This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
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Why yes! And something a little different to do during the August bank holiday weekend. In previous years the summer long weekend was usually sandwiched inbetween a trip of much grander proportions - last year it was Mexico City, the year before that an American roadtrip. However, this year my holiday allowance from work was still feeling the aftereffects of my New Zealand trip back in January. That, coupled with a change in personal circumstances meant that it would be Dubai that would get my visit this time around, at a cost of zero holiday days from work too!
In persuit of tier points I took advantage of relatively good value 'S' class Premium fares. They are probably the best value in terms of "£ per Tier Point", not including Economy Delight (which I shall take advantage of later in the year). Pleased with my new discovery, this trip had to be booked over the phone as the functionality to book a specific fare class on the website had magically disappeared.... Alas, perhaps I could use this good value in the future.
The announcement of Dubai ending came a week later.
Upon my trusty steed I ride to Heathrow
Under the guise of a dentist appointment I was able to scuttle away from work a little earlier than normal, and with my newly acquired larger backpack I took the A1 and M25 to Heathrow on my motorbike. Free parking for motorbikes at Heathrow will always gain my thanks. I was lucky to be able to miss any bad behaviour on the roads and made it to Heathrow a little before 6pm.
In the days leading up to the flight it became apparent that this was going to be a busy one. The Premium cabin flitted between Sold Out and 1 or 2 seats available. I had the faintest hopes of an Op-Up and so held off checking in on my phone in the morning.
With no bags to check I decided to make use of the self-service machines. They were very straightforward to use, just pop one's passport in and behold, my trip lay before me. The machine made me an offer of £719 to upgrade. I guess there must have been a little bit of room in Upper still. I declined the offer and was now armed with my flimsy paper boarding pass.
I headed up the escalator and approached the Magic Door. A member of Virgin staff was heading in just before me, and she double checked my boarding pass to see if I was eligible to use the channel. I met with her approval and was directed down the security corridor. Nobody else was in line, which was a marked change from my last visit in May when people were being sent to the Fast Track lane as the Wing was so backed up.
Clubhouse time
I can't remember the last time I didn't head straight to the Clubhouse after security. This day would be no exception and it was straight up the stairs. I was warmly welcomed back and immediately deposited my heavy motorcycle jacket with the cloakroom. She didn't expect it to be so heavy. Whoops...
I made a beeline straight to the Spa desk and sought a trim for my unruly mop. Alas, once again neither of my favourite hairdressers were in (I swear they are avoiding me), and so my trim was done by a new lady, who was very nice and did a good job. She recognised me which is always nice, too.
I also paid for my haircut with miles! The process was very straightforward, they simply took my Flying Club number from my boarding pass. To date the miles have not been taken, perhaps it takes a little while to do so. Whilst it's perhaps not the most efficient use of miles, it did save me £18 on the day which I won't complain about.
Upstairs in the Loft was a new Bacardi Bar. It appeared that it was normally based outside on the terrace but the horrible weather had forced it indoors. There were only a couple of people upstairs, and feeling a little sorry for the man behind the bar I went up for a cocktail. It was pretty nice. Last time I was up in the loft, the service dried up and with my stomach growling I had to abandon the barman and head downstairs to take up residence at the bar.
I ordered some Tapas (or "Bar Snacks" as the menu now calls them), which arrived within about five minutes. Not bad!
My Bar SnacksI followed this up with a Clubhouse burger, which I made light work of. All the food so far had been delicious. The conversation was good at the bar too, one of the bar staff, a younger guy seemed fairly clued up in airport operations so we spoke a little about the temporary connections centre outside the Clubhouse closing up and hopefully disappearing in the coming months. Most of my time was spent at the bar this time, chatting with a gentleman who makes regular trips to London from his home in Hong Kong.
Time to go
At a little after 9pm, Gate 16 was shown as the departure gate. I decided to wait until the first boarding call to leave and make my way to the gate. There was no queue for boarding, except for a little confusion over Economy passengers finding their way into the priority queue. No big deal though. There was no wait to board either - I was straight onto G-VNAP, recently retrieved from the desert!
Dubai is almost entirely served by A330s, but for today a one-off A340-600 was scheduled. Clearly someone felt that a larger aircraft was going to be needed!
As our very own Mitchja recently reported a month or so ago, G-VNAP is sadly the exception to a fleet full of Wifi. Not that it mattered to me all that much on a short overnight, but it is a shame that they were not able to keep her in line with the rest of the fleet. I suppose that's what a quick desert retrieval gives you, though.
Today I was in 22G. When I booked every back row seat was taken, which is my preference for guilt free recline, alas.
When I arrived there was another gentleman in my seat! It turns out he was actually in 22D and just got the wrong side. After he moved, I went to put my bag in the overhead locker and was approached by a member of crew to ask if I was Mr. (something) - the truth is I didn't hear the name she said and just assumed she was after the guy who had just moved.
After I had gotten settled in she approached the man in his new 22D seat, and asked if he was me! It turns out she was looking for me but I had misheard the name she gave. She came back round to my side and warmly welcomed me back on board and to thank me for my loyalty. This seems to happen so rarely for me (incidentally, the last time it did I was heading to Dubai...!) so it was a lovely surprise. Her welcome also came with a drink.
The view from my seat - 22GThe guy next to me in 22F had arrived in from JFK on a connection and used this as a chance to strike up a little conversation. He usually a Delta flyer who had been encouraged to try Virgin Premium, so I filled him in on the situation with the A340s and that these birds were getting a little old. And that is really all that can be said about them. The cabin looked to be in reasonably good shape, though to be honest I did not explore it all that much other than my seat. We all know about the state of the IFE, if Virgin intend to keep these around for years to come, it's really got to be improved. But I suspect they will not live to see that day. I tried raising the headrest on my seat, but it wouldn't stay put, which I suspected would make for an uncomfortable neck experience when it came to sleep.
There was also no USB connection, so had to be conservative with my phone use if I was to use it for directions after landing, didn't want to be caught with no battery...!
Pushback
Just before we left the stand, the member of cabin crew returned to ask what I would like for dinner! This is only the second time in my life as a gold flyer that I have received preferential dinner treatment. It feels lovely but it doesn't half draw attention!! It turns out I wasn't the only gold in the village, there was another gentleman on the left side of the cabin who got the same treatment. Double thumbs up for this crew member so far.
Pushback came at 22:34, so just a few minutes late. The Captain confirmed a flight time of 6 hours 40 minutes, and the FSM confirmed 315 on board with no a single spare seat on the plane. It seems that whoever made the choice to roster an A340 for the job made the right decision.
Taxiing took forever, nearly half an hour before we were airborne. The four engines did their job though and we roared westwards and turned towards Kent.
Service begins
I decided to settle into the IFE with an old "flying favourite" of mine - Travel Man with Richard Aoyade. This time he and his companion were flying to Miami. Interestingly enough, they were flying VS Upper on the show. How I wished for that 787 bar...!
The first round of drinks came at around 30 minutes in. I was absolutely parched so asked for a still water and an Amarula. I sank the water so quickly it went down the wrong way, so I was able to get a second glass while drinks were still being handed to my neighbour!!
The menu for today's flight was, as per usual for Dubai flights, for the VS400 only and this was the June cycle, so it should be in place for a few more months at least. I also suspect the meals are used on other menus as well, so for the curious - the menu read as follows:
Starter
Pickled cucumber and radish salad
Mains
Chicken Tagliatelle
Spinach and mushroom gnocchi
Beef stroganoff
Dessert
Lemon drizzle cake
Cheese and crackers
Having only had a beef stroganoff a few days prior I went for the chicken tagliatelle. Chicken and pasta is always a firm favourite in my camp. As mentioned above, I was able to give my order to the cabin crew before pushback! And with meal service starting an hour after takeoff, mine was the first tray to arrive! Lovely loyalty perk, there. I didn't see any glaring eyes being shot in my direction either...!!
Premium Meal - Chicken TagliatelleThe salad was nice and crisp, though pickled cucumbers and radishes were a bold move and sadly not really to my taste. The vegetables and pasta portion of my main dish were also rather overdone. The chicken was very well cooked though and not dry at all. Overall it ended up being a little bland as there was not a lot of sauce. Perhaps I could have put Wilbur and Orville to use in hindsight. The lemon drizzle cake was lovely and moist though and salvaged the meal service a bit.
Not to imply the meals were "bad", just not the usual high standards I come to expect in Premium. They were just okay.
With the exception of dishing out the meals, it looked like the lady working in Premium today was the only person working in Premium - she implied this was a permanent change though whether this was route or aircraft specific was not clear. Either way she handled the cabin really well and I was not left waiting for my tray to be cleared away.
By the time teas and coffees were offered we were well into Europe. Half way over Hungary to be precise. I took a tea in the hope that it would put me in the sleeping mood.
The timings of the VS service to Dubai really are rather awkward. By 22:30 I'm ready to sleep, not eat a full meal. But in the summer season with such a short time change (+3 hours), if you leave any earlier in the evening you're facing a very early morning arrival into Dubai. Alas with only one service a day I don't really think there's any easy way to "do" the Dubai route. I suppose they don't need to worry about it anymore though.
The lights went out at 1am UK time, and I took that as my cue to try to sleep. Though just as I was putting on my "going to sleep on a plane" music playlist, I spied the crew offering Amarula and Brandy nightcaps. I can never refuse an Amarula, and today was no exception. Now it really was time to sleep!
Wakey wakey
The playlist worked it's usual magic and I managed a couple of hours of slightly broken sleep. When I woke up properly we were just crossing into Iraq. It looks like Iraq has been declared as safe to fly over. Interestingly, the route we took seemed to be very obviously avoiding Iran...
With the rest of the cabin beginning to stir, I couldn't see myself getting any extra sleep so went to brush my teeth and procure some water. I also managed to find some Sudoku on the Vera On Demand service which was nice. It's vanished from the newer IFE so this was a nice way to wake up.
More food...
Breakfast came around shortly after as the clocked ticked to less than two hours to go. Whilst I didn't get a picture, breakfast consisted of a small yoghurt, a granola packet, a warm pastry and a bowl of fruit. Whilst small, it was nice and light and did the job of keeping me topped up as I wasn't in the mood for a larger breakfast.
Sudoku game completed just as we were passing by Qatar with one hour left to go. The Captain's announcement came a little while after giving our arrival time as 8:40am, and the weather as sunny and 34 degrees. Good grief.
The rest of the flight was uneventful as the crew made preparations for landing.
Hello Dubai!
I watched the Skymap for the remainder of the trip as we crossed into the UAE and headed inland. It was a hazy morning in Dubai today and not a lot could be seen out of the windows in the distance. No big turnaround today, we approached from the Northwest and touched down at 8:26. Thankfully it was only a short taxi (at least compared to LHR) and we parked up at gate C54 within about ten minutes.
As we made our way to the shuttle train, it was clear that almost all the arriving passengers were staying in Dubai rather than connecting onto another flight. Perhaps that is the nature of VS's service to the city. The terminal shuttle took us to the main arrivals building, passing by the impressive Terminal 3 with it's neverending lineup of Emirates A380s.
I've always had a positive experience at Dubai immigration. The queues have always been virtually nonexistant (even with 300+ on board today) and passport control has always been straightforward. The only question I had was to confirm my first name! I passed through baggage claim and customs with ease. On my way out I spotted the guy with the Virgin Holidays clipboard looking for customers. Alas, not this time I thought to myself.
I took a moment to compose myself before braving myself with the Dubai public transport system. It's mightily impressive and very easy to use once you can get your head around the ticketing system. I had to venture upstairs to the metro station in order to buy myself a red Nol card before heading all the way back down again to get a bus.
And that's when the heat hit me. Good grief. At least the buses were air conditioned. A couple of rides and 45 minutes or so later I arrived near to my Airbnb. I was staying on the affectionately named "61 B Street", which involved a ten minute walk. When I arrived, the heat and humidity had sweat dripping off the tips of my fingers. I have never felt such humid heat like it. Thank goodness there was air conditioning everywhere!!
After a few hour's nap I was ready to start my weekend. Details of which will feature in my return TR! But to preview - it involved some delicious food, and a chance meeting with a fellow V-Flyer!
Until then, toodle pip.
I haven't been to Dubai for years but remember the humidity well (ours was September). Looking forwards to reading the return TR!
