This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
LHR -> SFO
So a lie in to 06:50 from my normal alarm time of 05:45 to get to LHR for my SFO flight, drive wasn't to bad from Maidenhead the spur road was solid, no surprise there, but TBH it didn't take more than 10 minutes of slow crawling to get into the mayhem of T3....
Area outside T3 a mess as ever, again no real surprise there car was dropped off at Valet parking who for once actually had a driver there ready to trash my car to its assigned parking place for the week.
Not sure about the new oxygen tent look of check in, but hopefully the finished article will be worth it. Check in was fine, all conducted in an efficient and friendly manner even the security guardian at the entrance to UC check in was friendly, initially it looked like Jon Morgan was able to blag the last PE to UC miles upgrade (by virtue of getting to the check in area before me) however someone else had just put in a request for it and his hopes of ditching me were short lived.... we would have to try our luck in the club house for the upgrade.
Fast track security was for once, just that, and having waited for the return of JM's laptop we were on our way avoiding the shoe screening (result) with a quick detour to Dixons then HMV we were heading to the sanctuary of the CH...
*bliss*
Dropped off my bag and shoes for some TLC (the shoes, not the bag) and stopped by the concierge desk to see if there was something that could be done about the colour of our tickets, left our existing PE tickets at the desk (and crossed our fingers)
Got the system kick started with a pot of tea and full english, (JM went for the sausage bun and tea) and then read the paper while waiting for my appointment with bumble and bumble for a haircut.
Haircut completed and it was over to the concierge desk in response to being paged, high hopes of the longed for upgrade were not unfounded and I met Jon Morgan at the bar after his treatment with two purple edged tickets and a glass of something chilled and bubbling. (after all the sun was over the yardarm, somewhere)
The anticipated call to action to board came, but was actually a call to sit tight as our flight was delayed, *shame* 'and yes I'll certainly have a refill please'
Didn't note what time we were actually called to the gate, but it was pretty close to the advertised take off time, but as it was gate 23 which you can clearly see from the CH the walk wasn't an issue, we were told to go to the front of the queue for priority boarding which we duly did and then we just went straight on to Mustang Sally while everyone else got to sit in the holding pen and comment 'how come they're boarding?' and 'we maybe we should board now?' it was nice for once not to just end up in a long snake on the air bridge which seems to be often the case.
So settled in to 17K my home for the next some hours and took the offered glass of something cold and bubbling, IFBT came around and introduced herself and the service, I opted for the hot hands (which I ultimately didn't get as I didn't get a treatment, but did get a priority card for next time) There was a delay in getting all the self loading freight on board as one had escaped and then due to the British summer and the start of Wimbledon there were weather restrictions in place so our push back was not until 13:05 followed by a long drive around the airport to finally get airborne at 13:42.
V:Port was on quickly but didn't have on the films I'd expected (as I'd checked the VAA site the day before) which was a disappointment.
Dinner, carrot and something soup followed by the roast lamb, washed down by sparkling water, while they still had some left and something white and chilled, was feeling fairly fit to burst after that so declined the cheese / dessert. (although had some cheese later and also managed to eat the ice cream that was offered later in the flight.)
As JM mentions in his TR the flight seemed a lot longer than the usual slog to SFO and we found ourselves sitting at the bar for a bit, where we found out that one of the crew has been drinking a lot of cranberry for medical reasons and that you can develop the powers of invisibility to the FSM
I decided to try out the idea of having a sleep on the flight which is something I normally don't do, net result being three hours of the flight gone and missing out on tea (so no stale sarnies for me) was nice to know the end was almost up, and it made a nice change for the IFBT to come around, apologise for not getting the chance to beautify me and gave me a voucher for next time, which with luck I'll use tomorrow as I head back from NYC on the VS26. The great thing about being in UC when landing at SFO is you get your own air bridge and we managed to get off pretty quickly to head into a deserted immigration, thorough that with a joke from the officer letting me in (a first) and it was on to the fiasco which was our luggage collection.... it would seem that economy came off first as there was a lot of luggage coming off before JM's or mine appeared and we certainly weren't the only UC PAX standing around looking bored.
Taxi to the hotel was swift and easily the most dangerous part of the journey and probably rates up there with one of the scariest taxi rides I've ever been subjected to.
In summary, like this TR, the flight was long, boring, and there were a lot of things that could've been better, the good was the clubhouse (as ever) being able to get the upgrade and the food I did have, the bad was the seemingly endless flight....
