This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
ALSO - Sorry for the wonky photos. I'm doing this in a slight rush, in an airport lounge before a flight, and on a mac book So the date had finally come, and after picking my OH up from work at 1pm the day before, we headed up the congested M6 toward Manchester airport, where we had a room booked at the Radisson Blu, as we always stay there the night before, and leave the car there too. This makes for a nice convenient stay where the car will be safe and we can get a bit of plane spotting done the evening before
The next morning, and it was finally time! She awoke quite early, to find me in the window watching over the airport runway. We did manage to see a VS 747 coming onto stand just before we left the room for the airport, which was a nice sight. Although – its from that distance, that you notice more so that the old style livery really does let them down a little bit now a days.
My OH wasn’t aware that I’d booked us in for UC, but was under the impression that we were going in PE. We have had a tough 12 months (not relationship wise) and this was just a nice treat that I had planned for us. Upon arrival at the check in desks (where they were allowing Economy pax to use the PE desks) something along the lines of “bloody hell, look at the lines!” To which I replied with “Good job we’re checking in there then!” (and pointed at the UC desks/signs) – She had a tear in her eye bless her, as I think she was taken back a little.
Straight to the desk without a wait, bags tagged, cards issued – and straight to security. The line for normal security was quite long already, and so the express line was a welcome extra, as there were just two people in front of us.
Being as we departed from MAN, we didn’t get chance to use an UC CH, which is a bit of a let down, as you pay the same price either way, but we did still try out the escape lounge that you get free access to. This was good, if you wanted a slight bit of quite, and a little bit of food and a drink. It soon got busy, and boring. We then left and just sat by the gate and waited.
The surroundings of the gate doors were absolutely rammed. I think the whole aircraft worth of pax were already there and waiting. A lot of people were slowly creeping towards the doors, in what looked like the worlds slowest line fight! We hung back, as we obviously didn’t need to fight for the front. I am 23 and my OH 22, so as UC were called to board, we did get some nasty looks from people as the stereotypes they had assigned to us (young people pushing in) were quickly smashed as they realized that in fact this was a case that they weren’t automatically better than us, but in fact we were travelling in UC. Great (and slightly smug feeling)
Now for the flight itself…..
We we’re boarded in good time, with priority UC boarding in place, we got on almost first, and took our seats in the much sought after 6A & 6K. At this point, the lovely lady that was looking after our cabin during the flight, also came and introduced herself, and bought us a drink and a nice little (moreish) bowl of crisps, which was a nice intro. (we’d already had the bubbly/OJ by this stage)
We were ready to go around 11:10 when all pax were boarded, but that then came with an ever so slight delay, as the captain made us aware that the baggage teams were just dealing with a slight “bag discrepancy” and that we wouldn’t be too long. He also advised us that there were 457 passangers, 17 crew, and an excpected flight time of 8h 10m.
As soon as all UC pax were seated, the FSM did come around and introduce herself by name, to all pax and have a quack chat with each of us, which was a really nice touch.
We were on the runway ready to go, at 11:30 which was still good time, going by some of the takeoff times reported on the VS75 recently!
Once up and leveled out, the FSM did mention that the IFE system wasn’t working, and that she’d already turned it off and on again. She was going to fully reboot the system, which she had to do twice, but after about 20 mins, we were good to go.
At around 13:00 (90 mins into flight), they began to lay our tables for lunch, which then made it evident that these cabins really do need more service attention, as she actually came around with a knife, as she clearly knew there was a high likelihood that she’d need it, as the tables get stuck a lot. Of the 14 seats in Upper (all occupied) She had to ‘help’ 2 of them out of the holder, and 2 others just wouldn’t release at all. This meant that one guy had to eat with his wife, and the other was asked (told) to eat at the bar – Which he seemed happy about. There didn’t seem to be any form of apology for this either – which, given the cost of the UC ticket, and this being a selling point – I’d be pretty miffed at this tbh.
The menu for this flight has been posted a few times, so I won’t bore you with that, but for starters, I opted for the Pea and Mint Soup – Which as a very fussy eater, seemed like the least objectionable option. It was actually very nice, especially when dipped with a nice white bread roll.
For main I decided to go for the satay chicken. This (for plane food) was very nice indeed. I did have it without the sauce (severely dislike mushrooms) but that nice chicken breast along with the fluffy soft potato cake, was a nice combination.
For desert, I went for the chocolate tart (as did 90% of the cabin) – That was beautiful.
There was a guy sat behind my other half in 7A that I thought was travelling alone, but I then overheard him telling the CC that his daughter was upstairs in the PE bubble, and asked if he could have another chocolate tart (he already ate one himself) so that he could take it up and give it to his daughter – Which, after the whole cabin was served, she did allow. With that, he then walked upstairs with the plate in his hand. I just thought that this was a little bit cheeky, but it was given the OK so who are we to moan – Plus, it’s not like he’s having her spend over an hour in the cabin sat at his ottoman and using the bar was it? Oh wait…. That happened too.
Around half way between dinner and afternoon tea, we had a small pot of ice cream served to us, whih went down a treat. I didn’t see anyone make use of the graze menu at any point, so not too long before afternoon tea was served, they cooked up all of the hot food that was on the menu, and filled the bar with mini burgers, samosas, pitta breads etc that where out for people to go up and have a try. I though that was a nice touch.
Afternoon tea was served (without the cake stands). We decided to sit together for this part, as afternoon tea together is nice ☺ Unfortunately, I didn’t get a scone, which was a little disappointing, but I’ll live. The sandwiches were soft, although not really to my tastes, but the cake selection was nice.
Not too long after this, the cabin was secured for landing, and we had a nice smooth touchdown at MCO, bang on time - landing right in front of the LGW flight. This was followed shortly by a message from the FSM explaining this, and basically suggested that we all run for our lives to beat the – soon to be – long immigration lines!
All in all, a very good flight, and we’re now sat in the Delta Sky Lounge awaiting boarding for the VS076 back to MAN (In Upper Class). If all is well, and this goes down well with the VF community, I will hopefully post a TR for this flight too, over the coming days.
Thanks for reading (If you've made it this far)
^J
