UC bag drop was slow. Only two desks open and one passenger wanted spoon-feeding about anything & the passengers at the other desk seemed to have a baggage issue. Bag dropped after a 5min+ wait.
Now the first bad bit. TSA Pre. The TSA Pre lines were longer than the normal security queues (which were 4-9mins). TSA Pre was a 15min wait, not helped by the CLEAR passengers being inserted into the front of the lines. The only good point to note is that CLEAR were spreading their passengers over all the TSA Pre lines, as opposed to just hogging the one nearest their machines.
Train to Airside 4 and bad bit two. Delta Sky Club, which was allegedly “at capacity” so there was a queue to get in. A prominent sign was there saying that priority access was given to [amongst others] Delta One. Delta One is basically the same as Upper Class, so asked if this was the case. The “little old bag” (sorry, but the only polite and accurate description I can come up with of the lady guarding the Sky Club entrance) just looked at the boarding pass and said “not operated by Delta, wait in line”. I do hope Virgin reciprocate this treatment to Delta One customers at the LHR Clubhouse. Little old bag absolutely loves her job and needs sacking.
Got into the Delta Sky Club after a 25min wait. Just from where I was seated I could count over 30 empty seats – with quite a few being in 2’s or 3’s, so the lounge was NOT at capacity by any means (you could walk straight up to the bar and get served straight away). Boarding was called early and the UC passengers were escorted to the gate.
Once onboard, a very switched-on FSM was working. She did not even have the tablet device with her, but welcomed me by name / thanked me for loyalty to Virgin etc when handing out the menu. I asked about a quick trip to the flight deck – all sorted right away no problem. When the CSS came round to take starter order (main course pre-ordered) and after takeoff drink order, name was used again & FC status noted. TBH, I’m not bothered about this, but compared to the outbound where the FSM just let the CSS do the intros, which was just to say hello to everyone in Upper – to this where they had certainly read the tablet / manifest… it shows that some crews do care.
We pushed back a little late as we had accepted some passengers from the cancelled BA flight. Never seen a faster pushback. No sooner was the jet-bridge fully retracted and we were moving, engines stared and off on 35L.
On the food front, I have to admit that again, I was pleasantly surprised. The Togarashi spiced shrimp starter was good, as was the Salmon Teriyaki main course. Only complaint here was the sauce – the amount in the little jug looked like what someone had left behind (i.e. barely covered the bottom of the jug). Mentioned this and it was topped up with no fuss. Nice to see a return of the flourless Valrhona chocolate cake for pudding – slightly rich, but not excessively so like the hot chocolate lava cake on the outbound. You could finish the Valrhona cake ant not feel stuffed… half of the lava cake and you were stuffed.
I got some sleep of sorts after dinner – was quite bumpy at times so kept on waking up.
I was awake 90mins before landing so no need to be woken for breakfast. Went for the pain au chocolat and the full English (minus the omelette). Both were good. Nice to see they have started to use back bacon as opposed to the American streaky that they have used for years.
An uneventful landing at Manchester soon followed. We got allocated the furthest away contact gate on the A pier, so by the time I had gone through the e-Gate for immigration & downstairs to the baggage hall, the bags were already on the belt.
All in all an excellent Virgin flight. It just shows that when you get a good FSM leading the crew follow suit and deliver excellent service. As mentioned above, the food was a pleasant surprise too.
There is nothing Virgin or any airline can do about TSA Pre queues. But given their close partnership / 49% DL ownership, you would hope that can do something about the Sky Club / remind the little old bag that Delta One & Upper Class are basically the same.
