This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
By the time check-in opened, the one priority line for both Upper and Premium was already about 8 deep.
It was the same check-in agent Id encountered last year, who was very cold and couldnt even bother to smile.
I had already checked-in online from the hotel the day before and had been allocated Y seat 43K. On asking if I could possibly move to either an exit row or a bulk-head row, the flat answer that I got back was a no and that todays flight was over-booked in Y. The agent didnt even blink an eye-lid or make any kind of effort what so ever to look into moving me. At least this time they remembered to remove my I94W slip from my passport which was one one and only positive thing that could be said about check-in. The rest was very poor. Especially for Upper Class check-in.
Headed outside for a quick smoke before joining one of the longish security lines. There are 3 lines and all moved fairy quickly. I used the First/Business class lane which was much quicker. Not sure if i was supposed to but nobody said anything even on showing my boarding card
Made my way to the JAL lounge which is very basic but does now offer free WiFi. The snack selection is very poor but there are hot/cold drinks available.
The flight was called about 17:20 so made my way to gate 17. Boarding had already commenced and priority boarding was working but came with the usual tuts, shaking heads and under the breath mutterings from other pax you often get.
A/C was G-VSUN so at least we had V:Port. Y was W where completely full. No idea about J, but I could see that the back section of the cabin was full. I wasnt sure of tonight's flight time as this info wasnt given out for some reason.
There was a bit of commotion while all the Y pax found their seats. One pax turned up and wasnt happy she hadnt been assigned an aisle seat (even though she was in row 42 which is a bulk-head row). The same agent who checked me in came to assist the pax. I say assist, but it really was a case of Well thats the seat youve got, like it or lump it attitude towards the pax. One interesting thing the agent did say though was that she had given one of these bulk-head seats as an aisle seat as apparently 'VS offer all bulk-head seats as aisle seats'. Yeah right!! This really wound me up having asked for a bulk-head seat and been told no in no uncertain terms, yet the very same agent offers this row to a pax who had simply just asked for an aisle seat (and probably also didn't have any status either)
VS customer relations be prepared, theres another complaint coming in about ORD ground staff.
Before long the door was closed and we pushed back at about 19:15 and where airborne by 19:25.
The drinks service was started (albeit very slowly on my side of the cabin). The slow service was evident the entire flight.
V:Port was started but as usual was very slow to start with.
Dinner was finally served nearly 2 hours later which to me was far too long to wait on a night flight. By the time the meal service was cleared and the cabin lights where turned off, we where 3 hours into the flight.
The meal choice was the usual chicken, beef or pasta. This time the food was not good, well at least the pasta wasnt anyway. Only just hot enough too. Id gone past been hungry by that stage anyway having not eaten properly since lunch time.
Tea and coffee where offered after the meal, but there where no re-fills. I had to go and ask for my duty-free pre order as the crew offering duty free came though the cabin so fast, I didnt have chance to catch them (that was about the only service that was quick)
Managed an hour or two of sleep. I have to say though I dont like the brand new economy seats. Yes OK you dont seem to loose as much leg-room when the seat in front reclines but you do when you recline your own seat and the bottom cushion moves forward thus reducing leg-room. The lumber support, head rest wings/adjustment are quite good though. Still gives you a numb ar$e after a couple of hours. I just wish VS would change the design of the seat pocket as been 62 my knees touch the seat where the metal bar is located at the top of thIS seat pocket making it very uncomfortable.
Breakfast was served about 90mins before landing and the choice was either an egg and cheese muffin or an egg, cheese and ham muffin. I'm not keen on eggs and there was nothing else to eat for breakfast. All that was suggested was to remove the egg!!! No effort was made into at least looking for something else either. No breakfast for me today then.
As usual with VS, no sign of the FSM, although they did seem to spend a fair amount of time looking after one particular PE pax (staff maybe?)
The cabin was cleared and secured ready for our arrival into LHR. We where on the ground at 09:00 only 5 mins late. A quick sprint to immigration where both IRIS lanes where in use but several other pax where in front of me.
It always makes me laugh at this point as all the pax walked to the far end of immigration once though IRIS to get down to baggage collection even though theres a perfectly good escalator to the left hand side of the immigration exit near where the IRIS booths are?
I was almost first to the belt using this route. My bag came off very quickly again. Having attached my own J tags before I left does seem to help with this especially when arriving from the US.
Made my way outside for a smoke before heading up the Revivals.
All in all this was a poor VS flight. Check-in was poor, The on-board service was too slow and lacked and kind of sparkle or effort. The only positive thing about the entire journey was having V:Port.
Regards
Regards
James Mitchell
James Mitchell
