This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
It was cold when we arrived at EWR and we decided to make a break for it on foot to the Hotel rather than waiting for the shuttle, It was a simple 5 minute walk and we were soon checked in and heading up to the room, I liked the hotel it was comfortable and well appointed.
We headed into NYC on the air train and NJ Transit for a last meal out and a little last minute shopping before heading back to the hotel.
In the morning at 6am we caught the hotel shuttle to the terminal and were checked in fairly swiftly, and were given directions to the new clubhouse, security was a breeze at that time on a saturday morning, and we were soon in the New Clubhouse, I was a little underwhelmed if i'm honest, its an improvement over the old clubhouse being airside and having some showers, but other than that it didnt strike me as being special, My opinion of the clubhouse dropped further when I found out they couldn't serve champagne or any alcohol at that time of day!
Anyhow whilst in the clubhouse my other half decided to have a shower while we were waiting which she said was very pleasant and clean, whilst she was away i noticed that we had a VIP in the clubhouse and since we were the only VS flight that morning also on the flight.
After an hour or so the staff came round personally to inform us of boarding and we headed down to the gate and didn't break stride on our way onboard the aircraft, no welcome aboard was given it was more of a point and grunt from the attendant who seemed disappointed she didn't get to escort the VIP to their seat, anyhow we were soon settled into our seats 10&11a with the VIP settling into 15a.
Finally now onboard Champagne was available and i took a glass of the bubbly stuff (Its disturbing that i was disappointed i couldn't get champagne at 6-30am)
We were sat on the ground for about half an hour whilst a orchestra's instruments were loaded, but the Pilot told us this would be a quick flight under 6 hrs and we would make up the time, after 30 mins we taxied out and took off, climb out was smooth, But the flight started to go downhill from this point onwards.
Drinks Service on our side of the AC took about an hour to get going (except the VIP), the other side of the cabin only waited about 20 minutes for drinks, shortly after drinks service breakfast orders were taken and i had a bacon roll which was actually quite nice.
I settled down to watch a film "looper" which i thought was pretty poor, Just after the film finished the crew came round to take dinner orders, I declined a starter and didn't get my first choice of main, in the end I settled on a beef fillet of sorts, When it arrived it didn't look particularly appetising and unfortunately it didn't taste any better than it looked, whilst eating my dinner at no stage did i have a drink to accompany it, I was asked if i would be having wine which i replied yes too and my table was set with a wine glass, but the wine never arrived, once i had nearly finished my dinner I asked a passing attendant if i could have some wine, I was told it would be around shortly so i asked for a glass of water whilst i was waiting which the attendant said they would fetch for me ( I had finished the bottle left at the seat long before.) After another 10 minutes I had long since finished my dinner and still not received a drink of any kind, nor did I ever receive any wine.
My Empty dinner plate was left in front of me for maybe 15 more minutes before being collected, at this point i asked again for a glass of water, the attendant almost sighed and rolled her eyes at me before finally returning with a glass of water and plonking it down with some force spilling a little on the cloth.
At no stage was i offered any dessert or tea or coffee, they just came to clear away the table, so i enquired whether i could have some cheese and biscuits, it was mostly gone apparently but some biscuits and dry cheddar (that was more useful as a chisel than food) was brought out on a plate to me, Honesty the cheese was awful i would have thought twice about feeding it to my dog let alone serve it in premium cabin onboard an aircraft.
(You might think i must have been rude or done something to annoy the crew to have a service as poor as this, but i assure you I had been pleasant as pleasant could be, I try to pride myself on being a nice friendly down to earth passenger who doesn't give anyone a hard time. it really annoys me when you see people who think that paying ££££'s for your ticket gives you the right to treat people badly and without respect.)
During the period when i expected a dessert service to occur, many of the crew appeared to be taking the chance to have pictures taken behind the bar with the VIP onboard (who I have to say seemed very pleasant and certainly did not demand attention or act like they deserved more attention than anyone else, they were taken several times to the bar for photos and each time left the seat without complaint for photos.)
I watched another film "trouble with the curve" which i quite enjoyed, There was another drinks service provided by previously unseen by me cabin attendant who seemed much more pleasant.
Soon we were beginning our descent into a snowy LHR, Landing was fairly smooth but we had a wait of about 30 minutes on the ground for a stand, We were off the AC quickly once on stand and into a fairly busy immigration hall.
The trip back down to Bournemouth was quick considering the snow and I was Amazed that the time taken from leaving the Marriott to arriving back in the house at Bournemouth was just 10hrs 35 mins, This was perhaps the only good point on this leg of the trip.
Looking Back this was by far the worst trip i have had with VS and if it had been my first trip with them it would quite probably have been my last!! Fortunately I know what great trips and service they can provide (my outbound flight as an example) so I'll write this one off as a few people having an off day.
Pleasingly i was randomly selected onboard for a questionnaire and made my feeling known in it, interestingly i received a follow up E-mail about the questionnaire this morning asking for more details.
In My ratings the only thing that stopped me from rating crew as poor was the nice attendant that did the 2nd drinks service, who saved the day a little, On another note having flown out on the 747 and back on a 340 it struck me how much more room there seemed to be on the 747.
Heres hoping for a better flight next time!!
That is no way to start an UC flight 
This s pretty poor show from the CC 
x100
