This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Stayed overnight at Paddington, to make the trip to T3 easy. Arrived there early for the flight and had a short wait at check-in - lots of baggage being checked for JFK flights. The check-in assistant commented that we were very early for the flight (well one has to maximise the time in the Clubhouse!!). Moved to bulk head row, just in case upgrading wasn't possible. Easy route through the UC security and to the lounge.
Had some breakfast - I do love the Eggs Benedict there. Decided to have a bloody mary and asked for spicy.....and it was extremely spicy! Asked the nice concerige whether we could upgrade to UC on our tickets, and she checked that there were sufficient miles and did an on the day PE to UC upgrade for 20K miles - bonus!! Off for my usual facial before a checky cocktail before heading off to the gate.
Boarding was pretty much complete when we got there, although there was a long queue on the air bridge. Comfortably settled into 14D with the usual glass of boarding champagne. Obviously knew that the entertainment wasn't going to be vPORT, but there were several good film options for the outbound journey.
Take-off pretty much on time, although seemed to be a long trip down the runway before we were airbourne. Plane was pretty light in all classes - surprisingly the whole of row 18 was empty (given that there were slight delays in getting it released at check-in initially). Drinks order taken - glass of champagne again, followed by another slightly less spicey bloody mary!
Lunch for the flight was:
Starters:
Soup of the day - tomato and corriander
Warm asparagus spears wrapped in ham with hollandaise sauce
Mains:
Char-grilled chicken with warm potato salad, salsa and spinach
SUmatran salmon and tiger prawn curry with rice and pak choi
Lemon, spinach and ricotta cappelletti
Cheese
Desserts:
Pain au chocolate bread & butter pudding with champagne cream
Raspberry ripple ice cream with chocolate buttons
I had the asparagus (very nice), the curry (nice but the chicken looked better) and both cheese and the bread and butter pudding (excellent!!).
Flight was not too bad - watched three of films during the flight. Only grumble is that the crew were chatting in the galley and ignored my call bell a couple of times (can't pause the TV to get a drink on this flight)....only a slight grumble but they could have been slightly more attentive to passengers. Having said that, the FSM was helping out throughout the plane and ensuring that the main food and drink services happened with efficiency and a few smiles all around!!
Afternoon tea consisted of 3 sandwiches (not too bad), breakfast tea scone with clotted cream and jam (very nice) and lemon sultana slice and Millionaires shortbread (both VERY good!). Served with a lovely glass of chilled champagne (well it was afternoon tea!!). A nice end to an enjoyable flight! [8D] Seemed to be in a hold for a little while, and there was some interesting conversations going on across the galley by the cabin crew [:D]
The arrivals area in ORD was empty (more Americans than International visitors for a change) and through immigration fairly quickly. They weren't all that friendly, but I suppose they were efficient. Baggage took a while to come off, and there was no priority baggage in operation (I think that this is the norm from my experience of VS and other airlines).
Headed off to find the CTA Blue line into town - much cheaper than a taxi and probably as quick (only slight problem is that there is absolutely no space for luggage).
All in all a good flight, although some of the crew could be more attentive to passengers during the flight.
