This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Plane name: Lady Penelope
My routine for trips to SF is pretty well established by now. Leave home at 6am to be at Heathrow for 8 in time to get through check-in and into the Clubhouse as quickly as possible with plenty of time for breakfast and getting some work done before boarding. This morning the routine was slightly shifted by picking up the colleague I'm travelling with, but he lives quite close by so it didn't require a significant change.
Where things went very differently, however, was the time it took to get to the airport. We set off from his at 6.10 and were cruising down the almost empty Heathrow spur road at 7.10! Dropping the car off at valet parking I was lucky they had someone available to take it away, so far ahead of my estimated arrival time was I.
Check-in was very straightforward - we were booked in PE and though I'd tried to check us in online to get us two seats together there'd been a problem and I wasn't able to. I've found this before when the PE cabin is very oversold. Anyway, the lovely smiling helpful check-in agent got us two together in 70A and C - the exit row no less. I was actually planning on upgrading us with miles, because I knew the flight was wide open in UC and he's never flown Upper before, but as there were a few people waiting I decided to do it at the concierge desk.
Straight through security, where Fast Track was Slow Track, with only one machine running and a belt that was stopping after every bag. Eventually some enterprising BAA employee twigged that the FT queue was taking significantly longer than regular track, and diverted us to another machine.
The Clubhouse was as welcoming an oasis as usual, and scored the immediate hit with the workmate, and as soon as we were settled in with tea and juice I headed off to the concierge to do the deed :-) I love the staff on the Concierge Desk - it's literally like nothing is too much trouble, a feeling you rarely get in many service businesses these days. 40K miles off my account later I was back holding boarding cards of a rather darker hue and telling him never to say I don't do anything for him.
He went off for a shave (which got top marks) and I ordered the first of two sausage sandwiches (what? I was hungry) and got on with some work. He did the same once he got back, after exploring the CH, and then once it was after 10am ( my own personal Clubhouse 'over the yardarm' marker) Bellinis were very much in order. The flight was called soon after and we set off on the long hike to Gate 35 with instructions to barge to the front. The layout of those gates is utterly ridiculous, and I really don't think it's wholly VAA's fault that priority boarding is such a nightmare there.
Managed to avoid the strip search at the gate and once on board (greeted by name at the a/c door) the service fell into what I'd have to say was the perfect model. We pushed back bang on time and were in the air around 20-25 minutes later. The crew were attentive, pleasant, happy and efficient, the FSM came and said hello and thanked me for my continued support of the airline, and basically, running contrary to my usual tendency to be garrulous, I can be relatively succinct in covering the flight itself as it was exactly what you'd expect from a good VAA flight.
V:Port was on quickly and worked correctly throughout the flight, in-seat laptop power was fine. Lunch (I happen to like several of the options on the current UC menu, but if I was flying more regularly than I do I'd definitely get bored with them*) was prawn cocktail and lamb - the lamb remains possibly one of the best in-flight meals I've ever had - and that wonderful Toro red wine.
The rest of the flight was pretty straightforward - I worked for a lot of it, including when we took a stint at the bar to review our plans for the coming week, then I took a break towards the end to relax and catch up on a film and some TV before landing, as I knew I had the afternoon in our SF office to get through. I got a treatment from the IFBT too, for the first time in living memory. I tried the hand and hand and arm remoisturising as I'm a typical man and take absolutely no care of my skin at all. Very good.
Landed bang on time but just behind the BA flight, so immigration was a nightmare. We were two of the first people off, but among the last twenty or so out of immigration, so bags were already on the belt and we were soon on the road to the office.
All in all, a well run flight with service that was professional, friendly and attentive.
Flight back on Friday, for which TR I'm planning a more creative writing style like my last one (http://www.v-flyer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19947).
* I recently moved house and while packing I discovered a bunch of Upper menus from around 2000 that I'd kept - set the current one against those and the slimming down of the options becomes shockingly apparent.
