This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
This was a reward booking booked during one of VS reward sales, think it ws 20k miles each and taxes for a Y return. Some time later I called and asked about PE availbility for the return and managed to book this, the Agent got confused with the reduced amount of miles I originally paid and quoted the diff betweent the normal miles upgrade from Y to W. He happily honoured this after speaking to his Supervisor. I also booked exit seat for the outboundflight
The Day before the flight I noticed the sat map had been changed to the new 747 config, however as I had booked exit row seats I was assigned in 25 B and unable to move, I decided to ask at twilight check in if the exit row in the bubble were availabe and managed to get 75 AB for me and my partner, result!
Twilight check in as usual was dead with only one person at the desk we were checked in in under 5 min.
The day of the flight we wee called 1hr15 min early to the gate, decided to walk extra slow and arrived only to find the plane was still being cleaned and there would be a 30 min delay.
We were boarded after PE were called, so were grouped with the back part of the Y section.
I must admit it felt a bit odd going upstairs to the bubble being in Y. First impressions wee really good. The cabin is not too cramped like I thought it would be and the bins down the site remain to give you extra space that is lost in the overhead lockers. The new seats looked nice and were comfortable as they can be on a 10 hr flight.
The front PE section looked very nice, a curtain was put accross during the flight to cut them off from us.
The only major drawback I could see from the new set up is leaving the 2 washrooms at the front of the cabin and not installing one at the back. This meant we had to walk through the PE cabin to use the loo and got the evil eyes from a few of the passagners for doing so. The only other Y loos are half way back down stairs so its a silly situation for all to be placed in. I admit I felt uncomfortable walking through PE and I got the feeling they did not want me walking through either, I can imagine on a night flight this will be even worse for the PE passengers.
The food as usual was average, think it was sausage and mash. The crew worked hard mixing the 2 services and there was a lot of carts being pushed up and down to do this, the service was not at all slow though.
Midflight a cheese danish "thing" was served, was dry and nasty, did not see anyone eat it. and then the cheese sandwich before landing.
Crew were very happy and helpful throughout.
All in all a good flight, I think the exit row in the bubble are now the best seats in economy, its a shame that it comes at PE expense. Who knows with the new seating system in November and the ruomured charges for seat requests maybe the upper deck will be charged at a premium a'la BA!
