VS034 ANU-LGW 28 NOV 13 (Upper Class)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

So after 12 days in the sun in Galley Bay, it was time to come home. This was our first experience of UC, having managed to bag two mileage upgrades.

Naturally we had lounge access at VC Bird airport, but due to a combination of our airport taxi being operated on Caribbean time, and a queue at Emigration we only got to the lounge about an hour before the flight. Pretty full so had to sit at the bar, but OK - managed a cheeky beer before boarding for UC and PE commenced.

At ANU airport you have to go through a sort of funnel to get to the actual gate, and for the first time had the experience of EC passengers being turned away, and ourselves welcomed. Through the gate next and then the walk to the aircraft, enjoying our final piece of Antiguan sun, and then the extra pleasure of being diverted to the front steps.

Welcomed by name, shown to seat, and then champagne offered and gladly accepted. Another one offered, would have been rude to say no. Took off on time, but advised that the flight would be longer than usual due to headwinds (however still into LGW by 6am).

A drinks run next, Whisky and Ginger please (nicked the stirrer – is that wrong?), and then ordered our meal. Soup, followed by beef wellington for me, then a cheesecake and coconut pie, cheese and crackers. All excellent, washed down with the Malbec, and better than anything I have eaten in the air before.

My wife had a few issues, as she is dairy free. However the crew concocted a salad followed by the chicken main without the sauce, so good in the end. Just digressing a bit we realised we had made a mistake when reserving my wife’s meal. On the food options we had selected Vegetarian-Lacto thinking that meant dairy free, when in fact it is Vegetarian with Lacto products, and we should have selected Vegetarian-Vegan. Seems obvious now, but not obvious to us when booking.

Managed to watch a Mrs Brown’s Boys (makes me laugh and feel that it shouldn’t) and Alan Partidge – Alpha Papa (good in parts).

And then to bed, once the attendant had wrestled the seat into the flat position. I guess I managed a couple of hours sleep, but couldn’t really get comfortable. The flight time is such that you are trying to sleep at about 9pm so not really that tired which may have been a factor. Now I am a little fella (about 5’ 7”) and I bet some of the bigger chaps find it hard to get comfy in the bed.

Woken for breakfast, and had a lovely bacon butty, then into LGW. No queue at immigration, baggage on the belt, and out of the airport 30 mins after landing, probably 20 mins from disembarking. Straight onto a train for the journey to the North.

We have UC booked for next June on a LHR 747 and a MAN 747, so will be interested to see how those UC configurations work.

Thanks, I'm on this return in July. We've done this route a few times and the last was following a huge storm where (quite literally) the storm clouds parted and the UC pax were ushered on, followed by a massive hail storm and the rest of the pax clambering up the steps to the safety of the cabin......

Glad you had an enjoyable flight.