Round The World and other travels

Flight Log: VS20

San Francisco (SFO) - London Heathrow (LHR)

On arrival in the familiar surroundings of SFO's International Terminal, I had two interesting experiences to look forward to, prior to boarding my flight to London. The first of these was a look around the airport's impressive Aviation Museum.

ABOVE: Arrival at SFO and browsing the displays in the airport's Aviation Museum

The second novelty, marking the beginning of today's specifically Virgin Atlantic experience, was my visit to the absolutely fabulous Clubhouse. I had heard about the corresponding facility at London Heathrow Terminal 3, without ever having experienced it in person, but had no idea that the SFO lounge would be so impressive. Following an initial welcome and an outline of all the facilities from the front-desk agent, several other staff said hello and welcome when they saw me being shown to a seat. The large room overlooked part of the apron, so that aircraft comings and goings could be observed by sitting in a comfortable swivel chair and looking through the panoramic tinted windows. The other main feature was a hugely impressive bar. After an introductory glass of water and some pretzels to nibble, I sampled a Bramble followed by a Negroni, both of which were nicely made. Saving myself for the flight, I didn't do any serious eating in the lounge, but the food being delivered to other passengers looked superb. (A pictorial record of my visit appears in the column to the right.)

Substituted Airbus A340-600 preparing for flight VS20 to London

The flight itself had been subject to a setback a couple of days previously. It had originally been scheduled for operation by one of Virgin's brand-new Boeing 787-9 aircraft. In addition to being my first experience of Virgin Atlantic's 'Upper Class' product, this should also have been my first flight on the longer Dreamliner 'Dash 9' variant. There had been well publicised problems with the introduction of 787-9s with Rolls-Royce engines, affecting all airlines choosing that engine option. The plan for Virgin Atlantic's new planes to be temporarily withdrawn for remedial work had been flagged by the UK-based frequent-flyer site Head for Points during the preceding week, and sure enough my flight was switched to an ageing Airbus A340-600 gas-guzzler a couple of days prior to departure. In Virgin Atlantic terms, it seemed like a return to their old slogan 4 Engines 4 Long-haul, now quietly dropped.

Boarding began at 1650. I was the first person down the ramp, so was able to get some cabin pictures without annoying anyone. Virgin Atlantic's 'Upper Class' uses a herringbone layout, where the pods on either side of the aisle form arrows pointing forwards and you enter the pod at the foot of the seat. (This should not to be confused with the more modern and highly successful 'reverse herringbone' layout used by Qatar, American Airlines and others, where each pair of pods forms an arrow pointing rearwards and you enter the pod beside the seat's backrest.) I had only experienced a product similar to Virgin Atlantic's on one previous occasion, when I flew transatlantic on Air Canada in 2011.

ABOVE: 'Upper Class' cabin on Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-600

I quickly settled into 2A, the front seat on the port side, noticing immediately that, much as expected, my seat pod was very narrow indeed. There was hardly any room to move, and remarkably few opportunities to store anything in an easily accessible location. Also, I was reminded how odd it feels to be in a window seat where it is uncomfortably difficult to look out of the window! As the cabin began to fill, I was relieved to see that all of my immediate neighbours seemed to be nice, quiet people. I also couldn't help noticing that the cabin crew were thoroughly polite and professional at all times.

My sleeper suit was delivered, newspapers were offered and I was served a pre-departure drink of champagne, later supplemented by a glass of water. An amenity kit and menu cards were already present in the footstool area. The captain announced at 1725 that the expected flying time was very precise-sounding 10hrs 17mins, and also mentioned that he was trying to agree an early departure time. The latter venture clearly didn't work out, and we eventually pushed back from stand a couple of minutes down. The safety video had already been shown at the gate and I noticed that the video quality on my screen was terrible, but seemed fine on the only other screen that I could see.

Take-off eventually came at eight minutes past the hour. Once the cabin crew had been released from their seats, landing cards were distributed to those requiring them, and I was offered (and accepted) a guided tour of my seat. A round of hot towels came next, followed by pre-dinner drinks. I enjoyed a glass of the French white wine along with some ice water and nibbles while I perused the menu:

LET'S EAT
Starters		Cheese and port
Parsnip and parmesan soup. A winter warming soup,		Be sure to save some room for cheese and biscuits after
creamy and tasty, topped with parmesan croutons		that pudding. Today's choices are served with table water
		crackers.
Grilled prawn papaya salad. A Thai-inspired vibrant
green papaya salad served with spicy grilled prawns - looks		WINES
good but tastes even better!
		Champagne
Greek feta salad. A classic Greek salad, feta cheese with		Canard Duchêne, Cuvée Léonie
crispy leaves, olives and tomato. A great start to your
meal.		White Wine
		2016 'Raphaël Midoir', Sauvignon de Touraine, Loire Valley,
Mains		France
Fillet of beef. Tender fillet of beef drizzled in a creamy		2017 Gun Metal Riesling, Hewitson, Eden Valley, South
wild-mushroom sauce, served with wholegrain mustard		Africa
mashed potatoes and a selection of seasonal vegetables.		2016 Pulenta Estate Chardonnay, Mendoza, Argentina
Duck confit and red cabbage. A wonderfully comforting		Red Wine
meal of succulent duck, perfectly seasoned and served on		2015 Côtes du Rhône 'Le Temps est Venu', Stéphane
a bed of braised red cabbage and potato gratin.		Ogier, France
		2012 Noto Nero d'Avola, Planeta, Noto, Sicily, Italy
Vegetable Thai green curry. A light vegetarian version of		2016 Churton Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand
everyone's favourite Thai green curry. Warming chilli and
creamy coconut smothered veggies served with fluffy rice.		Cocktails
		Passion Fruit Martini
Tuna Niçoise salad. One of the best French salad		Le Latin Fizz
combinations of tuna, egg and lettuce, full of flavour and		Tropical Rum Punch
texture.		Creole Sour Mash
		Sunset Sparkle
Pudding
Toffee ginger pudding. It's hard to resist this enticing
combination of spicy ginger pudding with a warm, sticky
toffee sauce served with a generous spoonful of cream.
Blueberry cheescake. A creamy, dreamy cheesecake -
so kick back and enjoy!

My wine was topped up, and in due course I ordered the soup and beef, accompanied by the Pinot Noir. I finished off with the cheesecake, followed by a caffeine-free lemongrass and ginger infusion.

I had previously discovered during the offered demonstration how the seats convert into flat beds. The seat back folds down so that the 'reverse' side of it forms the main part of the upper surface of the bed, the remainder being provided by the footstool. In the event, my bed was made up by the cabin crew, who added a mattress, a duvet and a real pillow. Together with the genuinely flat surface provided by the reverse side of the seat back, this made for a much better standard of bed than is normal in a business-class cabin, or indeed many a first-class cabin.

		LEFT and BELOW: Breakfast service, based on my choices the previous evening

And it worked to perfection. I slept right through to 10am UK time and woke up feeling that this had been easily the best sleep that I had ever enjoyed in a business-class cabin, despite the lack of space within the seat pod. Knowing that I neither needed nor wanted to continue dozing, I quietly changed my space back to seat mode. As we passed well to the south of Reykjavik, I was soon tucking into the personalised breakfast of Bran Flakes, eggs, bacon, sausage and mushrooms that I had put together by ticking boxes on my request card the previous evening.

Distribution of hot towels took place as the aircraft approached Oxford and the seat belt signs were switched on shortly thereafter. We described the usual circuits close to London - to the northeast of the city on this occasion - before breaking through the cloud blanket to touch down on Heathrow's Runway 27L at 1241. Six minutes later, we were parked at our allocated gate. Two jetties were fitted at the gate, but only one was connected, to Door 2L - cheers, Heathrow!

So how would I sum up my first, and possibly only, experience of Virgin Atlantic Upper Class? The SFO Clubhouse was amazing - way beyond the typical facilities and standards of the average business-class lounge. I continue to dislike the herringbone seat layout - again, please don't confuse this with reverse herringbone. The seats are similar to the standard version of BA Club World for their coffin-like feel, and worse than the particular version of that product (747 upper deck) that I travelled in on my way to the USA. On the other hand, the genuinely flat sleeping surface, combined with quality bedding, was best in class for night travel. And finally, based on this one experience, I'd just like to point out that Virgin Atlantic came across as neither a "party airline" nor a "chavvy airline" - two descriptions that I read online in the fortnight prior to writing this review. Staff were polite, well-spoken, friendly and professional throughout, and I couldn't have hoped for a nicer group of fellow passengers. In short, the whole experience was well ahead of expectations, and would probably have been even more so had the scheduled aircraft type not been substituted.

Date: Tue 05 Dec 2017

Aircraft: Airbus A340-600

Scheduled dep: 1745

Actual departure: 1747

Scheduled arr: 1200+1

Actual arrival: 1247+1

Cabin: Upper Class (Business Class)

Seat: 2A

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse (SFO)

A pictorial look at the superb Clubhouse:

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