This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
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Arrived into EWR on a connecting Continental flight in Terminal A. Had to make use of the skytrain over to Terminal B, but was quick and easy. I had about 3 hours to kill as Continental put me on an earlier delayed flight. Had a browse around the limited shops available in Terminal B and ate in the food court landside. Made my way seamlessly through security. The Terminal B pier housing VS002 is empty at this time of night. The facilities available during the wait were pretty poor though.
The VS001 ended up being further delayed inbound, so the VS002 departure was put back to 22:15.
Boarding was easy as there were hardly any passengers. Though at EWR the boarding bridge is attached to Door 1L, so all passengers are forced to pass through UC (which was full) to reach PE and then Y. With all the UC passengers having boarded first, it then became awkward for all the Y passengers to get past, and probably thoroughly annoying for the UC passengers.
Incidentally, G-VFIT does not have the new PE seats yet.
I had chosen Seat 43K. The Y cabin looked a lot smarter with the new fabrics than the old rainbow effect. Though I prefer the screen housing on the previous model of Y seat I think it looked a little less plastic than the current faux metal finish.
However the seats are excellent. Very comfortable, and the new recline makes for a world of difference to both the seat occupant, and maybe more importantly, the passenger behind. Rather than the seat back just reclining from a rigid base, the seat base now moves forward into your legroom area as well as reclining backwards, with the end result being that your reclined seat encroaches less into the personal space of the passenger behind you (or more importantly, when the passenger in front chooses to recline, less of your space is encroached upon!). The small reduction in your legroom as a result of this is not a noticeable problem either, as my legs could easily be extended under the seat in front.
The IFE box is also noticeably smaller and better positioned. Though this was an A340, which has a greater curvature to the cabin wall. Not sure if the mounting and encroachment is any different on a 747 with more vertical cabin walls.
Three other points of note. The lumbar support does make a difference and helps to change the feeling of the seat back during long haul flights. A nice additional feature, which is more than just a gimmick. The half size folded tray table provides more flexibility and is much better than the standard sized ones. And finally, the position of the IFE controller is also much improved. Gone are the days of stopping your V:Port movie 10 minutes before the end by accident and having to fwd through a 2 hour movie to get back to where you were(!). And V:Port was started almost immediately after departure, without the obligatory news broadcast, a nice change to my many previous VS journeys.
The redesigned layout of the A340-600s is a vast improvement. With the removal of the centrally located Y galley, there is now effectively a mini Y cabin between rows 43 and 46, separating the front and rear sections. And the walk through passageway behind row 46, with the drinks fountains, allows more easily for having a walk and a stretch during the flight without disturbing other passengers.
The flight was actually the shortest flight from NYC that I have ever had, at a flight planned 5 hours and 18 minutes because of the very strong prevailing winds. Hence the delay of the inbound flight. Disappointed to hear though as that is why I hate BOS flights. There is never enough time to eat and then get some sleep before you are woken for breakfast.
With a very light load though, dinner service was pretty quick and the food was better than my previous few VS economy flights during 2004/2005. The crew was pleasant enough but suffered from the usual VS nightflightitus that I experience on eastbound flights most of the time. Shortly after dinner they all piled into the crew rest area. The problem is that the crew rest area is accessed through a doorway where seat 42D would be located right next to 42B. Luckily for me it was on the other side of the cabin. The crew disappeared through that door in large numbers with large pillows and blankets. Then, half way through the flight they disgorged, and the other half of the crew went down with blankets and pillows. The crews also had conversations with each other at the door as they passed each other. I am not complaining about the crews sleeping. I am simply warning everyone that on night flights, if you fancy any peace, do not sit in seats 40AB, 41AB DE, 42AB or 43AB.
The toilet located behind 43AB was not particularly busy during my flight because of the low load. However on a busy flight that would be a different matter, and this is the negative aspect of the mini Y cabin during a night flight. The lights from the toilet are very bright, and whenever anyone exits the toilet it will light up the seats around the exit and may disturb you.
I managed to get a few good hours sleep though and I discovered that the seats are much more comfortable to sleep in on their own, than if you try and spread yourself across two. Having the three centre ones might make a difference.
Breakfast was served and the last time I flew economy, we had a hot breakfast served. This time, we were offered a muffin or a cereal bar. I though that was a bit stingy, but then I remembered that the hot breakfasts they used to serve were always greasy and generally the last thing you wanted after a long flight.
After a short delay on approach to LHR, we landed and were lead on the circle line tour of LHR. After about 15 mins of taxiing, we parked on a remote stand. Over one hour after landing, two broken sets of air stairs on our stand, waiting to locate a third set of stairs on a distant stand, waiting for the buses and walking through pouring rain, we were finally shuttled to T3. Welcome to Heathrow.
In conclusion the economy offering has certainly improved since I last flew Virgin Y (which admittedly was several experiences on A340-300s).
AF
