VS350 LHR-BOM 4 Aug 07 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

After a straightforward Saturday evening journey to T3 via a quiet M25, at 6.30pm I was met with the nightmare that was our leading airport's current organisation of check-in and security. There were huge numbers of people milling around the terminal, and Upper Class check-in wasn't much better. Even though there was a queue stretching beyond the security desk, only 2 agents were checking passengers, and each were occupied with 'difficult' clients. Eventually a 3rd staff member arrived, and things began to move more smoothly. Not the expected Upper check-in experience, so low marks there. Upstairs, Fast Track was just as bad, with slow processing (although all scanners seemed to be operational), and the full shoe carnival. Oh well, I thought, as 7:30pm passed and I completed Duty Free purchases, at least there's the haven that is the Clubhouse and the wonderful burger to come. But it was not to be....

Climbed the stairs to be met by an apologetic gatekeeper. NO HOT WATER in the clubhouse, so no showers, restricted treatments and NO HOT FOOD! Bye bye burger! Apparently repairs on the system went a bit wrong! Given a letter promising 5,000 miles compensation, and a record taken of my FC number. Vouchers for food were available from the Concierge Desk, but you can't get a Clubhouse burger downstairs! Decided to have several brain-numbing cocktails to forget the whole first stage of my journey-these were fortunately up to the usual standard!

Called to proceed to Gate 1, where all other passengers were boarded, so straight to the haven of 4K on African Queen. Quick service and an attentive crew meant the earlier trials were fading into the distance. We had an on-time departure, and quick start of Odyssey. I have to say the system is really showing its age now, the poor picture quality and tracking, with constant breaks in audio/video make it pretty pointless watching a movie.

Food-I had the prawn cocktail and roast lamb (remember-me very hungry due to lack of sustenance earlier!) and while competent, they were far from spectacular. The lamb was a little overdone, although tender, and the wine service poor. I asked for Sauvignon with the prawns, and expected a return visit with the bottles to try the Toro with the lamb. The wine was nowhere to be seen after the first glass!

Made my bed up and had about 3 hours rest, after which breakfast order was taken and served. I had scrambled eggs, lamb sausages (India flights don't do beef or pork!), beans, mushrooms and tomato. These were at best lukewarm and rather rubbery in the case of the sausages, though this could be their nature. The seasonal fresh fruit with yoghurt was about a quarter of an apple, 2 segments of orange and 1 grape-frankly awful. Food is definitely the worst aspect of the service at the moment.

A quick descent and arrival 30 mins early was a final small polish. Overall, good crew, below par Food and Entertainment, and the less said about check-in and the famous Clubhouse the better in my opinion! Hopefully my return next Saturday will be better, as it's a day flight.

[honey lamb]

When I was in the Clubhouse on July 3 there was also a problem with the hot water then but they had some. It was proving difficult in the hairdressing area but it didn't affect the meal service. Apparently it was BAA doing the repairs and it was shades of the problems that had been in Revivals last year. [n]

Sorry the trip wasn't up to par