VS004 JFK-LHR 13 Apr 07 (PE)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Left offices on 57th Street at 15:15 and walked to my usual subway station where the Friday 13th curse struck immedietly. Signalling problems on the E train meant my normal route to JFK was blocked. I had a rethink and then crossed over the road - heading downtown on the C train to Penn Station. It had been a while since I had used this route so took a bit of time to find my way around Penn but finally boarded the LIRR for Jamaica - this cost 7USD peak. After a short 17 minute journey I arrived at Jamaica and headed up the stairs to the Air Train - arriving at T4 by 16:40 (so about 1hr:25 door to door with the unfortunate detour). I was luckier than some as the AirTrain was filled with people rushing for flights having been delayed on the subway.

Check-in was smooth and T4 was it's normal self. I picked up a flyer for the TSA Fastpath scheme and read with amazement. The idea of pre-registration is a reasonable one but the idea of charging 100USD a year (plus one off registration) to get me to the front of the queue seems almost unethical. Surely there is a financial incentive now for the TSA to slow down the screening process in order to make registration and the associated payment more attractive. Having said that the screening was the normal, efficient, friendly service that I have come to love and respect in T4 [;)].

Opted not even to consider Duty Free after the painfully slow process last month.

The gate was a hive of activity as passengers were called to the desk for 'important messages'. They were obviously having a few seating issues and boarding did not start until around 17:50 for a supposedly 18:30 departure. I boarded, took my seat and then settled down with the last 50 pages of 'This Book will Change Your Life' (It hasn't so far). Depite the fact that I was about the 4th pax to sit down I was seated towards the rear of PE and noticed that as the welcome drinks were handed out they never quite reached me as newly boarding pax intercepted them before they reached the back of the cabin.

I also noticed that the amenity kit was an old style - I thought the new style were being rolled out for outbound and inbound?

Time dragged on and slowly PE filled up - as indeed was Y behind me - it was obviously going to be another full flight with lots of movements between cabins - especially Y / PE. We finally pushed back at around 18:50 and sat on the taxiway stationary for about 40 minutes. Indeed the captain came on at 19:08 and mentioned the 32 a/c in front of us and said that there would be a wait of around 30 minutes - sighs all round. Immedietly after he had finished an FA announced that people should stay in their seats with their seatbelts fastened as they anticipated that this wait would be less - I have to say this sounded like a white lie to keep people settled. Meanwhile the pre-takeoff party kicked off in the crew area now nicely cut-off between UC and PE - I don't mean to sound bitter but when the loudest noise in the cabin is the laughter coming from the crew you know something is not right.

We finally took to the skies at 20:00 which is a little later than one would expect even with a Friday early evening departure from JFK.

The IFE was reasonably quickly turned on and I settled down to 'The Good Shepherd' which I was a little dissapointed in. It ran to almost 3 hours and I was sorely tempted to pull the plug at several points - not one for a short flight - especially a night flight. Meal service arrived in the middle of this and again I was quite happy with what was provided (I had the Cajun Spiced Chicken), but then I'm easily pleased and hadn't eaten since about 8 hours previously. The meal service ended and the Cabin lights were extinguished.

After the film I watched an episode of 'How I met your Mother' - I'm a big Alyson Hannigan fan, mainly because I needed something a little light hearted after the movie. Briefly perused the games and had a bash at Tetris for the first time in years. By this time it was around midnight New York time so I was getting a bit tired [|)] and so sat back for an hour or so snooze - 5 minutes later they turned the cabin lights on [?].

Despite the lights being on there was no movement in our section for at least half an hour and there had only been one drinks service throughout the night.

'Breakfast' was duly served and I opted for the breakfast bar just to add a bit of variety - I normally have the muffin. The FA kept getting his words mixed up and offering a Muffin bar - how we laughed.

Fairly direct route in to LHR which helped us make up a bit of time and we landed at about 06:45. Parking at one of the outlying gates we disembarked to immedietly merge with another 300+ passengers disembarking from a 747 from the gate next door. The escalators were not working, indeed neither were most of the moving walkways - welcome to Heathrow [n]. Turning left through the IRIS immigration booth I was quickly at the baggage belt where the baggage arrived pretty promptly and I was through customs in a jiffy.

Outside T3 is a b****y mess but I eventually made contact with my taxi and was home by around 08:30.

Till next month....

Phil FM

[i] I picked up a flyer for the TSA Fastpath scheme and read with amazement. The idea of pre-registration is a reasonable one but the idea of charging 100USD a year (plus one off registration) to get me to the front of the queue seems almost unethical. Surely there is a financial incentive now for the TSA to slow down the screening process in order to make registration and the associated payment more attractive.

Oh you cynic....

[i] I boarded, took my seat and then settled down with the last 50 pages of 'This Book will Change Your Life' (It hasn't so far).

Is it possible to claim your money back and also a payment for the time wasted in reading it ?

I also noticed that the amenity kit was an old style - I thought the new style were being rolled out for outbound and inbound?

[i] Meanwhile the pre-takeoff party kicked off in the crew area now nicely cut-off between UC and PE - I don't mean to sound bitter but when the loudest noise in the cabin is the laughter coming from the crew you know something is not right.

I don't think that sounds bitter at all. If you're cooped up in your seats (with no IFE) in that state of mentally urging the aircraft to get going so you can then relax, the fact that the crew sound to be having a party is a real p*sser. I'm not advocating the adoption of a dour attitude, but just something professional and calm might be more appropriate at this point of a flight ?

Thanks for the TR Phil. A good read (unlike the book).

Paul

Thanks for a good TR, enjoyed reading it! Getting off the plane at LHR, and getting through immigration seemed a breeze! [y] Shame about the mess outside T3!

Great report & well written Phil !

Is T3 really that bad just now?

[mitchja]

Good TR thanks [y]

Never yet tried public transport to/from JFK yet. I will have to try it next time!

motherger
The actual terminal isn't too bad, it's outside around the departures drop off area that's a bit of a mess at the moment.

Regards

Thanks for the TR, really enjoyed it [:)]

BTW, was your meal choice the one that you had requested?

Good TR Thank you. [y]

Originally posted by MrsG
Thanks for the TR, really enjoyed it [:)]

BTW, was your meal choice the one that you had requested?

Absolutly. Never had anything but first choice meal in PE and I think that probably extends to Y on VS.

Phil FM

Absolutly. Never had anything but first choice meal in PE and I think that probably extends to Y on VS.

Phil FM

You must be lucky. We were sat in 80 and 81 last week and they ran out of chicken, we were given the choice of......shrimp. [:$]

T3 has gotten worse just got in from lhr it's down to just two lanes for all vehicles including buses, coaches, london taxis, private hire car's and car's for departing passengers and arriving passengers the baa seem to be doing their best to jam up the entire terminal area to get the third runway and 6th terminal. rant over.oops sorry a great trip report phil!

[buns]

Thnaks for a good TR[y][y]

Good move on your part to opt for the alterative route to JFK

thanks once again

buns

[HighFlyer]

Indeed the captain came on at 18:08 and mentioned the 32 a/c in front of us and said that there would be a wait of around 30 minutes - sighs all round.

This is the major downside of JFK. When we flew back in March we had 50 planes in front of us. The Captain said he'd never seen it quite that congested before. I think we sat there for a good 90 minutes on the tarmac, though the crew were pretty good and did another quick drinks round.

Glad you had a good flight Phil, another 6 TP's closer to Au .. [:D]

Thanks,
Sarah

Entertaining TR -- has a real peppy flow to it!

I wanted to probe (titter, titter) a bit more on your 50% rating for the cabin crew. Don't know if you've noticed there have been several threads recently bemoaning a perceived downturn in service.

Aside from the woeful pre-departure klatch going on in the galley, were there other areas in which service could have been improved? I want to press you for details in the hope that someone at VS who might read this will have clear prescriptives around what to improve.

I know this is asking for an extra burden of your time, but hope it will end up in better service for everyone on VS.

Thanks!

GJ

[Darren Wheeler]

To be fair, not all the blame for the T3 chaos is down to BAA. Mostly it's down to the Numpty ****wits who cannot drive and just abandon their cars. [;)]

Originally posted by GrinningJackanapes
I wanted to probe (titter, titter) a bit more on your 50% rating for the cabin crew. Don't know if you've noticed there have been several threads recently bemoaning a perceived downturn in service.

I have noticed a few similar threads - indeed I may have contributed to a couple of them.

Ya know one of the attractions about VS over the Dark Side is the unpredictable nature of the service - consistency is never a word I would use to describe VS and maybe that's why I love them - hell predictability can get .... well predictable.

I always expect service on the return leg to be somewhat lacking on the return leg and I am rarely dissapointed. Some of the things I noticed:

Only one FA in PE serving welcome drinks during boarding - hence a long wait
No Newspapers handed out or even visible
Little presence in the PE cabin during the long taxi - mainly a fault of cabin design but when one appeared it was normally to reprimand a pax for getting something from the overhead or telling them they could not use the restroom - understandable but not look good
The normal 'party' in the crew area between UC and PE during taxi[/*
Limited night time drinks service
General lack of presence in the cabin during the flight
Lacking some of the 'normal' VS sparkle, friendliness and humour in service and in-flight announcements (1 of the announcements before take-off was virtually inaudible)

It wasn't a poor performance (certainly nothing worthy of complaint) - just not particularly good, hence the mark.

Phil FM