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#963043 by Britsocks
28 Dec 2023, 02:52
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Hello,

First time post from an extremely long-time follower of this site.

This trip is part 1 of No. 1 daughter's tour of UK Universities ahead of her studying in the UK from the autumn of 2025. It was also an opportunity to visit family and friends. I used points and a 2 for 1 points voucher for this trip, booking the outbound and return on separate reservations to minimize the dreaded YQ, which is worse starting a trip from the US than it is from the UK for some reason. For this leg, I had a G fare and my daughter travelled in PE. At LAX, the Virgin Check-in is back in T2. You then clear security in T3 and hike to TBIT for the departure gate and Star Alliance Lounge. I believe the grand plan is that once renovation of the the US Customs and Border Protection area in T2 is completed in 2024 that whole Virgin operation will consolidate in T2 and maybe with a reopened LAX Clubhouse (fingers crossed), but don't quote me on that.

Top tip, if everyone in your party is in UC, avoid the Virgin Check-in desks! Use the Delta One check-in on the T3 Arrivals level instead. This comes with a private security lane and dedicated lift access to the LAX Delta Sky Club, which is not too bad but does suffer from overcrowding. I believe Delta's grand plan is for the Delta Once check-in is for it to connect to a brand new Delta One lounge at LAX in the second half of 2024.

After the hike to a very overcrowded Star Alliance Lounge - we should have stayed in the Sky Club - it was time to take on the scrum around gate 133. There is a new biometric scanning that they are trialing. It did not work for me. After failing to clear the biometric gate first time I was told to wait. 5 minutes or so later I was told to try again. It "worked" at the second attempt.

After a mediocre experience on the ground, Virgin's cabin crew stepped in and excelled. I had a Gold Member welcome chat with the FSM and a greeting card left on my seat by the member of the cabin crew who looked after me for the entire flight. Even though this was an overnight flight the cabin crew, led by the FSM, were attentive and fantastic throughout.

I preordered dinner, but with the flight leaving with a 90 mins delay, I decided to have a drink and the cheese course (with a couple of glasses of port) and tried to get a couple of hours sleep. For an overnight flight the B787 seats make pretty comfortable beds. They are less impressive seats on a long haul day flight.

I woke for breakfast and enjoyed a surprisingly enjoyable full English with a perfect cup of tea. No holding into Heathrow and arrived with only a small delay. Used the e-gates at Heathrow immigration I remarked to my daughter "now we have to wait for the bags", only to turn around and see our bags coming first off the belt.

Cheers for now
Britsocks

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