This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I had been checking on-line for a few days but no seat-map was made available - even 48 before so knew there was a real possibility of getting the refitted Cosmic Girl.
Parked the car at Q-Park and enjoyed a relatively quick and troublefree journey to T3 - one of the benefits of the VS45. Made my way to check-in and was handed a boarding pass for 30H - which I was pretty sure meant the new config. Made my way upstairs, picked up my pre-ordered currency at Travelex and headed past an absoloutly horrendous queue for security that staked all the way to the far end of the terminal and beyond. Luckily my regained Au status meant I could bypass this through the Fast-Track which was almost empty - I dread to think how long normal security would have taken.
Once airside I made a beeline for the CH. Seven trips through T3 earlier in the year during my transient Ag stage means that I have seen enough of the T3 shops to keep me going for quite a while. During my previous trip through in September (my first as Au for about 15 months) I only had time for a brief visit to the CH so was determined to have an hour or so at least on this trip.
Clubhouse visit was very pleasant indeed - boy I've missed it. I had a quick bite to eat - delicious shepherds pie - and then checked out v-flyer to confirm the seat allocation was new config. Eventually the flight was called and pleasingly it was at Gate 1 rather than my normal 35+ gate - so only a gentle stroll.
Arriving at the gate the first line of security directed us to one of two queue's to check passports, priority passengers were directed to the right. I should have looked ahead as once the passports were checked we remerged into a single queue that snaked away for the next 5 minutes towards the Boarding Pass check - I actually was now behind the Y passengers that I had previously been ahead of.
Boarded Cosmic Girl, made my way to the seat and had a quick look behind. As I was in 30H I was in the area to the right of the galley that had been PE in the previous configuration. Also since I tend to fly 346s more the seats themselves were no surprise as I am very used to them. However nothing had quite prepared me for the site of 6 rows of 8 abreast running across the cabin behind - it looked very civilised. The four in the middle skew the aisle a little bit compared with the Y cabin but do afford the passengers in 32D/G a little more leg room as they can stretch their left or right leg around the bulkhead. There is also a skycot position in front of 32D/E - not sure there was a skycot position of the previous PE configuration. 32 D-G where occupied by a family of 4 and was nice to see a family being accomodated within PE in this way for the first time. The mood lighting for the length of the PE cabin helped to further identify it as something different.
PE was full - which must have meant a considerable number of upgrades and I was a little dissapointed that this had not translated into a personal upgrade from PE to UC but them's the breaks. Unfortunately there was no bottled water on the seat - first time this has been missing in ages and later experience seemed to suggest that the new configuration was having learning curve issues for the crew.
We pushed back on time at 14:00 and had a slow taxi which resulted in a wheels up at 14:32. The seatbelt light did not go out until 14:50, which was surprising as there was no turbulence. However what was more surprising is that the cabin crew did not leave their seats until the seat belt sign was turned off - indeed some of the passengers were wandering around confused while the crew were still in their seats. There then followed a steady stream on disoriented passengers moving forward in UC looking for the restrooms and the crew continually pointing them towards the back of the cabin. Incidentally I cannot understand the configuration of toilets - the four to the rear of PE are in a position so that they could be curtained off to PE - indeed there is also a set of curtains between the toilets so you could have two for PE and two for Y. Luckily I was not desperate but it took a good 20 minutes for the queue to dissapear.
It seemed to take forever for the first drinks service - 15:25 in Y and 10 minutes later in PE. The meal was even slower and did not arrive until 17:15 - almost three hours into the flight. I do not normally fly the VS45 but this seemed very late into the flight. After this they seemed to be playing catch-up as ice creams arrived barely 20 minutes after the meal had been cleared and the pre-landing snack arrived about two hours after this - still a good 1.5 hours before landing.
I watched a couple of films, glad of the new October selection - Evans Almighty and Sunshine - both of which I enjoyed but not as much as the first half of Top Gear - US special - hilarious - especially when the team were set the task of sourcing their evening meal from roadkill - a definite watch. Incidentally when exactly are VS going to update the episodes of some of their drama's - I love House but they've been the same episodes all year.
Touched down a little early at 17:10 EST and waited patiently for UC to disembark - which now takes even longer. Immigration was luckily not too busy and I think we beat another flight in as it seemed to fill up pretty fast behind us. Baggage collected without incident and soon on the way in by SkyTrain, E-Train - 1 hour and 7USD later I was in midtown.
FM
