VS003 LHR-JFK 1 MAY 14 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

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This is a long overdue trip report from our first trip to NYC and first flight with Virgin and my first time on an A340-600 (Dancing Queen).

Before the flight we spent time in the No.1 lounge, which I think is only really worth it if you can get it on a discount (which we did), but still we enjoyed it.

We boarded and left the gate on time to the exact minute. It was a foggy morning so very shortly after Captain Mike rotated us off the runway we were into the murk. Our flight time today would be 8 hours exactly due to a slightly stronger than usual headwind.

After the welcome drink and snack (pretzels - very apt!) I settled down to watch Dallas Buyers Club. Unfortunately I had a temperamental screen that wouldn't respond, so that was all I watched that flight. No matter, I was quite happy to watch the beautiful glaciers of Newfoundland roll out beneath us.

Food service was fab and much better than some carriers I have been on. I have always loved the 'Virgin touch' to things such as Plane Crisps as Mile High Mints, just a small thing that brings a smile to your face.

As we descended into NYC it was unfortunately pretty cloudy so only got to see stuff when we descended below 3000ft. We did the rarer 13L for landing and a very soft landing it was too, didn't even feel the touchdown.

We were off the aircraft in no time and going through customs, who were very friendly and cracking jokes, which was completely the opposite of what I had heard they do. Considering there had been snow only a fortnight previously, it was lovely and hot outside and we took the airtrain into the city.

A shame about your IFE but glad it didn't dampen spirits.

We also had a pleasant time at immigration at JFK in November, actually smiling and laughing staff…..perhaps not the rarity I had previously thought.

Great TR! And I have never had an issue with immigration.

Thanks for a great TR, glad you had a good flight. And a good experience with immigration - we went through JFK five days after you and were treated like very suspicious characters clearly meriting a spell in jail.

A good flight by the sound of it ,thanks for posting

Cheers for the TR, good to hear the flight was a good'un for the most part - a shame about the IFE, but you don't appear to have let it ruin your experience.

Ahh JFK customs being friendly... my last couple of trips through that border have also been efficient and cheery - perhaps the days of miserable long lines and moody border guards has passed us by.. let's hope

Thank you for the TR, an interesting read.

Shame that your IFE was not fully functioning - when I experienced the same issue on a recent VS45 to JFK (on an A343), I emailed the customer service politely (was a feedback rather than a complaint I'd say) and they gave me 12,000 FC miles. Might be worth trying?

Also going via the VS FC website you will get a discount on No.1 Lounge and some FC miles

Thanks for the TR. Glad you had a good experience onboard and at immigration.

In relation to the IFE, I would definitely feed this back to VS. Mrs J and I did and we were both gifted 15,000 into our FC accounts.

Dan