This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Waited about 5 minutes to see a check-in agent, who very quickly tagged my bag, issued my boarding card, and directed me to Fasttrack. Rather than issue me a lounge invite, he just asked if I knew where the Clubhouse was.
Fasttrack felt a bit glacial, even though there wasn't much of a queue. I just think at that time of the morning, we're all a bit slow, especially if we've not had our first hot drink of the day. Managed to avoid the 'random shoe carnival', the screen at the entrance nodded for me to walk around the side. Picked up a few essentials at Boots, and made tracks for that V-Flyer favourite - the Clubhouse.
Dropped my things at the cloakroom at the entrance, and headed straight for a shower.
Shower: nice bath sheets. Want one. Cowshed now also has deodorant and other useful stuff as well as the more usual toothbrush/toothpaste and shaving kits. Found this out when the receptionist offered them to me. She even remembered me from my last visit which was end of May or early June. Noticed there was a blown bulb in the shower, which made it seem a bit dark - they are quite minimalist in the design, so there isn't much 'general' light, it's all focused or aimed light.
Refreshed, I took a seat down at the far end of the Clubhouse (around one of the big tables), and after a couple of minutes, one of the waiters came to take my order. There has been some tinkering with the menu again, and the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs isn't on the menu - but they have both ingredients, so I don't see why they couldn't make you it. However, I went for the salmon and cream cheese bagel, which was served in a rather bizzare way... a toasted bagel with a huge 'ice cream scoop' of cream cheese, and the salmon in a heap on the side. I questioned if the kitchen couldn't be bothered actually putting the meals together today? Apparently, that's the way the head chef says it's supposed to be served. Odd, because it's normally come, as anyone would normally expect this dish to arrive - with the cheese spread out, and the salmon actually in the bagel, when I'd ordered it in the past. It just looked weird to me.
A 30 minute delay was announced on the flight about now, so I relocated to the library and used the now free (with a login from the concierge) T-Mobile wifi, and I tell you what, it drops out so much at the bottom end of the Clubhouse that I wouldn't have been satisfied if I'd been paying for it. It seemed much more stable later on, after I'd relocated to the windowed area behind the bar, and ordered a mojito, while Air New Zealand's ZK-NBV 'Wellington' eased up next to us on stand 323, just arriving from LAX. The flight was called in the Clubhouse shortly after 11am, and would be leaving from Gate 1.
Using the 'drink mojitos until last call' ploy didn't work, as even though I was the fifth to last pax, there was still a sizeable jetway tailback at the gate. I really wish that VS would use two jetways when they are available. It really speeds the boarding for UC pax. I must have spent about 10 minutes in the jetway, so glacial was the progress of boarding. At least arriving this late, I didn't have to use Virgin's 'priority boarding' (read queue bargeing).
Looked like we had a sizeable number of op-ups, as the J cabin was full when I got there. The crew member let me get settled in aboard G-VFAB, before visiting to introduce herself by name, and offering a pre-departure drink (just a sparkling water for me, didn't want to take away the taste of the mojito).
IFBT came over and asked if I wanted a treatment, for which I elected a file and tidy, and wanted to be left if I was sleeping. 'Ground staff please leave the aircraft', and we pushed back about 45 minutes late.
Taxied out to 09R, not much of a queue to take off, and the Captain explained the routing, usual move straight up the country to the Western Isles of Scotland, over Iceland, Greenland, Northern Canada, Calgary, pass to the East of Portland, and over Klamath Falls to Point Reyes, with a 10h05m flight time. We finally rolled about 1205 UK time, about a minute behind a BA 747.
The clouds over London cleared up somewhere near Rugby, and we had a good view over Northern England, with excellent visibility. It started to cloud over, but not thickly, just scattered clouds, as we crossed over Northern Scotland. IFBT came around with the bowl of stuff.
V:port started about 20-30 minutes after wheels up. No intro video played - good. Let us straight at the movies! Cocktail service offered around the same time. Tanqueray Ten and tonic for me, of course! Nice to see smoked almonds offered as alternative to crisps. Crisps were good quality as well (Kettle Chips). However, smoked almonds completely ran out after one cocktail service.
Over 1 hour before lunch orders were taken. Dinner was finally served over 1.5h after wheels up, which seemed pretty slow. Between dinner orders and service, crew that weren't helping in the galley were noted sat chatting at bar, rather than making sure punters had drinks topped up... and there were a lot of us with empty glasses.
As usual, warm bread was offered, good selection of different styles, but it would have been cold by the time the starter arrived, if I hadn't eaten it straight away because I was quite hungry. The wine list seemed quite reasonable. Started with the Avila Chardonnay. Not bad. Not a heavy oaked style like many Californian chardonnays... just rich and smooth.
Prawn cocktail starter was good with two exceptions:
1) The slice of bread had not properly survived the trip from flight kitchen to passenger - stale/dry around edges, and it had been stacked with other bread slices, which had been pre-buttered by the flight kitchen, therefore there was butter stuck to both sides (well, I got about one and half pieces of bread).
2) There were two different types of prawn in the prawn cocktail, small shrimp, and larger prawns which still had the tails on. You needed to pick out the larger prawns and take the tail off. A bit messy when they have been doused in Marie Rose sauce.
Wine service was mostly done by the FSM, but was quite patchy. I wasn't offered a change of wine between starter and main course, for instance (even though I was switching from fish to red meat), though I did get a refill mid-starter, but then no top-up for the main course. On my last UA trip, I noticed that in both directions, I was offered a wine change with the delivery of the main course. Likewise this was the case on Air New Zealand.
The lamb dinner was cooked to almost to perfection, tender and tasty, slightly more well done than my taste, but still moist and with great texture and flavour. It had been cut across the piece, which made me wonder if someone wasn't sure how well done it was. Looked a bit unprofessional, like when your mum cuts into something because she isn't sure how well it's cooked through.
The gravy I wasn't too sure about. It left a lot of orangy stains on the napkin, for instance. Last time I made lamb gravy, it wasn't orange. It also seemed a bit tasteless and lacking in body and seasoning. Carrot batons were perfect. Runner beans looked a bit leathery and dried up, but tasted good. Mint sauce was served on the side, and the sauce boat didn't arrive on the plate (Remember how that used to happen a lot, the little sauce jug was stacked on the side of the plate? I always thought that looked a bit odd and unprofessional), it was on the side. Doing Yorkshire puddings on a plane sounds like a challenge, but mine was okay, if a little chewy, rather than crispy, but defintely not soggy.
Obviously had the potatoes taken off, but again every main had potatoes on it... potatoes with the lamb, champ (mashed potatoes) with the salmon, and potato pie.
The cheese selection was quite good, though tiny pieces, and dull biscuits - just water biscuits and scots oatcakes. We used to have the cool stuff like cornish wafers! But the cheese had been allowed to get up to room temperature, so marks for that.
Changed to French Pinot Noir, poor. I know Pinot is supposed to be delicate, but this seemed very thin, very weedy. On the ground it might taste great, but I think any subtleties in this wine were stomped on by the altitude. Swapped to Port, but even that tasted flat. Maybe it was overpowered by something else. Must check what port it's supposed to be (Got a feeling it's Graham's LBV). Need for a nice beefy red like a Zin, I think.
Ice cream with strawberries were okay, but the green leafy parts hadn't been removed from the strawberries.
Wasn't asked 'can I get you anything else?' when dessert was cleared.
Whole meal service wasn't complete until over 3h after wheels up. I really can understand why we ended up with GNF, though all people probably wanted was the meal served quicker. I noticed on my last overnight UA flight, meal orders were taken before departure, and then as soon as we got the 'bings' that we were next in line to take-off, one of the crew sat next to the business class galley fired up the ovens before taking their jumpseat. There has to be a way of speeding up the availability of the post-departure meal service in J on VS, e.g. taking drink or dinner orders before takeoff (i.e. on the stand, during a wait to pushback, or during a long taxi), and increasing the 'ready to go'-ness of some of the food items.
I still think if VS want to raise the standard of onboard catering, they would be well served following the example of BD, GF and OS, who carry qualified Chefs on their flights.
Watched Hot Fuzz (I loved it. So funny!) and the F Word episode on V:port during the meal - it was the Cliff Richard episode, where he actually got Cliff to swear! I wondered what Gordon Ramsay would make of the food served on VS? Fairly decent entertainment selection. No takers to play trivia challenge today though, so it was time to adjourn to the bar.
A chap at the bar had missed lunch, as hd's slept almost straight after takeoff, and wanted something to eat, but not a main meal. The J CSS brought him a tray loaded with lightbites... crab cakes, mini ploughmans, and sausage rolls. I thought the sausage rolls looked okay, and I usually am not a big sauasge roll eater.
Sat at the bar for a little while, and had a couple more glasses of wine to help me get off to sleep, which I eventually did for about 3 to 4 hours, on the new-style mattress pad, finally waking up somewhere south-east of Portland, with less than an hour to run.
The IFBT saw I was awake and immediately came up and offered me a quick 'file and buff' as there wouldn't be time to do a full nail treatment before top of decent. She asked if I wanted the treatment, or a priority card. She said she'd had a busy flight, with about 25-30 people (over 50% of the cabin) wanting treatments, which apparently is a lot, about 30-35% is more expected, and she managed to get around about 20 of them. She said it's a lot, especially to try and fit this in with meals, etc., especially with the main meal service being painfully slow, at one point, she couldn't treat anyone for about 45 minutes. Anyway, I'm glad she noticed me awake and gave me the choice of squeezing an abbreviated treatment in, or passing it up.
She even asked if I wanted one of her colleagues to fix me up with anything else to drink or eat before landing - after all, I'd missed the main afternoon tea service! Unfortunately, the scones had been sat in the oven too long by now and had all shrivelled up, so when I got back to my seat after the quick nail tidy by the IFBT, a cappucino two fairy cakes, and a plate of sandwiches were waiting.
Where the main meal was definitely better than recent previous experiences, the afternoon tea was a let down... sandwiches which looked like they were made from plastic, with dried up edges, and unrecognisable fillings made of goo, while the fairy cakes were microscopic and looked like something from a kiddies tea party. The apricot creation from the Med menu was much nicer! You know, fairy cakes with jelly tots on the top are okay if you sign up to 'more tea Vicar?'-type nostalgia, but I'm just not convinced. One of the other pax was heard to comment 'I wish I hadn't had those sandwiches, they were too stodgy and weren't nice', while waiting in the immigration queue later.
No sooner had I finished the coffee that the seatbelt sign was on, entertainment system switched off almost straight away, and we were descending into San Francisco. VS do seem to switch the seatbelt sign on quite early (i.e. right at top of descent), rather than wait until we're well established in the descent like other airlines.
Smooth landing almost 30 minutes late at 1423 on 28L, after the usual trip down the Bay before making a right turn to line up and land. Taxiied in to the International Terminal, passing a Virgin America plane parked remotely between flights. Rather than the more usual A6 and A8, we parked right on the end at A11.
Both bridges used for disembarking, which is the norm for SFO, and a long trek up to the Immigration hall. The officers were siphoning off the remnants of the KLM flight from back of the vistors queue and putting them through the US lanes as we entered the hall, but as soon as they realised there was a new flight arriving, many of us VS pax were re-routed back into the visitor's line. Very slow progress. One guy was at the desk for about 15 minutes in our lane, and people seemed to keep jumping into the front of other lines. It looked kind of weird, and I got a fairly heavy questioning when it was my turn, especially about whether I'd been near a farm or in the countryside (looking for people likely to have been in contact with FMD?), including being asked to show my itinerary to prove I had a return ticket for the first time in ages. Not sure what was going on. A lot of people seemed to get sent to 'secondary' (i.e. the dreaded holding room), and lots of people with paperwork errors. Maybe it's just because it was summer? My bag was already on the belt when I got there, and headed off to pick up the rental car. The Airtrain system was really busy, I had to let one train go before I could get to the rental car garage.
Summing up:
Check-in: Good. Slightly longer wait than you might expect, but very efficient staff member handled me and had me off to Fast-track in no time.
Crew: Fair. A couple of good crew members, including the one looking after my aisle, lifted it from below average. The J CSS was nice when I got talking to her. The FSM didn't seem to spend much time with the passengers at all, no introductions, very little personal contact. Lunch service was terribly slow, and service generally seemed to be characterised by Pam-Ann style 'Walk to the galley, back to the trolley, and back to the galley...' pacing up and down, lots of trips by the same crewmember up and down the aisle with emtpty hands. Niceties, like a chocolate with your hot drink, were forgotten (or maybe not loaded in the first place?). I wouldn't say they went out of their way, judging from the empty glasses and unanswered bells, they just ran through the prescribed service flow in an acceptable way, but didn't shine.
Food: Fair. Nice choice of smoked almonds - shame there were only enough for one tiny saucerful per pax. The main lamb meal, pretty good. Certainly edible and enjoyable. Desserts were uninspiring, and the afternoon tea was especially poor. Leaving things like the tails on the prawns and green bits on the strawberries seemed to smack of a lazy kitchen. Bar snacks seemed to have either been blitzed, or just not put out.
Entertainment: Excellent. Spoiled for choice, system ran perfectly, no 'startup video' either.
Seat: New 'bottle holder' design fitted, replacing old elastic strip style. No 'protectors' on the seat controls. Other seat areas dirty (cocktail shelf/table), with bits of wrapper and crumbs. Armrest took a lot of encouragement to push down into the locked position. The lumbar portion of the seat seemed to gradually deflate. Bed was comfy though. Fair.
Back on VS12 a week Monday, in Snooze - though I might ask for cheese and biscuits, and hopefully I won't have to wait 90 minutes for them.
Mike
