This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
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Me and my husband were in PE but the rest of the party were booked into economy. I did OLCI for them and managed to request seats in row 22, so they were close to us during the flight.
Drove to LGW the evening before and used valet parking with BAA. I was so glad I'd done this rather than use an off site service as the weather was horrendous and the journey round the M25 although not too busy was difficult because of the driving wind and rain.
Checked in at the Hilton, had booked through VH this time as it was much cheaper than direct but they weren't a patch on the executive rooms I'd had before. Definitely will pre book those in the future, but as my husband couldn't get away from work until pretty late and didn't join us until 10pm it seemed a waste of money.
Got to the check in desk around 9.30, no queue and we checked it all the baggage so it was all priority tagged. Security was very quiet so didn't use fastrack, I did have some spare vouchers for the rest of the party but decided to save them for another time. Through in less than 5 minutes.
Straight to the Clubhouse and I said my goodbyes to my sons and girlfriends and said we could call them and meet up for boarding. At the clubhouse entrance two ladies were paying for entrance and so I asked if I could do the same for my guests. She told my husband to go and get them and it was no problem for them to come in [:w]
The service was excellent, I had a lovely haircut, drank cocktails and everyone except me had the full clubhouse breakfast. They also gave me a bottle of Mumm to take with me for my birthday and it made the morning really special.
Boarded Pretty Woman around 10 minutes late but only slightly late off the ground. Offered 'bubbly' or juice straight away and blankets and amenity kits were on the seats.
The only downside to the flight was the menu. I don't like curry or cooked tomatoes and by the time they got to us all the beef had gone and I had a choice of pasta with tomatoes or chicken korma. I don't even like the Gu desserts so wasn't really much point in having a tray made up at all. I was offered an economy meal but as the choice was again either curry or meatballs in tomato sauce this was no good either. However, the crew member came back to me after around 10 minutes later and asked if I would like a jacket potato which I gladly accepted. One of my sons popped upstairs to see us and also swiped the Gu dessert.
The aircraft was full to capacity and there were two passengers sitting in the crew seats at the top of stairs throughout the flight and after chatting told me they were family of the crew.
Watched Oceans 13, but though it was pretty weak and a rom com which was actually pretty funny although definitely not suitable for children. Rest of flight was uneventful, never managed to sleep, played on my new DS lite (present from son) and landed exactly on time.
The VS73 was coming in right behind us and was grateful it wasn't the other way around. Got to immigration with no queues and baggage was off within 10 minutes.
As one of my sons is 21 and wanted to drive this time, I'd booked car hire through U-Save, as the insurance is much cheaper than either Dollar or Alamo. The downside is that they are off site. We did have to wait around 20 minutes for them to pick us up and by now it was dark and we were all pretty tired. Although the car is fine I doubt I'd use them again as it added quite a lot to the journey.
All in all it was a pretty good journey and a novel way to get an extra 5 hours of a birthday [:D]
Thanks for reading
Jilly
