This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Got to Manchester at about 8:45am and check-in seemed very quiet. There was a family being seen at the Upper Class desk and the queue “guard” even apologized twice for this short delay and said I would be checked in shortly. Bag dropped & lounge pass issued.
Security was a breeze via Fastrack and none of my bags got searched / no random ping on the metal detector. Passed on the opportunity to part with money in duty free so had a wander down to gate 206 where we would be departing from. No aircraft present, but way over on a remote stand was a Virgin aircraft parked up. Jersey Girl was at gate 204 having arrived in from Orlando. Clearly Manchester T2 was fairly quiet as this aircraft was to form the early afternoon Barbados flight (i.e. it was probably going to be parked on stand for 6 hours or so).
Picked up a couple of papers at WH Smith and was very pleased that my mobile boarding pass would not scan on the till. I know it’s something to do with reclaiming VAT, but there is no VAT on newspapers and the requirement to scan a boarding pass to buy a paper just p*sses people off and slows the queue down.
Up to the Escape Lounge. I went to what I consider the “normal” Escape Lounge – they clocked the UC lounge invite and led me towards the V-Room. Alas, V-Room it was not to be, but the dedicated Delta Escape Lounge next to the V-Room. This is pretty much the same as the “normal” Escape Lounge & was fairly busy as the Delta Atlanta flight had yet to be called. Still managed to find a seat and had juice and pastries. Hot food of bacon / sausage cobs & porridge was offered, but I did not bother. The Atlanta flight got called & left in the lounge were about 25 people all with VS “hand luggage” tags on their bags. Clearly a few Golds onboard / people in UC guesting friends in addition to a full Upper Class cabin.
Went down to gate 206 when the lounge called the flight for boarding and was met by what can only be described as the rudest G4S employee out. He just said “not boarding yet – priority only”. Another UC passenger pointed to the priority boarding sign that obviously says that UC get priority. He then said priority is pre-boarding for special needs passengers. The same passenger asked why the lounge had sent us down & when the flight was not boarding & his reply was “not my problem”. I did clock this guys name on his ID badge, so Virgin / G4S will get a letter on my return. I know I could name him here as he’s not VS staff, but I will refrain from doing so. Suffice it to say he was older, grey hair and quite tall & portly built. When we finally did get to board I passed him in the jet-bridge and told him that he clearly loved his job.
Anyway, onboard onto G-VROS and turned left. The aircraft was quite cold as it had been on the remote stand overnight in freezing temperatures. Still, a glass or two of bubbly helped to warm things up a little. It’s going to be 8h36m to Orlando. Pushed back about 15mins late – can only assume due to traffic on the airfield as we’d sat with the door closed & jet-bridge detached for this time. Sat on the end of the runway for the engines to have a 30second spool-up as advised by the Captain, then the brakes were off and we were off.
425 pax + 3 infants onboard today & 15 crew. Not a bad load for outside of the school half term. (Upper full, 41 in PE & the remainder in Y – heard those figures on Mr G4S’s radio at MAN). Let’s just say the average age in Upper Class today makes me feel very young, by quite a few years too. The FSM is one I have flown with a few times before and she came round to say hello. As per previous comment in the lounge about some gold card holders being onboard in PE / Y – suspect this is true as the FSM disappeared down the back with 5 glasses of champagne from Upper.
Drinks were delivered – a nice refreshing G&T. Lunch orders have also been taken – am going for the smoked salmon cuplet then the beef. If anyone wants the full menu posting, let me know and I will. The crew are currently going round jiggling peoples food orders as clearly they have run out of some items.
The lunch was very good. The smoked salmon cuplet looked like nothing, but there was a lot more to it than you first though. An extra slice or two of the melba toast may have been an idea (it came ready-plated up). The beef was also very good, tender and tasty. Certainly two of the better courses I’ve had on Virgin (but not a touch on the food onboard Emirates). Passed on the dessert as I was pretty full and waited a short while for the cheese trolley. Went for the cheddar & the stilton and was offered more of both – but as just said, I was full.
After lunch I watched films on the iPad – there is nothing on Vera that particularly appeals to me, other than the Skymap. We hit about 15mins of pretty severe turbulence about an hour away from Gander – the crew were even told to suspend service and take their seats.
Service resumed a short while later and the crew (including the FSM) were making regular visits to the UC cabin to keep us all supplied with drinks. The Haagen Dazs was offered and it had clearly been on dry-ice as it was rock hard. Not a problem, just leave it for 10mins and you could start to chip away at it.
A passenger in Upper Class had a visitor from another cabin for a while – must have been a “permission visit” as they were both served at the bar & they then sat together for a while in the seat / on the ottoman. They certainly did not bother me, but I have the QC20i’s on so can hear next to nothing.
Afternoon tea was served about two hours out of Orlando & excellent it was too. The crew were very flexible with the sandwich selection – if there was a sandwich you did not want they let you choose one of the others to “double-up” on. The cakes were not as listed on the afternoon tea menu card – they had Ginger Cake, Carrot Cake & Battenburg, plus the scones. No was should anyone from Upper be leaving this flight hungry!
Landed on the normal arrivals runway at Orlando and was very pleased to see Airside 4 was devoid of planes on the airside pier the international arrivals use. The crew held back the main economy cabin & also the upper deck so downstairs PE & Upper could disembark first. Entered an empty immigration hall behind about 20 PE passengers. Within 30mins of the aircraft wheels touching down, I was in the Alamo rental garage selecting my car. Half an hour after that I was checking into the accommodation on South I-Drive (near Vineland Premium Outlets). You cannot fault that MCO experience one bit – when the VS75 is the first longhaul arrival of the afternoon, it’s a cracking flight to be on.
So to summarize – well it’s pretty obvious to anyone that has read this far that the crew were good, the food was good, the IFE is good (even if the content was not to my personal liking). The MCO experience was faultless. The big negative was Mr G4S at Manchester – despite not being a Virgin employee, I am marking the ground crew down because of him. Virgin can choose who to outsource to – and G4S let them down big time today. By contrast the Swissport staff who run the check-in side of things were good. I used to employ contract staff on an outsourced contract & if any of the staff spoke to a customer the way Mr G4S spoke to people at Manchester today, they would be out, pronto.
So 6 days of Florida sunshine beckon (well if the forecast is to be believed, 5 days of sun & one with a good chance of rain).
James
