V-Flyer

This was going to be our first time flying Virgin, having got very fed up with United’s level of service our last couple of trips to the West Coast of the USA had been with Air New Zealand. They have a very polished Business Premier product; however they had let my partner down who is a vegetarian on both occasions with very meagre offerings, which was a shame as the rest of the service was good.

Once we had decided that Virgin was going to be our airline of choice this time round I set to monitoring flight prices in the hope of picking up a bargain. When Delta announced the tie up with Virgin there were some good prices to be had, surprisingly the Delta fares were at the time on their website £500 cheaper each than on Virgins website, so I jumped and purchased two Upper Class returns to SFO. (I later also registered for the Little Red offer and we have both had 2 Little Red reward flights credited to our accounts, will use them later this year).

Tried to check in online and that’s where things went a bit wrong. I could only access our flights through the Flying Club log in looking at forthcoming flights. Seems that Virgin used a different confirmation code than the one that Delta gave me, so that’s why I couldn’t check in using that. I managed to check in OK, but it wouldn’t let me check my partner in as well for some reason, never mind he could do that himself I thought. Seems that wasn’t going to happen as the website said he had already checked in even though he hadn’t. A quick phone call to Crawley towers and a new confirmation code was issued that allowed him to check in.

Being the day after Boxing Day the drive to LHR was nice and easy, and transfer bus to T3 was quick. On arrival at T3 we saw the Upper Class check in desk with no one else queuing so quickly made our way over. I don’t know what I was really expecting from my Virgin experience but being addressed as “you” by the check in desk agent was a surprise bearing in mind she had just looked at my passport so knew who I was. Anyway, check in was smoothly completed and directions given to the lift to take you up to security. Once at security there was only one person in front of us so we were both quickly through and headed off to the Clubhouse.

On entering the Clubhouse we were met at the door and whilst my partner was virtually blanked the guy at the door asked if I had been in here before. I said I hadn’t expecting to get a bit of a tour as it was still very quiet in there, but my tour consisted of standing on the spot and him pointing in general directions to various areas. Unfortunately we never saw the large map display of the layout until we were making our way out. We had a quick look around and settled down over by the windows looking out on to the T3 "G" cul-de-sac. Within a couple of minutes we were approached by a waitress asking if we needed anything, we settled on a couple of drinks while we looked through the menu deciding what to have for breakfast. I settled on just a sausage roll, whilst my partner had egg Florentine both of which were really nice. Service was very friendly and was a nice change from the Star Alliance lounge in T1 which was packed and very noisy last time we were in there. We didn’t explore much further than where we were and the time quickly disappeared as the lounge slowly filled up. Seasoned Clubhouse visitors will be disappointed to hear that we left on the first call for boarding and didn’t do the norm by having another drink.

We were flying on Lady Penelope and she was on stand 319, so we had a slow amble down to the gate. The Upper Class lane to enter the gate was empty and we walked straight into the gate area and boarding began about 5 minutes after we had arrived.
We were welcomed on board by one of the flight attendants at door 1L and directed to our seats, once we had settled down into 16 & 17K we were offered drinks and I decided that now would be a good time for my first glass of champagne of the day. Boarding was carried out very efficiently and the forward zone of Upper Class filled up quite quickly. The captain then gave us his welcome speech and informed us that we were still waiting for 2 missing passengers so we were likely to be a bit late leaving the gate. Eventually the 2 missing passengers turned up or were off loaded and we pushed back. The flight attendants who were responsible for our zone had been round and introduced themselves and took our orders for after take-off drinks.

Once we were airborne the flight attendant in charge of our zone came round and introduced herself to us individually as she handed out the menus.

Lunch options were as follows:

Starters:
Smoked Salmon & Dill Mousse – avocado & lemon cream, sweet beetroot glaze.
Organic Italian Tomato & Basil Soup
Warm Breads – a selection of Artisan handmade bread rolls.

Main Courses:
Seared Fillet of British Beef – mashed potatoes, celeriac chips, grain mustard sauce.
Free-range Grilled Chicken Breast – fondant potato, seasonal vegetables, creamy chervil sauce.
Wok-fried King Prawns – sticky rice, pak-choy, spicy Szechuan sauce.
Cream & Cheese Polenta Cake – winter roasted vegetables, fresh rocket.

Dessert:
Clementine Sponge Pudding – citrus jus, cream.
Dark Chocolate and Cream Slice – blitz raspberry coulis.

Cheese and Port
Cropwell Bishop Stilton – creamy, mild, smooth.
Ford Farm’s Smoked Cheddar – firm, mild, smoky.
Somerset Camembert – soft, creamy salty.
Assorted crackers, dried apricots and pears.

I had the beef which was really nice and tender, probably one of the nicest meals I had ever had on an aircraft and my partner had the Cream & Cheese Polenta Cake which was also really good (not sure if you can ever call polenta good but the rest of it was I am assured).

At one point during the meal service one of our fellow passengers opposite us was taken ill. The flight attendants were extremely professional in how they dealt with it and he was moved to the crew seats by door 1L so they could care for him. After a while a call went out over the PA for a doctor or medically trained person to make themselves known if one was on board. I guess the crew felt he was seriously enough ill to warrant such a call. I don’t know if there was anyone suitably qualified on-board but a couple of hours later the gentlemen who was ill was brought back to his seat and made comfortable wrapped in a blanket. Without any fuss being made for the duration of the flight a member of the cabin crew came up at least every 10 minutes and just kept a look out at him to check if he was OK.

Thankfully by the end of the flight he had perked up quite a lot and I sincerely hope he’s OK now. Being ill on a long haul flight must be horrible but the cabin crew from what I saw were excellent in the way they dealt with things.

Afternoon tea soon came around; the sandwiches on offer were not the same as in the menu but were very nice just the same.

Shortly afterwards we began our descent into San Francisco 10 hours and 3 minutes after departure we had a firm landing on 28R and some reasonably heavy braking to make the exit off the runway which gave the shortest taxi time to the stands. This was accompanied by a tongue in cheek remark over the PA by one of the FA’s about the landing.

De-boarding was nice and efficient and we were sent on our way by the friendly FA’s, we were beaten to the Immigration desks by the passengers of a recently arrived KLM MD-11 (enjoyed the close up view of that very rare bird these days) so that took about 20 minutes to get through which was still good. Bags turned up pretty quickly and there were no delays getting through customs so we were shortly outside.

So my first flight on Virgin was over and done with. I have to admit I was impressed, the service was excellent and the food and drink very good. I was one of the selected passengers on board who was asked to carry out one of their flight surveys – which I gladly did (also got one on the return trip). The only thing that let Virgin down a tiny bit was the cabin, I know that the 747’s are getting on a bit and could really do with a cabin upgrade to enable them to keep pace with the likes of say Air New Zealand who’s cabins still look pretty crisp and new, but as they're going in the next few years it’s understandable why Virgin haven’t spent the money on them. This was the only part of the survey I marked them down on a bit and in no way did it detract from my enjoyment of the flight.

Now we had a day and a half in San Francisco before heading off to Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines and then onto Molokai on Mokulele Airlines before doing the entire thing in reverse a couple of weeks later. I will do another trip report for our SFO – LHR flight and the San Francisco Clubhouse. And maybe a Hawaiian Airlines one as well as it's possible to earn Miles through them.

Thank you a splendid TR

Virgin clearly impressed you for the most part, but your initial impressions (which of course are very important) identified to me the minor issues of your greeting at check in and at the Clubhouse could have so easily turned around your favourable impression.

As the marriage with Delta progresses, I hope that care and attention is focused on the small details

buns

Shocking..this really is not good enough, you know.

AlphaEcho wrote: once we had settled down into 16 & 17K we were offered drinks and I decided that now would be a good time for my first glass of champagne of the day.

Excellent TR, and glad the in flight experience appears to have made up for the indifferent service on the ground.

Now, chop chop with all the other TRs please.

Excellent TR
Shame about the check in at LHR
I didn't know it was possible to go VS on route to Hawaii
Really want to go one day but might go via Japan instead as its much closer

Thanks everyone for your kind words. I do appologise for letting the side down and heading to the gate at the first call. My defense was that at the time I was a Virgin virgin but it won't happen again.

Just had a look on Great Circle Mapper and the LHR-SFO-HNL route is 7766 miles as against the LHR-NRT-HNL route which is 9796 miles, so for me it's not the shortest route, guess it all depends where you're starting from.

AlphaEcho wrote:Thanks everyone for your kind words. I do appologise for letting the side down and heading to the gate at the first call. My defense was that at the time I was a Virgin virgin but it won't happen again.

Just had a look on Great Circle Mapper and the LHR-SFO-HNL route is 7766 miles as against the LHR-NRT-HNL route which is 9796 miles, so for me it's not the shortest route, guess it all depends where you're starting from.

Wow it's quite a bit longer lol
Well I guess the logic was to fit in a week in Hawaii while on holiday in Japan then it doesn't seem so long ? Does that even make sense lol it sort of does in my head lol
PS I also went at the first call :-$ eager? Lol
Had forgotten my "v-flyer" rule book lol :-P