V-Flyer

Managed to grab a couple of G fares last August so we were waiting quite a long time for our annual / bi annual pilgrimage to the land of the mouse. After reading quite a few posts it was evident that there are quite a few v flyers out here at the moment and maybe we should have a social here at some point . We stop at the Radisson at Manchester airport the night before on a regular basis now and as it has been completely renovated recently i feel it is really good value if you are driving there and use their inclusive parking package. Also they have opened a new club lounge on the top floor with fantastic views of the airport . With free drinks, food and an upgraded room it is a steal to pay the extra £20 for the business class room.

Even though we were not flying till 2pm as we were on the later flight we woke quite early and went down to breakfast in the hotel. With us flying from the frozen north we do not have the delights of a Virgin Club Lounge but more on that later.

Got to the check in at 11am where a pleasant check in girl greeted us with the normal smile. Apologised for being so early and she said some people had checked in at 7.30am for this flight . I always do this but I asked when Virgin were going to open their club house and I got a rye smile and the normal standard answer that there unfortunately is no room

Did some duty free shopping and then up to the service air lounge. You can at least get a seat no problem and to be fair it has improved it's very limited food offerings over the last couple of years but vs lounge it certainly wasn't . In fact there was a group of business men who were talking about how poor it was (not their exact words) compared to the normal Virgin and Emirates Lounges.

Boarding was called and we made our way to the gate where Hot Lips was waiting for us. We arrived at the aircraft door and were directed to out seats but not by name. I have flown with VS for many years and have never been greeted by name. The upper class cabin was full . There were two sets of couples which included myself and Mrs Kevshev and an off duty cabin crew member and the remaining passengers were two different sets of business passengers who had half of there workmates in Upper and and the other half in Premium. Before take off the cabin crew were under siege for more alcohol and as soon as the seatbelt sign went off there was an influx of passengers from the premium cabin. The flight supervisor had come to introduce herself to one of the men just before take off as he must have been au . He must have asked if his employees could come to the bar, which she must have agreed. However this gave the green light for the other firms employees to grate crash the cabin. To be fair everything was light hearted until one employee was helping himself to the booze and the crew were trying to serve dinner. At this point the flight supervisor stepped forward and asked them to go back to their seats. The new menu which has been discussed at length did not look ore inspiring but the pea and mint soup and the seafood linguine was excellent. Mrs Kevshev had the Thai beef salad which she did not like but due to her taste more than the quality and the fsm noticed and asked her if she would like to try the Chicken which was excellent

The flight was quite quick only 8 hours and quite smooth and the only time the captain had to put the seatbelt sign on was when the bar was overflowing with two sets of employees. The crew were very attentive especially when it wasn't an easy flight for them and they were constantly asking us and the other couple if we were ok, which we were.

We landed at 5.30pm and in the hire car by 6.15pm and we were delayed by watching one of the very drunk gentlemen off the plane trying to communicate with one of the boarder police

Overall an interesting and enjoyable flight and a big thumbs up for the crew

The only reason I didn't give the entertainment system five stars was that the flight map did not work.

Thanks for reading

KevShev

Thanks for an interesting read , I've got to say you sound far more tolerant than I would have been with such an influx of people into the UC cabin from PE , although the cc agreed to it it's good they didn't let things get out of hand
Once again thanks for posting

Seems your crew had a handle on the amount of PE wanderers , unfortunately my last December trip was the opposite ,no crew to be seen To stop the influx, but thumbs up to the crew

I've never understood why VS don't have access to the VH V-Room at Manchester. At least give passengers a choice if they want to keep the money within the Virgin group or go elsewhere.

Anyway, great read!