This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
In the past I have heavily criticised MAN airport for the lack of priority in the security priority line… well today they had it 100% spot-on. Was through security in about 3mins. Duty free shopping done and emerged from the duty free shop to see Jersey Girl at gate 210, which will be our ride to Orlando.
Up to the “Escape Plus” lounge (which is the old Delta Escape lounge renamed). Not over busy and quite pleasant. The breakfast buffet was still on offer at 11am so we made up bacon & sausage rolls and they hit the mark. It was only about 11:30 when they removed the breakfast offering and put on the lunchtime buffet of sandwiches etc. In our opinion the breakfast offering was better than we recall & the lunch buffer worse than the last time we were on the VS73 (normally on the VS75 so only get breakfast). The main benefit of the lounge is it has air-conditioning. The main departures level was stifling hot (and we’re both wearing short sleeves too). I know MAN airport claim to be energy efficient – but they are wasting a lot of money today on heating. There was also the usual Virgin rep in the lounge – pregnant crew member who is grounded – and she came round several times in our hour or so in the lounge to check all was OK.
Boarding started pretty promptly after the flight went to “Go to Gate” status and I was first through the priority lane for my frisking from G4S’s finest anti-terrorism squad. Today it was just a swabbing of anything electronic bigger than a mobile phone, followed by swabbing of hands, belt, jeans pockets socks and shoe insides. Didn’t have to turn anything on or even prove anything worked. Passed this no problem and was soon onboard.
Forward to 9A/K and the aircraft was not much cooler than the terminal. The APU was running but the air it was providing was not particularly cool and had a nice kerosene aroma to it. 3 spare seats in Upper Class at the moment. Champagne was offered and accepted, but if you wanted a refill, forget it – the glass was swiped almost as soon as you’d finished the drink. Two of the spare Upper Class seats have just been occupied by what is very blatantly an off-duty crew member & her other half – plenty of fawning & cuddles from other crew. Prior to pushback lunch & after take-off drink orders were taken. We did a very long pushback to allow G-VMIK on the adjacent stand to also push at the same time for it’s flight to Boston. Followed VMIK out to the newer runway at Manchester and we took off about 30mins late, but as per the Captain will make up the time as it’s only a 8h20m flight to Orlando and the wind had changed to allow for an takeoff to the west (everything was on easterly ops when we arrived at the airport). 292 passengers onboard + 2 babies, 14 crew & 2 flight deck crew.
Once airbourne it took a good half hour of flight for the air-con packs to kick in properly and start to cool the cabin down. Dread to think that Jersey Girl would be like after she’s been baking in the Orlando sun for a few hours on only ground power / APU to try and keep her cool.
The UC menu is exactly the same as in the review posted yesterday by Restus for the VS121 MAN-BOS flight, so I won’t bother listing it below. We’ve both chosen to pass on starters and go for the Lemon & thyme roasted chicken.
The chicken was surprisingly good and a very generous plateful too. I’ve often found some VS meals to be a little on the small side (e.g. 3 prawns for a starter) but this was definitely not the case with the chicken. I passed on a desert and just had the cheese which was also good – I am told the burnt sugar custard tart was rather good too though.
So it’s now after lunch with about 6hrs to run to Orlando, so things have quietened down service wise. Time to abuse the wifi and hassle friends who are on one of the flights from LGW via facebook. Looking at FR24, we’ve just overtaken VMIK who is struggling at 39,000ft to do 373kts ground speed whereas we’re at 34,000ft cruising along at 465kts. FR24 is estimating we’ll be into MCO pretty much bang on time too (time then for me to test Global Entry for the first time).
During the quiet period of the flight the crew were not particularly proactive in offering drinks in the cabin – there were certainly a lot less passes through the cabin than on other Upper Class flights I’ve done. If you wanted something you had to go and ask for it, or press the call button.
The afternoon tea / extra snacks service was a bit of a shambles too. I appreciate the menu says you can have the extra items anytime between the main meal service & preparation for landing. But again, unlike other Upper Class flights I’ve done food was not proactively offered. About 2hrs out of Orlando a few people started asking for food – which was promptly delivered. It was only after about half of the passengers in the cabin had self-ordered food that the crew went round offering it to others. There was no shortage of food though – we both had sandwiches & the Oriental chicken kebabs (both very nice) and were still offered a Gourmet beef burger and Eton mess cake. Don’t think I saw anyone go for the scones, cream & jam though.
Just after the service was being tidied away the seatbelt sign came on for the first time since Manchester. The FSM had to announce it twice times so clearly some people further back thought it did not apply to them. It was quite bumpy and we headed further off shore then back towards the coast for a normal eastern seaboard routing. Can only assume the flight deck had quite correctly seen something on their weather radar (this was around Delaware). Just found a doppler radar map of the Delaware area and I can see why we flew round it.
So about 90mins out of Orlando (we have made up time and should now arrive early if FR24 is to be believed) all the service items have been packed away.
As it happens, we did land 5mins ahead of schedule, but the pilot flying flared the aircraft quite late on the runway, so heavy braking & reverse thrust was used. We missed the turn that would have guaranteed the parallel taxiway for the quicker route to the terminal. The Thomas Cook landing behind us made this turn, so they took the last available gate in the “normal” wing of Airside 4 (something like gates 81-89). We ended up on gate 90 in a different wing – looks like this is the A380 gate as it has 3 airbridges. Once we arrived at the gate we were told we were being held on the aircraft for about half an hour due to congestion in immigration. After about 25mins we were allowed off and headed for immigration. Again, the cabin crew were pretty useless and did not hold the downstairs economy cabin back as normal to allow UC, PE & upstairs Economy off first.
This immigration area this wing feeds into is not the “normal” one and is half finished (i.e. no carpet on the floor) but functional. I would hazard a guess that when the works are complete in airside 4, this area will be the extension to the normal immigration hall. It was very busy in here, so time to try Global Entry.
All I can say based on this one trip alone is that it is worth the fee hands down. Was through the GE machine part in about 90 secs. Had to see an officer as I’d answered yes to food (chocolate – playing it safe). Was seen by an officer in under 5mins – would have been faster had a Thomas Cook crew not been being processed. Got to the baggage belt – none of the monitors work as this area really is a building site under construction. Immediately clocked one of my bags going round so knew this was the belt for the VS73. My second bag was out about 90secs later. I then exited Customs – total time from GE machine to exiting Customs was about 7mins & would have been a lot quicker if the TC crew hadn’t been there. I then went to collect the hire car – as agreed I hasten to add – and wait in the garage for the phone call from the other half saying she was waiting at arrivals kerbside pickup. Got the call about 25mins later… and she has a Visa for work purposes too. Just shows the speed of Global Entry when immigration is busy. I dread to think how long people at the back of the normal Visitors line would have waited for immigration.
Left the airport & did the normal drive to where we stay on South I-Drive. Showered, went to Publix and the Outlet Mall briefly. Now sitting on the balcony where is it warm and humid having a healthy meal of cold beers & hot-dogs, before heading off to bed.
So to summarise, an OK VS flight – the crew were nothing to write home about. The FSM was not particularly engaging, which obviously rubs off on the other crew (same with any airline).
Oh well, a week of warm humid Florida beckons (with associated thunder-storm / downpour dodging).
When you get a good FSM, the Crew responds and you enjoy a flight that is far above what you may see in BA First or the ME3 products. However, a lack lustre FSM (which you seem to have encountered) leaved you feeling why bother in the future.
