This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
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A346 - Soul Sister
Seat 33A
Well, the time had finally come.....My visa was almost up, so back to New York I go. Hopefully I'll be back.
Anyway, I checked in online via the iPhone website 24 hours ahead of time, but it doesn't let you prepay for your bags like the full website does - annoying! So I rang Virgin to prepay for three extra bags over the phone, which was sorted fairly quickly.
The next day I finished packing my last bag and realised I was a bit short on bags. Luckily I had a small Berghaus holdall I could fill with the last few items. Except now there was a problem - I paid for four bags total, I now had five, and I already had one large carryon. I figured oh well, I'll just pay for it at the airport.
The taxi arrived at Battersea a little bit before 14:00 and got me to LHR T3 around 14:40. I grabbed a trolly and wheeled my ridiculous looking pile of bags into the PE check in zone. I was quickly called over and began weighing my bags, which I knew would all be overweight. They weighed in at 31, 28, 26, and 29kg each. Plus my fifth Berghaus bag and an incredibly heavy....8kg. The check in agent wrote down the weight of each bag and said she's decided to charge me overweight fees on two of the four, and let the 8kg bag go free. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least!
I paid the £60 in overweight fees and headed up the escalator to security. I noticed only one person ahead of me in the family queue so went through quickly..until my bag was searched. I should have expected it - SLR cameras and hard drives don't x-ray very well. It took about 10 minutes to get through security and then I was on my way to Pret for a sandwich.
Gate 19 opened up at 16:00 and I was one of the first people there. There was only a pre boarding announcement followed very quickly by a general boarding. The gate seemed virtually empty so there didn't seem a need. I quickly was seated in 33A and was very surprised at how empty the plane was. I counted 12 (yes 12!) people seated in the forward section of economy! We were advised of a 7h 24min flight time and 122 pax on board. Virtually an empty flight.
Pushback at 17:05 - 10min early
Takeoff at 17:19
We were asked to keep our assigned seats for takeoff and landing for weights and balances but could then move freely around. I took the four middle seats in row 35, put the armrests up and made a bed
The plane was so empty I could have had every seat from the A side to K side if I wanted. 
Amenity kits were soon handed out, and I'm not sure I like them. Particularly because they feel cheap and have no pen! How am I supposed to fill out landing cards now?! I asked a passing flight attendant about it but was told it was a design fault. I later learned they had in fact been removed all together as I suspected...
Drinks and pretzels came round a while later. I had a Heineken. The usual dinner choices of chicken, beef, or the veg pasta were offered. I had the beef, which was actually one of the better VS Y meals I've had. Nothing was overcooked and it was all quite flavourful. It seemed a bit small, but luckily I had the Pret sandwich earlier. I also had another Heineken with dinner. Tea, coffee, and dessert came about 10 minutes later. I had a cup of tea and dessert was better than I expected, though it does seem like it's gotten a bit smaller than last time.
I then went to sleep on my makeshift bed but was soon woken up by an announcement saying to fasten our seat belts. It was pretty turbulent for the rest of the flight and mostly remained on. Midway though the flight was the usual ice cream run and juice/water. No duty free run because of turbulence. I chatted with a few of the cabin crew in the aft galley for the 15min or so between the fasten seat belt sign was on.
1 hour out was a sandwich and cupcake run, but no hot drinks due to turbulence.
50min out the captain advised us of our landing time and apologised for the turbulence. I soon moved back to my original seat and for the first time ever I was handed a survey by the FSM. I filled it out rating everything fairly highly (as it was a good flight) but no space for written comments...!! Of course because there were no pens in the amenity kits, I had to ask for a pen again.
We began our descent around 19:10 local time. Sweets were handed out with landing at 19:44. It took a while to get to the gate, but we there at 20:02.
There was virtually no queue at passport control and I was through in less than 5 minutes. Bags came out at 20:20, right after arriving at the belt, with mine coming 1-2-3-4-5 in a row within the first 10 bags or so. They came off so quickly I had to scramble to get them off the belt before they went around again. Quickly through customs and out of the airport. One of the easiest LHR-JFK flights I've had.
Sorry I have been a bit delayed in writing this - I'm in Westchester, NY and have had no internet until today because of the storm, though we do have a generator. I'm looking forward to my pre xmas trip on Virgin December 13-23!
Bet you were glad you had not paid for an upgrade 
perhaps it is not fair for me to comment on the on board service you received due to the light load, but the quality of the meal is worth noting
