This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Tuesday 6th May, scheduled to depart Newark at 21:25
Unknown 340-600 (the 'which aircraft will I be on?' page is giving me an error, so I don't know which one)
Economy, the right-hand two seats of the 2-4-2 configuration, one row behind an exit row
We checked in online and once again failed to receive boarding passes by e-mail. Upon arriving about three hours early, we saw video screens suggesting that the flight had been overbooked and inviting people to voluntarily deboard in return for the usual incentive. We hummed, ha'd, checked UK trains and eventually volunteered. An hour before departure, seven of us (all with British accents, it seemed!) queued to see whether we would be required to extend our stays or not. In the end, we weren't, and I'm not sure if anybody was. LRoM's excellent guide on this came a day or two too late for us, but it's extremely useful to know the form should there be a next time. I will note that VS were very good about letting us get away with a nearly-28 kg bag and a nearly-25 kg bag, as well as our two legally weighted bags, and hazard a guess that our VO status might have been something to do with this.
EWR was nothing special; a long, slow queue down an unpromising one-abreast corridor to go through security, but at least the guards sang their requests cheerfully. Accordingly we rushed straight onto the 'plane and took our seats. (The boarding pass reader beeped at my boarding pass, but sadly it was a 'data missing' beep rather than a happy op-up beep.) We had a 20-'plane queue to take off, alas. IFE was fairly slow to start and was preceded by the usual video and similar shenanigans, so my experience of getting straight at the good stuff on the way across was a lucky one-off.
I don't recall there being a drink run before we got straight to dinner, with beef, chicken and vegetarian pasta all on offer. (On the westbound leg, we were only offered the two meat options; I'm not sure whether the vegetarian meals had been restricted to those who had made SPML requests, or whether the staff had simply run out.) The beef accompanied mash and was merely tolerable.
My flight attendant seemed to be struggling to stretch across the length of her cart and retrieve a slightly-stuck box of juice, so (being at a much more convenient side of the cart to help than she was) I volunteered to help her wiggle it out from whatever the obstruction was. She sounded surpised as well as pleased and was unusually effusively polite when serving me. Toot toot! Enough blowing of my own trumpet.
Entertainment: the selection on offer was more to my taste this time, with the highlight being the film (well, DVD) version of Dave Gorman's America Unchained. Having read the book, seen the film and read the book again, it is more enjoyable as a film than as a book simply because the film doesn't concentrate on the stresses nearly as much and communicates the thrills of the joys ever more keenly. (Shame a couple of the sililer jokes near the end of the trip couldn't make it in, though.) My wife was pleased to see 27 Dresses available, which she had been hoping to see on the way across, but she had enough other things to watch (and enough sleep to try to get, but sadly not manage) that she didn't get round to seeing it. Slight minus marks for the episodes of ISIHAC and Happy Sammy Happy Family on V.Chinese being the same as those served the previous month.
I managed to get probably three or four hours' sleep during the six-and-a-bit hour journey, which I regard as perfectly adequate. Admittedly I was tired, but I just stretched out, even in an economy seat, and got as much sleep as I could reasonably have hoped for. Reclining my seat and sliding the head-rest up made a big difference. Entirely satisfactory.
The landing was fine; we used the IRIS booths, which were sadly not completely satisfactory - they decided that my wife should have to stoop down in order to be checked, and also the first booth spat me out with a rejection after three failed attempts. The second booth worked first time, though. (When I signed up, I registered with my spectacles off, but was told that I could probably go through the booths with spectacles on. Apparently not in practice. I tried the second booth senza specs and my picture was accepted first time. Good to know...) Surprisingly, our luggage was already waiting for us on the belt. (Good luck, or did the VO stickers help? Could this be as simple as having the VO stickers on our luggage meant that our luggage wasn't loaded until the end, and last on becomes first off?)
The main problem that day was that a fatality on the East Coast Main Line somewhere around Grantham screwed up the trains; we ended up having to change our plans. Had we been 'lucky' enough to get an extra day in Newark, and thus taken VS018 (?) the next morning to arrive at LHR at 8pm or so, I suspect we wouldn't have been able to get a train home that night at all. Probably a lucky escape in practice, though the next trip being free would have been nice. [:w]
Check-in: 85% for dealing with us kindly and patiently even though we were unprepared for the VO routine.
Pre-flight experience: 55%, because the constraint of having to be at the check-in desk exactly an hour before take-off and then rush straight through the system to the 'plane wasn't so much fun.
Seats: 75%. I got as much sleep as I could have wanted, but unfortunately my wife couldn't get any and rather suffered the next day as a consequence. [:(][|)]
Food and drink: 55%, rather less good than on the way out.
Entertainment: 80%, easily good enough.
Cabin crew: 75%, entirely fine but a little lower-key than on the way out. Either that, or I just wasn't wake enough to properly appreciate them.
Overall: 75%, perfectly adequate in all parts and excellent in some; Virgin remain my airline of preference as solidly as ever.
