This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
This was our usual spring visit to youngest son and his family in New Jersey and as ever, we spent a weekend before the flight with eldest son and his family who conveniently live in Buckinghamshire, only about half an hour from LHR.
Drove down from Yorkshire to Buckinghamshire uneventfully for a change (we have sometimes been very delayed by roadworks or accidents on the motorways) and we had a really enjoyable few days with ES, DIL and 16 year old GS, now over 6 feet tall, thin as a rake and eats you out of house and home as do they all at that age. We had delicate discussions with him about the upcoming GCSEs and rather more relaxed chats about his own visit in July to the Stateside branch of the family. It will be his first solo flight and I have promised to produce a crib sheet of “how to get through EWR in the shortest possible time”. I’m also Skype-ing him the evening before to take him through it, so we all have fingers crossed. He’ll be just fine, it’s just that a lot of the time he seems to live in a dream world and, as his father says, has the attention span of a gnat which isn’t good news when it can take an hour or more to get through security at EWR if you’re not on the ball.
I digress as usual.
If you’re still with me, I did OLCI effortlessly though we will draw a veil over the Sequence Number and was delighted to see that yes, we were still on the 787 and in seats 4A and 5A. As usual we had arranged for the local guy who runs a chauffeur-driven service to airports, Southampton docks, etc., to collect us from our son’s house. Jon arrived promptly as ever and stood transfixed at the sight of ES and DIL’s vintage 1970s VW campervan. They’ve done lots of work on it themselves and it had just come back from the bodywork restorers and did look stunning. Jon taxi was very taken by it and had to have a tour of course.
Off we went eventually and swanned in to DTCI feeling like celebrities. Met with boarding passes, baggage removed before we’d blinked and off we went to security, through there without a hitch and………….. now do tell me, V-Flyers of long-standing, I’ve read mention so often of the “secret door” to the CH but is this only at LGW? As usual we made our way what seems like the long way, but not before we’d been stopped by a security man with a sniffer dog who was quite convinced that I had something in my handbag. Out came all the contents, but nothing. Security guy explained that because I’d had cash in it, that would be what the dog was smelling.
Swiftly into the nirvana of LHR CH and the delightful view of the shed. Fizz in hand of course, and I booked a manicure and we had lunch. I had devilled eggs which were very good and OH had spicy chicken wings which he raved about. We ventured on to the roof terrace but it was way too windy.
Short trip to Duty Free, well fairly short, they do have so many perfume and beauty counters and one can’t just walk past, no really.
On our return to the CH, HL’s cloak of invisibility descended on us so we decamped to the bar and were entertained by those amazing staff mixing the drinks there, they really are so very talented.
Boarding seemed to come very soon though we were eager to see what the 787 was like and it’s wonderful. We were greeted immediately by the FSM who was right at the top of her game, she was fantastic, engaged with everyone, seemed to be everywhere, chatting, serving, you could see her eyes on everything. And our named crew member was equally wonderful, those women were a credit to Virgin and an email went to Crawley Towers within a few days.
I do like the UC cabin in the 787, it has the spacious feel of the old A zone in LHR 747s. I had had slight doubts about our choice of the A seats as there had been mention of the “wall” in front of you. That’s the backs of the suites in the middle row but they are not much more than waist high so you can see only the tops of the heads of the tallest ones sitting there and the wall is far enough away and low enough not to be intrusive. We’re already booked in those same seats for our September/October flights.
I like the touch-screen monitor and the remote, and the auto-darken windows which you operate with a touch button below the window. The Gardet Brut excuse for fizz that is now served is horrid (hence the lower star rating for food and drink) and I’ve said so to Crawley Towers, not that I think my view will influence them! The restrooms are larger, because there is now a fold-down seat which therefore gives more space. Noble Isle products instead of Cowshed, though Cowshed still appears in the CH.
We both managed to sleep for about an hour which was good as it’s late by UK time when you arrive on VS1 and of course we want to be able to stay awake long enough to chat to the family.
Wheels touched down on the tarmac at 1915 and we through security, collected baggage, through customs and were with our son, walking to his car, by 1945 which he reckons is our record.
A fantastic flight, we think probably the best we’ve ever had with Virgin, loved the plane and the crew were just brilliant. And I have two Virgin mugs, brought to me specially by the FSM which she tucked into my bag!
If you have got this far, thanks for reading; reward yourself with a glass of something good, you deserve it!
Glad you had a nice family reunion. 
