VS003 LHR-JFK 11 JAN 12 (Premium Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

this was the outbound flight on a post Christmas shopping and sightseeing trip to new York with my sister which i had upgraded from an X economy fare to a K Premium Economy fare for £95 each. after checking in on my iphone whilst traveling from Weymouth to Heathrow on Tuesday the 10th and only acheiving SEQ3&4 we spent the night in the Ibis on Bath Road which for the night was reasonably priced through expedia.

Wednesday morning we left the Ibis early and made our way to T3 to drop our bags as soon as check-in opened at 6:30 check in agents were friendly and wished us a good trip.
making our way through security which had no que we were in the departure lounge by 7am.

once our gate was displayed we made our way down miles of corridor to gate 22 (felt like we were walking half way to NY!!) to find G-VYOU awaiting us pictured here

boarding was quickly started and with only 153 pax onboard did not take long.

orange juice and sparkiling wine was offered by the crew twice before we pushed back. As there were only 10 pax in PE the cabin looked very empty.

we pushed back a few minutes late as catering had forgotten to load something and were seen running up to the aircraft to load an extra box. once we were moving we had a manual safety demonstration and were soon speeding down the northern runway.

soon after takeoff drinks were offered along with a little packet of pretzels the crew were one short and so there was only one crew member working the PE cabin although she did have help with the meal service she did an excellent job looking after the PE pax.

after watching an episode of the Simpsons on v-port (when it was eventually turned on) dinner was served. after recent reports on here i opted for the braised beef option.
as seen here
which was very nice although the chocolate desert was a little rich for my taste.

and my sister went for the pasta.
not a great picture here

the flight after dinner had a few bumps in places and it seemed every 45 mins the seatbelt sign came back on i lost count at 8 times
but there was nothing other than a few little bumps for a few moments each time.

v-port was switched off around 45 mins before landing and as we approached JFK there were some mice views of NYC from the left windows pictures are not the best but you can just see Manhattan in these pic 1 pic 2

once we had arrived at our gate we quickly made our way to immigration as another international arrival had just arrived on another gate and managed to beat the que only to be directed to the slowest possible desk to have the usual finger prints and photo taken.
by the time we had been processed our bags were circling the reclaim belt so it took arround 20 mins to get out in the the very cold outside T4@JFK which for the US is quite good.

all in all a very good enjoyable flight with excellent crew

well done VS and the crew of this flight


[edit to correct my appalling spelling]

Thanks for the TR sounds like a good flight with a CC that worked hard to please

Nice pictures of NYC btw

tks for the trip report, nice to have a quiet cabin

Thank you, very lucky to have such an empty flight

Thanks for the great TR with pictures!

Sounds like a really good flight, a very empty PE cabin!

Great flight by the sound of it, but didn't they server dinner early .

20 minutes from gate to exit is pretty darn good .

didn't they server dinner early .

20 minutes from gate to exit is pretty darn good .

even the crew were saying to pax in front of us that the VS3 is a a bit of a strange time too early for lunch and too late for breakfast.
may have been better to skip afternoon tea and just surve lunch half way through the flight.

was a very good flight.

20 mins to exit the airport may have involved a bit of a run to insure we were at the front of the line in immigration

Thanks for your TR and pictures, really did bring the flight to life for me

I agree the VS3 is a strange one for timings - I am surprised that VA don't operate what they do with the VS18 which operates at similar times from EWR to LHR which offers a breakfast after take-off and then dinner before landing or in the case of VS3 perhaps a light brunch could be offered after take-off and then lunch before landing?

Jon

Thank you for the TR.