This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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Due to the sheer volume of luggage and the fact there were 4 of us travelling the only sensible option was to take an estate car with a trailer, which was later to cause us the problem.....
All went OK until we arrived at the security barrier to enter the DTCI area; the lady on the other end of the intercom mentioned that we had to drive forward until we reached one of those hydraulically-operated security posts , after which a post behind us would rise and the one in front of us would lower........
Due to the length of our car/trailer combo we all suddenly had visions of our caravan being impaled by one of those posts so had to announce a quick decision to abort the DTCI experiment, to reverse out and arrive at T3 in the conventional way.
In all fairness to VS, there wasn't much they could do about the short distance between these security posts, but it might have been helpful if they could have mentioned in the blurb that was emailed to us about there being a length limit of vehicles that can use DTCI?
None of us travelling had occurred to mention this to VS once we had received the DTCI invitation as we hadn't realised that there was a series of posts to negotiate!
So, we soon found ourselves arriving in the conventional way at T3 and we quickly unloaded the car and made our way to the UC check in area.
There isn't really much to say about check in other than everyone was pleasant and polite, but I wouldn't say the experience was any more than 'adequate'.
The reception we had at UC check-in at Sydney last year was absolutely superb in terms of helpfulness and atmosphere, by comparison our Heathrow experience was a tad cold and impersonal.......
The short journey upstairs via the lift and through security was undertaken without any drama and we soon found ourselves entering the Clubhouse at approx 12.30pm.
Since our flight was at 4.50pm we knew we had roughly 4 hours to kill.
The Concierge was very friendly and asked us if we knew our way around , which we answered in the affirmative , and we soon made a bee-line for the Gallery.
I claimed one of the hanging wicker seats (my favourite seating position!) , plugged the laptop in and made myself at home.
Soon a glass of Lanson was ordered, which arrived promptly.
For a Saturday (which I had expected to be busy) the Clubhouse was pretty dead during our entire time.
Service was very good though, I tried the Virgin Redhead cocktail (very potent!) and soon after that we had a meal in the bistro area, in one of the red booths.
On previous CH visits I had only ever had eaten in the Gallery but it made a nice change to have a sit-down meal for once in a proper dining environment.
The warm chicken salad was good, as was the coq-au-vin, whilst the apple and blackberry crumble dessert was lovely.
All too soon our boarding call came and we traipsed the relatively short distance to the departure gate .
The plane for our journey was V-VEIL Queen of the Skies and it did look relatively new and not at all tired.
We were directed to our suites (5 and 6K), whilst our travelling companions had to turn right and make their way all the way back to Y.....
After stowing my stuff away I was soon offered a glass of bubbly and the captain made the announcement that due to a strong tailwind the trip would barely be 7 hrs but that it might be a bit bumpy at times!
I'm not the best flyer in the world and this didn't please me greatly, but I needn't have worried, it was superbly smooth virtually all the way, save for a few minutes of bumpiness whilst coming in to land at JFK.
We soon pushed back and were airborne pretty much on schedule.
The plane was eerily empty; I seem to recollect that there were only 16 pax in Upper and PE looked just as empty.
As my sister and niece (DL and DL Baby) were down the back in Y I asked the FSM if she would mind if I invited them both up to the bar later in the flight and the reply was 'no problem, but would you mind waiting until the meal service was finished?', which of course was not a problem.
Pre-meal snacks soon were offered , and I seem to remember devouring several little dishes of nuts,before the main meal was served.
I started off by having the trio of prawns, and whilst there literally were 3 prawns present , it was very tasty.
The lamb was chosen as the main course, and again I left a clean plate!
Dessert was the chocolate mouse type thing and again it was fine.
As I'm writing this almost 3 weeks after the flight the memory is a tad hazy, but I 'm pretty certain that cheese and biscuits came next,which was accompanied by a fig preserve (a little odd IMHO) and a nice glass of port.
It was after the food had been served that the FSM aproached me and advised that once I was ready to go and collect my guests to bring them up to the bar not to go and search for them in Y as they were both now in PE!
On hearing this I scooted to the back of PE where I found them both, one (DL Baby) was fast asleep and catching up on her rest after almost continuous partying following her 18th birthday 48 hrs before, whilst DL was catching up on a movie.
It transpired that DL's IFE hadn't worked from the word go and that after the refusal of a portable DVD player, it hadn't taken much for the FSM to offer them the chance to spend the rest of the journey (after their meal service in Y) in PE instead.
The FSM had also realised who DL was as this had all occurred after I had enquired about inviting them to the bar.
We had just the one drink at the bar , and then it was time to turn in.
I decided not to go to sleep , so just watch some TV instead, and it wasn't long before the afternoon (!!) tea came around.
It was a bit strange to be offered 'afternoon tea' when by UK time it was something like 9pm , but they were tasty enough, I went for one of each sandwich , like a sort of selection plate; the awful-sounding carrot and wensleydale (I think that's what it was!) was actually very good indeed!
Little cupcakes were offered with the coffee, and I found the pistachio ones delicious!
Before long it was time to land, and we made a very uneventful and fuss-free landing , though as we approached JFK and made landfall off Long Island Sound it did become very bumpy for a short while which surprised me!
The flight has to rank as one of the best I've had on VS; every CC addressed me by name every time I was spoken to , several juice/drinks runs were undertaken throughout the flight and whilst critics might say that if they couldn't get things like service right on a flight less than half-full (to be honest I'm surprised the flight wasn't pulled for being so empty..) I have to say that the flight was superb.
They do say that that a flight is made by a good FSM/CC team and this one couldn't be faulted, so well done to VS.
We quickly disembarked at a very cold and snow-covered JFK and made our way to US immigration.
After experiencing the utter mayhem/hell on earth that immigration can be at MIA a few years ago when a few Brazillian and Mexican flights a well as a VS one arrived at roughly the same time I was a little filled with trepidation as we approached the area...
I needn't have worried though as the area was fairly quiet; one security-type guy directed you to line 5, or 6, or 24 etc and you had to go and queue up at your designated line number to see 'your' designated immigration officer/Department of Homeland Security person (or whomever they were!).
It was after queueing for about 10 minutes that I got to the point that I was next to be seen when suddenly over the tannoy an announcement came (rather hard to understand but something along the lines of "5, 7 and 15 on break" ) and the immigration bloke just yelled 'LANE CLOSED!' in my direction.......
At this point came one of those times when your tongue completely disengages from the brain and I found myself saying, rather too loudly for my own comfort "Welcome to America!".
This meant I then had to about-turn and find another queue pretty smartish...
A pretty sour situation quickly turned out rather well I'm glad to report though as the female officer I ended up with couldn't have been more polite or friendly whilst she took my fingerprints and asked the nature of my stay etc.....
Soon we were all in the baggage area where priority baggage did seem to have worked (our cases were amongst the first to come around the carousel) and were soon through US customs and to a very, very cold and snow-covered JFK taxi-rank area where we waited for our people-carrier to take us into Manhattan, my first visit there since 2000, during which time of course the skyline had sadly changed so much…….
Last edited by Nessy on 20 Feb 2011, 09:51, edited 5 times in total.
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