This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Used some surplus mileage for a chauffeur pick up for the first time, so he turned up early which was great, due to M25 closed and other problems. We arrived 30 minutes later than I anticipated, around 10.30. It felt great to check in, in the car park, being meeted and greeted etc., never done this before and it was a great benefit, feeling a bit special, although not sure I would use 25000 miles everytime.
We were excited about using the new CH, just reopened that week. It was not huge, but a decent size and good use was made of the space available, with a small restaurant section, semi comfortable seating, and some smaller 'snug' areas to relax in sofa's, towards the bottom of the lounge and around the corner, with a kiddies area and a small business centre. There was the Cowshed area where I had a quick (not 15 minutes) facial - not sure if it was my imagination, but, whilst it was all good, because I didn't pay for my treatment, it seemed quicker and less thorough. Breakfast was OK, but didn't really sate my appetite, so I had a sausage roll later, with a couple of glasses of the bubbly stuff. Service was good, and we were asked our opinions of the new lounge. I asked what other feedback she had received, and 'Ikea-ish' was some feedback. I can see this, althought I thought it had a nice clean and fresh look to it. I guess not to everybody's taste, but for the odd visit, it suited fine!
We soon boarded, being one of 3 couples left and as the last flight of the day. They had changed the gate and hadn't notified us, so at arriving at advised gate there was no-one there! We checked the board in the corridor and it had moved a few down. There was no queuing and we boarded straight away, followed by the final 2 pax, who also got confused about the differing gate numbers.
We settled in to a glass of champagne and a browse of the menu. We had the basic IFE which I knew, being a LGW flight, so didn't plan on watching too much. The atmosphere was good in our secluded front of the plane and there was plenty of natter and interaction between all, which you don't always get.
We took off, pretty much on time and soon drinks were being served along with our dinner order being taken. I had the fish pie, which was OK (have to say, the BA fish pie I had earlier on this year was quite brilliant, and this was short of that). We had a quick hello from the CSD and mid flight we got offered some 'goodies' from the tray - Polo's, balm, pen etc.
Tea was good and it seems they have improved the quality of the sandwiches and the cream scone was as good as it usually is (if that is anything to go by!). Service throughout was good and before I could watch more than a 1/3 of Up, my neighbour started to chat, whereby we moved to the bar, joined by some like minded folk, and we whiled away an hour or 2, before a nap for an hour, then pre-landing. I never got to see the end of the film, which looked good. Have to wait until Sky get it!
Very enjoyable flight, not much going on, arriving more or less on time. The annoying thing was at the carousel. There were 2 for our flight, one for UCS and staff, the other for EC and PE. Only one started up, and this was on our one, but all that was coming off were the EC pax cases. Staff and UCS pax were waiting and waiting as everyone else was collecting their cases and us 14 people plus cabin crew were still standing. Eventually they turned up, so someone clearly got their wires crossed, which kept us and our ride to Disney waiting for 20 minutes.
Apart from that all was well and we had a great 10 days in the Grand Floridian, before flying to Vegas for 4 nights (booked and paid internal F class far with VH on AA from MCO to LAS, only to find out upon check in it was K class. The rather unhelpful lady made us re-queue again in Econonmy line, suggesting I take this up with VH, which I have, as this put a dampner on the holiday, spending 6 hours on 2 flights cramped at the back, when I had asked, via the call centre, for F as I always do).
My return flight on the VS020 was fine, my wifes not, as I will explain in a minute. As I have said in the VX section of this forum, it seems from our last visit to the SFO CH 18 months ago, they have improved the menu and we had a nice Thai Green curry and a couple of glasses of an OK Cabernet, and a cognac, before going air side for duty free and boarding.
There were 2 boarding gates, one for UC pax, the other for EC and PE. They had swapped the craft over to an airbus which was a shame, so rather than our cocooned 14 seats at the front, we were with the rest of the UC pax. Actually it was OK and apart from a whining child for the first and last hour of the flight, it was pretty noiseless.
The champagne came round as did the in flight suit which I and only a handful of others took up the offer. The menu consisted of chicekn (quite dry, with a pasta and tomato sauce which was OK) and a sticky toffee pud, which was good, although they had not loaded any custard or cream. Didn't think much of the wine, and I never really like Ottards brandy (fussy so and so), preferring Remy, but it did the job! Breakfast was satisfactory, with a banger, mushrooms and a bit of bacon. Also sneaked in a Weetabix.
My poor wife had the short straw, whereby she had no electrics on her chair. She had to ask everytime she wanted to move her chair, incline, recline or make a bed or even open the table which had to be prized open with a knife, in conjunction with opening the section on my seat side, where the electrics are housed, to assist in this. My wife felt awkward keep asking and as if she were an inconvenience re the table, bed or moving seat up and down situation. The crew were great about it, very apologetic and suggested I write in to complain. I have done, though not sure what good it will do. In particualr one lady was great and went out of her way to be helpful, but didn't recall seeing the CSD then or at any other time during the flight. She also had no IFE throughout. All in all, a bit of a drag, but she coped well!
The amenity stuff went round during the last hour or so on the light, but seemed to have missed us completely. The flight was almost full apart from the last 1/4 of EC which was sporadic.
We were held in holding as LHR was fog bound, then there was no gate for us, so an hour late we pulled up for a swift exit, although we had to walk miles for arrivals. Iris worked fine, and the luggage was quite quick off, far better than the terminally long T5!
So, all in all, a good couple of flights, punctuated by the internal mix up and the lack of seat movements for my wife. I know people have moaned about the declining service on VA, but thankfully here, it was all great, fun and professional and no complaints - great stuff again!
Thanks.
