This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
The morning before the flight (7 hrs before OLCI) I checked the seat map and it had reopened. I moved us up from the rear 61 to 32 to assist with the exit and immigration scrum on landing.
Confirmed these seats at OLCI albeit at seq 27 as I was in transit when it opened (bad planning I know
).Due to a late change in arrangements I booked Mrs P and I into the Premier Inn at M4/Jt4 for £47 - very good value for money in my eyes, a pleasant place to stay.
Met our friends that had travelled down on flight day, dropped car off with Purple Parking (great service) and wandered down to bag drop off.
Met by a very quiet VS check in area, straight to a desk with a warm & friendly welcome. Great service and smiles from the agent, bags tagged and away we go to the Serviceair lounge
. Limited food but a great range of drinks available in the lounge which was a great place to relax away from the hustle and bustle of departures.Called to gate 16, so we meandered our way to be greeted at the gate area by name (Ace
). Out of the window I spotted Indian Princess the A346 that would be taking care of us to LAX.outbound.JPG (37.92 KiB) Viewed 2114 times
Boarded the aircraft and directed to our seats professionally but no name check (not expected but amazing when it happens in economy).
In 32c with MrsP stealing the window seat as per wedding vows!
Great seats, plenty of room and closest Y seats to the exit.Pilot announces that there are 289 pax, 13 crew and 3 flight crew on board for the 10hr and 49min flight! Taxiing took a little longer than normal due to the heavy showers passing through LHR (according to the captain)
Menu delivered as per picture below:
menu.JPG (24.29 KiB) Viewed 2114 times
30 mins in and the first drinks run - nicely chilled white wine was the choice...not too bad actually!!
Nothing that me & Mrs P hate more is the rudeness of reclining your seat at meal times! I know there continues to be a debate on this one but for me it's a no no, especially when the people in front are on the exit row (allocated not paid for)! Maybe it's just us?!?!
VERA IFE seemed easy to navigate, sadly not touch screen but good nonetheless! Sorry to harp on about the seat recline but it definitely affects the picture quality on a movie when the seat in front is fully reclined!!
Mrs P's low salt dinner arrived (see pic) when delivered the fine CC asked the people in front to put their seats forward for the dinner service. This was minutes after the person in front turned around and demanded to recline their seat immediately (we had a chuckle
)!Low Salt.JPG (36.09 KiB) Viewed 2114 times
Had the minced beef which was actually really ok with plenty of flavour and nicely cooked vegetables!! Mrs P reports that her low salt dinner was good but dessert was too cinnamony and very dry.
Normal dinner.JPG (36.17 KiB) Viewed 2114 times
A little bit of turbulence, a few games and one film later a choice of hot sausage roll or cheese snack was offered. I chose the cheese and have to say there was absolutely no cheese taste to it at all!!
CC seemed efficient & polite but not awesome - will settle for that!
Couple of hours later the usual High Tea appeared with cheese & onion finger sandwiches, cupcake and tea. Mrs P had a chick pea and tomato finger sandwich and an almond cookie, all of which were pretty ok!
Landed 25mins early but had to wait for a stand to become free. Taxied past Tinkerbelle on our way in to our stand
.Exiting the plane was swift into a reasonably busy immigration hall with 3 queues......got in the wrong one and was waiting 45 mins when our friends were through in 25 but still fairly quick compared to some US airports (MIA). Baggage claimed almost immediately, through customs in 10mins and onto the Crowne Plaza LAX shuttle bus for one nights stay prior to picking up our RV for 10 nights touring
!So overall a decent trip with VS, no bells or whistles but I guess that's travelling in Y
The only way is left....since I found V-Flyer
-- sounds like a good flight.
