This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
OLCI was done 24 hours before with confirmation that my pre-selected seat of 37C was still mine - yay! I had carefully selected this seat for 2 reasons. 1. There is no one behind you so should the plane be full you can recline quilt free and 2. The row happened to be empty courtesy of the light Jan loads so hopefully I could spread out and pretend what an Upper Class Seat might be like on a night flight ;-)
As per usual I headed down to Downtown to drop off my bags and collect my boarding card. Arrived just after 0840 to find...no one there...ahhhh. Don't panic though - it was just a little chilly for them outside so they were hiding indoors until people walked up! I have only rated the ground staff average because the cold meant they were unable to form a smile whilst checking me in. Also, the last time I used my Gold card I was offered either lounge access or a voucher to use at the airport. This time I had not only had to prompt the agent for the voucher but alas was only given a lounge pass.
Arrived at Orlando around 1530 and was through security very quickly - around 5min which is the quickest for quite a while. I then went on the train to the gate area to investigate the Delta lounge. It was very busy...and very hot..nothing compare to the haven of the LGW Clubhouse...so I just grabbed a drink and then went to the gate to wait for boarding.
I took advantage of priority boarding and chatted to a lovely member of the cabin crew for a bit whilst waiting. She informed me of an expected quick flight time home of 6hr45min with little in the way of turbulence. Apparently it had taken 10 hours to get to MCO the previous day with the headwinds
I could see that this was going to be a pretty empty flight - I had the row to myself as expected and there were lots of rows empty around me. Everyone else had spotted this too and there seemed to be an awful lot of pople bagging rows to themselves before we had departed (I thought you were supposed to stay in your assigned seat until after take off!
). We departed on time and after a smooth take off the seat belt light pinged off allowing the stampede of remaining people from the back to try and grab some space. A chap from the back of the plane came up and asked if the window seat next to me was taken and could he move there. I was secretly thinking "Well actually, if you don't mind, I did carefully select this row to be all to myself some three months ago and would rather have a lie down in a bit".
What I said was "Sure, no problem!".
I was very much aware that I only paid for ONE seat on this flight, anything else is a cheeky bonus!!
We had a pre dinner drinks run followed by dinner itself. Choices were beef in a red wine sauce with mash, chicken tikka with rice or creamy vegetable pasta. I had the pasta which was very nice. The light load did have the added bonus of making the meal service very quick!
Soon after dinner lights were turned off. I managed to get a couple of hours dozing on and off in my seat, but to be honest with such a short flight time, there wasnt a lot of time to be properly sleeping!
Breakfast was served around 2 hours from LGW with a blueberry muffin, breakfast bar and Orange Juice. Much better than the attempt at a full English I experienced in PE on my last trip!
So the tailwinds had been kind to us. Travelling at over 700mph across the Atlantic meant we landed at Gatwick at 0555!! We were off the plane quick enough and though immigration very quickly. They now appear to have the electronic gates properly open now which really cuts down on the wait.
Bags came out around 0645 and I had plenty of time to catch my bus home.
All in all another solid flight in the Economy cabin. However I have a confession to make.....my next flight to MCO in June will be in Upper Class
The recent sale was too good to miss and having the Gold Card for the last few months has really made me think about how good the perks are being processed as an Upper Class passenger! Now I get to experience the full product!! Maybe V-Flyer should run a Gold Card competition every year - it seems to have the effect of making people spend more money on future flights, that can only be a good thing for VS!!
Now what seat to choose....that is the question??
Thanks for reading.
