This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Headed out to MCO mid afternoon (probably earlier than we needed to, but IoA was packed). Dropped the hire car & up to the UC check-in area to drop extra hold baggage. There is priority security access (of sorts) for UC pax – you get a short-cut right up to a boarding card + ID checker, after that you have to wait in line. We must have arrived just after the mid afternoon rush for security as all the lines were pretty much walk-up to the boarding card + ID checker.
If you have read any of my previous trip reports, you will be aware that I don’t hold the TSA in particularly high esteem. I have to say, there was nothing to complain about today at MCO. We were through security in under 10mins (both got directed through the body-scanner, no metal detector) the TSA staff were polite and halfway friendly. Train over to the airside terminal and up to the Delta Sky Club. Don’t need to say a lot about the Sky Club, other than the air conditioning was not working very well, downstairs in the main airside terminal was a lot cooler.
Wandered down to the gate ahead of the boarding call and was boarded after a short wait. Duty free collected & turned left at the door. Bags stowed, champagne & sleep suit offered + accepted. The suites are in reasonable condition – no obvious faults. The movable armrest in 9K gives way as soon as any weight is put on it – but it will lock in the down position, which will matter later in the flight.
Flight time to LGW is going to be 7h53m with 434 pax & 15 crew onboard. We are still waiting for a few stragglers to board then we should be off. Aah, looks like I am going to get the Virgin experience of travelling with a Z-lister… one of the stragglers has just boarded and taken up residence in 8K next to me. There has already been a little fawning – Z-lister did not have to put any of his bags into the overhead / wardrobe himself – the crew did it for him. He was also offered a drink when the pre-departure drinks had been cleared away for other UC pax. This flight could be interesting.
Before departure the crew were making up the bowls of crisps [at the UC bar] to be offered with the after departure drinks – neither crew member was wearing the blue gloves & one of them was eating some of the crisps too… hmm.
Post take-off, the drinks have yet to be delivered, but Z-lister has already got a crew member from another cabin kneeled by his ottoman chatting to him. This chat lasted a good 10mins while the drinks were served to the UC cabin.
Z-lister has just been given a bottle of Lanson champagne (wrapped up in paper) as a present from the crew (I heard them tell him what it is). I can already feel the letter to Crawley Towers coming on.
Had the Duck followed by the Chicken for dinner – both were good. Nothing to write home about, but nothing wrong with either. Have just been to the toilet & I clocked the pax list taped up near the galley on the way back. Seems that Z-lister is a UNIQ, so I guess a certain amount of the attention he is getting is justified. Question to the other UNIQ’s on here (I know there are some) – when were you last given an unopened bottle of Lanson as a gift by the crew?
Got a few hours sleep on the bed & woke up about 1h40m out of LGW. The crew were just starting breakfast service so I had breakfast. The bacon roll was much better than previous VS attempts – it was actual back bacon (as opposed to the hot ham that you used to get) – very tasty it was too.
Now if you are a UNIQ passenger, you have travelled on VS quite a bit. You would expect UNIQ’s to have mastered the working of the UC Suite. Hmm, not so this morning. Z-lister had his IFE screen in the “view while you eat” position with the seat table out & a mug of coffee on the table, in front of the IFE screen. He pushed the table right back, the IFE screen caught the mug of coffee and deposited the contents all over his lap. I saw all this happen as I was getting something out of the overhead bin… time to dive back into my suite and laugh
. Cue some fawning from the crew, offering anything they could find to try and let Z-lister regain some of his composure. Once Z-lister had dried his trousers as best he could, he decided he wanted breakfast. A few minutes earlier another UC passenger had just woken up and had been told “there is just time for a bacon roll” & that is all he was given. There was, however, time for Z-lister to be presented with a full English breakfast.
Shortly after the remains of the breakfast service had been cleared away we got the “10mins to use the washrooms” announcement. The Z-lister asked the crew for his bags and they were placed on the floor in front of his suite so he could access them all with minimum effort. Bear in mind he was in 8K – there was not much space for others further forward to get round his bags, but nothing was too much trouble for him as far as the crew were concerned.
Cabin was secured for landing and we were at the gate 20mins early. Straight through immigration and the bags were on the carousel as we got to the baggage hall. 3 hours later we were home in the Midlands, so no complaints.
This was an OK flight. The crew in Upper did not use any passengers names & to be honest, they were only really interested in one passenger, our friend in 8K. Seems that the VS consistency bug has struck again (having the Z-lister on board did not help). The outbound flight was pretty much perfect & would bring me back to Virgin time and time again. The inbound flight probably would not.
Shame about Mr Orange getting all the attention....will be interested in hearing what responcse you get from Crawley Towers on that one 
and fell into the "others" category on this occasion.
