This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Rental car dropped, Airtrain into the terminal, finding G-VYOU already waiting to fly us home. I'm trying to work out of VS have moved one aisle closer to the A-gates or not?
The check-in layout has also been changed, it seems, with Upper Class check-in situated in the middle of the group of desks, with PE, and a Y bacg drop on one side, and full Y check-in on the other. It was all tensabarriered quiet clearly though, it just wasn't where I'd expected it to be!
Both UC desks were busy, but the adjacent PE agent called us over as soon as she'd finished dealing with her last passenger. This agent had checked me in before and was very pleasant and helpful, just like last time. Our box of wine was checked-in, she enquired that the bottles inside were packaged properly - they were in those cardboard pulp box liners (becoming more popular than the polystyrene foam, because of ease of recycling) - before having me sign the box off as limited release, and ensuring that all luggage was properly tagged with UC labels - crucial to ensure proper priority handling @ SFO.
Very efficient check-in and with a "priority security" endorsement stamped on the boarding cards and a lounge invite issued, it was off to the Clubhouse. No Claire today, and finding a pair of the red Arne Jacobsen style chairs vacant, we chose to sit there.
Sadly, despite being right in front of the bar and where the staff come-and-go, the service wasn't quite up to usual SFO standards. Rather slow, no "can I get you anything else?", just seemed a bit inattentive, with lots of chatting with the staff behind the bar. Make sure everyone has something in their glass - then you can chat behind the bar - that's how I look at it!
The chicken masala curry was a fairly typical small clubhouse meal, but pleasant enough, and despite looking a bit lost on the huge plate (and maybe even a bit mean), was actually about the right size. A couple of Anchor Steam Beers washed that down nicely.
The time in the Clubhouse still seemed to pass quite quickly, watching the comings and goings on the apron outside, meaning it didn't feel that long before the flight was called, down at A11. It seems the A346 has to go on one of those far-end stands, probably because of it's length.
Security was rather slow, despite there being a priority queue, and a VS person being at the head of the tensabarriers ensuring that VS pax leaving the CH were directed down it, it turned out there were only two lanes open, and everyone was being routed through the millimetre-wave scanner, of which there was only one scanner shared between two lanes.
There is a sign outside the millimetre wave scanner stating "The use of this technology is optional - you may request a pat-down search as an alternative at any time" - interesting that the US are taking a more relaxed line than the UK.
The millimetre wave stuff is slowing things down at the moment, I think, but I suspect things will speed up over time.
Long walk down the travelators to A11, with the last call for the flight being made, and sure enough, when we got there there was no scrum and no queue, most of the flight having boarded. Dual jetways were still attached, meaning we were straight on board through the L1 door and welcomed by the male FSM.
Another FSM (seemed to be working out of grade as SCC) was on the ball with pre-departure drinks and newspapers, and I was happy to find a clean and tidy suite, in good condition, not bashed up, scratched or damaged, along with one of the later designs of UCS table which let you get out of your suite with the table out.
A rather cheeky welcome on board from the Captain, who referred to the cabin crew as "Uncle P" and "Aunty C", calling it a "strike buster" flight, and asking "where is it we're going?" part way through describing the routing!
We even had announcements in German, as we had a native German speaker among the crew - I've got a feeling I'd been one of his flights before.
Also think there may have been some friends of the crew sat up near the front, but they weren't a problem during the flight, didn't make a nuisance of themselves, and if they were friends of the crew, the crew seemed to give them no preferential treatment. Big thumbs up for being very professional if that's the case.
We pushed back a touch late, and taxied down to 28L for takeoff, making the usual departure of crossing the coast and then making a right turn toward Sacramento.
The service got underway very quickly drinks, crisps and snacks offered, followed by refills, before dinner orders were taken, and we were asked if we'd like waking for breakfast - the crew member working our aisle carefully noted my preference of "don't wake, but 'yes' if already awake".
The FSM even involved himself in making sure people had something in their glass, which is great to see.
Sadly, the dinner service on the flight was mushroom heavy - mushrooms in the salad, porcini crust on the pork, mushroom pasta. It pretty much excluded my girlfriend from being able to eat anything off the menu, she doesn't really touch fish either, and didn't really fancy the asparagus soup for a second time on a Virgin plane in a week! She ended up just having warmed bread, which I think is a bit lame. If we still had the light snacks on board, there might have been more of a choice of her.
That said, the dinner service was underway about 90 minutes or so after departure, a definite improvement on the outbound, while the salad was quite pleasant, if a bit "careful" (if you see what I mean), but the mushroom ravioli pasta was a bit grim (overcooked, disintegrating) and seemed to go cold rather quickly. Cheesecake for desert was pleasant, but not a "wow", seemed a bit industrial.
Things were always "offered" during the meal, bread, wine and water kept well topped up, "Can I get you any dessert, cheese, after-dinner liqueur?", that sort of thing. Real Upper service, it felt more like the Virgin of old.
I did find that I was missing a pillow when I decided I could do with a bit of sleep, and the "pad" was very tatty, with rips and tears. Fortunately the crew managed to find a pillow for me, though I've got a feeling it came from the crew rest given the direction it came from!
However, I even ended up managing to sleep for about 5 hours during this flight, which is almost unheard of for me, waking once just across the Canadian coast, and then waking just off the coast of Northern Ireland. I was quite amazed by how much I slept.
Breakfast was served at a relaxed pace, but acceptably so, and I was asked what I wanted and served a pleasant breakfast of Special K, bacon roll (slightly dry on one side), and croissant (yay!) in good time as we headed for Dublin.
Before long, we were making a right turn toward London over what the Captain called "The Cultural Region of The Wirral" (!), and with no circling around in a hold, we were just a few minutes early touching down on Heathrow's runway 09L.
Of course, no holding meant we ended up having to wait for a stand, which I worked out rather quickly given the decidedly leisurely taxi speed, with the delay costing us about 15 minutes or so.
IRIS was closed/broken, and even the EU queue was quite long, however, I'd positioned myself carefully in the queue so that when a couple more desks opened, I could hop across, which was a good move!
Priority baggage was working well, the belt just started up as we got there, and we had all bags (and the wine) within about 5 minutes - even though there was a big gap between the penultimate and last item!
Off to Revivals, which seemed quite busy with arrivals off the flight, some people ended up having to wait for showers. Food seemed a bit poor (thought the bread was a bit dry or stale) compared to normal, and it felt like there was a bit of an atmosphere that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
It was a good flight, the crew were great, and their attitude has convinced me to give Virgin another go.
Mike
