We started our holiday with a clear drive to LHR and smooth service from Meteor meet & greet..well except our number plate had come off on M4
so duly noted on documents.T5 check-in area was fairly quiet and we were met by a friendly check in agent with lots of polite chat about cats, flights and other stuff!
Off to v bar for breakfast, after a little duty free shopping
, then to boarding in a very long queue 
at 9.50am for 10.15 take off.Boarded with smiley gate agent but one up to VS as no name check (see LHR-HKG TR)
We then have the obligatory but required pilot briefing and he tells us that the flight time is 9hr 55 after 15 min taxi to runway
After 20mins satin our seats the pilot comes back on to announce that a hydraulic leak has been spotted around the landing gear and the engineers have been called back??
The World Traveller cabin was full and WTP had some spare seats but no cheap upgrade offered at check in. I would say that the legroom seemed a little more than VS but other than that no major differences. On demand movies was a defo positive.
Mmmmmm woman sitting next to Mrs Petmadness seemed to think she owned both arm rests...let the battle commence, I say!!
No surprise as the wife won the duel
After 1 hour the pilot tells us that there was no leak and the liquid was from previous work....watch this space for a potentially interesting landing
FSM introduced himself and enlightened us on the service we will be receiving which consists of drinks, followed by lunch then afternoon tea prior to landing. Friendly & welcoming.
It seems that my friends IFE was not working but it was remedied quickly.
By the time dinner service arrived there was no beef left so I went for the chicken and leek - which looked like typical airline food but tasted pretty good!
Served with a couple of mini bottles of white wine and a chocolate caramel dessert to rival the Gu served on VS. We were short a child's meal but again this was rectified by the CC after a short wait.
Now this is merely an observation - The CC were more mature than VS! There I said it
!! It seemed that most of them could've been having a bad day at the office as they were not particularly friendly but did rectify a couple of problems that we encountered.A "free-for-all" tuck shop was in play which lasted for a couple of hours and there was always soft drinks available.
After a film, an hours sleep or so and 200 pages of my book, afternoon tea arrived in the shape of a Cheese sandwich and chicken ceasar sandwich accompanied by a muffin and tea or coffee. Again the food was very acceptable and I do like the little box they serve it in
Landed at 3.30 pm with no issues
and as we were at the back of the plane I thought the immigration queue would've been large - somehow we were ushered into a new area with no queue at all , through in 15 mins, luggage in 10 mins and customs...well it was all going well until the agent couldn't find the stamp in my wife's passport !! Thankfully after 5 mins it was found and away we went by coach to the rental car centre. We had booked our car through Alamo via VS and checked in prior to departing which made the car pick up process very slick! Then we were off into the blue skies of Texas!!
Last edited by Petmadness on 11 Jan 2012, 21:39, edited 3 times in total.
The only way is left....since I found V-Flyer
