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#946017 by woralla
07 Sep 2018, 08:08
Ground Staff
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I chose this route via Manchester specifically so that I could fly on one of the ex-Air Berlin A330-200s. I have made films about the Upper Class experience on each aircraft type in the fleet this year for my YouTube channel and was keen to complete the set.

Check-in was very friendly. Security was only slowed down by my back getting pulled for secondary screening behind a backlog of others. However soon I was running the gauntlet of duty free on my way to the Aspire Plus lounge. There a member of VS staff was on hand to deal with any questions. The lounge was pretty basic, but had a small buffet of hot breakfast items.

About an hour before takeoff the gate was announced so I headed down in hopes of boarding early. The gate area was small and was effectively the corridor on to several other gates, so there was a steady stream of other passenger trying to get past those waiting to board.

Boarding started about ten minutes after I arrived at the gate. I would have been one of the first onto the aircraft had I not been randomly selected for secondary search at the gate. Not my day clearly! Hands and feet swabbed and after a few minutes I was free to board.

Upper Class is still the original ex-Air Berlin cabin, although VS will be replacing these with a new Upper Class seat from November. The aisle was fairly narrow and the seats all looked a bit tired. I stowed my bag in an overhead bin, where there was plenty of room, and took my seat.

The member of crew looking after my side came over after a minute or so, welcoming me by name and handing me a glass of champagne. We had a conversation about the plane and how it differed from the usual VS product. He also explained that they had had to adapt parts of the service. For example the normally VS Upper Class glassware couldn’t be used because the cocktail tables were too small. A few minutes later, the FSM came around, again greeting everyone by name, and handing out ‘Happy Socks’ and a free voucher for messaging services on the WiFi. Against I had a nice conversation with her for a few minutes.

We pushed back pretty much to schedule. There was a manual safety demonstration, presumably because the cabin configuration has different seats, and seatbelts, to any other VS aircraft. I find I pay more attention to manual demonstrations rather than the video for some reason. A short taxi later and we were soon in the air.

The entertainment system is a bit different. There’s a fairly large screen fixed to the wall in front of your seat. It isn’t touch screen though. Instead there is a small handset with a pointer style mouse to navigate around. The system appeared to have the same range of content as other VS aircraft.

The onboard service was excellent. I had crab cakes to start, followed by salmon fillet, finishing with lemon and blackcurrant sponge pudding.

I watched a movie, had a long chat with some of the crew in the galley - there’s no Upper Class bar - and the flight went in no time. Extra Bites were served about 75 minutes out. I had the chicken kebab and some sandwiches.

Finally there was a spectacular view over Boston as we came in to land - you’ll see that in the video, which can be found here.

My overall impressions were that the cabin desperately needs its refit, but that the excellent Manchester crew made up for that with a fantastic level of service. I’d be tempted to fly from Manchester more for the crew experience, if it weren’t that I live in central London!

You can find all of my VS Upper Class videos here.
Last edited by woralla on 07 Sep 2018, 10:12, edited 1 time in total.
#946020 by SlimpyJones
07 Sep 2018, 09:13
Thanks very much for this - great to see a comprehensive review of the ex-AB seats, and Manchester trip reports are always welcome. I liked the video a lot too. Just to mention though, the link at the bottom to all your other videos appears to be broken! :-)
#946026 by woralla
07 Sep 2018, 10:14
Thanks SlimpyJones. Glad you enjoyed the post and video

SlimpyJones wrote:Just to mention though, the link at the bottom to all your other videos appears to be broken! :-)

Have amended. Hopefully it now works. Cheers.
#946031 by mitchja
07 Sep 2018, 11:15
Thanks for the TR. You flew the same day I flew to JFK :) Reminds me as I should post my TR's too.

I'm sorry to say but I'm still avoiding that cabin at least until its gets refitted from November. Mind you bigger IFE screens is what VS are very sadly lacking these days.

Re the foreign language signs - those will probably be around for years as some of the VS B744's still to this day have Italian signage in the washrooms from when those A/C where originally supposed to be going to Alitalia back in 2000!!!

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