This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I arrived at NBO in the morning and walked up to the rather shabby looking check-in desks. The check-in agent spent a while staring at my e-ticket until I mentioned I had changed my return date. 1 bag was checked in and I went through to passport control. This took a while as only two counters were open and I must have timed my arrival to coincide with every single other passenger on VS672!
As soon as I was through, I headed to the "First Class Lounge". Having flown this route before, I was well aware that "first class" was not quite what you might think. You get to figure this out pretty quickly when you hand over your lounge invitation and the only acknowledgement you get it "SELF SERVICE" and a finger pointing to the refreshments(!).
The lounge looked very tired. A large number of old leather sofas, some plastic chandeliers hanging from the roof, the paint peeling from the walls. Lots of large signs in big red letters saying "DIPLOMATIC DUTY FREE" with a small duty free counter at the back. Bizarrely, the entrance to the toilets were not proper doors. They were almost like cubical doors, so they did not reach all the way to the celling. Consequently, there was a lovely toilet smell across most of the lounge.
The drinks offerings were not bad, soft drinks were available from fridges (the coca-cola out there is always in those original glass bottles, so that's quite fun). They had a selection of reasonably good / premium spirits. The food looked average, a small selection of sandwiches and various things wrapped in puff pastry. All of which were under cling film. I must say, given most of the food offering contained dairy or chicken, I thought it was wise not to risk it...
Anyway, no sooner did I grab a bottle of coke and sit down, the flight was called for boarding. As I got up to leave, the woman at the counter told me I had plenty of time to finish my coke. I went back, finished it and headed off to the gate.
At the gate is when you actually go through the first real security check (rather than having a completely sanitised "air-side"). For someone who hasn't gone through this airport before, they may find it slightly annoying. The security staff could be more helpful; you actually go through security twice, within the space of 30 seconds.
Once you go through the first x-ray, you turn the corner and there is a sign saying "You have now entered Virgin Atlantic territory and security is our priority". So no sooner have you put your belt and shoes back on, they have to come off again for a second set of screening. I don't mind this, but it'd be helpful if they could tell you before you put everyone back on again.
Anyway, I arrive at the gate lounge and I end up sitting there for just over an hour. An announcement is made saying "Families with children will be boarded first, followed by Upper Class passengers". I was a bit surprised, as normally its special assistance pax, followed by UC. Annoyingly, it seemed everyone was travelling as part of a family. So there was a rather long queue to get on the plane.
Once on the plane, I'm pleased to say I've had one of the best flights I've ever had on VS. There were two FSMs in UC, one acting as a CSS. Oddly, I had the very same thing on my outbound flight.
Now for the only part that annoyed me on both my outbound and return flight... The choice of reading material / newspapers. What has happened to The Times?? On my outbound I only had a choice of The Mail or Independent. On this flight, a choice between The Independent or Financial Times! No copies of the Economist either. Just Hello magazine. Great.
The crew, throughout the flight, were very attentive. At the start of the flight, the FSM acting as a CSS came around and introduced himself to every pax and addressed them by name. He even shook everyone's hand which I've not seen before, but the welcome seemed all the more personal. In addition, noticing I was Au, the FSM-CSS thanked me for my loyalty to the company and asked if there was anything he could do, just to ask. Excellent - not often I find the Au status acknowledged.
Just after take off, orders were taken for lunch by the FSM-CSS. I think, for the first time ever, I was told that I could order anything from the menu at any point in the flight as the FSM-CSS said he knew it was still quite early for lunch!
The crew were constantly available throughout the flight, frequently walking up and down the isle. On this flight, there would be absolutely no need to use the call button. The visibility of crew was excellent. Later in the flight the designated FSM was also seen regularly, topping up wine at the meal service and introducing himself.
Wine gums were brought round after lunch and ice cream was brought round later too (in fact, that has just reminded me I put them in my bag and didn't eat them... brb...).
Okay, back. I can say the wine gums are REALLY quite nice. Made by Sweet Ideas Ltd, apparently.
I was randomly selected to complete an in-flight questionnaire which I completed. Essentially, everything was rated top-notch aside from the entertainment. I was unable to find even 1 film I wanted to watch. The selection was terrible. The TV programs were poor too. I must say, on-demand will now be a major factor when deciding which airline to fly. I seem to have terrible luck with Virgin, almost always getting the old tape based systems.
Towards the end of the flight, the designated FSM walked up to me, addressed me by name, said it was good to see me back on board and asked if everything was okay with my flight today. He them walked further up the cabin and spoke to the other Au on the plane. I must say, to have Au acknowledge twice on a flight was really quite amazing, given it is often not acknowledged at all!
When disembarking the plane, I shook the FSM's hand and thanked him for a great flight. I'll follow it up with an email to Virgin too.
All in all, an excellent flight. Only slightly marred at the end by the Virgin chauffeur driver at Heathrow who only said one thing to me which was, "do you want me to take your bag?" and looking rather like I had just insulted him in the worst way possible. Strange.
All in all:
VS should use your experience as the basis on which to build and therefore get the consistency right
