This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
At the airport there were separate lines from Economy, PE and UCS which I wasn't sure there would be and we were seen straightaway as there was no queue at the UCS line. Check in agent was friendly and quickly had our BPs and lounge invites and were soon off to security. There is no fast track line here but no real need as it was very quiet. They are very thorough though and pretty much everyone was subjected to some kind of search, I even was made to empty the pieces of paper from my pockets! [:?]
Just after security on the left hand side is the Air Jamaica lounge. My advice to you all is to not bother with this place at all. It is small and dingy with hardly any snacks. There was one computer but it was not in use and no showers. [n] There was a decent size bar however so I got a Red Stripe and then we decided to see what the terminal is like. The terminal is really good with lots of shops, restaurants and bars and is far nicer than the lounge. We had a walk round and sat at one of the bars for a beer and wish I hadn't bothered with the Air Jamaica lounge at all as it was much better here.
Arrived at the gate at about 1800 and they were just about to start boarding. A large amount of people were standing milling about in front of the gate and once the first priority boarding announcement went out they all went forward. To be fair to the staff at this point they stopped everyone boarding and sent everyone back to their seats and made the announcement that boarding would be done strictly in row order and anyone not boarding at the correct time would be sent back. Nice to see this being carried out properly. It does amaze me how some passengers are either too stupid or too ignorant to board when they are told. Rant over! [:w] Before boarding they were randomly searching peoples hand luggage again. Luckily we were spared this and were on board Jersey Girl at our favourite seats 6A/K.
Champagne and sleep suits were handed out and we were welcomed on board (by name) by the CSS in charge of the UCS who asked us if we knew how everything worked and asked us to find her if we needed anything on the flight. Captain announced a flight time of 8 hours and 30 minutes with our routing over Cuba, Nassau then up the East Coast of America and over Canada before crossing the Atlantic. We pushed back about 20 minutes late as someone on board had decided not to travel and they had to find and offload his bags. Soon in the air and seat belt signs off very quickly after a nice smooth take off and ascent. I missed the goodies basket and welcome from the FSM as I was changing into my sleep suit but he did apparently welcome us back so Natalie said! Dinner was then served and I opted for the Salmon salad (very good) and the chicken breasts (excellent) followed by the cheese and biscuits. The food was very nice today and the best I have had for a while. The salmon in the salad was cooked beautifully and the portion sizes seemed a lot bigger. Entertainment system was Nova again [n] and decided to watch 12 rounds which was ok and passed the time before putting the sky map on. Converted my Suite and tried to sleep but just couldn't drop off. Dozed for ages before eventually drifting off, only to be woken by some pretty severe turbulence. Seats 6 A/K are excellent when travelling as a couple but you do seem to notice every bump more when you are right at the front in the nose! Breakfast was served around 90 minutes before landing and I had the bacon roll, an orange juice and a coffee. The bacon roll was pretty dry today and I didn't really enjoy it. Landed on time and were on stand after a huge taxi around what seemed like the entire airport!
Customs resembles a building site at the moment and I couldn't see where the IRIS machines were so we joined the thankfully fairly short EU line and were through quickly. Apparently the IRIS line was over the other side which I didn't spot! Once in baggage reclaim there was no carousel assigned to our flight so we waited by the monitors and waited! After about 20 minutes they announced that our bags would be on 2 different carousels. This caused mass confusion as no-one knew which bags would come off on which one! Two of our bags were the first off on the first conveyor belt where it appeared all of the UCS and PE bags were. However there was no sign of our other case and the other conveyor belt had not yet started. I left my girlfriend with our bags and went over to the other belt just as it started bringing the Y bags off. Finally after 1 hour and 20 minutes my bag came off last! [V][n] This meant that we had missed our train to Clapham and our connection to Watford which was annoying as the next one was an hour. I don't know why this took so long or why one bag got separated as they were all checked in together and all appeared to be tagged correctly but it was very frustrating. Eventually got my train after 40 minutes waiting at the station and were on our way home.
Another good flight with excellent cabin crew. I liked the full meal service as opposed to the usual service you get on the East Coast USA flights. Gives you a bit more interaction with the CC which can be minimal on a night flight and they didn't seem quite as keen to throw the food at you and turn the lights off. Food was very good which made a pleasant change. Just a shame about having to wait so long for the bags. Next VS flight is a weekend to New York in August so we will see what that brings!
