This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I had the itinerary all worked out: Into LAX, a few nights at Steve’s brother’s in San Diego, onward to Palm Springs, then on to Vegas , then VX to San Francisco for a few nights and finally back to LHR on the VS20. Originally we’d been booked on the VS23 for the flight to LAX this being the only flight with four Gs but a few months back VS emailed saying the VS23 had been cancelled that day & we’d been moved on to the 7 instead. Perfect as that would have been our first choice all along!
So the long awaited day arrived and at 7am last Saturday we were bound for Heathrow in a people carrier taxi. I’d booked a drive-thru check-in slot for 8.15 and we arrived pretty much on schedule. I love the drive-thru and, what with this being the parents-in-law’s first experience of premium flying, they were sufficiently ‘wowed’ at being greeted right by the car, cases tagged & whisked away & boarding passes issued – all within the space of a couple of minutes!
Straight through dedicated security and we were in the Clubhouse within minutes. Steve & I had no plans for treatments but his folks were keen and luckily they each got slots an hour or so later for their chosen treatments. Breakfast in the Clubhouse was good, service attentive & food delicious. We whiled away the time drinking Redheads and the occasional glass of Champagne!
Thanks to the excellent ‘Which Aircraft’ tool here on VF I knew that G-VATL (Miss Kitty) would be operating our flight today having arrived in earlier from Johannesburg.
Boarding for our 11:30 flight was called in the lounge around 10:40 and we headed off to gate 17. A clearly designated Upper Class line was in situ and we were asked to proceed straight through on the plane. The gate room was still full of remaining passengers at this point. At the door we were greeted by name, nothing to do with status (we’re lowly reds!) but it was a nice touch to be welcomed by name even if it had been read straight off the boarding pass! No turning left as we’d boarded through door L1 straight into Upper Class. I’d requested seats 10/11 G&K as being a group of four these I felt worked better than the four of us being side by side.
First impressions were that the suites were in good condition, in fact not a blemish on mine and it seemed the others were similar. Two male flight attendants were working our area of the cabin, one the G row and the other the K and I knew from the off that they would be just excellent. They introduced themselves to all of us, kneeling down so as to be at the same eye level. I was wondering if the FSM would introduce herself but that wasn’t to be. I’d make eye contact & smile at her but she clearly wasn’t a chatty type. I should say though that she was conspicuous throughout, helping her colleagues with the meal services, in fact I did manage a short exchange with her when she helped with the afternoon tea service later on!
We departed on time and pretty soon after take-off the crew came round with menus and took our lunch orders.
I think for me the key thing to highlight on this trip report is that, in my opinion, the VS meal service has undoubtedly improved. The four of all agreed it was excellent, in particular the Thai prawn curry was to die for – as was the sticky toffee pudding! We all got our first choices despite not being seated close to the front and we all agreed that the choice, presentation & quality/taste were good – no complaints at all.
I know the subject of the cheese trolley and afternoon tea service have been the subject of debate here but we loved it. I for one firmly believe that the crew/passenger interaction opportunity these services encourage has to be a good thing. The fact that slicing the cheese or offering the selection of cakes & sandwiches takes a little while essentially means that you’re engaged in conversation for a good 2-3 minutes, perhaps a little longer with the tea service owing to the fiddly individual cake stands that, I must admit, do appear to be a real ‘faff’ for the crew since each one has to be assembled. A plate would be fine but, let’s face it, this is afternoon ‘high tea’ so let’s go a little over board! I appreciate that some folk here on VF want rid of the cheese and afternoon tea trolley services but, in all honesty, for us ‘once a year’ travellers we love all these touches. We’re not seasoned business travellers who fly UC every month or perhaps even several times a month and I for one want to relish every little bit of the service that that we’ve used a hard earned miles & cash to pay for. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely understand the viewpoint of others here who want rid of the trolleys as they take time, get in the way etc, I was just keen to get my point across as a ‘once a year’ VS customer. Actually I don’t agree that they get in the way as you simply go round the other way if there’s a trolley mid-aisle.
The VPORT entertainment system was a let down on this flight, it worked on & off but not properly by any means. The CSS announced around 1.5 hours into the flight that they were experiencing problems with it and she felt that now was a good time to do a total restart of the system which would take up to an hour to propagate through to everyone. She apologised to those in ‘mid-film’ adding that now seemed the best time to undertake a full system re-set since nearly everyone would be having lunch so meaning overall less disruption than doing it outside of the meal service. In the event mine came back on after around 40 mins but throughout the flight the route map did not update properly and the picture would freeze from time to time when watching a film. I know we all complain about the shoddy Odyssey system on the LGW/MAN fleet but, having now flown long haul with a good few other airlines, my personal view is that VPORT is now lagging way behind the offerings of the likes of Air New Zealand, Emirates or Qatar. Appreciate though that the VPORT replacement will eventually happen with the VJAM upgrade.
As mentioned earlier the crew, especially the two chaps taking care of our section of the cabin, were excellent. For example they went the extra mile to ensure that, despite the G&K rows not being served at identical times, to ask if we wanted to dine together and ensured that our meals came out at identical times. Frankly this is important, what is the point of setting up a ‘table for two’ only for the food to come out 10 mins apart which has been our experience on other occasions.
We used the bar two or three times throughout the flight, so nice to have a change of scene especially on these ‘everlasting day’ west coast USA flights. At no time did we feel the bar area was a makeshift office / dumping ground for the crew, as we have witnessed on other flights. It was set up nicely from the outset and remained that way throughout the flight.
One interesting observation is that my brother-in-law had flown with BA LHR – San Diego a few days ahead of us, a day flight like the VS7, and he said that immediately after lunch it was window shutters down and lights out until an hour before landing. So glad this was not the case on our flight, we love to relish the service and enjoy the everlasting day on these west coast bound flights! Happy to save the ‘lights out’ type flight for the night return on the VS20!
We landed at LAX just 20 minutes behind schedule at 15:10 and the one thing on my mind as we approached LAX was whether or not we’d beat the Air France that so often arrives just before the VS7 at T2 and thus means dreadful queues at US Immigration. That horrid hall is a place I loathe! Our guardian angel must have been watching though and, for the first time ever on arrival at LAX T2 there was no queue whatsoever and we were served immediately! An interesting point to note here was that we were told on the plane by the crew that if you have the same surname you basically go up to the desk together and you need only complete a single agriculture form for all of you sharing the same surname.
Now on this occasion we had Steve’s parents with us so, given that the three of them of share the same surname, a single form was duly completed and the three of them went up to one desk together. However they were then there ages because the officer said Steve needed to fill out a separate agriculture form because the rule was that you needed to ‘live at the same address’ and it was nothing to do with surname!
Even more interestingly (and amusingly!) the officer serving me (as I’d gone up solo to another desk) asked the reason for my visit to which I replied ‘vacation’….he then asked and pointed to the female waiting next in line if she was my wife. Now I just say things how they are….so I replied ‘no I‘m with my husband who is over at that desk there’ pointing to the adjacent desk where Steve and his folks were being attended to by the other officer. He laughed and said ‘next time come through together, if you live together you can come up to the desk together’. I thanked him and once finger printing was sorted I was through and waited for Steve & the others to faff at their desk. I’d say the processing time for me was around 90 seconds, not bad at all. So much easier with the ESTA and no visa waiver card to complete.
I guess we were through into the luggage hall no more than 10 mins after disembarking the aircraft and after another 5 mins or so the carousel started up and our cases were among the first out. Up to the agriculture chap who simply collected our cards without even looking at them and ushered us through. Out to the hotel courtesy bus area where we waited a couple of minutes for the Four Points bus. We were in our room and freshening up before 3pm….not bad!
Hope you’ve enjoyed the read, right now we’re in Palm Springs then later in the week off to Vegas and from there onward to San Fran. Will also write trip reports for our LAS-SFO Virgin America flight and for our return VS20 flight
Thanks
James
I particularly enjoyed your review of the dinner service from the point of view of a G flyer, rather than someone who does it every week. We're going to LAX on the VS023 next week on G tickets, my husband having made many early starts to get flights to build up his miles over the years so this is a real one off treat for us. So all the frills like cheese trolley and afternoon tea are part of the experience for us. Do you recommend dining together? I don't have particularly high expectations of the food (regardless of cabin, it's still airline food) but what you were given does look very good indeed. 
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lol.
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