This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I'd dropped my friend off with all our bags before returning the rental car, so he'd already checked in and then seemed to be doing his level best to hide from me - taking all of my luggage with him. Needless to say I was a bit flustered when I finally got to the checkin desk 1h10m before the flight departed, thanking my lucky stars that I'd checked in online and only had to get my bags checked in.
The checkin agent offered an upgrade for 20,000 miles (overlooking the fact we were booked into K class and therefore the cost to upgrade to a higher PE bucket fare), so checking with my erstwhile travelling companion that he was up for this, we agreed and handed over $44 in cash for the extra fuel surcharge (those Upper Class Suites are heavy buggers I guess!) we were given nice purple boarding cards and wished well upon our way.
My friend went off to do a bit of quick shopping, and I had just cleared security when I remembered that the SFO clubhouse is *before* security... d'oh! Back to landside, up the lift and just enough time for a G&T and a salad before the flight was called. Back through security again, no queue for the Upper Class jetway so straight on board and into my seat. Got into a conversation with a random stranger across the aisle (hi Bill!) about Burning Man (he spotted the clouds of desert dust following me everywhere) before the ground staff caught up with me and asked if they could move me to accommodate a family with a lap-child. (Is this some new kind of pet?) They were closely followed by the family in question, who had also been allocated the same seat number as me. After I explained for the second or third time that I was not travelling on my own (did the fact there were two of us on the same PNR not give this away?) they tried to find somewhere else for us to both be moved to, but this seemed somewhat problematic. I ended up being assigned to first of all 20D and then 15K. This took a good while, involved several members of staff and a flurry of duty free vouchers, but my friend was still stranded back in 22J. The lady in 16K (my new best friend from the lift ride down from the clubhouse) kindly agreed to swap with him, so we managed in the end to achieve what the cabin crew and ground staff seemed to have been incapable of doing - i.e. moving us both to adjacent seats elsewhere in the cabin. Champagne was quaffed (firstly at the bar while they attempted to sort the seating crisis and latterly in our new new seats) and then we took off, banking over the peninsula. It was one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen on take off... we banked around south San Francisco, up the west coast past Golden Gate park, over the Golden Gate bridge, past Embarcadero, the Bay Bridge and then up and over Oakland heading north-east. If only I'd had my camera out... it was breathtaking.
I rapidly realised that all was not well with my new new seat... none of the buttons did anything at all. Once the seatbelt signs were off, I notified the FSM, who said 'oh yes, we were notified about that seat' - great - thanks for reassigning me to it so insistently! She went off and came back and said that the flight was totally full but that there was 'someone' who she could swap me with, and 'it wouldn't matter if they had the broken seat'. I asked if they were VS staff and she ummed and ahhed and said yes. It transpired that the staff member was sitting just across from where we were sitting before in the B zone, but as swapping with them would have meant that we were once again separated from each other, I opted to stay where I was, and have them crank the seat manually into a bed come the appropriate time. One of the CC later commented that a broken seat should only ever be assigned to a revenue passenger as a last resort, and that they would normally put a staff member in there if there were no other seats available, so my question is this: if they knew there was a member of staff across the aisle from where we were sitting previously, and they were trying to move people around while keeping us together and seat the family together, then why was the staff member not moved into 15K in the first place, allowing me to be moved into their seat in the B zone and the family to have my seat? All very confusing and rather annoying... did not leave a good impression at all.
Dinner was served - had the duck salad followed by herb crusted salmon. It was ok - better than the food on the o/b flight, but still not great. A berry tart with creme anglais was followed by a VERY hefty serving of cheese and biscuits and a nice glass of port.
After dinner we had a quiet drink at the bar, followed by getting ready for bed. This seemed to take the combined effort of about 5 people trying to get the suite converted from chair to bed mode, and was achieved in the end by nothing but brute force, pulling the seatback over and down into the bed position. It was not the most comfortable suite I've ever been in... for some reason it seemed less 'secure' than usual, wobbling up and down a little, and with ridges across where it would normally be seamless... I guess as it had not been moved into position manually, it was not locked down properly. It also seemed less soft and comfy than the suite on the way out had been.
I didn't get much sleep at all. I lost my ear plugs the second i opened the snooze pack, and the party sized cheese serving I'd guzzled on (together with the 2 mugs of hot chocolate I'd downed at the bar) were sloshing around uncomfortably in my stomach. Couple this with the mild persistent turbulence, and the fact that the bed seemed to have me in a somewhat inverted position - my head feeling distinctly below my feet - I lay there and contemplated my navel amongst many other things before the lights came on for breakfast. My friend was less than impressed with his IFE as the handset did not work at all, and the dvd player they brought him seemed to have issues. He couldn't sleep so was irritable and bored by the time breakfast came around - even more so when they didnt have any croissants loaded, which were the only thing he fancied from the breakfast menu.
We landed on time and whizzed through immigration - once we finally got there. They should advertise T3 as some kind of fitness regime - the 3 mile sprint after disembarkation. The d_cor once again provided a very sloppy welcome to the United Kingdom. I know they're tarting Heathrow up at the moment but surely they could invest a little more effort to make it look less like arriving in a third world country.
My friends bags came off the carousel in record time - and his only had PE tags on. My bags, which were tagged for UC, still hadn't shown up 30 mins later, so I went to the baggage desk where I was informed by a bored and uninterested chap that my bags had not been loaded in SFO and would be delivered tomorrow. Given that they had this information on a printout, I'm SURE they could have notified me before - even on board the aircraft - and saved me waiting half an hour with nothing to watch but a constant stream of other peoples baggage... not a good experience at all.
I went and joined my friend in the Revivals lounge, where a cup of coffee and a shower brightened my outlook somewhat. The food service in the Revivals lounge was once again hit or miss, but the rest of the staff there were great - very professional, friendly, helpful etc.
Overall, not really a good flight. The cabin crew and ground staff seemed very professional to your face and were always happy to help and look after you, but I felt that there had been ample opportunities to go the extra mile, both with the seating mess and with the non-loaded bags.
Not such a great experience this time around. I'm pondering whether to write to VS with my comments... not that I would expect much by way of response. In the end, we both felt we'd have been as well off staying in Premium Economy last night.
