This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
First leg of the 29000 miles Dubai-Delhi adventure.
Woke up early with excitement, the work week before had been quite stressful and I was really ready to just get away from real life for a week.
Had a good friend with me on the flight by accident, work decided to send her with short notice. I had upgraded her to G the day before and reserved seats 6A and 6K for us, friendly flying club had made sure there was a note about us travelling together and that I was bringing my Segway.
A close friend drove us out to the airport and we got there at around 1:45, went through checkin where they actually weighed my carry on and decided that it had to be checked. I complained a bit about waiting time at Heathrow and the checkin staff supervisor told me that if it took more than 10 minutes to get my bags I should complain. Checkin staff asked me if we really wanted 6A/6K since some people hate those seats, but for traveling with a friend I like them. Segwayed up tot he lounge and chatted with the agent there, apparently the flight was near completely full with only a couple of seats free in Upper.
Had Champagne, Tia Marias and OJ, and lunch, which was a nice salad, a very tasty Halibut, and finished with some fresh fruit, I was definitely getting more relaxed, noted one kid in the CH though and worried a bit. Flight got called at 4 and we wandered down through security, non existant line but took some extra time because of the Segway, TSA agents loved it though. Bought a new set of power plug converters and then headed down to lounge. Had a bit of argument with the ground staff about them refusing to give me the tear off from the paper ticket as a receipt, but in the end gave up and rode down to the gate.
FSM was forewarned it was coming and we tried fitting the Segway in to the cupboard, but it didn't really fit [:(], next time I need to have the quick release set so I can separate the handle from the base, then it fits! I had the gate check it and they promised it would make it to London and that it would be delivered to the gate, I saw the Segway disappear down to the belly of the beast with a promise to be delivered to the gate in London.
We took of on time and sped slightly eastwards with a fair bit of jumpiness the first bit, I gave my priority card to my companion to make sure she got a treatment (which she did), and ordered food. I ordered a salad, followed by chicken and mousse, we both requested to have our dinner served at the bar. The food was quite edible, far better than on previous UC flights, but not as good as it's competitors. A few more drinks then we headed to our respective suit and I managed to sleep over 7 hours before waking up 45 minutes before landing.
Now the not Virgins fault but rather the insanity of heathrow started, we circled for better part an additional 30 minutes then had to wait for the LAX flight to pushback for another 15 minutes, making our arrival at the gate fairly late, next my companions arm rest was stuck down with her cell phone in it, so since I had to wait for my Segway, I decided to stay back and watch the ground engineers take it out, they tried several ways until they followed the old axiom of, if it doesn't work the first time, apply more force and broke it open, they also told me that to fix any serious problem on 6A / 6K they have to take out all seats from the back to get at it, yikes. I also had to ask the IFBT for a priority card since she forgot to give me one, I used this card to get the first treatment on the VS400 [:D].
Now, despite the FSM telling me my Segway was being brought up, it wasn't, so I had to shockingly walk all the way to immigration which was empty and down to baggage claim where my bags where out and not the Segway, since I really wanted breakfast and shower in Revivals and they where close to closing I went and talked to the baggage people, after some discussion they would call Revivals once the Segway came out and then I could be escorted back into there and take it through customs.
A quick refreshing shower and change of clothes, some carrot juice and some hot food later I was just about to ask where the Segway was when they rolled it into revivals, a large group of employees all wanted to know how it worked.
Down to catch a cab into central London and enjoy my stopover, all in all an excellent refreshing flight.
