This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Flew out on the VS003 on Monday and I was looking forward (hopefully) to my first experience of new PE (as it turns out the plane was G-VSHY Madam Butterfly so I was in luck). Arrived into LHR with plenty of time and no issues checking in (even though I use OLCI I prefer to see a real human being at the airport so sidle up to the UC check-in) and was advised to show my Au card at fast track security. I didn't need to as it turned out and at that time of day (0730 ish) the queue was only 8-long so got through very quickly.
Club house quiet and functioning very smoothly as usual, I had a hair cut from a bit of a grumpy boy then the English breakfast, which was a little unsatisfying. My colleague Mike had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, which I usually have but on my last few visits the portion was getting very small - not today though and wished I'd had that instead.
Off to gate 7 and a welcome shortish walk to board and pleased to see the new seats and layout. First impressions were that the seat cushion is a little short but I settled in quickly. Overall I found the PE service much improved - the seat is much more comfortable to me (in the older ones I would often get back ache, not with this) the cabin is very smart, food service much better presented and I had a second breakfast on board which I found more appetizing than in the club house. Drinks, fruit, ice cream all offered more than once, and I was surprised by the brandy and Baileys round after breakfast (perhaps that's just playing by the book but encouraging brandy at breakfast seems a little odd to me). Watched The Departed which is a stunningly good film, but not for the faint hearted given the amount of violence, listened to mr iPod and did a fair amount of work too. Only one niggle, and that was that my seat would not hold its recline position, reported to the crew and hopefully fixed (20C if you need to know). We arrived into JFK fairly promptly and very small queues for immigration .
A good flight, very impressed with PE, look forward to seeing it on all planes as soon as possible. It's not cheap though ... for the same price as this flight I'm going to India next week in Emirates Business and First, four flights, CDCs, beds in first, DP and caviar etc. Unfortunately it's tempting to compare PE to business on other airlines given the cost and the fact that its miles ahead of what BA offers (and that VS advertising makes comparisons too).
On the return I had changed to the VS026 day flight from JFK - I could see Maiden Toyko on arrival and decided to sleep properly so went for an upgrade (after first asking if any offers - only 990 for a one-way upgrade [:0] - so I politely declined and dropped a few miles instead). It being Maiden Tokyo it was Odyssey and no AVOD, I don't really mind since I usually pick one film only and on the return watched Marie Antoinette, which I found surprisingly good (but had to move seats to do this since my TV wasn't working at all, 14D for reference). A quick summary of this flight:
- crew superb in every respect, friendly, efficient, funny, constantly available, our FSM ran a very good ship and has been complemented to VS customer services
- snooze pack makeover, well its not really is it - they've just added a toothbrush and paste but I think the shoe bag is excellent since a) I have a lot of shoes and b) keep them in bags! The extras available did however take us back to almost a full kit.
- food on this flight was really tasty, I had the beef salad, cod and then Key Lime pie
- Charles Heidsieck champagne is a little boring but perfectly palatable at 37k ft, really nice Pinot Gris served though
- did manage three hours sleep even with sitting at the bar for two hours chatting to the crew
Very good flights out and return, compliments to VS and the crews on both.
There's a plane at JFK, to fly you back from far away
all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles
all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles
