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#953226 by Murraymint
23 Nov 2019, 01:02
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We booked a trip to NYC to visit our son who has been transferred to the US through his job. Then, a couple of months ago he decided that for the same price as a studio rental in Manhattan, he could have a brand new 3 bedroom penthouse in Boston, he would prefer to base himself there and travel to NYC when required. Rather than changing flights we decided to meet him in NY, spend a couple of days there then drive up to Boston. We booked a Delta flight back down for our return flight back to the UK.

We flew over to MAN from Paphos the night before - EasyJet flight isn’t really worthy of a TR but it was on time, on a brand new A320 Neo, with a friendly crew and a Bistro which had everything we asked for so no problems there. Well, just the one pre flight problem when their preflight bistro ordering system wouldn’t recognise my booking ref. and EasyJet said it was probably because I was using Safari (it didn’t work on Chrome or the App either, so maybe they are taking tips from Virgin IT).

Stayed overnight at the Hilton, which was fine and headed over to the airport after breakfast (in PE for this trip so no lounge breakfast for us). Online check in worked for Mrs M but not for me and I assumed it may have been due to me renewing my passport a couple of months ago or maybe I was going to be selected for secondary screening but check in at the airport was fine and no dreaded XXXX on the boarding pass.

Headed upstairs to security and into the usual shambles. Only one line was in operation in addition to the priority one and there were a few people panicking about missing their flight. To be fair the security staff managing the line were trying to get another line opened up but the man in charge wasn’t having any of it and people just had to wait it out. This is honestly the worst airport security I have experienced and it is consistently bad.

Wandered around the shops for a bit and then heard an announcement that VS127 would depart from Gate A6 on the new pier so headed over to the relative calm of the gate where G-VLNM was waiting. First time on the A332 for me and we boarded around an hour before departure time in in smooth manner - gate staff were very cheery and friendly and managed the boarding process well.

Welcomed on board by Mal our FSM (first male FSM I’ve flown with) and during the flight discovered that he attended the same primary school in Ayrshire that our other son now teaches in - small world indeed. I decided to use the WiFi on the flight but was disappointed when the crew told us that there was no WiFi on this aircraft! I thought that the entire fleet had it now?

We both had the chicken meal which we had preordered, Mrs M wasn’t overly excited about it but I thought it was OK. Flight was very smooth and I watched a couple of movies - before we knew it were being served afternoon tea and sandwiches around 60 minutes before landing. We were around 30 minutes ahead of schedule and I thought that would help to get us through immigration and out fairly quickly (still waiting for GE approval after 18 weeks), but to my surprise we were through immigration in 20 minutes, including 10 minutes with a very chatty CBP agent after I got a big X (new passport again) with the machines.

All in all a very smooth flight with only MAN security and lack of WiFi on the aircraft being the downside.
#953227 by buns
23 Nov 2019, 07:37
Murraymint

Thanks for an interesting TR - especially how MAN still has a way to go to smooth out the pre flight experience ;-)

The continued use of the 332 must be doing little to attract the business custom that VS (and presumably Delta) want to attract to the Northern base.

That said, it appears the Crew made for a lot!!

Safe onward journey

buns
#953229 by mitchja
23 Nov 2019, 10:30
Thanks for the TR.

Hmmmm according to FlightRadar24 you flew on G-VLNM which does have WiFi as I flew on her to BOS in Aug and was able to use the WiFi without any issues. Maybe it was faulty?
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