This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Soon after arriving in the clubhouse, I noticed yet another VS 346 land. This left me scratching my head so I went up to the front desk to inquire. This is when we found out about the extra flight VS1201 to LHR. Soon after it arrived, 2/3's of the clubhouse left and about 20mins later it pushed back. I had some beef in the lounge which was quite good. Played a bit on the playstation until the flight was called and we made our way down to gate 36 and onto G-VGAS.
Settled into 12A and were offered the usual drinks. Soon they came around with the sleep suits followed by the inflight beautician who asked did I want any treatment tonight. I went for some hand thingy as my back and shoulders were burt from Singapore. Door were closed ontime and we were about to push back on time until a stowaway was discovered onboard in the shape and form of a member ground staff. So doors reopened and closed we pushed back 10mins late. We taxied to the runway where along the way our Scotish FSM gave a very entertaining safety demo with lines such as 'Contray to some people belief you'll find all the safety instructions in the safety card rather than in a copy of today's the Independent or by reading about Jordan and the Beckham's in this weeks Hello magazine'. We took off on runway 25 left and a flight time of just under 9hrs was announced.
I had a look on the menu to find not one but TWO civialian options on the menu, chicken or beef. Finally VS are learning. The INFB came around with the cardboard boxes full of crap and told her how sorry she was to be handing out this rubbish. Ordered the chicken and then went to the bar for a glass of water. Here the FSM noticed my VS swingers golf shirt and asked did I work for VS. So I explained to him about this trip and how I won it and the significance of the shirt. He congratulated me and called all of the crew out of the galley to come and meet me. Ok so a quick trip to the bar to fetch a glass of water turned into a 15min Q&A session about the golf competition with the crew which was nice of them and made me feel like Tiger after winning a major.
Anyway I went back to my seat and soon after my chicken arrived which was great. My little armrest wouldnt go down so as the crew tried to work their magic I went back to bar for some more water where the INFB was and asked did I want my treatment now. I accepted and along the way was told by the crew there was no budging in the arm rest but there were plenty of seats to get a good nights sleep. Had the hands treatment which was good and had a nice INFB who was really chatty and was telling me how she heard about me and the golf (news spreads from one end of the cabin to the other quickly).
Went back to my seat and asked one of the crew if I could move to a different seat to sleep cause of the armrest and I found to my suprise that they had another seat already made out into a bed for me. Got a good few hours sleep and was woken up in time for breakfast. I had the bacon roll which was good and watched The wind that shakes the Barley again. The Captain announced that there would be another delay. We eventually landed at 7am instead of 6.15am. Made our way from the plane to find a busy immigration due to Untied comming in before us from L.A but breezed through. Waited ages for the bags so priority didnt work. We also had to go over to another area to collect the clubs.
Now this was the not so fun bit of this trip. We were queueing in the nothing to declare line when we were told to declare the clubs. WTF I've never declared them in my life. Anyway off to the declare line and a wait of an hour and twenty before being seen. All they wanted was my golf shoes to be disinfected and he then sent us on our way. This is what is puzzling me. They clean my shoes that would only be touching the surface of the ground yet they dont clean my clubs that would be resting and digging into the ground. Interesting. Anyway got landside at 9 o'clock a full 2hrs after landing, so therefore being 1st of the plane yet last out of the airport.
A great flight in all aspects but SYD really let itself down. After this I will never complain about Dublin or Heathrow again and it has left a bad taste in my mouth.
