This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
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Cabin Crew
So, May 15th arrives. I deliver the bride and bridesmaids from the beauty salon to her parents house on schedule, manage to make no mistakes during my reading in church, and whilst enjoying the 2nd beer of the afternoon, decide whilst the happy couple are having their 1500th photo of the day taken, I would take advantage of the free wifi at the hotel. Bad decision. Good old Sky News have breaking news about the old ash cloud coming back, that is due to close airports until Tuesday, we fly Wednesday, as did our friends on their honeymoon. After worrying slightly for a short while, the day took over again and with a few more beers/wine/vodkas consumed I had managed to totally forget about our holiday plans being ruined and danced the night away.
Sunday was spent mainly watching sky news and trying to guess what was going to happen, but by my arrival at work on Monday morning at 7am everything seemed to be sorting itself out, so packing commenced on Monday evening and Tuesday after a few hours at work we started our trip to Heathrow. After an amazingly good run done taking just 3 hours, we checked in at our bargain £9 travelodge room, which to be fair was fine for the night.
Wednesday morning we dropped the car off at the once again excellent QPark facility on Bath Road and were soon arriving outside T3 around 8:30 (I think) and we were seen straight away by a free UC agent. The female agent wasn't very welcoming at all, and apart from demanding to see our return itinerary and asking the usual security questions, never said another word to us. The security channel was empty and we were airside less than 10mins after arriving at the terminal
The regular security line was very busy and I was very thankful for the VS channel, it really is an excellent service and a big plus for VS.A quick look in a couple of the terminal shops and we were soon heading to the CH. Upon entering we were given a flyer and told by one of the many staff stood handing them out about the new "enhanced" treatment service being offered from today. Enhanced should really have read "chargeable", as the new service being offered was basically the same as had being offered at LGW for a while now, with only certain, shorter treatments now being free. We headed straight to the cowshed and both managed to get the free treatments we wanted without any problems
Breakfast was the next stop, which was as good as ever, although I'm not impressed with the stupid little dish they put the food in. It just seems to be an excuse to give smaller portions, and is totally unnecessary, especially when the dish is sat on a normal plate. We made our way to the area behind the bar and settled in until the flight was called. Champagne was consumed, treatments received and all in all an enjoyable time was had. The service was good, nothing special and one member of the serving staff did seem to be just going through the motions.
The flight was called fairly early as we were at gate 21 (again I think) and we were told it was a bit of a walk. There was a large queue at the gate area, but priority boarding was signed well and a separate channel was there for UC pax, so we were straight on board. Greeted by name at the door and we made our way down to 9/10A. A CC member literally followed us down the aisle with 2 glasses of champagne, I could tell this was going to be a good flight
The rest of the pax soon boarded and I was surprised to see UC almost full, as at OLCI stage nearly every G seat was empty, as were quite a few others.After a fairly long taxi, we took off behind an Emirates A380, which was impressive to see, although it did seem to take an age to get in to the air. As soon as we were in the air, the FSM made a very informative announcement, telling us about the a/c, the cc, and he was quite funny also. Drinks and snacks were soon offered by the very attentive CC member, and the FSM made his way around the cabin, talking to each pax, and he thanked both Luke and I for being regular VS travellers and had a nice little chat with us
The menu was the spring menu as per the sticky thread in the main forum, and I had soup for starter, which was typical VS soup, but still very tasty. My reputation for loving garlic bread is starting to follow me around now as the CC member almost insisted I had two bread rolls, so I did, much to Luke's annoyance as he was only offered one
. I had the pie for main, and as mentioned on here before, a pie it isn't, but nice it was, followed by the pecan tart, which I was not so keen on, more custard needed,The middle part of the flight was pretty dull, I did venture to the very busy bar, where I learned that the sudden filling of the UC cabin was due to a lot of crew travelling. The bar was packed, mainly with the crew travellers but also 2 other pax who literally spent the whole flight at the bar, even eating their. Thankfully the CSS was very pro-active at getting the crew to sit down when the bar came too full, allowing us non crew pax to have some time up their. A nice chat with some crew and other pax was brought to an end by the seat belt sign and once that was turned off I decided to convert to a bed and had a couple of hours sleep. It was strange that for the most part of the flight, all the blinds were down and the lights were also on low, probably because a lot of the cabin did have a mid flight sleep, but something I haven't seen before.
I missed the snack due to sleeping but soon after it was afternoon tea time. Usual offerings of small, average sandwiches, yet I did have a fantastic lemon cake/muffin type thing, it was very delicious. I decided to watch an episode of 'Miranda' which had my laughing out loud and getting a few funny looks from the pax in 8A, but it was a very funny program, and something I have never watched before, so another new series thanks to VS, I found Gavin and Stacey when we went to SFO.
We were soon on our decent in to LAX and landed about 20mins early. Straight off the a/c and in to an empty immigration hall, where we through in no time. Priority baggage worked a treat with both our bags off in the first 20, and straight outside to find the supershuttle people. A shuttle was waiting for us, so straight on board and after only 1 loop and less than 10 mins we were full and on our way. It was an excellent service for only $16 each
Overall this was a really good flight, the service on board was fantastic, the CC member looking after us was friendly and very attentive. The FSM was also great, really visible in the cabin throughout the whole flight and I imagine that had an impact on how good the whole crew were who where working the UC cabin. The seat was in good condition, and the food was good, not as good as the return, but still very nice.
Thanks for reading
Neil
