This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Check in was a breeze, but the Virgin / Swissport agents guarding the entrance to Upper Class check-in are returning to their old habits of years ago. Namely look you up and down and ask where you are flying to, then ask if it’s with Virgin Atlantic, then ask you what class of travel you’re in. Once allowed to the check-in desk, the agent was excellent and processed us very efficiently.
Then we had the first of two shocks at MAN – the Fastrack security was actually fast for once as they were not merging the Special Assistance lane with Fastrack, which is a first. A brief stroll through duty free and up to the 1903 Lounge. They had put a sign up saying “this lounge is at full capacity” and were actively turning people away – even those with Tui priority boarding passes. This sign clearly only referred to the Escape Lounge, as we were welcomed into the 1903 lounge with a smile (the normal lounge dragon on the desk has been demoted to clearing tables in the lounge!). The 1903 lounge was two thirds full at most and very pleasant. The breakfast buffet was a decent selection and certainly filled a gap as we’d forgone breakfast at the hotel (why pay when you can ger very similar for free?)
I’d tracked G-VGEM’s arrival from Atlanta on FlightRadar24 and watched where it went on the ground, so knew we were looking at a gate 205 or 206 departure. At bang on 9:15 gate 206 flashed up on the screens. Did the walk down to gate 206 & the guy who appears in Virgin’s facebook stream (Ground Experience Manager at Manchester, or similar job title) was running the show. Hmm, not sure I’d let him run a bath.
Got onboard & the crew did the usual pre-flight introductions & service – nice to see that they are now offering a cocktail in addition to the champagne & orange juice for boarding drinks.
We pushed back literally 2mins late, passing the VS76 which had just come in from Orlando & was “hot-gating” to 206 which we had just vacated. A fairly normal 9h7min flight ahead. Normal-ish routing down to Shannon, then start the oceanic crossing, then down the eastern seaboard to Orlando.
Now airbourne the crew seem to be excellent, very pro-active, introductions being done by Flying Club status working off the tablet devices. I mentioned that have to drive in Orlando & the FSM has already been back showing me a few of the non-alcoholic options (the actual cans) they only have a very limited supply of so he could put them aside. The first impressions of the FSM & the 3 person crew working Upper Class is excellent – this flight could possibly surpass my best VS experience from LGW some years ago.
The lunch service was very good and it is pleasing to see that some tweaks have been made to the menu (hopefully as a result of complaints). Back in December there was a Serrano Ham starter – which was very good. This has been replaced by a smoked salmon option which didn’t bother me as I like both. The baked Atlantic cod is now exclusive to Heathrow routes only, replaced by a re-appearance of the herb roasted chicken breast with brocollini, fondant potatoes & a wild mushroom and madeira sauce. I had the smoked salmon starter & then the chicken (had pre-ordered the latter) and was stuffed. Have requested the chocolate & salted caramel mousse & cheese plate to be served 90mins before landing when they do the “bite later on” service, as I don’t rate any of the options on that menu. The crew sorted this with no issues – probably helps that both are chilled options, but the ovens will be on later for the hot options.
Now for the boring 5hrs of the flight before things start to happen with the afternoon meal service and approach into Orlando. Time to test the wifi bandwidth – which is pretty good, as I have been able to stream content off YouTube with very little buffering. There does seem to be a hole in the wifi coverage over Newfoundland.
Afternoon / second meal service was done about 2hrs out of Orlando – the cheese that had been saved was OK. The chocolate & salted caramel mousse was excellent, albeit very rich. The crew had timed the second service well as about half an hour later it was very turbulent over North & South Carolina, with the seatbelt sign on for a while (first time since Manchester) and this was then upgraded to a “cabin crew please take your seats”. We’re now 56mins out of Orlando and the turbulence has gone, so the washrooms are doing brisk trade with passengers who want to get to them before we start our descent.
Arrived at gate 94 again – no idea why Virgin have started using / being allocated this gate as it’s a good walk to Immigration. I always thought they owned / leased gate 85 (it had a Virgin Atlantic logo on the jet-bridge). Through immigration seconds with Global Entry – looked at the kiosk and got the “processing complete” tick. The officer just asked me my name & where I had flown from, then wished me a good stay in the United States. The one advantage of Virgin using gate 94 is it gives the baggage team a bit of a head-start to get the first containers off. The reclaim belt was starting within a minute or two of me arriving in the baggage hall.
To summarise this was a very strong Virgin Atlantic flight. The crew were excellent & led by a FSM who was really involved in the service flow. It just proves – as is so often said on here – that when you get a good crew, Virgin can be up there amongst the best of the European long-haul carriers. (They are never going to beat Singapore unfortunately).
