This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
After getting the dogs safely ensconced in their accommodation, we packed the car and headed off along the M4 towards England and Gatwick. Not even the lorries travelling side by side could dampen the holiday mood.
I had asked my youngster to do the on-line check in for us as we would still be on the road when it opened and he was sitting poised over his keyboard for 1pm when it should have opened. As it was, he had a few problems working his way through the not very user friendly screens but succeeded in getting us checked in and the boarding passes printed. Even starting the process on the stroke of 1, we were still only 43 and 44 so I guess that it had opened a few minutes earlier.
We stopped off near his home in Isleworth to collect the papers and enjoyed his company for a while together with sandwiches and coffee from the local BP garage. He had to go back to work then so we made our way down to Gatwick to make use of the Twilight check-in facility. There were no queues so we were actually in and out in just a couple of minutes with fast track stickers affixed to our boarding passes.
I asked about door seats and the lady had a quick look and said there were none available upstairs. I then asked whether we could buy an upgrade to UC and, without any reference to her terminal she waved her hand and said no, it would cost thousands.
The next morning, daughter and partner drove us down to the airport where we cruised through fast track security in no time at all and then did some of the usual retail therapy in the Duty Free area.
We had also very kindly been invited into the CH by another subscriber to this forum and we headed upstairs with our purchases where we were made very welcome by the Virgin staff. Thoroughly enjoyed the cocktail but decided against having something to eat as we knew there would be food fairly soon after takeoff. Snacks were virtually non-existent but it did not really matter. The wife was offered a treatment which she declined and after about 40 minutes, we headed off to the gate.
English Rose was waiting patiently for her next consignment of 451 Happy Holidaymakers (and 17 crew) and we were soon on board and in our seats. After the pre-flight drinks, we had the safety briefing and pushed back from the gate just a few minutes after the scheduled time.
During the taxi, the Captain said his piece and warned that there would be some “lumpy turbulence” over Ireland but that he would see if he could climb above it. Well, the takeoff was fine and we made the usual turn-out to the left and headed towards Southampton. Instead of the more normal route over Lands End, we then headed up towards the Bristol Channel and Wales where we flew directly over our little home town.
The turbulence started shortly after takeoff and only ended nearing the Irish shore after which the flight was very smooth until the last hour or so.
The drinks service came around soon after things had smoothed out and then a little later, lunch was served. We enjoyed the chick-pea starter and the braised brisket was excellent, although I did cut off a large piece of fat from mine. The dessert was revoltingly sweet and I only made two small mouthfuls before giving up for the sake of my health. For some reason, my wife finished hers and was soon suffering the consequences in the loo just forward of our seats.
The flight passed uneventfully and I even got to watch a couple of movies.
Our route took us northwards to take advantage of the winds and we crossed over the north Canadian coast around St Johns, heading south, overflying Boston and then east of New York. I had purposely chosen the seats on the right-hand side in case we landed from the south and I would, hopefully, get a few of the Space Centre. This worked out very well in that we had a good view of the American coastline, even seeing Miss Liberty herself.
After ice cream, duty free and a sandwich – cold but tasty – it clouded up about an hour out of MCO and stayed that way until we broke out of it on short finals. So no Space Centre.
Arrival was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule with a Lufthansa B744 just ahead of us. The priority disembarking certainly was not used for PE passengers in the bubble which meant that we were some way back in the immigration queue. All in all, it took about 2 hours to get through immigration and customs but there were no problems and the security staff were efficient and even very nearly smiled!
What can I say about the ground staff, crew and facilities? Well, the ground staff were pleasant enough in an efficient way although boarding was a bit chaotic. On the aircraft, I was expecting the worst after reading some of the posts here but, to be honest, I have seen a lot worse. The entertainment system was, of course limited but it worked and never had to be rebooted. The crew were friendly, efficient and unobtrusive. Disembarkation was a bit of a disaster with two aisles from Economy plus the PE pax coming down the stairs all in a hurry to get off the plane.
All in all, a good flight and further proof that daylight flights are the best.
