This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Aircraft Reg: G-VROC
EPIC REPORT FOLLOWS:
The first trip that fellow V-Flyer Dave and I have done together in a while was the occasion of much debate before departure. We're flying into San Francisco, but back from New York, booked in Premium Economy, but given the length of the SF sector we'd both really like to upgrade with miles on the outbound. Daily checks of Z availability on the Virgin site didn't offer much hope, but equally daily checks on Expert Flyer suggested that there should be plenty of capacity in UC on the day. In fact, I've lost a lot of my faith in Expert Flyer over this trip. At a point where it was showing plenty of availability in all three UC revenue classes (including Gs far closer to departure than should be possible), the Virgin site and others were showing only full fare Js.
In the end we had to take our chances at the airport on check-in. I had to leave home at 6am to be sure of getting to Heathrow for around 8am, especially on a Monday morning. Dave left at 7.15...
I was first at T3, dropping my car off at Valet Parking and braving the building site. Check in area A looks a right mess, with acres of canvas covering many of the surfaces and the ceiling. I hope the 'spectacular new Virgin terminal within a terminal' is worth this degree of shabbiness.
The security person at the front of UC check-in was very bright, not unduly officious (unlike in some recent TRs), and I joined the queue of around three people without a hitch. At this point a progress report from Dave suggested he was no more than ten minutes away, so I waited for him so that we could try our chances for the upgrade together. Once we arrived we very quickly got to the desk and asked the dread question. It turns out there was one seat in UC free, and we decided to take it (well, I said 'I was here first' :-) ), on the basis that at least then we could both get together at the bar, crew willing. Sadly, someone else got in with a request first, and the best the check-in agent (very helpful and friendly) could suggest was to check in the Clubhouse. 'But I'll upgrade your bags, anyway', which was a nice thought.
Directed to Fast Track we were through there faster than either of us can remember before and managed to miss being selected for the shoe scan, so after a brief stop for me to buy new earphones for my iPod and a browse in Borders, we headed up to the Clubhouse, which seemed pretty quiet. Checked in at the Concierge and left our boarding cards with them in hope.
Settled into the sofas, we were rapidly furnished with tea, juice and a sausage sandwich (me) and a full English (Dave). The recently free wi-fi also came in handy for getting online to work and catching up with some stuff pre-departure. We both had bookings at the Cowshed/Bumble and Bumble, so when Dave went off for his haircut I was whisked into a treatment room for my shave. I've heard this raved about, but I thought it would have to go some to beat the facial I had last time. Suffice it to say I'm having one of those again! My face has never had such attention.
While I was flat on my back with my face half covered in shaving cream, we were paged to the Concierge. 'Hope that's nothing urgent' joked my shaver.
Once I emerged, glowing and smooth, I spotted Dave at the bar with a paper and a glass of something sparkling, and two UC boarding cards in his possession. Row 17 awaited us both. Result. Ordering a Bellini to celebrate I went off to sort out some personal errands (I'm in the middle of buying and selling houses and needed to fax off a contract). The public fax machine wasn't working, and on enquiry at the Concierge, instead of wasting my time trying to fix it, they just took it off and sent it for me then and there. Nice touch.
When I got back to my drink, what we assumed was the boarding announcement turned out to be the news that there was a technical problem with our original aircraft, and that we'd need to move to another, which would involve a delay of an hour and a quarter. As I posted at the time, we treated this terrible news with a resigned sigh and ordered two more drinks. There really are worse ways to pass a flight delay (and I know - I was stuck in a provincial French airport on Friday night after the bar, cafe and shops had all closed). We whiled away the delay at the bar, getting caught up on more work stuff before being called to the gate and told to barge to the front :-)
This is my third consecutive Virgin Heathrow departure on Mustang Sally - I'm starting to feel like she's an old friend. Straight on board and pointed at our seats, the flight seemed to be pretty full and the crew were very busy getting things sorted for take off. Snooze packs and menus were already on the seats. Our primary FC introduced herself and brought a pre-takeoff drink. This was the only introduction - nothing from the FSM, which in the delayed circumstances I think was pretty shoddy.
The pilot announced that we were likely to be further delayed due to the aircraft change (the plane was just in and had obviously needed to be cleaned and stocked, plus it had started chucking down and there were weather related airfield restrictions). The IFBT came round to take requests, and though I pointed out that I'd had a treatment on the ground she said she'd see what she could do. She also did a round with the extras basket.
Given the long delay, I was disappointed that the crew didn't take the opportunity to do drink and lunch orders, but in the end they were very swift with all that once we were in the air anyway.
We finally pushed back at 1.15pm and joined the queue. We were off the ground at around 1.40. V:Port was on as soon as the crew were able to leave their seats, and drinks and crisps were soon doing the rounds. I may have missed it, but I haven't seen the menu we had on recent trip reports, so in summary:
Starters
Prawn Cocktail
Carrot and Sweet Apple Soup
Mains
Roast Lamb With All The Trimmings
Salmon Fillet With Champ & Veggies
Higgedy Pie
Cheese
All good individual types from named producers.
Desserts
'Wimbledon' Bakewell Tart & Custard
Strawberry & Cream Ice Cream With Strawberries
I had the soup, which was good, the lamb, which was *great*, and the tart, which I wanted again. Also, a Toro Spanish red which I majorly recommend.
There were also various light bites available. The crew were very amicable throughout.
For the first half of the flight I mostly worked, as did Dave, though I also found time to start this TR.
About four and a half hours in, when it felt like we'd been on board for so long that we should have almost been there (I'm a many times veteran of this flight but I've *never* known it feel as long as it did this time), we went to the bar for a sit and a chat. After initially being dealt with quite promptly, we were then largely ignored, with no one stopping to ask us if we needed anything else, and the FSM in particular coming by to collect drinks several times and completely ignoring us on each occasion.
The crew member who was at the bar when we first went up there had disappeared off for a glass of cranberry juice. Her third on the flight, so she informed her colleague within earshot of us, because she had terrible cystitis. I'm not overly fussy, but I honestly don't want to hear about stuff like that from people providing a service to me.
We decided we wanted to split a cheese plate, and finally got the FSM's attention long enough to get one and a couple of refills. He commented that we were very restrained considering the bottle was there open behind the bar. I think he was missing the point slightly.
As the cheese arrived we hit turbulence and ended up belted in to eat it - very nice, it has to be said.
As an experiment to see whether a short snooze on the flight out would help with the tiredness at the other end, Dave settled in for forty winks, while I had the laptop power lead I'd been using requested back off me as I wasn't using it right at that minute and someone else needed one. That made my mind up to get my own while I'm away this time like Dave has.
I tried to doze myself, but it wasn't very successful, and I was disturbed anyway by the almighty crackling that was kicked off when everyone tried to open their 'hot wrap' in the incredibly crinkly plastic wrapper at the same time, so it was back to Sudoku on the DS to pass the time.
Afternoon tea was sandwiches, scone with jam and cream and/or cakes (jelly tot or flake). I had the sandwiches (why are they always slightly stale?) and the flake cake, which was great. The CC who was looking after us also kept me topped up with apple juices, which were helping keep me hydrated in the latter part of the flight. On the subject of this, by the way, the flight ran out of one of the red and one of the white wines and of sparkling water relatively early on, the last of which seemed unbelievable to me.
We made up a little time in the crossing, but not a huge amount, and the pilot announced about 40 minutes from arrival that we'd be landing at 16.05 (against a STA of 13.50). The general wrap up of the flight was handled fairly smoothly, and the IFBT came round with apologies that she hadn't made it to us and gave us priority cards (which was a shock).
Delayed on the taxi-way by a departing flight in our cul-de-sac, we were very excited to see a couple of Virgin America planes on the tarmac. We hit the stand at 16.22 and two jetways were used, so we were off very quickly and through a deserted immigration in seconds. Priority baggage was clearly not working, as everyone from the UC cabin was standing waiting for an age while stacks of other bags came off first, but once the bags arrived we made it out and to a taxi pretty quickly, having made the decision that we needed to hit the hotel and shower rather than going straight to the office, which is the usual routine.
The original plan was to red-eye to NY on Wednesday night and then fly back from there on Friday, but plans have changed, and Dave will now be doing that, and I'll be staying here and going home direct on Thursday. And tragically there's no PE availability, so I'm having to book directly into J. It's a hard life.
So; the good:
Good check-in, clubhouse as awesome as ever, friendly main crew member, food and drink.
The bad:
Lack of attention or apology from the FSM, lack of service at the bar, the lack of priority bags, and the delay itself of course.
