This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
first trip report from me in Hong Kong. my mum and sister drove me to heathrow where the new terminal 3 carpark has just opened causing a massive traffic jam and it took us half an hour to get to a parking space on level 2. and then we had to wait 10 minutes for a lift to level -1 where a massive crowd was trying to get to the checkin desks at one level above them. we decided not to wait for a lift and like most people climb the stairs into the chaos that was the virgin checkin area. Thank god i was flying PE otherwise the line for even DIY checkin looked dreadful. as it was there was only 1 person manning the check in desk and we waited 20 minutes to check in. however once we got up to security there were no lines at all which made the normally most stressful part of flying a breaze. i said goodbye to my mum and sister and within 15 minutes i was airside returning some shaving stuff to boots.
when the gate was called i was surprised to find out it was at gate 5 as normally it is at the gates on the far right. when i got to the gate there was a huge qeue to get into the departure lounge but the PE boarding pass helped to get me through quickly. so far PE seemed great (first time PE user normally i am in Y). boarding was half an hour late (in total we were 50 minutes late without any explanation) but i got priority boarding which was great and it was v. strange to turn right and already be at my seat instead of walking for ages down the long aircraft to economy. even more surprising was that my seatmate arrived within a minute. glasses of bubbly and apple juice were handed out and i was busy getting comfortable and talking to the ozzy next to me. Then horror of horrors a chinese man in the seat in front was asked if he wanted to be upgraded to UC and he said no. can you believe it!
we finally left the gate and headed for the runway. Everytime i have flown these A346's i am just amaized at the power at take off yet it seems so quite compared to say a 744. during the climb i noticed that VS have taken out the notebooks from the amenity kits which was annoying. i also had a look through the films and i was busy planning out my entertainment for the evening. unfortunetly when the v.ports were switched on my seat was the only PE seat where it didn't work. to cut a long story short it was reset 5 times and still didn't work by landing so i was offered the DVD player but i refused as none of the movies available were any good. so i asked if there were any economy seats going spare that i could watch movies at (half hoping that it was overbooked and i might get into UC) and a bulkhead seat was available which i moved to just for watching movies. the seat unfortunetly had baileys all over it but the FA didn't seem to notice (nor did i at first and my jeans still smell of it). The FSM offered me either a 25 GBP voucher for duty free or 10000 miles, i took the latter.
before the move dinner had been served and for once it was not beef or pork or lamb but chicken. chicken with pasta, shanghai noodles, and stir fry chicken were the available options. i had the stir fry chicken. the chicken tasted like it was from air koryo as it seemed to be the worst parts of the chicken. i have been noticing that the portions have also been getting smaller and smaller everytime i fly VS. also available was a pot of GU chocolate pudding which was alright but not something to eat whilst flying. back to IFE i only had watched 2 movies ice age 2 and hoodwinked. the first was brilliant but the last was rubbish and the quality of animation was terrible. then i moved back to my PE seat to sleep on and off for 3 hours. I have to give the FA's some extra credit as they regularly moved through the cabins offering drinks, but at the galleys the only snack available was short bread and nor rolls or anything like they normally do. in the end i wanted to move back to watch more films but my seatmate was asleep and i hate waking seatmates up. soon breakfast rolled around and i had the typically horrible english breakfast. what was really bad was that the FA's only came around with hot drinks and no cold drinks and i had lost my water bottle somewhere in economy. i think breakfast was served earlier then usual as it was another 2 hours before we landed. i must say that the FSM in particular was a star during the flight (her name was tricia i thin) so i nominated her for a hero award as she was really nice and tried to make me comfortable during the whole flight and kept me entertained.
We soon came in for a runway 7R approach and after a smooth landing we taxied to the gate. i waited (as usual) for everyone to get off before i got my stuff and said my goodbyes to the pilots and FA's who were fantastic throughout the flight. i got onto the transit train and used my new HK ID card for the first time which was very easy and quick. the baggage took awhile to come out. finally i met my dad in the arrivals hall and took the airport express to HK island and to my dads flat in SoHo.
I hope that this was an alright TR thanks for reading.
. plus he was sitting behind the 'heritic'.
