This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Given this was such a short trip I could quite possibly continue right where I left off on my outbound!
But a tiny bit of background first. Having originally booked into 'S' class PE for both ways, I was eventually arm-twisted into a cash upgrade by an ever-decreasing upgrade price for my return to London. In the end I paid a little over £200 to upgrade to Upper. Whilst there's no extra TPs, I felt it was worth giving VS Upper another go after my last trip, incidentally also on DXB-LHR, was fairly average.
But first - it was time to find something to do in the pressure cooker that was Dubai. I had a few ideas - take in the VIP experience of the Burj Khalifa? Visit the Aquarium? Most of my activities would have to take place indoors or in air conditioned environments given I would become a ball of sweat within only five minutes if I stayed outdoors.
Through a Dubai city guide I watched, I heard of a restaurant tucked away in Bur Dubai which is known for it's superb Iranian cuisine. So on Saturday evening I made good use of my new Nol card and ventured into the "real" Dubai. Or at least, where "normal people" lived, you could say. When I arrived the restaurant was closed - but only because I had arrived too early for dinner. I walked around town a little bit and after some confused looks from the locals I managed to get in the restaurant.
I found that in most places I ate the server/wait staff were keen to make suggestions on what to eat. I am not sure if this is because I looked like a clueless tourist or because that's just an Arabic custom. But I took suggestions on what to eat and everything was delicious. Easily the best skewered meats I've had in my entire life!
Courtesy of Al Usted Special Kebab!This culinary adventure ended up occupying my entire Saturday evening... whoops!
Sunday took me to the Dubai mall and to buy a couple of things for myself, and a couple of things for others. On my last trip to this corner of the world, I brought back some camel milk chocolate for my girlfriend. She agreed to my long weekend trip on the proviso that I brought her back more!! I also was able to acquire a camel milk chocolate camel for her mother, whom I am meeting tomorrow (at the time of writing!).
Whilst walking around I received the phone notification from the Virgin app that I could check in, which I duly did. I decided to switch over to a free 'A' side seat rather than 4K where I was originally.
Shopping procured, I headed back to the apartment to relax for a couple of hours before heading back to town to meet with none other than our very own Joeyc!
It is refreshing to be able to speak about nerdy plane stuff with someone who actually understands what you're saying. I am sure Joey will agree! We ended up chatting for four hours or so, so long in fact that I unknowingly missed the last metro ride as the system closes at midnight. Surprisingly I was quite coherant after an evening of Chianti and Caipirinhas, but an excellent evening it was nonetheless.
So perhaps not the typical "48 hours in Dubai" articles you tend to find on the myriad of travel blogs around the internet. But I still felt accomplished nonetheless and it was an enjoyable weekend. Would I go back to Dubai during this time of year?
Nope!
Having sampled Vegas during a heatwave with temperatures hitting 45 degrees, Dubai's high 30s was worse. The mix of heat and humidity was quite frankly ludicrous. So should I come back again on my own volition, I'll visit again during "winter" time.
A leisurely trip to the airport
Normally a trip to the airport is a well oiled military exercise for me and I would not dream of being blasé with getting to the airport on time. But strangely this time it felt different. I felt no desire to get to there with the usual 4+ hours in advance. And so my alarm went off at 7am and took my sweet time packing my small collection of belongings. During packing I had a quick check on the inbound flight and saw that G-VWAG was cruising over Iraq. No nasty surprises this morning then.
Most of my travel during the weekend was done on public transport with my Nol card. But as my previous day's card had expired I decided to summon one of the many Ubers to take me to the airport. And thus I did and one arrived within only 5 minutes.
It was a quick 15 minute ride to Terminal 1. And I arrived at around 8:30am, two and a half hours before departure, which I felt was a happy medium between "too early" and "enough time to relax in the lounge before boarding"!
As I was armed with a mobile boarding pass and hand luggage only, I bypassed VS's check-in desks (which did not look too busy) and went straight to immigration.
Exit immigration and security were swift thankfully, and the terminal shuttle had us riding alongside an Emirates A380 as it taxiied to the runway.
A final goodbye to Marhaba?
Terminal 1 was very, very quiet. I had around an hour and fifteen minutes before the scheduled boarding time of 10:05, so I thought I'd make my way straight up to the Marhaba Lounge.
Lounge entrance - shamelessly stolen from my last review!!As mentioned elsewhere on the forum, there is now a separate Business/First class line to give priority over those using Priority Pass (how ironic!). The ladies at the lounge are always lovely, and passage to the Business/First class area is provided with an escort. The main lounge area was absolutely heaving, which was apparently due to a delayed flight (SpiceJet to Amritsar was running 5 hours late).
Warmly welcomed back by the VS rep, who apparently recognised me from my previous visit back in December when I was here with my friends. I took up residence in one of the private pod rooms, which was promptly followed by a member of staff asking if I'd like anything. I took a pineapple juice with ice, as the temperature situation hadn't changed since my last visit either - it was toasty!
As I did last time, I'll direct the curious to this post by CommanderB which goes into excellent detail about the facilities the lounge provides.
The staff though were excellent throughout, very attentive, even whilst I was hiding in my little pod. I did venture out though. There was a gentlemen who was providing champagne for tasting. Whilst I'm not much of a champagne fan it did provide a nice experience. Plus the other first seating area was a lot cooler!
Before I left though I had a chat with the VS rep, who was just as shocked as the rest of us to hear about the Dubai route ending. VS apparently have a loyal following in Dubai. But I suppose we all know the business reasons for the cancellation. The rep said that fortunately, as she was a contractor she would be redeployed elsewhere, but I wished her the best nonetheless and we both agreed to hope that one day in the future the route would return!
The gate opened shortly after at the scheduled time of just after 10am. I waited around though to finish my cheese and champagne (la de daa...).
G-VWAG!
Gates D10 and D9 for LHRVS usually use the boarding gates at D9 and D10. Upper Class boarding is done through D10 to door L1, and Economy and Premium through D9 to door L2. Before I could board though, I had to go through document checks - I guess this is what happens when you skip the usual check-in procedure! There is also secondary security for seemingly everyone after passport checks. The chap doing the checks seemed a little confused by my mobile boarding pass as it did not list the SEQ number for him to write down.
Pat-down completed and passed, it was time to board at last. Boarding was in full swing already and I made my way down Gate D10 and onto Miss England. Welcomed on board and was directed to my seat, 7A.
A330 Upper Class cabin. Apologies for the blurryness
View from 7A. Not much to see!A welcome drink was quickly offered and it came with a smile! I decided to go for something called a 'Ginger Spritz'. It sounded exotic, at least. The amenity kit and menu were waiting on the ottoman.
As I settled into the seat and watch the cabin fill up, the flight time was announced of 7 hours 12 minutes. Weather in London was at a delightful 19/20 degrees and overcast! The cabin eventually filled up and once all 249 were on board the doors were closed. I spied just one empty seat in Upper.
We pushed back pretty much bang on time - at 11:07. The Captain initially promised us a short taxi but it just seemed to drag on forever. Whilst I waited I decided to browse the IFE and save a few favourites for later. After dealing with the A346 entertainment, the A330 touchscreens were a wonderful improvement! Decisions made - Travel Man in Stockholm, a show about Titanic and the Invictus movie from ten years or so ago.
After half an hour of taxiing, the engines were finally hit hard and we were airborne. We flew inland for a bit before turning Northwest and headed for Europe. The FSM came over the PA to introduce herself and to give our arrival time as 15:40.
The seatbelt sign went off shortly after and I commenced to faffing around with my bag and unpacking headphones, a shirt and the like. I also wanted to double check that my chocolate camel was intact as he was riding in my carry on bag the whole time! Whilst I was up the FSM came over to say hello to me as a Gold member and to welcome me back on board. We had a lovely chat, spurred on a little bit after she saw my camel! She wished me luck with meeting my girlfriend's mother!!
Signs were all pointing towards an excellent crew.
Wrestling with Wifi
Keen to contact home, I tried to connect to the Gogo wifi service but as usual found myself struggling to connect. The Messaging Pass is really quite good value I think, and was keen to spend the £2.99 to allow me to make contact! However previous experience tells me I'm not the only one attempting to connect so soon after takeoff so I gave up for a short while and waited for the rush to die down.
I started watching Travel Man in Stockholm. Turns out there's an ABBA museum there. Who would have thought it!! Haha.
Lunch time
As is tradition, the meal service began around one hour into the flight. Memories of my last DXB-LHR meal still burning in my brain, I was a little apprehensive, but the menu looked good today so I had high hopes. And with that - I present the Upper Class menu. It is of course, listed as the VS401 only, but it's possible that certain dishes may be on board elsewhere. It is also the June cycle so will likely be phased out imminently, but here it is anyway:
Starters
Poached salmon
Onion and sour cream soup
Beetroot salad
Served with various breads
Mains
Grilled beef steak
Shrimp red Thai curry
Mushroom cannelloni
Chicken moussaka
Pudding
Sticky date pudding
Chocolate raspberry dome
Cheeses
Brie
Rutland Red
Fourm de Ambert
Extra bites
Choice of sandwiches (Red Leicester and chutney, roast chicken and chutney, prawn and mayonnaise)
Scones - with strawberry jam and clotted cream
A selection of cakes (Chocolate profiterole, hazelnut lemon cake & raspberry macaroon)
Classic beef burger
Spinach and mushroom tart
Fried shrimp with chicken dumplings
I decided to plump for the soup and chicken moussaka. The soup arrived with the bread as advertised, along with croutons, and was very good!
Onion and sour cream soupThe main followed shortly after:
Chicken moussakaThis dish had me a little confused as I am sure a moussaka is served similar to a lasagne, except with aubergine. I didn't realise spring rolls were part of it!
Nonetheless - despite it not quite being what I thought it would be - it was excellent. The salad leaves were fresh, the cous cous was well cooked and the spring rolls had a great flavour. Definitely a good choice off the menu.
Just as we passed over Baghdad my main was cleared away and I was given a choice of dessert - I went for the date pudding.
Sticky date puddingIt was a great way to round off an excellent meal service. Every dish was delicious - my relief was palpable that this was a marked improvement on the last time. To top it off, cheese was offered and gladly accepted. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the cheese, it completely slipped my mind!
I managed to polish off the biscuits and chutney before the cheese, and the lovely flight attendant working on my side spotted this and asked if I would like more biscuits and chutney.
This attention to detail was what really made this crew stand out. Particularly the lady working on my side.
A birthday on board!
With cheese all polished off, I fancied stretching my legs a little and perhaps have a seat at the bar. The bar itself however had been all decked out with a birthday cake and other celebratory items! It turns out it was not only a passenger's 12th birthday on board, but a member of crew as well so there were a few festivities at the bar. It did render it a little unusable though. But I wasn't in the mood for playing grouch.
One comment that I wanted to make was that it was nice to see the mood lighting on throughout. Anyone who has read a previous TR of mine knows my frustrations at airlines dimming the cabin lights to "put the cabin to sleep" after service. So for them to be left on today was fantastic and another testament to a crew that wanted to keep on the ball throughout.
After the birthday celebrations were over I managed to take a seat at the bar for a quick drink and engage in some chat with the crew. For some reason though the bar area was much warmer than my seat so I didn't stay for long.
I decided to engage in some nerdery, and using my Wifi connection I used Flightradar24 to watch passing planes out of the window. It's quite fun seeing them fly by you in the sky!
A little more food...
To me, the food is the highlight of flying in Upper Class so I'm definitely one to partake in as much of the cuisine as possible. After getting back to my seat from the bar I asked the crew if I could have one of the chocolate bombs from the dessert menu. She gladly obliged and it followed!
Chocolate raspberry domeAsking if I would like anything else - I said yes! I was curious to try the dumplings, as last time they were on the menu they were really good. After a little wait (the CC initially forgot to put them in the oven, whoops!) they arrived, and they looked - and tasted excellent.
Fried shrimp with chicken dumplingsI must mention that the crew were really proactive in offering around the Extra Bites. They seemed keen to serve people the scones as well, and you guessed it, I had my arm twisted and tried some as well. I also asked for the selection of cakes as well.
Trio of cakes - pedantic note, seems VS don't know the difference between a 'macaroon' and a 'macaron'!I rounded up my banquet with a cup of tea. That's all the food pictures I have for you today!! Apologies to anyone who I made hungry. It was time now to recline back even more and take on a movie about South African rugby. It was actually pretty good and it occupied me for the remainder of the flight across Europe.
A little thank you
With about an hour to go we were over Germany and I decided to seek out the FSM to thank her and her crew for such hard work. Apparently the lady working on my side was a personal friend of hers and says she's one of the hardest working crew she knows! Looks like I struck lucky!
Just a side note - after getting home I decided to write to VS with my positive comments about the crew, as well as the lady on my PE outbound flight. I received a reply a couple of days later thanking me for the compliments. However, something about it seemed oddly familiar - and it turns out the response was pretty much word-for-word an email I received from VS on a similar topic about a year prior. It's nice that they respond, but there's something about reading the exact same words in different emails that waters it all down a bit. I get canned responses are something of a necessity in customer service but typing something of your own really isn't all that hard. Alas.
Not wishing to dwell on the negatives of course! With 30 minutes to go we had just passed the Netherlands and were beginning our descent. The cabin crew had ended their service and were preparing the plane for landing, but not before they passed around some hot towels. Mine was absolutely boiling and quite watery as I ended up flicking a load of water all over my seat. Oops.
We had a bumpy descent into a very cloudy UK. We approached and did an 'S' shape approach towards Heathrow. We eventually touched down at 15:53 on the northern runway, conveniently placing us close to the Terminal 3 gates, meaning we taxiied for barely five minutes. A little nicer than on departure!
We parked up at Gate 22 at 15:58. Pretty much on time, not bad.
As some of you may have read recently, immigration queues have been a huge problem at Heathrow, in response VS have been setting up little snack stands for arriving passengers. The stand was waiting outside Gate 22 and I grabbed myself a pack of chocolate digestives! It's the little things that set VS apart, I think.
Despite the doom and gloom around immigration, I can only assume that mid-afternoon is not a busy time for arrivals, as not for one moment did I have to stand waiting in a queue to get to the automated passport machines, I was straight through. With no bags to pick up I headed straight through customs. I was off the plane and into the arrivals hall within ten minutes!
And so it was done! A quick call to my lady followed and I got into my motorbike gear to head up the A1 to home.
All in all an excellent flight back, to top of an enjoyable weekend in less than enjoyable weather!
Thanks very much for reading.
