves tidily, flush with the suite. This made the cabin look a bit battered. UC was only about 2/3rds full, so the otherwise cramped cabin seemed fairly airy, and the interior seemed to be in good condition. I don't know why UC should share toilets with PE, though - that's another design flaw, really.

The meal service was prompt, but the food was poor. The duck starter was nice but minuscule. The Asian beef was very poor meat, and served with plain rice and steamed carrots. No flavour, no finesse, nothing. Poor show. The advertised desserts were unavailable; I was offered a chocolate mousse instead which was OK. I tried the chianti, which was drinkable - I think the onboard wine has improved a bit, which is not saying much after my experiences last year.

We went to the bar for a while and it is a stylish place to hang out. The staff took turns to talk to us because they were still busy. All were charming and friendly and I really enjoyed chatting about flying, VS, and other things. It's pretty clear that the A333 is not well liked, but all of the crew I spoke to were pragmatic about it. It's been a while since I sat at the bar, and I was reminded just how strong an asset it can be if you get the right combination of passengers and crew.

It was then time to do some work, and once I'd got this done I watched 'Flight' - I'm surprised they show this on aircraft... Towards the end of the flight the crew offered items from the graze menu and I had something but can't remember what. There were several other rounds of drinks during the cruise, and service was generally attentive.

We landed a bit ahead of schedule and walked to a nearly empty immigration hall. After a short wait our passports were stamped, and the baggage had appeared on the belt, and it was off to the big city.

It was a great flight. The crew were lovely and friendly, relaxed but professional. Talking to them at the bar added a great deal to the experience. The A333 is a comfortable, quiet, and stylish plane, and the new seat is nowhere near as bad as has been made out -- although I am not saying it is perfect...

Nice TR at240, cheers for posting it.

Coming around to the new UCS are ya ..next you will be saying how much you love the new JFK CH over the old one

Hope ya had a good trip, I'm heading that way myself next week.

Great TR .
Must say I'm surprised you got any work done after all that drink !
The table certainly does look cheap when stowed away ,don't think I've seen one that fits back flush .
I quite like the UCDS aswell but haven't been in the old one yet which will change next week so looking forward to comparing the two
Blacky

A super TR, thanks for posting Shame the pod didn't live up to expectations but sounds like the booze sure did...all in true V-Flyer spirit

Thanks for the TR.

Shame about the timing of the gate calls and the food, but good to hear of the bar experience. It may just be coincidence, but when we flew back on VS26 it felt as though the crew were more willing to chat around the bar (albeit coming and going as you say) than they have been on other aircraft.


Ps Do young folk still speak of The Giro?

Ps Do young folk still speak of The Giro?

I read about it on the Internet.

The TR rather exaggerates the drinking - I don't think any glass was finished.

The same wasn't true of another passenger, an older lady, to whom the crew denied booze during the flight. I was not really aware of this at the time, but my colleague was. I gather it ended with a huge fuss and the phrase: "My husband is a High Court judge." He was sitting opposite, and -- judge or not -- looked thoroughly bemused by the whole affair.

Sorry at240 ...... no point in trying to back out now of the drinking being a little over exaggerated in the TR...... You are now voted on as the V-Flyer drinks correspondant !

Sorry at240 ...... no point in trying to back out now of the drinking being a little over exaggerated in the TR...... You are now voted on as the V-Flyer drinks correspondant !

I'm not surprised you can't remember what you ate later in the flight!