This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
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Finally got off in what you might loosely call one piece and manoeuvred the luggage mountain the 2nd floor only to find the entire queuing area rammed [B)]. Hmm, 4 hours ahead of the flight and this is not a good sign. Having scrutinised the other pax closely, it turns out its actually a bunch of secondary school kids on return from a ski trip ah crap! [:0] I reeled in horror for a good 10 minutes, unable to stop thinking about the fact that Id booked 64AC on the aircraft. Ok, so you might be thinking theyre not so bad, down to two seats at the back, possibly quieter. Im thinking, the back of the plane is going to be like the bike sheds at school and therefore no kip. I keep telling myself Itll be ok, flight is less than 6 hours, theres no need to fork out for another upgrade. Id almost convinced myself it was going to be ok when there was another arrival into the queuing area. Yes, you guessed it, another school party of skiing returns [:#]. Cue the string of expletives and doubling of the original agreed upgrade spending. You may be thinking whats wrong with me; Im a teacher, deal with kids every day of the week. Er, 7 year olds I can deal with, but teenagers who are in the most part taller than me and a lot more raucous (no really! [;)]), scare the life out of me. I cross the street to avoid groups of them! [:I]
Eventually the desk is within reach and the first utterance after Hello is Any availability in PE today?. Yes, at a charge of 199 or $346 each. Done! Exit seats 70HK upstairs [8D]. The payment took a very long time as for some reason the check-in guy had to fill out some silly paper receipt. Enquired about Econ-UC whilst there and that was priced at 799. Ouch! Asked him how full the flight was and he said it was pretty busy with a few Econ-PE, possibly as a reaction to the kids! Whilst all this was going through there was some major d_b_cle going on next to us. It turns out there were 2 women from party of 7 travellers who had lost their e-tickets. They were certainly getting very shirty about it and blaming the Virgin staff at the gate at LHR saying that theyd taken their e-ticket and not returned it so they didnt have it. Er, can you not just print another?!!! They were being offered a single back to LHR at 799 Econ. Oooh dear! It was not pretty.
Finally went off to head through security only to find it rammed by the kids aaaarrrggggh! Then clocked the First and Business queue and decided that VS PE was equivalent to business (hmmm, dubious) so thinking they could only say no, gave it a try [:w]. Straight through no queue and no questions asked. Superb! Duty free offering was probably the poorest Ive seen , worse than JFK or MCO so headed straight for the NWA lounge with Priority Pass. A bit of a naff lounge with a buffet offered at 6.30pm. Went down to the gate at 6.45pm and boarded at 7pm. Asked the guy which plane it was as I couldnt see it at all from the building: G-VHOT. Gave him a V-Flyer card for his help! [|:)]
Seats great though only one luggage bin which I had to fight the guy behind for (soon to become known as The Most Annoying Man In The World). Flight plan 5 hours 24 minutes. Pushed back 19.50pm and took off 20.05pm.
20.30pm drinks served and second service within 10 minutes. Dinner served 21.00pm. Choices were beef stroganoff, veg lasagne and BBQ chicken. Went for the beef and it was not badwolfed down in minutes! Usual poor attempt at a salad, an Oreo cheesecake (didnt really fancy that, I wonder why?!), cheese and biscuits, Russell Stover French mint choc. Wine was offered 3 times, then Brandy and Baileys soon after. A really smooth flight but on which I just could not sleep as it was constantly punctuated by The Most Annoying Man In The World getting out of his seat behind me, yanking on my seat and asking me to pull my seat up so he could get out. Flippin' 'eck, what would this guy be like in Y?!!! [n] Gators, sick em!!!
Now comes the part where I start to get really wound upstacked over LHR for ages, then no stand. No this really really wound me up as the previous 2 times Ive returned to LHR with VS there has been no stand and Ive had to be bussed to the terminal [:(!]. Once ok, twice annoying, three times Im losing my rag [:(!][V]. Finally got in to find only 2 desks open for immigration and weve pitched in at the same time as a JFK flight so thats far form swift. Eventually get bags and go hunt a taxi. Are you ready for a laugh? The bloke wanted 97 to go less than 30 miles! LHR to Farnborough area. Still in shock. Decided to hire a car instead at a cost of 58. All that on top of jetlag makes for a right mardy Gator Baiter. [:(!]
So what do you guys reckon to a complaint to VS about the lack of a stand for the third time in a row at LHR? [:?]
