• Top-ups offered on pre-departure drinks
• Welcome from FSM / CSS
• Hot towels
• Working IFE
Meal & drinks orders have been taken. 5mins later (so 45mins into the flight) crisps & rather warm lager have been delivered. It is blatantly obvious that there is either a Z-lister or off-duty crew member in 2G due to all the attention / fawning he’s getting. I suspect he’s off duty crew as too many of the crew seem to know him for him to be a Z-lister. Interesting that he had his meal order taken ahead of me too – thought non-revving crew were supposed to take whatever meal choices are left after paying passengers have selected.
Hot towels have finally put in an appearance – am surprised the crew could get past as every crew member seems to want to talk to “Mr 2G”. It’s as bad as when I flew back into Gatwick years ago sat next to Dale Winton – only one Upper Class passenger mattered on that flight.
1hr into flight and the FSM has now been round, so it seems the crew are trying to make amends, but the service flow is like a tossed salad (apologies to the salad). IFE is still knackered and is likely to remain so for the duration, unless the engineers in Crawley can come up with some remote solution (unlikely). Apparently all was fine with it on the outbound, so it clearly does not like a few hours on the ground in Florida heat.
1hr 10min into flight tables have been set for meal service. Strongly now suspect Mr 2G is staff as he got his own table out ready – a Z-lister would not do this as it would be below them. Table set-up all done by hand service, no trolley, which makes it a bit more personal.
Passed on a starter for the meal, but had pre-ordered the Lamb Koftas which I have to say were excellent, really hit the mark. Due to the late hour (like 11:30pm local time in Orlando) passed on any dessert and pushed the button the send the seat flat.
Got a few hours sleep before waking up just as breakfast service was starting. Had the breakfast I’d ordered on the card, despite me thinking it was about 4am.
Uneventful slightly early arrival into Manchester. We had the pleasure of a remote stand & whilst waiting for the doors to open, Mr 2G was in the galley chatting to other crew – so he is clearly off-duty crew.
IFE was totally knackered for the entire flight – compensation letters were handed out at the bottom of the steps from the aircraft. 10k miles for Upper Class, 8k for Premium Economy & 6k for Economy. The letters shouls clearly have been handed out in Orlando at check-in as it offered you the option to buy a book / download content to a tablet device & keep a receipt before the flight. NB: You could only have the miles or reimbursement for book / content, not both.
This flight was certainly not Virgin’s finest 7h50mins by a long way. The crew all need a good kick and told to ignore off-duty staff members. Food was good and I am still not convinced about the A350 UC seat. I should also add the flight was far from full - Upper Class full, but about 10 in Premium Economy (walked through there for the toilets as only 1 for 16 pax in Upper).
Now for the question – when will I be back in Florida? I always say “no plans”, so that means 3-4 months time!
