VS011 LHR-BOS 19 JUN 24 (Upper Class)

We started our New England road trip getting the train from Manchester to London the afternoon before. We decided to get an uber to our Heathrow hotel as there were issues on the underground. It was a lot easier than trying to navigate the underground with 3 cases. We were on the later Boston flight as when I booked it was originally a 330 neo so wanted to try a new aircraft and was hoping to try the retreat suite but unfortunately a few weeks before this was changed to a 330. I now wished we had booked the earlier flight but it was actually quite nice as we had more time to enjoy the clubhouse. It does make you realise how rubbish the Manchester lounge's are when you spend time in the clubhouse. We Checked in using upper class wing and used the private security lane which had just re-opened the day before. There were lots of staff around and were through straight away. We spent a lovely few hours enjoying the clubhouse which was busy but still a lovely experience.
Our flight was called and we boarded straight away. The aircraft was definitely looking a bit worse for wear, and the seats are looking very worn. The FSM came around and welcomed us and chatted to us for a while. We were about 45mins late setting off and it took ages to actually take off due to a large amount of planes waiting to take off. We seemed to wait ages once we had set off before we were offered a drink - probably about 45mins and then it was about another hour before they started the meal service. We had pre ordered food - I had the truffle butter chicken and hubby had the wild boar sausages. The food was actually better than I was expecting after reading other trip reports and it was 'ok' - I've definitely had better on Virgin before and in fact our return trip was in premium and have to say We both actually preferred the food in premium.
The flight passed really quickly just about 7hours and we landed only about 10mins later than planned.. Once we had landed the FSM came and gave us a bottle of fizz and a card as we had mentioned it was our 30th Wedding anniversary while we were away which was a nice touch. All the crew were lovely and very attentive throughout the flight
We were through immigration in 10 minutes using global entry and straight onto the bus to collect our hire car. We did get a little worried when they could find the details of my Husband's global entry but then we realised we hadn't updated his passport details as he had a new passport. They were ok about it though and still let us through and just said to update it once we were home.
All in all another great flight with Virgin and after spending the 1st night just outside Boston we were off to explore the White Mountain National Park, Maine coast area and then off to Cape Cod before getting the train down to New York.
Thanks for reading

Ubering to Heathrow was a smart move with all those bags. Shame about the aircraft switch, but the clubhouse was a nice perk. Virgin's anniversary gesture with fizz and a card was sweet. Enjoy your road trip through New England — White Mountain, Maine coast, and Cape Cod sound amazing.