This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
10 March 06
6am the limo arrived to take us to Heathrow, it was my first time I took the limo when travelling upper class, all in all quick service as the driver was nearly doing 100 mph all the way to Heathrow! The drive was uneventful and soon we were at the drive-thru check-in which is excellent as I have never had a good VS check-in yet, our boarding cards where given to us straight away and our driver took out checked bags out of the boot. In a couple of minutes later we where dropped off on the second level of terminals 3s short stay car park and it was a short walk over the bridge to FastTrack security.
The line of the security was about the same as when I flew to SFO back in November just a short wait, but as we got through I could see that the queue was out of the FastTrack area so it was lucky we had the quick check-in.
When we got to the clubhouse we went straight to hairdressers to confirm our 9am appointments but they had lost both of our bookings, they could find the one from November but not that day, lucky the clubhouse and Cowshed was not busy so we managed to get a haircut. The haircut was ok, and very much needed. After my haircut I had to wait for my friend to finish in the mean time I waited at a table by the pool/waterfall thing and helped myself to a couple of cakes from the deli. After my friend finished his hair cut we ordered a full English breakfast at the bar with some drinks afterwards we went to the Jacuzzi/ 2 had about ten minutes before boarding was called, at gate 10. On the way we popped into the Singapore Airlines SliverKris Loungeas my friend is VS Gold. Had a quick beer and watched a couple of planes take off from the excellentview of the runway.
Got to the gate and there was no priory boarding in place but the queue by this time was fairly short. Just before we walked down the tunnel to get onto the plane I noticed the name of the plane, Ruby Tuesday. Rubbish! No V:Port, this was the same plane I took last time to SFO back in November. The other problem with the plane is that the suite is looking quite tired with scratches and marks around the table and remote.
Anyway that was the only disappointment of the flight, Got onboard settled into 6A and my friend in 6K. Had the usual talk from the IFBT and a handshake from the flight director which I thought was nice touch. I opted for the head and shoulders massage, as we had priory cards from my friends last flight I was the first to have it just after the seat belt sign had gone out.
For the first 2 hours or so we spent at the bar, we both were pretty full from the breakfast in the CH so we both went for a light bite, it was half a baked potato with bacon and cheese. It was pretty good so I had another one! After a few drinks I decided to go back to my seat to watch some films, unfortunately all the films were rubbish so I watched a couple of TV shows.
A few more hours went by drifting in and out of sleep in the seat, I then decide to go for the meal, it was a choice of Salmon or Lamb on the menu but because the plane was full and most people went for salmon and I ate later I had to have the Lamb. The starter was a soup which was good It was ok but Ive had better meal back in November.
After the meal I turned the seat into the bed and got a few hours sleep, about an hour before arrival afternoon tea was served, it was a few sandwiches a warm scone with a cappuccino and a couple of Danish pastries.
Due to traffic around SFO our plane had to do a loop but soon we were down and on the gate quickly. At SFO they use 2 tunnels which is good for passengers in the nose so you can get out quickly, unfortunately I realised I left my mobile phone in the seat when I was at the door so I would have been the first of the plane but by the time I got to immigration there were the usual long slow moving queues, it didnt help that the KLM flight arrived just before us but did hear a conversation between a Dutch family complaining how long the flight was from Amsterdam.
By the time I got through immigration my bag had been around the carousel several times so no issue there, it was good to see the drive-thru check-in staff had priory tagged it unlike the Staff in the terminal last time.
All in all very good service, cabin crew were excellent just a shame about the plane.
