This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
This first trip was a full revenue flight, PE out/UC return which we got a good deal on around ten months ago - the way the flights were pricing up, doing PE out-UC back was around £1600 compared to £800 for Economy both ways so this seemed to sweet spot (PE both ways was £1200 and UC both ways nearly £2.5k).
Leaving a bit later in the day meant a very civilised start - the last few holidays we've done have been real early-starter, european jobs, so not having to be at MAN by 5/6am was a big relief - I don't really do mornings very well. We arrived about 11:15 into a completely empty Terminal 2, walked right up to the VS desk and handed everything over to a friendly, efficient but not overly talkative check-in girl. We'd done OLCI the day before (and managed an appalling SEQ199 due to being in work and ignoring the alarm I'd set on my phone to remind me!), so we were on our way to security in less than five minutes. There were very few people queuing so we got through fairly quickly although they were a lot more hands on than normal, OH having a good pat down from the female security guard. Maybe she was already in holiday mode but I'm sure she enjoyed it
We met up with our travelling companions in duty free and stocked up on supplies of perfume for the girls - clearly going away for ten whole days would be impossible without all new smelly stuff.
From there, it was on to the first disappointment of the day... As part of the obsessional miles collecting that we've been doing over the last ten months we've had Amex Platinum cards. Largely this was for the 35k bonus, but I decided to keep mine on for the full year and see whether the benefits it comes with are worth having. One of the big draws was the Priority Pass membership for the main and the supplementary cardholder, giving each person lounge entry with a free guest. For the four of us travelling today, this was ideal as it would mean all of us getting into the Escape lounge (not as nice as the one in T1 but still better than the awful Styal lounge).
Or it should have meant that, except that neither the Escape Lounge, nor the Styal lounge were allowing any PP card holders in
Not the end of the world but I'd been raving to the others about how great it was to have these two PP cards... only for them to prove to be utterly useless! I was already thinking I'd be letting the Amex go soon, but this was the final nail in the coffin. I get a better deal with my RBS Black bank account - for considerably less money. They do a superb travel booking service which gives 10% off everything you book through them, plus a guaranteed one class upgrade with AVIS, confirmed at the time of booking rather than subject to availability at the rental booth as the "status" that comes with Amex gives - more on this later.Undeterred, we found a bar in the main departure area and had a few drinks. Our later than normal start meant there was none of the usual pre holiday feeling of guilt having your first drink at ridiculous o'clock... I kind of missed that!
Boarding was nice and calm, we had chosen seats at t-60 (something I did remember to listen to my alarm for) so had the second last row of 4 seats in PE (18D-G). We were some of the last PE passengers on as we were waiting about a bit for the girls to do something-or-other-with-life-or-death-significance, I forget now what it was
. Even so there was still plenty of space for all our carry on luggage right above our seats.We settled in and were offered drinks pretty much straight away, cabin crew were pleasant and efficient, had a bit of a chat with them but always find that when you're in economy or PE you don't get much chance for interaction unless you are on a front row near their seating/galley areas.
We pushed back dead on time and, having flown a lot lately in smaller planes, I was really reminded just how much smoother the 747 is. It's such a shame these aircraft are going, I'm really looking forward to our Boston trip next year to see how the 787 compares.
The instant the seatbelt signs were off, the second disappointment of the day happened - the couple in front of us slammed their seats right back. I know this is a really divisive topic on here, but my 2p is that the amount of recline the PE seats have makes them a real lottery. I've now flown VS PE three times, and on two of those I've had my lovely spacious, comfortable seat turned into a knee crushing economy style prison (I know, I know, first world problems
). I'm 6'2" so this is always going to be more of a problem for me but my OH is only 5'1" and the amount the woman in front of her was able to recline made things really uncomfortable for her. To my mind this is a bit ridiculous when you are paying £2-300 more per leg, especially on a day flight. If they limited the recline to about half of what it is, it would still be a really comfortable flight for the person in front, but wouldn't spoil the experience of the "recipient". Any way, rant over, next time I'm going to look at getting seats at the front of PE, or seriously consider exit row economy as at least then I'd be sure I wasn't going to be squished.Pretty soon the cabin crew were round with more drinks, and very generous they were with them too - sparkling wine, a bloody mary, beer, couple of wines with lunch, amarula after... basically whatever we wanted. The food was good, really good in fact, probably my best airline meal to date. I had the baked leek and walnut penne and OH had the braised beef. Both were really tasty and a big step up on previous meals I've had on VS.
The rest of the flight was nice and smooth, it went really quickly which either means my boredom threshold is getting better as I get older, or that a good few drinks, some nice food a decent IFE all make a difference. I suspect the latter.
Landed at MCO a few minutes ahead of schedule and were pretty much first into the immigration hall (I'm well versed at legging it from transatlantic flights having been burned too many times in EWR coming off united flights). With a plane as big as the 747 it does make you realise what a difference it makes getting off from the right end of the aircraft.
We were taken to the electronic terminals which were fine - though USCBP now have a truly horrific photo of me on file
. There was a small panic that the male half of the couple we were flying with realised he hadn't done anything about getting an ESTA... thankfully his last one was still just about in date so he didn't have to go straight home.We were through immigration and had our bags within about forty minutes of landing which is pretty good I guess. Followed the tip from here to make sure we kept our bags with us on the sky train and went off to the AVIS desk.
When we were away in the summer we flew into Rome, the car rental experience here in the states couldn't have been more different to the horror show we had in Italy (think four hours in an airless torture chamber with only 8 people in front of you, only to be finally told they didn't have the car you've ordered
). As an AVIS preferred member we just went straight to the garage, had a 4 minute chat with the lovely lady behind the desk and were on our way. Because of the upgrade offer with RBS we got an amazing SUV (Lincoln Navigator) for the same price, about £120, that a tiny awful Citroen C1 had cost us in Italy. A fairly quick 2 hour drive and we were at our first stop of the trip, Venice on the Gulf coast. More on that in the TR for the return leg...
Well done to any one who got this far
