VS003 LHR-JFK 22 AUG 11 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

1st leg of an East Coast / West Coast trip with my Wife and two teenage Daughters

A346-642 G-VNAP - Sleeping Beauty

Full Trip:
NYC 3 nights > L.A 2 nights > Death Valley 1 night > Las Vegas 5 nights

Back to JFK for a three night stay in NYC departing on the 22nd Aug. For those who may have read my last trip report on VS 045 and the nightmare that turned out to be.... it was all back to normal .

Through check-in and security in no time. Whiled away a couple of hours in the departure lounge - no clubhouse this year

Flight was called on-time and easy boarding. Seats were good - 34 AC & 35 AC.

Swift taxi out and not much of a queue. Is it me, or do the 346's seem to take MUCH longer to get off the ground than the 747's?

Anyway, flight was as comfortable as you can expect back in the 'cheap seats', service however was very good . G&T and a snack, checked out the IFE for a while, then served up the usual Beef or Chicken option - The Beef option tasted very good I have to say.

Flight was very uneventful, which in my book is always a good thing and before we knew it we had landed, disembarked and were standing in a VERY empty Immigration hall - couldn't believe it, it took no more than 10 minutes to pass through immigration, cases were arriving as we got to the belt and in next to no time we were in a small queue for the taxi......

So Flight & Service from VS very good.....

Whilst in NYC....
We luckily didn't feel the tremors from the East Coast Earthquake which happened on the 23rd, in fact we only found out about it when it showed the people being evacuated from buildings on the news that night .

Had a great 3 nights in NYC though before heading off to JFK again for a Transcontinental flight with AA across to LAX (can't figure out why VH didn't book us on Virgin America ? )

Anyway our luck continued as no sooner had we got into T8 the heavens opened and the storm front ahead of the forthcoming Tropical Storm Irene started - I felt sorry for those who would be in NYC over the weekend, but thankfully as it turned out, it was not as bad as predicted. Although the disruption to flights must've been a nighmare.

For any one who is interested, Hotels we used were:
NYC - Flatotel (on a tighter budget this year so sadly not 'The London' on 54th St this time)
Los Angeles - Renaissance Hollywood
Death Valley - Furnace Creek Ranch
Las Vegas - theHotel

Will post the return on VS 044 when I get a moment

JB

Thanks for the TR - some serious itinerary there covering a lot of ground in little time!
Glad to hear of your decent VS flight - I have to agree with your comments on the food in the cheap seats. I think it has improved from mush not recognisable to man, to something quite reasonable!
Looking forward to the return leg

Thanks for the TR Jon. As you say uneventful = good flight.

Shame about not using VX for your cross country trip they are much better than AA (and I thought they were the enemy BA+AA).

10 minutes through immigration - its enough to make you feel welcome!

Flight was very uneventful, which in my book is always a good thing and before we knew it we had landed, disembarked and were standing in a VERY empty Immigration hall - couldn't believe it, it took no more than 10 minutes to pass through immigration, cases were arriving as we got to the belt and in next to no time we were in a small queue for the taxi......

Immigration is always empty when the VS3 lands - it's a nice welcome especially when you see how busy it gets a few hours later.

Thank you for the great TR.

John - just pikcing up on one point.

Yes, the A346 does take a little longer to get off the ground, this is in the main due to slightly less power to weight ratio meaning the acceleration to VR (take off spedd) is a little slower.