As it was, apart from a rude American in the seat behind me, who insisted her bag had to go in long ways because the door won’t shut on an absolutely rammed flight, and a few bumps, it was only a few mins behind schedule. Why BA continues to use A319’s on this busy route defies logic although I suppose the A320’s proved too big for Virgins venture. Oh and the bag did fit head first.
Anyways within a few mins of landing, the Sofitel beckoned and within minutes it was time for food. The Sofitel at T5 is the hotel of choice now for us. It’s a little expensive but it is literally a few steps from domestic arrivals, you are virtually over the Heathrow express station to T3 and beyond and worse case scenario there is an M&S directly across from the lift should you want to save a little on food.
So the VS91 and its strange departure time of 8.20. I firmly believe that’s why I’m sitting here at half three in the morning, drinking coffee and writing this report the next day.
8.20 departure. Mmmm technically a 5.20 check in time but of course everyone nowadays is probably checked in the day before using the app. Fine. But. Clubhouse time.
So you’re sitting in the Sofitel and for the 4th or 5th time, trying to work out timings to maximise the clubhouse. According to google the virgin checkin opens 3 hours before the first flight. I believe there is at least 1 flight before this so checkin will be open before 5. Heathrow express according to google starts 4.34 Maybe from somewhere but not from T5 as I found out at 4.50. So eventually figured out an alarm of around 3.30 needed to be set. The things you do for the clubhouse.
The access to the station opened around 5.05 and I think the first train leaving T5 was around 5.12 ish.
Anyway after the short speedy trip (it must be amazing watching from the cab) we were up the few steps to the welcoming glow of Virgins checkin at T3
Checkin was very quick as you’d expect at that time of the morning and the new security even quicker. Nothing out of bags, belt off to be on the safe side and through in mere seconds. Have got to say, Edinburgh fast track was just as quick. These new machines must be paying dividends with queue times and customer satisfaction.
So overall, ended up in the clubhouse around 5.45 after a quick wonder round duty free which probably gave around an hour and 45 ish before boarding. Not too bad but ….
The first food of the day was a cheeky wee English breakfast which even at that early time was only lukewarm but very welcome all the same.
A few cups of tea, more food and yes a wee glass of champagne, for the purposes of a quality check, and all too soon it was time for boarding at the large cupboard that is called gate 22.
It was a bit of a scrum but space was made when pre boarding was called and, I kid you not, nearly 70 people preboaded. Really.
Seat 1a was in very good shape, I’m one of the few that really doesn’t mind the old seats at all. If I want to look out the window, I’m still flexible enough to twist round for that few seconds and they seem to just work better.
Now, there seems to have been a slight refresh to Miss Sunshine although the last few flights have been on A350’s so maybe this has been a while ago. Gone are the red dividing curtains which have replaced with a brown velvety thing, there are no chunks out the seat wall and it all looked very fresh. All the buttons worked and overall the cabin looked in good shape. Infact much better than the 4 month old A350 I last traveled on.
Vera seems to have been given a refresh as well with the interface a bit slicker although the new movies seem to be a little sparse. This being no means a fault of Virgin but the fact there’s not been many blockbusters of late.
The WiFi worked superb all flight from gate to gate with speeds of over 50 when I checked. Way way better than the abysmal speed in the A350:but I’m still looking forward to starlink when it gets installed.
So the food. The bit many people rightly think virgin have kinda lost their way with over the last few years. To be honest, with the pre booking options, the menu didn’t look too bad for lunch but maybe not lunch that should have been served an hour after leaving - so roughly around half nine, I mean who really desires haddock, or miso chicken or some unpronounceable curry at half nine in the morning.
I opted for the chicken cesar salad which wasn’t too bad but almost impossible to eat out of a bowl with bits flying all over the table.
The crew were very good and asked everyone if they would like to wait a little before eating even commenting on that fact that most had probably just eaten in the clubhouse. The majority of the cabin did wait until around 11 which made the experience a lot better but come on, what genius decides that a plane wants lunch at 9.30 in the morning. Really.
I skipped the starter even after the wait and the dessert and opted for the cheese and biscuits which finished the meal off nicely. It’s a shame because I’m sure even with pre ordering, there would have been a lot of food wasted just because of the weird timings.
The crew on this flight were amazing and recognition will be heading to Crawley. There was a couple of blind passengers on the other side of me and the care and attention they were given right through the whole flight was absolutely first class. Sometimes we take everything for granted and forget how lucky we are to be fit and healthy. Actually scrub that. All the times we take everything for granted. I have a couple of blind / partially sighted friends and they rely on their memory’s of places to help them get around, but to travel to a different country, especially one that seems to change every visit, and not know what’s going on around you, has my great admiration.
The new cherry pie ice cream was very nice as was the afternoon tea but again the timings seemed to throw a few peoples appetites out of whack. After what felt a long flight, we landed early before 1pm. Immigration was quiet, global entry worked great and baggage was reasonably on time. I did see a couple taken into the room at the side but none of the scare stories you hear from other airports and immigration.
Hertz provided the car again, this one with a few dings but nothing major and within the hour we were at Disneys Saratoga springs for the next 10 days.
I will say, that I was so tired I think I was asleep before 7pm and obviously awake at 3am writing this so we will see how the early flight effects sleep patterns. It’s not looking great so far
Thanks for reading.
David
