This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
The apprehension she felt had been building over the past few days but at least it would soon be over. She glanced at her son, fast asleep in one of the beds in the room, before walking over to the window and pushing the curtain aside. They’d travelled up to Gatwick Airport by taxi that evening and had something to eat in the terminal building before making their way back to the Hilton where they were spending the night. It was now completely dark outside and the clear skies allowed a perfect view of the aircraft coming in to land. She watched them for a while before going to bed, the next day was going to be a long one and she needed to rest.
She’d surprised herself by managing to get a few hours sleep despite the constant swirling of information in her head, and they were up early and in the terminal by 8am. It was busier than it had been the night before but she knew where she was going this time so the crowds didn’t bother her. All the Upper Class check in desks were busy so she waited for the next one to become available, trying not to let her nervousness show. Any minute she expected to feel a hand on her shoulder indicating that she’d been discovered and her trip to meet her contact wouldn’t go ahead. It didn’t happen though and after a short wait a desk became available and she checked in their bags and breathing a sigh of relief, they went in search of the lounge that she’d heard so much about.
After presenting their boarding passes at reception they were greeted warmly and, on discovering this was their first visit, the receptionist escorted them into lounge pointing out all the amenities before leaving them to settle in. The first order of business according to her son, was to find out what was available by way of entertainment. More specifically, did they have a games console. He was thrilled to find they had an xbox and he promptly took up residence in front of it allowing her to get down to the business of ordering breakfast. After she’d ordered she took a little time to look around at the other patrons. It didn’t seem too busy and she was pleased to see that not everyone there looked as if they’d just stepped out of the pages of Vogue. She also spotted a well-known football pundit sat just a couple of seats away and he gave her a smile before returning his attention to his own breakfast.
The hours passed quickly and hating to leave things until the last minute she dragged her son away from his game and they made their way to the gate. She’d been wondering what she would do if there was a line when she got there. Would she go to the front or just take her place in line and keep her head down? It wasn’t a decision she had to make as when she arrived there was a clearly marked priority line and, as soon as she’d shown their boarding passes, they were told to make their way directly onto the aircraft. At this point she was practically holding her breath. She’d heard so much about this, had been looking forward to it so much, that she felt almost giddy.
After once again showing their boarding cards to the stewardess at the door, they were waved off to the left and through the PE cabin to UC. Her smile slipped a bit when they got there. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting exactly, but at the very least it was that someone would be there to greet her but the cabin was empty. She already knew which seats were theirs so they made their way to 6a & k. Unfortunately sitting down was not an option as there was a crew bag on her seat and a crew jacket on her sons. Telling her son to hang on, she put their cabin bags in an overhead bin and went in search of a member of cabin crew to ask them to remove the items. Finding a crew member in the galley, a polite request was made to a very unapologetic and brusque crew member who promptly removed them.
Maybe they’d figured it out? Maybe they realised that her façade of being a reasonably successfully writer was all just a cover for something else? The fact that she was a common as muck single mother who had no business being in UC in the first place?
Other travellers started to file into the cabin and at this point drinks were offered and they settled down in their seats. Although she had a child herself, her heart fell when the last three seats in the cabin were taken by a couple and their two children. One was under two and the other was clearly not that much older. It fell even further when rather than sitting with an adult on each side and the kids between them, they decided to put the kids in the seat next to her. She crossed her fingers and hoped that they would behave though she wasn’t overly hopeful.
Not long after they reached cruising altitude her concerns were realised. The parents had clearly been feeding their offspring blue M&M’s before take-off and the toddler started running rampant through the cabin and the baby started screaming. A surreptitious glance at the other passengers confirmed that her tolerance level was not unduly low as several of them were casting sharp glances at the parents clearly hoping as she was, that they would deign to do some parenting. Unfortunately it was not to be as they were clearly under the mistaken impression that the cabin was a crèche facility and someone else would be responsible for their darling offspring.
After dinner, which was not great but not bad for airline food, being watched throughout by the toddler peering over the top of the partition, she settled down to watch a movie hoping to drown out some of the noise. Unfortunately, Virgin had other plans and the audio wasn’t working.
Apart from the dinner service the cabin crew had been as rare a sight as a Dodo bird so she set off to track someone down. Finding them in the galley she explained the problem. Left in no doubt that she was interrupting an important conversation on the latest breakthrough in quantum physics, she was handed a new headset and told to ‘try that’. Headset in hand she once again tried to make the audio work, to no avail. Three trips to the galley and three headsets later a member of crew finally came over to look for herself before confirming that she was not in fact an idiot, and it wasn’t working. No apology on behalf of VA was forthcoming and she was handed a dvd player a list of films to choose from. After another trip to the galley to get a battery as the one in the player was flat, she finally settled down to watch a movie.
She couldn’t concentrate though as irritation was bubbling away inside. Since coming on board she’d been left hugely disappointed. Quite apart from the screaming child and the failure of the entertainment system, there had been no cabin crew presence at all. No one had offered her a smile let alone a drink and she’d been made to feel as if she was being unreasonable when trying to get assistance. Putting the dvd player down she went, once again, to the galley to find a member of crew. Once again interrupting a very important discussion, she raised the subject of airmiles and was told that someone would come and speak to her if she would return to her seat. She waited until about an hour before landing before raising the question again and was once again given the same advice. It was about 30 minutes before landing that a crew member asked her to write down her name and FC membership number and that she would be given some miles though again, no apology.
It was with some relief that she left the aircraft after landing and pleased that there was no queue at immigration, she was sat in her hire car 40 minutes after landing.
Now the important business started. She had to meet her contact, nothing could be allowed to get in the way of this. Checking her paperwork for his name she found it. Mickey Mouse.
