V-Flyer

This is my return report, you will have noticed my outbound scored as just average. The cc included but not for any other reason than they were so busy on the outbound that they had little time to do anything else.

I checked in on line the night before but still needed a boarding pass. The UCS desk was not ready yet as I arrived at the airport quite early. The lady on the desk was very friendly and attentive once she managed to set her desk up and cushions on my bench.

I went on the hunt for food at the airport that wasn't flame grilled or smoked or covered in BBQ sauce, two weeks of junk food had taken its toll, and yup I ended up with a big mac .

Was most impressed with the "preferred" line through security, not seen this before, it really helped my nerves, I always seem to look guilty of something when faced with authority

I went straight to the Crown Room, its nothing special as lounges go but in truth I quite like it, much nicer than the Escape at Manchester. I managed a couple of hours snooze on the comfy chair.

The gate was fine with no throng of passengers blocking the priority line. Spot check of my back by a burly security guy before walking down to the plane, he commented how nice I smelled would he have said that if he knew i was on the other bus lol.

As my suite had a dodgy armrest/shelf I sneekily switched to the next suite up on line, turned out they must have fixed 4A
anyway. Some people nearer the front were having problems with the table not going back in, they got a man in to fix it, but I knew it was just a matter of time before the sticky tape came out. You would think these suites would be a little more rebust, I swear Ikea furniture must last longer.

The service on this flight was just perfect, more staff, more smiles and a little chat now and again, that's all it takes really.

They made me a bucks fizz and I settled in, does anyone know why you can't use your own headphones until after take off, it puzzled me. Anyway once up my Bose were out.

Sorry but not impressed with the food again and my wine was rank. the CC very kindly got me a pudding from PE which was lovely.

On the face of it the bar looks spectacular, but one well fed person sat on the middle stool and you have little or no chance of sitting on the stools either side. If you have piles I wouldn't try either .

IFE was perfect again, very impressed. also the bed mode, it really is softer and for the first time I managed 3 hours sleep. Still think the suite is a little narrow.

All in all a much better flight home than going out ( which has not usually been the case for me ), the CC having time to interact with the pax makes all the difference and they should be congratulated on this flight.

I much prefer the old suite on the 747s to be fair ( although the bed mode on them is pretty hard ).

Would I pay for a full J for the new suite, well no I would not
especially given the food quality, if a G or a Z well yes.

Congratulations to the crew on this flight, a credit to VA in every way.

Can you bring back the weetabix please

Great TR! Regarding using your own headphones in order for VS to be allowed by the CAA to offer gate to gate IFE mock evacuations had to be carried out using the VS headphones to prove that the leads would snap when pax jumped up to evacuate and therefore not get tangled in the wires or trapped by headphones whose leads didn't break.
Therefore the CAA certified the gate to gate ife usage but only if pax use the VS supplied headphones.

Thanks VB for clearing that up for me