This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Check in was very quick with almost nobody to be seen in the entire VS area. We soon had boarding cards and took the HEX into London to see family.
On our return we made straight for the security wing and were through in no time and off to the club house.
We both decided to shower rather than eat, we'd had lunch and our flight was a 6pm departure, so it made more sense to eat onboard. The shower experience was a bit dodgy with hairdryers not working, shampoo dispensers not working, but we managed in the end by drying our hair in the salon.
I sat down on the couches just to the right of the bar and waited patiently for someone to take my order, and while several staff members wandered by, they somehow failed to see me, now I know my diet was successful and I dropped almost 30lbs, but I'm still 175 and 5'10' - not exactly Kate Moss. Eventually I gave up and went to the bar, the barman acknowledged me and said he had his hands full with a group at the bar (possibly staff, though without proof who knows - I definitely got the impression they were all friends). I said that was fine (with a not fine facial expression), gave him my order and said I'm sure one of the servers would be able to bring it over. He brought the drinks himself right away and apologized that no one had been for my order - a good recovery.
We took the route march down to the gate and arrived to face a small line to get on board. Once on board we noticed the IFBT area was gone, replaced with a closet and a handy area for stretching exercises (DW has a bad back).
The suite was in perfect working order and even more amazing so were the staff! And of course you know the reason why. Correct! The FSM was visible and working, introduced herself to the passengers and was present throughout the flight. I obtained permission to use her name, and she was delighted to hear about V-FLYER. FSM Jo Bloom, thank you very much for a wonderful flight, you lead a great team by example.
Food was pretty good - again sorry memory fails me. The wines were okay, I've had many better offerings over the years. I did manage to get a pretty goos sleep in, even though the turbulence over the Congo was pretty bad.
With about four hours to go, I took a quick turn through the cabins to estimate load and was amazed that the plane had 80 empty seats, this is normally a very popular route for VS. The UA flight from SFO-LHR was full in First and Business (upgrades galore I expect) and empty in Economy, with many passengers having the central aisle to themselves to sleep.
Then I watched Rocknrolla - thoroughly enjoyable, before tucking into the full breakfast. I've normally been a Back butty man, but this time opted for the full English which was excellent.
We landed a little early, but the immigration line soon made up for that with about a 40 minute line. I wish there was Fasttrak for immigration.
