Making the most of Upper Class

Me and my girlfriend are only 2 days away from jetting off on our summer holiday taking in both Boston (MAN->BOS, V121) and then New York before flying home (JFK->MAN, VS128).

As a treat and probably not be be repeated I have upgraded the return journey to Upper Class - this is likely to be a one off. I've never flown Upper Class before so I'm hoping to make the most of it.

Unfortunately the Fare Class does not include the limo but I'm fine with that, I think I'm most excited about JFK Clubhouse!

So - my question is what should I look out for to make the most of Upper Class? As it's unlikely to happen again I want to make sure I experience as much as I can and don't miss out on any perks. Any tips?

Note - this is not about getting as drunk as possible - I'm looking for ideas such as "have a cocktail in the Clubhouse" not "drink the clubhouse dry!". Otherwise I'll miss the rest of the experience

I take it the return journey is a night flight.
In which case the best part of flying Upper is being asleep on a flatbed and missing the whole thing.
Enjoy the meal and bed down early.
Don't have a cooked breakfast, they are usually horrid. Fresh fruit and yogurt.
Not to be repeated eh? Have you not heard the saying, 'once you turn left you'll never go right again'
I'm well past retirement age and still working just to pay for that left hand turn on boarding.

Dick D

Haha yes we'll see whether I get a taste for it! And yes it is a night flight - thanks for the advice

The best thing about Upper Class from JFK is the club house. Get there a few hours early and enjoy some food and drinks, and maybe a hair cut and spa treatment.

As dickydotcom said, enjoy an early meal on the flight itself then bed down, and definitely don’t have the cooked breakfast!

My favourite thing about Upper is being able to arrive at my destination without a sore neck and 6+ hours of sleep deprivation. It feels nice to have a good kip on the plane and arrive where you’re going feeling refreshed, even if you do need a quick shower when you land.

I'm hoping your return takes you to MAN and not BOS or you'll be stuck going round and round for ages :P

I hope you make the most of your first Upper trip but having just googled the timings for VS128 if you can I would arrive in the JFK lounge in good time to eat dinner there and be ready for a nightcap and straight to sleep on board. The menu for the lounge is here https://www.virginatlantic.com/content/ ... _Q3_V4.pdf
The chicken tikka masala is my guilty favourite there.

That said, there's nothing wrong with staying awake and enjoying the flight all the way home. It's horses for courses but you really have to decide on one or the other, the flight is too short to let you eat, watch a film and then get a good night's sleep.

I concur with stuart_f that it is horses for courses - not that VS serves horse meat!

Upper Class allows you the freedom to do what you want/prefer. You say this is most probably your first and last UC flight (hey, don't fool yourself...) so if you want to enjoy a meal with cocktails in the JFK Clubhouse before departure, a meal onboard, a drink or two at the bar and still manage a full breakfast before arrival at MAN, it is your choice.

Breakfasts are subjective, I personally find the VS Full English to be quite good compared to other airlines. Also the bacon butty.

Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it

I've done the return leg a couple of times in Upper and I still can't decide what the best course of action is! Once may not be enough.

At the Clubhouse, I'd recommend the complimentary head massage at the spa, and finding a seat somewhere you can relax. If you're a big drinker, sitting at the bar is often a nice social experience, but I prefer sitting near the windows where you can watch the planes with a glass of something nice and something I fancy from the menu.

As others have mentioned, it's not the longest of flights so if you are planning anything other than a short nap to recharge your batteries then I'd recommend eating in the Clubhouse and then a nightcap on boarding before making the most of the bed.

If you only fancy a short nap onboard then sitting at the bar is a nice way to spend some of the time and takes you away from some of the people getting a bit of kip.

Hope you have a great trip!

[mitchja]

I’m guessing you will be coming back on a B744? As they are currently op’ing the MAN>JFK route.

The very small bar on the B744’s isn’t the best for socialising unfortunately. You may also get G-VBIG which doesn’t have an onboard bar at all.

The other minor annoyance about the MAN flights is they they generally depart from the B gates in T4 at JFK and that’s a ~15min trek from where the VS Clubhouse is (which is located next to gate A5)

(All the VS LHR flights do generally depart from the A gates at JFK so why the MAN flights can’t as well is anyone’s guess?)

(All the VS LHR flights do generally depart from the A gates at JFK so why the MAN flights can’t as well is anyone’s guess?)

At a guess because historically they were DL flights which have kept the same stands.

You won't regret allowing a good few hours to enjoy the lounge at Kennedy. If I was you, I'd plan to have a full meal there (they've a dedicated restaurant-style-seating area) before boarding to maximise sleep time on the plane.

Note that the showers can get a bit congested at peak times, if there's one free and you want one then don't wait thinking you've got all evening...!

Thanks to everyone for their advice - I'm beyond excited for my trip!

Oh my goodness, how wonderful. A trip to Boston and a return from JFK in UC. Enjoy every single second. My favourite city breaks; both of them.

The icing on the cake for this trip is that on arrival at MAN we got upgraded to Upper as they're "short of space and as your flying home business we thought why not" . More excited than ever!

Hmmm I think it'll be an ex Air Berlin plane which might explain the op up but I'm not going to complain as I reckon it'll still be better than the standard Economy Delight seat I was booked in

Well done on the upgrade.
Have a great time.
Dick D

[mitchja]

Nice one on the upgrade . An op-up is an op-up regardless of the aircraft type!! Enjoy

Fantastic! I like the look of the ex Berlin UC seat configaration

This is a conundrum I'm currently facing as well (well kinda the same). I was thinking about upgrading but not sure which way as it would seem a waste on the way back because of the short flight and not fully enjoying what UC has to offer. But on the other hand you get to sleep on the way back and I would imagine generally feel a lot better. Then again we wouldn't get much time to spend in the UC lounge at heathrow as we are on VS3...Hmmm what to do

Then again we wouldn't get much time to spend in the UC lounge at heathrow as we are on VS3.

Clubhouse opens at 6:30. Flight departs at 9 so boarding at 8:15 ish.

Still, nearly 2 hours for breakfast, a treatment and a virgin Redhead

A wave from the Clubhouse at JFK we prepare to head home after an excellent trip taking in Boston, Baltimore and New York.

After our surprise upgrade on the outbound where I took full advantage of the cocktail menu and food service I've decided to take the advice given here and eat in the lounge (chicken curry and a virgin red head) and sleep for the journey home to MAN.

Thanks for everyone's advice!

[mitchja]

Have a great flight home. Hope you are not sat in 9A on G-VAST as I noticed on the way out that the table in that seat was broken

7A thankfully, they must have fixed the 9A table though as someone was sat there and it looked fine.

My seat wouldn't return to seat mode at breakfast time but the crew worked some manual magic and got it sorted.

Excellent flight all round with a wonderful crew (although I was asleep for most of it, my partner says they were excellent)

Great to read that you had a fantastic pair of UC flights, op-up on the outbound was def a nice bonus.

Sadly for your bank balance, there is now no other way to fly

Will we be lucky enough to have a trip report or two posted up?