Hello from the LHR Clubhouse

[mitchja]

Off to Toronto on what is a bit of a last minute reward flight.

Booked a day trip to Niagara Falls and also doing the CN Tower EdgeWalk. Not much else planned though.

I originally flew VS to Toronto when they first launched that route back in the summer of 2001. It was the VS47/48 LGW>YYZ on the B742’s back then. That was also my first taste of Premium on the outbound and Upper Class coming home (the bag crushing purple slopping J2000 seats). I still remember getting a full staff escort from VS check-in at YYZ through security right to the shared lounge…no going back after that LOL!

Unfortunately with it being a new route, it was one of the first routes to get cut after 9/11

Also looks like the Clubhouse renovations are nearly ready to go as whilst sat up in the loft area a couple of people popped up and were measuring up and talking about replacing the wooden floor up here.

Quick question. I’m flying on G-VBOW today. She used to by called Pearly Queen but noticed now she’s called Amazing Grace; just wondering if anyone knows the significance of that name change?

Bit late James, but hope you have / had a good flight. There must be some growth to Canada for VS hopefully. It’d be great if they flew to the west coast direct.

David

Have fun in Toronto!
Would love to hear about your experience- I’m looking to do this trip next year all being well to do Niagra Falls.
Hopefully the route will prove popular and VS may add some other Canadian routes to their schedule.

[mitchja]

Had a fantastic flight with a good crew. Upper was about half full, Premium and Economy were both almost full.

Quick question. I’m flying on G-VBOW today. She used to by called Pearly Queen but noticed now she’s called Amazing Grace; just wondering if anyone knows the significance of that name change?

IIRC she was renamed after someones child who was ill. Something like that.

Had a fantastic flight with a good crew. Upper was about half full, Premium and Economy were both almost full.

How are the B787 holding up.
Got UC LAS & SF towards the end of the year. I’m going to miss the Neo suite (even the A350 seat) ; but at least I’ve got Row A seats! So no looking at others people’s legs and feet.

[mitchja]

It's been a while since I flew on a B789 but G-VBOW was certainly in good condition. The Upper Class cabin, seats, bar area and washrooms were all in good working order. The only thing that appeared not to be working was the Skymap on the IFE as that kept coming up with a 'trying to connect' on-screen error, though the remaining flight time that you see at the bottom of the screen was working.

Unlike the A333's the IFE handsets still work as well. Don't know why but they have not worked on the A333's are ages now. I guess they have all been disabled?

The Wifi was utter garbage though. Kept dropping out and failing to load web pages, so much so I'm going to complain about it when I get home as I paid for the full £29.99 streaming package. Simply unusable; zero chance of streaming

TP's already credited to my account for this reward flight. I've noticed that flights do seem to post much quicker now (often within 24 hours of landing) than they ever used to.

[mitchja]

After complaining about the useless WiFi onboard the outbound flight, Panasonic Aero (the provider on the B789's) have agreed to refund me. It only worked in very very short bursts. At one point the system looked to completely reset and sent me back to the payment page (even though I purchased a full flight package).

The sooner VS start using StarLink the better!! Apparently it's a relatively quick upgrade process for any aircraft that already have WiFi installed.