VS200 LHR-HKG 8 JUN 12 (Upper Class)

This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

I was delighted to be able to nab a mileage upgrade for this flight -- especially given the notoriety of reward availability on the HKG/SYD route. That extends my run of G upgrades to 8 in a row...

Check in was painless and it didn't take long for us to get to the Clubhouse, which was quite busy. It had been a very long day at work, so I ordered a redhead, which was lovely, and a couple of glasses of Chardonnay to accompany a scotch egg and then chicken curry. The food was good, as usual, and service was on the ball.

We headed down to the gate early to beat the rush. After a short wait boarding was announced, and I made my way onto Queen of the Skies. She was clean and tidy, and my seat was in good condition. A glass of champagne was offered and accepted, although I only had one tiny sip. 

We got off pretty much on time. The plane wasn't full and in fact UC had quite a few empty seats. The captain was a 'character', prefacing the crew names with 'Auntie' and referring to airports as 'aerodromes' (which I quite enjoyed, actually). He announced the flight as being to 'Sydney, which I believe is the former home of the Ashes'. Ho ho.

Dinner was served fairly promptly. I was looking forward to the new menu but sadly it disappointed: tomato soup was pretty ordinary, not much of a step up from a certain tinned variety. The stir-fried chicken was dry and unexciting. I've had much better in PE. The chocolate pudding is ok but not as good as the sticky toffee one from the last menu rotation. Wine is no better than usual, which continues to disappoint me.

After dinner I dozed off by accident so decided to sleep for a while. I managed about 3 hours, but it was poor quality and in the end I gave up because I was very anxious about not being able to sleep on arrival. So I had a long 5 hours to fill - the film selection on v-port just doesn't excite me at all at the moment, but I watched Tower Heist and laughed a few times. Eventually breakfast was served, and the full English was very welcome -- and nice too, except for the eggs, which were laughably bad.

No complaints really -- the crew was very good, and the flight was comfortable enough. I do think, though, that on such a long sector they should proactively offer something to eat  in the middle of the flight. It is all very well saying that graze items are available, but there was no one around to get them, and the bar was deserted each time I went there.  Also, why serve breakfast at 3 pm local time? Why not a nice afternoon tea or a different meal? It just seemed a bit weird.

Anyway, these are just questions rather than complaints. I was off the plane very quickly and immigration was painless. Priority baggage worked well and it was off to the airport express and the (unbearable) heat of HK.

As a footnote to the thread in which I asked about jetlag tips on this route, my strategy of limiting sleep early on in the flight seemed to work OK. I was very tired on arrival but managed dinner that evening fine, and then slept for 12 hours, which is unheard of for me.

Thanks for reading.

Thank you for taking the time to post your TR.

It is all very well saying that graze items are available, but there was no one around to get them, and the bar was deserted each time I went there

We had a similar experience on our return flight from Hong Kong last November.

I didn't see Scotch eggs on the menu in the clubhouse my favourite food with a little pickle!

How VS determines what food to serve when is sometimes a mystery to me. From a travel orientation / jet lag perspective I follow the advise to get on local time zone as quickly as possible, and that's one reason I strongly preferred the freedom menu (e.g. eat lunch on the way to New York on east cost time, not UK time). So, serving an English breakfast at 3 pm local time is indeed odd!

Did you try the current pinot noir? That's quite nice but the menu is a bit dull at the moment and I have a severe case of ennui with the IFE programming ... I was shocked to discover that the two current episodes of Modern Family (Manny does pizza deliveries and Mitch and Cam have a car accident [see I can even remember it]) were on the VS IFE in the summer of last year ! Now that's just lazy, cheap, or careless - or all three!

Yep -- salmon scotch egg -- with nice caper mayonnaise.

I don't think I did try the pinot -- I can't remember what I drank, and I didn't keep the menu. In the clubhouse I tried the Argentinian chardonnay, which was a bit disappointing but OK.

Re the IFE -- oh tell me about it! They've had the same Simpsons episode on there for ages, and it is actually one of the four that was the previous set of choices...

thanks for the TR were doing Australia via HK so nice to se a postive report I don't eat plane food and don't watch the IFE so to me it was a great report!

Re the IFE -- oh tell me about it! They've had the same Simpsons episode on there for ages, and it is actually one of the four that was the previous set of choices...

And it's not like there aren't 100s of Simpsons episodes to work through (actually 507 according to Wikipedia)!

How about the next block of episodes of Game of Thrones - that would be nice. The first 6 were there for a while, enough to get me hooked... now nothing.

And 'Boss' was starting to look interesting - but only 2 episodes of that as well...

Thanks for the TR, AT

IFE updates seem to be done one film at a time and TV shows rarely. I have watched the same Cougar Town episode 3 times now. On Air NZ they had 6 episodes (where I got hooked). I keep hoping VS will change, but it seems a slow and painful process.

A great TR, thanks for posting I think VS need to listen to PAX like you, Slinky, Ratechaser etc as you are in the skies more than out and do make a massive contribution to VS profits

I am a great believer of getting on the plane and into the new time zone, so breakfast at 3pm makes no sense....and as for the eggs - I always wonder why airlines think they can make eggs acceptable eating at 39000ft

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I wouldn't hold out much hope.....

https://www.facebook.com/virginatlantic ... 0090657679

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Imagine going to bed at midnight then waking up and being offered scones, sandwiches and cakes from a cake stand.

Breakfast is certainly more appropriate on the fligh given its departure and arrival
Time.

You can ALWAYS use the call bell to attract the crews attention. There will always be somebody around when some of the crew are resting.

I take the point about afternoon tea, but I am still not convinced that a bowl of cereals is appropriate at 3 pm. I would prefer a brunch or lunch.

Anyway, my main concern was that there should be more food proactively offered in the middle of the flight (quite a lot of people are awake at any given time in my experience). Yes I could have used the call bell, but they don't always get a response and on such a long sector it is nice to stroll to the bar for some food and a chat... all of which is rather difficult if there is no one keeping an eye on it. I do appreciate that on a night sector you cannot expect crew to man the bar constantly, but I would hope that someone checks every few minutes.

Thanks for the TR, always nice to read a new one for this route.

I would absolutely agree with your complaints! I have done the return SYD to LHR trip in UC six times in the last year and find the IFE and the menus to be a real failing. Great the first time…but rather tedious thereafter!

It’s a shame to hear that your experience of the night service was not so good. I usually end up sitting at the bar for a few hours on each leg and have always found a friendly member of the cabin-crew lurking around keen for a bit of conversation.

My main gripe with UC is how tired the planes are becoming…seats often breaking, IFE breaking etc. Although on the plus side my complaints to head-office have usually resulted in a very friendly response and a few extra miles being added to my account! However, on the whole I find VA to run a really good operation and generally at far more competitive prices than the alternatives.

By the way, did anyone else spot the crazy sale on UC fares on 23rd July? I nabbed an UC return from SYD to HKG for about 40% less than the usual! …I saw no advertising about it in advance though?! Does anyone know if there is a way of setting up an auto-alert to let me know of any future sales?