This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
After a wonderful seven nights in New York & Boston, the day approached...
We made our way on the Silver Line from Boston South Station to Logan, and I was struck by the ease of the journey. Up to a few days before, I thought that the Silver Line was part of the subway, as it's so well integrated, with uniform prices and even on the bus it stopped at 'stations' with 'platforms' at the places it serves.
Boston Terminal E is probably the nicest airport I have ever flown from. It's got a lovely calming design, with lots of nice wood paneling creating a different airport experience. The staff there were very friendly, and again we had a nice conversation with the Virgin check-in people, (mainly about a passenger shouting because they were being charged excess baggage. I am always bemused by passengers baggage, I could barely carry my case, now laden with shopping and gifts and this was still within the limit - just what do people pack, and why do they expect to be able to take more for free?).
Security at Boston took five minutes and we in the departures lounge, Gate E8A to be exact, and that was two minutes from security. Duty free shop duly visited, where you could buy four litres of Jack Daniels for $55! $55!! (I didn't know the limits but I was sure that exceeded them so I passed on that ...). Everyone at the airport wished us a nice flight, and even though it might be a standard greeting, but the romantic in me imagined it was America saying Bye Bye. [/sniff]
Matt was a bit more nervous this time, so I was concerned. But he wanted to board first.
The seats on Bubbles felt bigger, the V-PORT controls were under the screen, rather than in the side of the seat, and they seemed to be much more padded. The seat colours (patterned red for some seats, and a patterned beige for others) gave the cabin a much more subdued feel, and I think I preferred this.
We were at the back of the plane, which made him nervous, and it transpired that when he went to look for someone to see about changing seats, he burst into tears. But the Virgin staff comforted him and said they would do their best to move us.
As it happened, a BA flight to Boston was four hours late, so some of their passengers were transferred to VS, so better seats were scarce. The cabin supervisor come up to Matt to explain this, and he deserves special mention as he constantly checked to see how he was. There was a bit of confusion when another stewardess said that exit row seats were available so he would have more space, but as were moving the supervisor put a stop to it, and explained that as a nervous flyer he couldn't put Matt in that row. The stewardess then apologised later, but really it was just one of those things and turned out to be a bit of a distraction. I actually thought that the back of the cabin was nice, because the dividing wall make it seem a bit smaller, but that's just me.
Matt was in an aisle seat, and I was in the adjacent one.
Thankfully, the seats behind me were empty so I could recline without feeling guilty, and the person in front of me didn't recline, but even at that it felt cramped. This is odd because it was essentially the same seat as on the outbound. I think overnight flights do that to you, when you can't sleep or get comfortable you notice things more.
I was glad that it was only a six hour flight. Strangely Matt felt less claustrophic on this one.
His seat reclined slightly, but he had someone behind him so didn't want to push back fully. We're nice like that. [;)]
The supervisor came around again and told Matt that he was doing really well, and told him the name of the stewardess who would be covering this part of the plane and where she was sitting should he need assistance - another nice touch I thought.
Dinner. Can you guess what it was?
Chicken and Rice or Beef and Mash, or vegetable pasta.
Again, I really liked my little meal. There were big chunks of beef and the vegetables were very flavoursome. There was a little side salad with ranch dressing too, some bread and cheese and crackers. Pudding was an Apple Crumble style cake with cold custard. Of course I cleared the lot.
The drinks service after dinner was on request so I tried to get some sleep. Without success, so I decided to break the V-Port.
This screen happened twice - each time after exiting Sky News.
Then, 'breakfast'. And I have mixed feelings about this. It was a Granola Bar or a Blueberry Muffin, with orange juice. It was, at the time, just what I needed. I think though they need to stop calling it breakfast, it's just a snack and calling it breakfast does lead people to assume that they're going to get the full English, which isn't the case. But that wasn't a big concern for me, as I knew what to expect because of reading V-Flyer.
We hit a bit of turbulance just over Ireland, but it wasn't major and pretty soon we were making our descent to Heathrow. Landing was fine, and with the thought of proper tea on my mind I made my way to Baggage Reclaim. Enroute I took my last picture of the holiday - Bubbles.
UK Border Control took about five minutes (there were hundreds of people in the Non UK/Non EU queues though) and baggage - well again mine was one of the last off the plane.
I know it's a cliche to say that the staff are the most important part of a company, but I felt with Virgin it is totally true. They all worked so well together, and everywhere - warm smiles and laughter.
There were several stand out moments, I think I will write to them to say thank you. Good service needs to be 'noticed'.
