This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Having flown down from MAN on a separate VS PNR, I'd already decided not to check my bags all the way from MAN>SFO as i wanted to be landslide at LHR before this flight.
After collecting my bags from T1 (which where very quick actually) i made my way to T3 departures. VS J check-in was friendly and efficient. I was asked if my electronic devices where charged up, to which I replied yes.
Made my way through the Upper Class Wing was was nice and quick. Not sure if the automatic door to the wing was broken or not but it was open with a member of VS staff guarding it and manually checking boarding cards etc.
Headed up to the Clubhouse and was warmly welcomed on arrival. Headed straight to the spa to book a treatment (I opted to pay £15 for the back and shoulder massage but this also included the complimentary scalp massage as well). That was booked for 11:00 and I found a seat and quickly ordered breakfast. The clubhouse wasn't too busy with several spare seats. My Eggs Benedict soon arrived and was finished off in no time.
IMHO, one of the hidden treasures in the Clubhouse is the garden / patio area. Very few people seem to use it as I suspect they don't know it's there. As the weather was nice is was very pleasant up/out there. Do remember there's no food, drink and absolutely no smoking allowed out there (the area is monitored by cameras).
At 11:00 I headed back to the spa for my treatment, which was great and very relaxing
Once several of the morning VS and DL flights where called, the clubhouse did get quieter. I'd already spotted G-VBIG on stand who was taking me to SFO having looked up the aircraft on here
The first call for the flight came around 12:15 so I finished off my ice-cream, asked for a bottle of water and started to make my way to gate 21. Priority boarding was in operation and by the time I arrived at the gate, most of the pax had already looked to have boarded. No extra checks for making sure devices where all charged. 2 jet bridges in use so I was straight on and in the J cabin. Found my seat 16K and settled in. I was welcomed on-board and my drinks order was soon taken. I do wish VS would stop using those silly boob glasses, they barely even fit on the cocktail trays in the seat. The J cabin soon filled up and before long the doors where closed. We had a slight delay pushing back as LHR where changing runways so a small back-log had built up. We actually pushed back around 13:35.
Todays flight time to SFO would be 10hrs 8mins. There where 365 pax on-board today's flight so by my calculations that only leaves 2 empty seats. J was full on the main deck, I didn't visit the other cabins during the flight. The IFE was turned on as soon as we started taxiing, though several screen weren't working (mine included). The FSM did note all the seat numbers and did manage to re-boot them all fairly quickly. VERA on-demand does now seem ancient compared to VERA Touch which I'd had on my last couple of VS flights. Whilst it does what it says, the rewind / fast forward options doesn't seem to work very well and after being left on pause for some time, it still starts creeping forward like V:Port used to. I don't think much of the VERE screen on-demand interface / layout, the old V:Port layout was much better and a cleaner interface. Funny though, how the tides have turned with the LGW/MAN fleet now having the better IFE system.
Once airborne, the service soon started with the usual drinks order first followed my handing out the menus and then taking dinner orders. My seat was in good condition with everything working. Not sure how long it's been like this, but I noticed the covers on the bed side of the seat have now been replaced.
The dinner menu was as follows:
Fillet of beef
Chicken katsu
Grilled tiger prawn salad
spinach & ricotta ravioli
Warm sticky toffe pudding
Lemon tart with vanilla ice-cream
Cheese and port
Extra bites:
Beef burger
Lamb kofta kebab
Cheese croquettes
Afternoon Tea
The usual selection of sandwiches / cakes / scones
I opted for the grilled tiger prawn salad, which I didn't like, whilst the prawns where OK, the noodles and the soy dressing didn't taste nice at all. The lemon tart and ice-cream was delicious though. The crew asked if I would like something else instead but I didn't bother. Whilst I loving flying, sometimes my stomach doesn't and this was one of those times so I didn't really eat much during the flight.
I watched a couple of films during the flight (the Lego film and the newest Robocop film). Paid a visit to the bar a couple of times and had a chat with the FSM and some of the crew, the bar didn't seem to get very busy actually. Not sure if this is more VS cost-cutting or not, but there were none of the usual bowls of snacks or fruit etc available on the bar during today's flight
Afternoon tea was served about 90 mins before our arrival. Again I didn't eat much of that either but did manage a few obligatory cakes
The cabin was soon secured for landing and we where on final approach to SFO. We landed at just before 16:00 so was on-time. A few minutes wait to get to the terminal but we where soon on stand. 2 jet bridges again which meant I was the third pax off
Immigration was still dealing with a delayed flight from HKG, but I only had a 20min wait. The immigration agent admitted he was actually glad to be dealing with a new flight. He was polite and friendly. Bags where already on the carousel, where I quickly spotted mine and 5 minutes later I was outside 25 minutes later I was at my airport hotel (back to SFO today for my VX flight to LAS).The usual west coast USA awake at 04:30 as still on UK time syndrome, so thought I'd write this (not too bad for me as I've been on early shifts for the last 2 weeks and would normally be getting up at 05:00 anyway)
All in all another great consistent VS flight with a good crew
Regards
James Mitchell
James Mitchell
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