VS3021 LHR-ABZ 16 JUL 14 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

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Shortly after my first ever LR flights to EDI, I managed to convince my colleague to travel up to ABZ for a quick work trip with LR. He took a lot of convincing, which I was quite surprised about especially as LR was half the price as BA for the same date and very similar times, but we got there. After that I had everything crossed that it would be a good flight, as otherwise I won’t hear the end of it.

I did OLCI, picked a nice aisle seat towards the front, and made sure that my colleague joined the FC following my recommendation link. By that point he was really embracing the whole thing, or maybe it was because I kept nagging him. Anyway, it was a nice little bonus of 1000 miles for such a short trip.

The flight was at 9.10am, so the taxi whizzed me to the airport by 7.10am, and surprisingly, encountering quite a bit of traffic on the M25 en route. Without check-in luggage, it was before 7.30 that I was ready for some breakfast at Giraffe. A coffee and scrambled egg on toast later, I was ready to head to gate 8, the UK &I gate(s) area, and looking forward to the Plane Crisps.

Within a few minutes boarding started promptly and on time. It all happened extremely quickly, as there were very few of us. I would say that there were about 25-30 of us in total, which was a very light load. I have read about this previously, but my recent LR experience to EDI had made me think that super-light load was something of a past for LR. Unfortunately that’s not 100% true, not yet anyway.

As soon as I stepped onto the plane, the CC asked to see my boarding pass again. On my last LR flight I thought this was an one-off, but I’m starting to see a trend here. Given that my boarding pass had just been scanned less than a minute ago at the gate by the ground crew, and there’s one aisle to go down on a LR plane so I don’t need any directions (not that any was offered, I find this quite strange). Why is a final check (I presume) needed on a domestic flight when it’s not required on a long-haul?

Anyway, it was just an observation, not something that really bothered me. We pushed back slightly early, when watching the safety demonstration. I have to say, it is a real shame that those LR A320s don’t show the new (ish) safety video that’s used for long-haul flights, as I am really quite a fan of the video, and think that it would show off the VS flare to its domestic travelers.

Another thing I noticed was that no Ruby magazine was on board. I wondered if it’s because this route is mainly for business visits, rather than leisure on the EDI route?

The flight itself was completely fine. Service was quick (due to the light load I guess) and the Plane Crisps as delicious as usual, especially washed down with some tomato juice (with lemon and Worcester sauce of course). It was too short for a snooze but I did shut my eyes briefly. I was quite tired, having arrived back home from Sicily less than 36 hours ago.

The journey felt quite a bit longer than the EDI flight for some reason (I know the distance is a bit more but it felt noticeably longer), perhaps because it was business vs leisure and perhaps because I was travelling with a colleague (who sat away from me) vs travelling next to the hubby. The landing was a lot less dramatic than expected, as I’ve heard all sorts of stories about how short the runway is at ABZ.

As we left the airport, I asked my colleague about his first VS experience. He thought that it was standard (and no better or worse than BA really), and said that he would happily travel with VS again as it was on-time (we were early, actually) and pleasant. Phew!

Well done on signing up another convert (hopefully).
Pleased that you enjoyed the Plane Crisps, is it me or is there a secret way to open the packet? I always seem to make a mess of it, either I am loosing my strength or perhaps the instructions are printed too small!
Note I still have my own teeth.

Thank you hazban. I've been going on about VS, FC, black CC, miles upgrade etc so much lately that a couple of my colleagues almost got themselves a black CC despite having never flown with VS :p

I don' t think there's a secret way of opening those Plane Crisps packets... I, too, find them quite difficult to open (nowhere near as bad though as trying to open those Urban Eat boxes on BA short-haul), but I find that sheer determination usually does the trick

The CC told me they have to check the date and flight number on the boarding pass when you get on the plane. They made sure they checked every single one on both my LR flights.

Strange, as both my flights to/from ABZ had the magazine and were full/almost full.

[honey lamb]

The CC told me they have to check the date and flight number on the boarding pass when you get on the plane. They made sure they checked every single one on both my LR flights.

Strange, as both my flights to/from ABZ had the magazine and were full/almost full.

Yes, that's true. It's surprising how many people get on the wrong flight or there is a mistake on the boarding pass.

Aer John and I were going to LHR from the old terminal in Cork, where you had to walk out to the planes which were parked parallel to the terminal building. There were two Aer Lingus planes parked; ours and one to Dublin. A lady came out o the door for the Dublin plane, hesitated and headed for ours. The next thing was we saw her battling her way to a seat in front of ours so we alerted the cabin crew that we thought she was on the wrong flight. She was and nearly missed hers by a whisker!!

Then there was the time that as I was waiting in line to board one of the gate agents called back a man who didn't hear the call and continued on his way down to the boarding area. It was the new terminal but still boarding by steps and we were held at the door of the terminal to allow the congestion on the steps to subside. As we were waiting I overheard one of them say they needed to sort out 2 Alpha. Guess who was in 2 Alpha. Yup! Li'l ole me! Sure enough the call went out, "Will passenger honey lamb make themselves known to the cabin crew" I did and was asked if I was Mr XYZ. I gave her a limpid look and she agreed that I wasn't Mr XYZ. I gather Mr XYZ agreed that he was not honey lamb and we were on our merry way.

I hadn't thought that this would actually happen after the boarding passes are checked at the gate! Love the real life stories HL.