This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
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We weighted our luggage before leaving for the airport, and we were just under 30kgs each, however my hand luggage weighted a fair bit!!!! We arrived at the airport and found the VS Check in area, once there we were the only ones in line, but the UC check in agents were all dealing with pax a lady came up and said hello, and advised that we wouldnt be waiting long, and welcomed us to VS, and had a nice little chat about SYD and London! I thought this was a really nice touch, she showed us to the next free agent and we were check in only just a few minutes. The check in agent, was a darl she was friendly, and chatted with us and asked us if we knew where the lounge was, we said, no. And she apologised as it nothing like the CH at LHR! She never asked about our hand luggage, and come to think of it, none of our flights to HKG or SYD did they look or weight our luggage??? Thank god really! We had our boarding passes issued through to LHR and given our NZ lounge passes, we found mum and dad and V-Monkey, wanted his last Bondi burger at Oporto, so we went and had a burger, I was too emotional to eat and just had some water! [:#][:#]
It was soon time to say goodbye, (the part I never like!) after a few tears, we said goodbye and went through security, and the screening this took no longer than 5 mins! SYD airport was SO busy, but as we went through security it was quiet!
We headed for the lounge as I needed a drink! The lounge is rather large, and open there wasnt anyone at the podium so we walked in to be greeted by 2 friendly lounge attendants, and they took our invitation, and welcomed us to the lounge. We found some seats over looking the airport, and we could see the rain storm coming in! I got myself a G+T, and V-Monkey went to look around the terminal! (there seems to be a common theme when we travel!) The lounge was fairly quiet, no more than 10 people it soon filled up, as our scheduled departure drew near. In the lounge they had a small food selection, bread rolls, ham, pizza, sausage rolls, fresh fruit salad, scones with cream, jam and kiwi fruit! It isnt a CH, but certainly adequate for what we needed, also the other thing I noticed was that they didnt have champagne, it was Lindaur Special Reserve! Sparkling wine at best! Which I thought was a shame as I am partial to a champers or 4! While we were there we were watching the aircraft taking off, we noticed a BA 767 come to a stand! Not too sure if it was on charter for a cruise, but not something you see at SYD! [:?]
I went for a walk to see what aircraft would be taking all the way to Heathrow, and it was Madam Butterfly, so the same one we had to SYD! I headed back to the lounge and the flight was called shortly after. We headed down as we had a fair amount of hand luggage, we got to the gate and there was priority boarding, again it didnt seem to matter as all of the W/Y pax were on board. The airbridge was at the front of the plane, so we were welcomed by the FSM, and pointed in the right direction of our seats 2/3K The FSM was the same one as we had going to DXB in December, I couldnt place her for a while then it came to be about an hour in to the flight! (You can see I am a little slow!) [;)]
We were offered the usual Champers etc, and I of course partook! The menus were on our seat. I had a quick look and there was only one main meal service! I really think this is bad for a 9hr flight, I know there are the lite bites but it really isnt a second meal service![V]
The pilot came on the PA, to advise a 9hr 5mins flight, due to strong head winds, we left the gate 5mins early at 1430, took off at 1445 and V-Port was on at 1530, I think they forgot to put it on as we had to ask the IFBT when it was coming on. Flight was fairly full, 214 pax on board (as told by the pilot) J only had about 3 or 4 seats free. I didnt go down the back, but V-Monkey did and said that PE was full, and a few seats free in Y.
The IFBT came around and said that they didnt have enough UC Shoe Bags, and as we were going all the way to London, would it be OK if we had a PE Amenity pack, we both said that was fine, and she said that she would make sure we would get our treatments too! She was REALLY nice, and she came around with the extras, I really do like the new pens! I have a few now!!! [y]
Dinner orders were taken, and I mentioned that how come there is only one meal service on this flight? She advised that we can have the lite bites when ever we want throughout the flight! This is a real bug bear, as if you are paying for UC at least they could get the meals right! Anyway, I should be looking out for my weight! I had the Barbequed Scallops, they were tiny cold, and not very nice! For my main I had Crusted Lamb, mashed pots, Sugar snap peas and carrots, the lamb was to die for! It was tender, pink in the middle, and melted in the mouth! Again the veggies were cooked to perfection, crunchy and tasty!
I had a few drinks at the bar and had a chat to the crew who were really friendly, I was talking about what routes they do, and the 2 English FAs lived in Australia and all they do is the HKG route and they love it, they get 2 days in HKG then back home for 3 or 4 days off. They said it is great as it is long haul but they are not away for 9 days like the UK based crew. It was nice to be at the bar, and try to use it on every flight as I have noticed that not many people seem to use it. Well especially on the flights to SYD, as many of them are night flights.
I went back to my seat, and had a little sleep, and woke and we still had about 3 or 4 hours to go it was great just laying in bed, listening to my ipod and looking at the imap. It was a rather bumpy flight, and the seatbelt sign was on for a lot of the flight.
While I was in bed, the IFBT came over and asked if I wanted my treatment, even though the seatbelt sign was still on as she hadnt done many treatments, due to this and also people sleeping etc. So I went over and had my hand reflexology thing, which I just love. She was really lovely, and chatty and we had a good giggle her old flat mate who is also a IFBT was going to be on the HKG-LHR leg and wanted to get as many treatments as possible, so she wasnt left with lots to do, as the flight was full from HKG. She said that she hadnt got through so many, as people were eating, then the seatbelt sign went on, she then went on her crew rest. She really did a great job, and was super friendly, she said that she loves these long flights to Australia as she has to commute from Plymouth! We were chatting about the FSM, who was on my DXB, and said it was nice to see her. After my treatment the FSM came over and chatted with me, and said that she thought she recongised me, but couldnt place me. We had a chat about her trip to Australia, and she commutes from Liverpool! I cant believe these FA have such a long commute. [:?]
Well we were nearing HKG, and the FA came over and asked if there was anything I would like and I asked her if I could have the Dim Sum from the lite bites, she asked if we would be going to the CH in HKG which I said yes. She said that the food in there was much better, and that I should really eat there. I said that I would really like the dim sum as it sounded nice, and was hungry she still said that it wasnt that nice. I got the feeling as I was in 2K, if she brought food down others would want food, and she really didnt want to serve me the food, which I was rather put out by. Especially that I mentioned that there isnt a second meal service. On the lite bites there was prawn and pork dim sum, which was OK, it came up luke warm, I just hope she hadnt kicked it around the galley! Also there was chicken and leak pie, and a bacon roll.
It wasnt long until we started our descent in to HKG we were about an hour late due to headwinds. We landed, and parked at gate 36, they give you a separate air bridge so we were one of the first off, and they also hold back Y, until UC have disembarked, which I like. We got our sticker Catch me if you can and headed to the CH, the lounge was rather busy, and we were asked by the agent at the desk, if we would like a shower at LHR, we both said yes and he advised that he would bring the invitations to our seats shortly. We found some seats, and ordered a drink, and a club sandwich to share. V-Monkey wanted to get some tins he saw, so he went off to get those, and I looked after the many bags we had!
HKG-LHR VS201 UC
It was time to reboard the aircraft and as you can see the gate it is really good so you dont have to leave until the gate area is empty, conscious of the amount of hand luggage, we headed to the gate, most of the pax had boarded, they had priority boarding in place and this was enforced, even though there were no more than about 10 people left.
We soon boarded, and welcomed by the FSM, who was eating something, and greeted us with a mouthful of food! [V] She was pleasant, and pointed us in the right direction of our seats. We sat down and soon offered a champers again! Well why not eh! It was a full flight, but they managed to get everyone on board, and we were on our way. Had the normal intros on the PA from the FSM, but no intros in the UC cabin, the FSM looked fairly young, and really muddled her way through the flight, she kind of left it to the crew to do the work, it wasnt a bad flight by any means, and the crew looking after our section were very good, but felt that she didnt lead the team enough.
IFBT came around and offered treatments, I asked for one, but not to wake me up, I wasnt expecting a treatment, as I had one on the previous flight, she also came around with the extras, she was also very nice, and very smiley! We got our UC shoe bag! (for what it is worth!) [}:)]
Once up, we were offered dinner, V-Monkey opted to go straight to sleep as he had to work once we got in to London I had a look at the menu. I had the cabbage roll with pork and abalone sauce, this was rather nice, and the roll was very large and filled me up a lot, for the main I had chicken wrapped in pancetta and mozzarella, with pasta and some veggie concoction, the chicken was OK nothing outstanding. I was so full that I couldnt eat it all and skipped the cheese and desert.
I went to the bar, for a night cap and asked the one of the FA if they could make my bed, which they did for me and I was soon off to sleep, I slept for a good few hours and woke up somewhere over Estonia. I went to the bar, for some water to rehydrate myself and went and laid in bed, listening to my ipod and watching the skymap. V-Monkey soon woke up, and it wasnt long until they were serving breakfast, as V-Monkey hadnt pre-ordered he was wondering if they would offer him some breakfast, I said they would. We were served breakfast, I had the bacon roll, and some juice, and V-Monkey had the full breakfast which he said was nice.
We had made really good time from HKG, and the pilot came on and apologised for not speaking to us in HKG he was conscious that we were running late, and just wanted to get off the stand and away.
We were 30mins early in to LHR, and we came over Windsor as we looked out of the window, it looked like the approach to LGW, I think we took this route as we were too early to fly over London, as we touched down at (0505) I have never seen LHR so quiet! We arrived on stand, and we surprised the gate handlers as they werent ready for us, we didnt have to wait very long, and they put the air bridge at the front of the aircraft, so we were first off again!
We walked the marathon to immigration, and again there wasnt a soul there, it really was great being the first aircraft to land into LHR we went through the iris scanner, and headed to the baggage hall again it was like a ghost town, there were only 2 flights on the board, ours and a CX flight. Headed to the luggage belt and our bags were about 10th off! We went straight to Revivals, and got in to a lovely shower! All done in under 30mins! [^][^]
Had a lovely refreshing shower, and had some breakfast. We ordered a taxi (no CDC as we were on Z Fares!) and headed home, so V-Monkey could get ready for work, and me to do all the washing! PHEW Heaps of washing for my next flight to NBO in 2 days! TRs to follow!
