This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Off to Vegas via LAX, thanks to the great PE sale prices back in Oct (608 rtn). Tried to do OLCI the day before but could not check-in my mate that was flying with me, so decided not to check myself in and leave it until the morning.
Got to T3 at about 9am and things were fairly quiet, only about 4 people before us in the PE queue. Was asked if I had pre-paid my APD by the security guys at the start of the line (we had) and were then let through. Got to the desk in about 2 mins and we were given our discount vouchers for prepaying the APD. I asked if the bulk-head seats were available but was told, rather abruptly, that they could not be given out at check-in, so we stuck with our original choice of 20A+C.
Went through the usual security scrum, and then on to the shoe screening bit (why cant they do this all in one go like they do in the US?). Had a quick look around T3 and then our gate was announced as 32. We trotted off to the gate where G-VOGE Cover Girl was waiting for us. This was good news as I new, thanks to v-flyer, that she had the new premium seats installed.[:D]
We started to board a little late at about 10:40, and priority boarding seemed to work for a change. Settled into our nice new leather seats, which looked great and were very comfortable. Bottles of water were on the seat ready for us. I heard quite a few economy passengers commenting on how nice the leather seats looked as they passed through to the economy section. Juice and sparkling wine was offered before take off and we were also given menus for our choice of lunch. We pulled off the gate at about 11:45, some 15 mins late and we were in the air just after noon, but the pilot informed us that we would make up the lost time in-flight.
Shortly after take off we had a couple of drinks rounds and V:Port was started, which worked perfectly for the whole flight. Then lunch was served. I chose sausages and mash, which was fairly tasty and the service in the china dishes looks much better than the plastic ones. (The other choice was chicken curry and a veggie option). The cuscus and roasted veg starter was also very nice as was the Goo chocolate pudding. Coffee and tea was then offered to round things off. For some reason there was no brandy or baileys round offered after lunch as advertised by Virgin![n]
Later in the flight we were offered fruit, then an ice cream. A bit later a warm Panini was served and then just before arrival sandwiches and tea were served. The flight itself was fairly smooth and uneventful. There were quite a few people on board on their way to watch the Oscars, including Johnny Vaughan and his crew.
We arrived at LAX on time at 15:00 and were off the plane fairly quickly and through to customs and immigration. This only took about 15 mins or so, and then we were off to T1 to catch our Southwest flight to LAS.
Overall another good flight with VS, the new PE seats and service are a definite improvement. My only negative points were the fact that there was not a single juice or water round offered in PE during the whole flight, and that they forgot to do the brandy and baileys round after lunch.
