This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
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I checked in at Toronto Lester B Pearson airport at 1130hrs ready for the 1335hrs departure to JFK. Weighed my suitcase on the scale at chek-in and the agent said it was overweight by 7lbs (3kg)...come on a measly 3kg [n][:(!]. He said it would cost $25 for excess baggage however I was able to shift the 3kg into another bag therefore checking in 2 pieces of baggage rather than just the 1 piece. Are Delta still loosing money and they needed all the money they can get [?]? The baggage was tagged straight through to LHR so I didnt have to re-claim at JFK [y]. The US immigration and customs are located inside Toronto airport therefore you have to go through US immigration before you even get off Canadian soil. The flight took off slightly delayed but arrived at JFK with 3 hours to spare for transfer. Of course Delta operated out of JFK from Terminal 3 and Virgin departs from Terminal 4. Once off the Delta flight at JFK there were no real signs showing direction for connecting flights as you would with most airports. Turned out I have to leave Terminal 3 building and taking the Skytrain to Terminal 4. One thing I hate about connecting flights is the rush around and re-queuing again and again.
Finally arrived at Terminal 4 and I presumed I didnt need to check-in as I already have a boarding pass for the VS flight issued by DL at Toronto. The place was buzzing and I did abit of duty free shopping and seeing The Clubhouse up above. Boarding pass and passport was checked before getting to security. One of the security person mentioned that I might not be able to board as I was holding a DL boarding pass for a VS flight however he still let me proceed. The security line wasnt overly busy but was still chaotic. After getting through security I quickly went to the boarding gate to sort out my boarding pass just in case they needed me to check-in. All was well at the gate as a new VS boarding pass was issued to me and the agent also checked the computer to confirm my baggage have made it onto the flight [y]. With the boarding pass issue sorted I proceeded to collect my duty free at the collection point and went back to the departure gate. The departure gate was B30 with G-VATL (Miss Kitty) parked on the tarmac and at adjacent gate B28 parked G-VROC (Mustang Sally).
The flight was called about an hour before departure with priority line in operation and red carpet treatment. For the less fortunate, normal boarding commenced starting from seats at the rear of the aircraft (that would be me in 62C). I joined the line with my fellow economy class passengers but the priority line became free and the agent asked me across (so I did get the red carpet treatment). I presented her with my passport and boarding pass but she commented I didnt have the security sticker on the back of my passport (my passport already had previous stickers on it and is getting thicker all the time). She asked me to go back to the desk at the gate and get a sticker so I did. Finally onboard and sat at my usual seat on an A340-600. There were quite a few empty seats at the back of the plane and many have 2 or 3 seats to themselves. It felt an eternity sitting there waiting to depart and looked out the window seeing G-VBIG (Tinker Belle) parking into gate B26 as VS009. I was on that plane and flight just over 2 weeks ago with a 2 hour delay but this time it was on time. We were slightly delayed on our departure with a few stragglers turning up for the flight. The captain came on the PA mentioning the flight time being 6 hours 21 minutes flying over Nova Scotia, Greenland etc.
Departure finally happened and we taxied to runway 13R. As we waited parallel to the active runway for awhile, the captain came on again saying there are 12 aircraft ahead of us in the queue. Nothing unusual at JFK then. We lifted off at 1915hrs and it was goodbye New York. The seat belt signs extinguished pretty sharpish and I was the first one headed to the loo. V:Port started soon after with headphones and amenity kit distributed. The small amenity kit was the LOTR style with a pair of socks included [^][y]. My first movie choice was Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I had a duff headphone which I exchanged. I noticed there was no first drink service instead it was skipped straight to the meal service. The meal service felt like it wasnt very well co-ordinated, it first started at the front of the economy section. After a very long while it was still at the front section. Almost 20 minutes has elapsed that an extra cart started from the rear. The choice of meals included chicken with rice, beef stew with mash potatoes or vegetarian pasta. I had the chicken and it was fair, the dessert with the meal was chocolate cheesecake which was very tasty. After finishing Fantastic 4 I went on to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Drinks were available at the rear galley along with the water fountain. There were two further drinks service throughout the flight. Over an hour before arriving into Heathrow, breakfast was served. The choices were blueberry muffin or strawberry cereal bar with tea or coffee. It felt like I was on either a local flight or a budget airline serving just those items rather than a full meal for breakfast [:?]. Landing was fast approaching and the cabin crew were rushing around securing the cabin. I think they fell behind with their work as a PA announcement was made to take their seats immediately. Landing was uneventful, had to wait for my bags for quite a long time. Then off to the coach station for my trip home.
