VS602 JNB-LHR 31 Jan 09 (Upper)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

So at the end of another safari, we'd spent the afternoon at the Sun Intercontinental, rather than hang around the airport. At 7:15pm we made our way over to the terminal to check in, narrowly avoiding the SA cricket team who'd just arrived from Oz and were staying at the hotel.

Check in was very quiet in Economy, but there was a lengthy queue for Upper and PE. After watching five or more Econ passengers be dealt with while the UC crew grew longer and longer I suggested to the floor supervisor that it might be a good idea to pull us out of line, after all thats why we'd paid 000's not 00's to sit up front. As it was we were taken care of next, but I'm still not convinced that she actually got the message.

Security and immigration went fairly quickly and we were soon in the clubhouse, which was amazingly quiet. I ordered a beer and the vegetable Biryani, pretty good. DW had Sauv Blanc, Ostrich Carpaccio and Sushi after she'd spent a fortune at Indaba. Tip - for tacky African gifts go to Out of Africa, for something with more class, try Indaba.

The walk to the gate was quite long, but thankfully no more bus rides. At the gate we were a little confused by the sign saying this was the SAA flight to HK!

Once on board we were given sleep suits and a drink, but no friendly hello or asking whether we were familiar with the suite.

To be continued....

Ooooh! the suspense.....

Thanks for the taster!

It doesn't bode well for part two...

So here's the rest of the trip.

The suite was in great shape. This time we were upstairs and I have to say that I enjoyed 9A, I wouldn't be so happy with 11K on the other side, much closer to the galley.

Drinks service was pretty prompt after take off, but DW was not very impressed with the friendliness of the crew. For my part I didn't think it was any big deal. Being really tired and having eaten already, DW had the cheese plate and I had a creme caramel, I drank just one Ten and Tonic (with lime!) and headed to bed. I slept very well and got up in time to enjoy some breakfast and prepare for a very cold London.

We de-planed pretty quickly and made it through Fast Trak (they didn't offer us vouchers - WTF is wrong that they can't manage simple things like this?). Our bags were amongst the first off and we headed over to Arrivals.

Arrivals was very quiet, so we showered, enjoyed the signature breakfast and headed over to T1 for our flight back to the States.

It wasn't a bad flight, and it had everything I needed for a night flight on my way home from vacation - a drink, and a comfortable bed, and a shower at the other end, I don't really ask for more. The service could have been better, but as other's have testified it could have been much worse.