The _Banking_Scot
Jul 4, 02, 2:20 pm
Hi,
Finally my full trip report ( overall an excellent couple of flights and good to get out of the Scottish Summer( lots or rain!!) and it was good to meet Mr & Mrs yyzflyer for dinner at the Bellagio.
VS 43 LGW-LAS
16th June 2002
G-VROY “ Pretty Woman”
Seat 77A/11K
Dep:12:30: Arr 14:50(15:15 Sch)
I arrived at the Virgin check in at 09:00 for a 12:30 dep after a overnight stay at the Gatwick Renaissance which is very good value for money (£60 Bed only) and is a good hotel with a half hourly courtesy bus to the terminals (£1 from the hotel to the airport). The Economy queue was long but as I have a Silver card and traveling in Premium Economy (PE) I used the dedicated line with only 1 person in front of me. At the passenger identification point I was asked If I would like to use the clubhouse for £20. I said yes and was told to pay at the ticket desk after check in. Check in was done in under 5 minutes and I had my assigned seat 77A and found that I was the 153rd person to check in for the flight.. Security took around 5-10minutes. After walking around in the lounge and getting some reading material for my flight I went to the clubhouse. It is very nice with a library, playstations a VTouch salon and a marvelous bar selection with a good continental breakfast buffet and they also served up a nice bacon baguette and two pcs with fast internet connections. The comment book on the bar had comments by Sir Richard Branson and Sir Freddie Laker (5th May). The lounge was fairly busy but the Touch Salon was quiet and the lounge emptied after the Miami and Orlando flights were called. Around 11:45am the VS43 was called and I used the lift to get to the tram to take us to the round satellite where VS flights leave from. Shortly after arriving at the gate area PE was invited to board. I climbed upstairs and got settled in to 77A(77B was occupied by a woman going to LAS with her husband and sister).
On the LGW 747-400 all of the upper deck is occupied by PE with 71-74 in front of the exit doors and 75-79 behind the doors with 80HK on the right hand side ( no 80AB as it is where the stairs come up) It is equipped with the Nova entertainment system (8 channels of movies, skymap but no Nintendo games) . I was offered champagne almost immediately upon sitting down and shortly after finishing the drink I was approached by the Virgin ground agent who asked me and 77B to follow her. We were shown into Upper Class (UC) and into 11HK ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif)- the bulkhead row behind the toilet and doors 1L &1R. In our section there was only 2 rows of 2-2-2 UC with 2 rows of 3-4-3 economy behind the bulkhead and in front of the No. 2 doors. The nose of the aircraft had 5 rows of 2-2 UC ( rows 5 to 9) and a small stand up bar area which had drinks, fruits abd nibbles. After settling down into the “alitalia” seats ( they have 135 degrees of recline and do not recline as far as the J2000 seats on the LHR aircraft but still very comfortable with adjustable reading lights and light purple trim. The foot rests extend electronically. I was offered another drink but turned it down. By this time the doors were closed and we were preparing for departure. Our Inflight supervisor gave a welcome speech and sounded a little rough (coming down with a sore throat) My traveling companion mentioned to the cabin crew that she was traveling with her husband and sister in PE and asked if they could be moved. The cabin crew told her politely that they could not do it without authorization-they did have authority in the past but no longer. She accepted that and was invited to go upstairs regularly during the flight.
We pushed back on time and taxied out to the Westerly runway and after a few minutes holding we were airborne out of the cloudy Gatwick skies and into the clear blue yonder.
As we were climbing North west towards Ireland /Greenland we were offered drinks and nuts or kettle chips, I chose a diet cola and the kettle chips which was offered in a glass and on a nice purple china plate. Shortly afterwards the amenity kits were handed out and our lunch orders were taken . I chose the Soup, Roast lamb with Vegetables and a lemon cream desert with strawberries. I declined the selection of cheeses on offer as I’m not a great cheese person and I was full. Warm Bread rolls came out and I had a garlic roll which was lovely and warm . Along with the soup came slight turbulence but fortunately none of the soup went onto my trousers only the linen napkin. After the desert came coffee with a very nice chocolate.
In our section only 11DG(middle bulkhead seats) were unoccupied and during the flight the couple in 11AB with their baby used some of the space to sit and use the floor to put the baby to sleep. During the climb and initial cruise the baby was wailing and I thought OH Boy! I hope this does not continue for the whole flight!! But after the meal the baby quieted down and went to sleep for most of the flight.
After lunch ( nothing much to see outside as it was mostly cloudy all the way across the Atlantic, Greenland (south of Gothab), and Hudson Bay until we approached the middle of the USA ( North Dakota and Mount Rushmore).we were told that Spain had beaten Ireland on penalties in the world cup 2nd round.
Some of the movies included: Bend it like Beckham, The Time Machine, High Crimes, The business of strangers, The shipping news, Novocaine and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius which was quite funny.
While at the bar I did notice that the side of the galley had a list of all the passengers with their surnames and what the ordered to drink and meal choices, the desert choice and whether they wanted duty free. My pre ordered duty free bag came during the early cruise.
The washrooms are the same as in economy but did have a couple of extra bottles of moisturizer and lotion not found in the other classes.
Ice cream was served around halfway into the flight and were kept well supplied with drinks. The curtains between UC and economy were kept closed during the flight.
For afternoon tea I had a sandwich plate which was very nice and warm scones with cream and jam and shortbread. Just prior to landing we were asked whether we wanted anything else to eat or drink, I chose another diet coke and a couple of shortbread biscuits. ( I had some fruit at the bar mid-flight). As we flew towards the Rockies south of Salt Lake City the skies cleared and we were treated to a magnificent view of the mountains with some snow still on top of the higher mountains.
As we descended we flew over Lake Mead and I had a wonderful view of the Valley of Fire with the different rock colours which I would tour whilst I was in Vegas. We approached Vegas from the West and I could see the airport at about our 1o’clock position before we turned on to our final approach to Runway 25 and as we flew over the rocky hills to the east of Vegas I could see the Strip and the Stratosphere Tower come into view. We landed at around 2:50pm (25 minutes ahead of schedule) and taxied to Gate 3 at Terminal 2. It was a balmy 104 degrees according to the Captain. We arrived at the gate at around 2:55pm and I was amongst one of the first off the aircraft. After a short walk to Immigration, all the desks were available and there was only one person in line in front of me, the passport was stamped with no questions and I was at baggage reclaim by 3pm. My luggage with the priority Premium economy tag was amongst the first few bags off the plane and I walked through customs with no problems and I was outside of Terminal 2 by 3:05pm ( a new record -10 minutes- previously the absolute shortest time to clear customs/immigration has been around 30mins at IAD.)
This was an excellent flight with excellent food and service by the entire UC cabin crew.
By 4pm I was at the beach at Mandalay Bay with 4foot waves.
During my 2 weeks in Vegas,Phoenix, I had a great time at the Mandalay Bay with an excellent day trip to Lake Mead and the Valley of Fire with www.anniebananie.com, (http://www.anniebananie.com,) I met Mr& Mrs yyzflyer at the Bellagio for a very good buffet dinner( thanks to yyzflyer for a line pass to avoid queuing to pay at the buffet), Good flights on HP ( no secondary searches at the gate) with flights on time and a very good stay at HGI Scottsdale ( good at Hilton Tapatio Cliffs) before returning to the Luxor for 3 nights and Doubletree Club for the final two nights.
The weather was hot (average 105 with temperatures up to 110+) with 14 days of sunshine- only one overcast morning-the morning I flew down to PHX and it cleared on enroute.
VS 44 LAS-LGW 30th June 2002
B747-400
G-VROS “English Rose”
Dep 1805:Arr 1120+1 (Sch 1155+1)
After checking out of the Doubletree Club LV airport at 2pm I got the complimentary shuttle to Terminal 2 arriving about 2:10pm. There was already a lengthy queue for Economy but only one in front of me for PE. After passenger identification we had to put our hold/cabin luggage through the xray machine prior to check in I was the 41st person to check in and given my pre assigned seat of 78A. Having plenty of time to spend before boarding at 17:15 I decided to walk to Terminal 1 and spend sometime there as there are more limited facilities in T2. It took around 5minutes and it was hot as I enjoyed the Last of the LV sunshine. Queues to check in were not too bad for most of the airlines ( slightly longer for National- maybe 30people). I went upstairs to look at the shops.The line for security at the A gates was a fairly long but moving not too bad. There are not too many eating places before T1 security and the queue at Starbucks was long so I visited WHsmith and Waterstones buying a couple of books and visited the Mandalay Bay store and bought something before wandering back to T2 at around 3:30pm , allowing plenty of time for security which turned out to be a breeze only taking 5minutes and no further detailed search.
After a very nice Cinnabon and spending a few quarters on the gambling machines we started boarding around 17:15 for an 18:05 departure. Peeople requiring assistance/ families with young children were called forward first then Upper Class were invited to board at their leisure and then us in PE.I climbed the stairs and got settled into 78A and was served with a choice of juice or champagne almost immediately( I chose champagne). There are side storage compartments by the window seats in PE on the 747-400 – I do like those as it saves having to put everything under the seat infront of you.
The layout on our aircraft “English Rose” and the Nova IFE was the same as on the outward aircraft “ Pretty Woman” described above.
Shortly prior to departure the gate agent came up to my row and for a moment I thought my luck was in!! but he only asked my traveling companion to follow him.- Oh well! Never mind- at least it is better than economy. A man was shown into the now vacant 78B.
We pushed back on time and after a manual safety demonstration taxied out to 7L which was a short taxi away from T2. From 78A I had a very good view of the Strip hotels as we accelerated and took off towards the east. We climbed out over Lake Las Vegas and saw the Hyatt Regency resort as well as Celine Dions $9m hillside home with helicopter pad on top of the hill for when she comes to play at the Coliseum at Casears Palace next year before flying over lake Mead where you could see the wonderful Valley of Fire and the different colour of desert rocks shining in the late after noon sun. About this time drinks and pretzels were handed out ( I chose a diet coke and got given two cans that was nice) and the In flight entertainment was started.
At first when I tuned in to the audio channels I could hear two channels- one from the left earphone and a different channel from the right earphone which became annoying and there was no films apart from the sky map. The in flight supervisor came upstairs and I mentioned the problem to him , he had a quick listen and tried to change channels without success . He then said that he would reset the IFE. A few minutes later the audio was sorted and very shortly afterwards the movies started.
The movies included: A Beautiful Mind, Snow Dogs, I am Sam, Crossroads, Harts War,Vanilla Sky, 24 Hour Party People.
Dinner service started soon afterwards and we were given a choice of Fish, Chicken or Vegetarian.
I chose the Chicken and the meal comprised of
Salad
Bread roll ( cold this time unlike warm in UC)
Grilled chicken with a tomato sauce and pasta swirls
Strawberry Cheesecake
Coffee and a Giradeli chocolate.
Rather than being given a bottle of wine, our choice of red/white wine was poured out for us out of a large bottle and came round a second time towards the end of the meal.
As we flew North east over Wyoming/Colorado the clouds took on a brown tinge to them –I assume that was the effect of the forest fires in that part of the US.
We were treated to a beautiful sunset as the sun sank below the clouds with tinges of fiery red breaking through some clouds and the sky slowly changing colour to black. As we flew over North Dakota (north of mount Rushmore) you could see a landscape full of thousands of lakes ( near Devils Lake as we approached the Canadian Border) and we closed our blinds and settled down to get a few hours of sleep. The recline on PE seats is more than Economy and with an extendible footrest so it was more comfortable than standard economy. We continued NE over Canada, Hudson Bay and just south of Uqava Bay before crossing the southern part of Greenland( south of Gothab).
Breakfast was started to be served around 2hours prior to landing consisting of a fruit plate, blueberry muffin, a hot scrambled egg roll , orange juice and coffee/tea.
On the sky map I noticed that just prior to flying over the Irish coast on the circle route(SE) we turned to head almost directly east towards the northern tip of Scotland before resuming the south east heading down the western coast of Scotland and England( a problem with Irish airspace perhaps). All the way down the coast the UK was covered in thick cloud so no view of the ground from the window seat. The headsets were taken away as we started our decent as we approached LGW from the SW before turning to land on the Westerly runway and only saw the green countryside as we turned onto our final approach.
We landed smoothly and as reverse thrust was applied to the engines, I noticed that the middle leading edge slat on the port wing between the Nos 1 and 2 engines retracted while the outboard and the inboard slats remained deployed. As reverse thrust was cancelled at the end of our roll out the slat extended again before all of them were retracted as the wing was cleaned up (apart from that the landing was perfectly normal) and we arrived to a 59 degree LGW at 11:20( 35mins ahead of schedule) as we taxied to Gate 32 satellite.
We arrived at the Gate shortly afterwards, disembarkation was quick for us in PE, took the shuttle to the main terminal, breezed through UK passport control and waited by baggage reclaim. Before our PE/ UC bags emerged there were a few bags that were tagged to final destinations such as Inverness and Manchester then my bags came, walked through the Green nothing to declare channel and headed to the North Terminal to check in using the eticket machines for the BA2940 LGW-EDI at 16:00 (last year there as a 14:00 flight that was handy). Using the machine I was able to get seat 01F on the BA flight(only one class of service) which was a bulkhead and the 01E would turn out to be vacant. I then handed my bags to be labeled to EDI and although my ticket said only 1 piece of checked baggage, no comment was made regarding my two pieces which was good of BA.
Overall the VS PE flight was very good and if you can get a discounted PE ticket (K class) it is very good value for money.
Regards
TBS
[This message has been edited by The _Banking_Scot (edited 07-06-2002).]
Finally my full trip report ( overall an excellent couple of flights and good to get out of the Scottish Summer( lots or rain!!) and it was good to meet Mr & Mrs yyzflyer for dinner at the Bellagio.
VS 43 LGW-LAS
16th June 2002
G-VROY “ Pretty Woman”
Seat 77A/11K
Dep:12:30: Arr 14:50(15:15 Sch)
I arrived at the Virgin check in at 09:00 for a 12:30 dep after a overnight stay at the Gatwick Renaissance which is very good value for money (£60 Bed only) and is a good hotel with a half hourly courtesy bus to the terminals (£1 from the hotel to the airport). The Economy queue was long but as I have a Silver card and traveling in Premium Economy (PE) I used the dedicated line with only 1 person in front of me. At the passenger identification point I was asked If I would like to use the clubhouse for £20. I said yes and was told to pay at the ticket desk after check in. Check in was done in under 5 minutes and I had my assigned seat 77A and found that I was the 153rd person to check in for the flight.. Security took around 5-10minutes. After walking around in the lounge and getting some reading material for my flight I went to the clubhouse. It is very nice with a library, playstations a VTouch salon and a marvelous bar selection with a good continental breakfast buffet and they also served up a nice bacon baguette and two pcs with fast internet connections. The comment book on the bar had comments by Sir Richard Branson and Sir Freddie Laker (5th May). The lounge was fairly busy but the Touch Salon was quiet and the lounge emptied after the Miami and Orlando flights were called. Around 11:45am the VS43 was called and I used the lift to get to the tram to take us to the round satellite where VS flights leave from. Shortly after arriving at the gate area PE was invited to board. I climbed upstairs and got settled in to 77A(77B was occupied by a woman going to LAS with her husband and sister).
On the LGW 747-400 all of the upper deck is occupied by PE with 71-74 in front of the exit doors and 75-79 behind the doors with 80HK on the right hand side ( no 80AB as it is where the stairs come up) It is equipped with the Nova entertainment system (8 channels of movies, skymap but no Nintendo games) . I was offered champagne almost immediately upon sitting down and shortly after finishing the drink I was approached by the Virgin ground agent who asked me and 77B to follow her. We were shown into Upper Class (UC) and into 11HK ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif)- the bulkhead row behind the toilet and doors 1L &1R. In our section there was only 2 rows of 2-2-2 UC with 2 rows of 3-4-3 economy behind the bulkhead and in front of the No. 2 doors. The nose of the aircraft had 5 rows of 2-2 UC ( rows 5 to 9) and a small stand up bar area which had drinks, fruits abd nibbles. After settling down into the “alitalia” seats ( they have 135 degrees of recline and do not recline as far as the J2000 seats on the LHR aircraft but still very comfortable with adjustable reading lights and light purple trim. The foot rests extend electronically. I was offered another drink but turned it down. By this time the doors were closed and we were preparing for departure. Our Inflight supervisor gave a welcome speech and sounded a little rough (coming down with a sore throat) My traveling companion mentioned to the cabin crew that she was traveling with her husband and sister in PE and asked if they could be moved. The cabin crew told her politely that they could not do it without authorization-they did have authority in the past but no longer. She accepted that and was invited to go upstairs regularly during the flight.
We pushed back on time and taxied out to the Westerly runway and after a few minutes holding we were airborne out of the cloudy Gatwick skies and into the clear blue yonder.
As we were climbing North west towards Ireland /Greenland we were offered drinks and nuts or kettle chips, I chose a diet cola and the kettle chips which was offered in a glass and on a nice purple china plate. Shortly afterwards the amenity kits were handed out and our lunch orders were taken . I chose the Soup, Roast lamb with Vegetables and a lemon cream desert with strawberries. I declined the selection of cheeses on offer as I’m not a great cheese person and I was full. Warm Bread rolls came out and I had a garlic roll which was lovely and warm . Along with the soup came slight turbulence but fortunately none of the soup went onto my trousers only the linen napkin. After the desert came coffee with a very nice chocolate.
In our section only 11DG(middle bulkhead seats) were unoccupied and during the flight the couple in 11AB with their baby used some of the space to sit and use the floor to put the baby to sleep. During the climb and initial cruise the baby was wailing and I thought OH Boy! I hope this does not continue for the whole flight!! But after the meal the baby quieted down and went to sleep for most of the flight.
After lunch ( nothing much to see outside as it was mostly cloudy all the way across the Atlantic, Greenland (south of Gothab), and Hudson Bay until we approached the middle of the USA ( North Dakota and Mount Rushmore).we were told that Spain had beaten Ireland on penalties in the world cup 2nd round.
Some of the movies included: Bend it like Beckham, The Time Machine, High Crimes, The business of strangers, The shipping news, Novocaine and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius which was quite funny.
While at the bar I did notice that the side of the galley had a list of all the passengers with their surnames and what the ordered to drink and meal choices, the desert choice and whether they wanted duty free. My pre ordered duty free bag came during the early cruise.
The washrooms are the same as in economy but did have a couple of extra bottles of moisturizer and lotion not found in the other classes.
Ice cream was served around halfway into the flight and were kept well supplied with drinks. The curtains between UC and economy were kept closed during the flight.
For afternoon tea I had a sandwich plate which was very nice and warm scones with cream and jam and shortbread. Just prior to landing we were asked whether we wanted anything else to eat or drink, I chose another diet coke and a couple of shortbread biscuits. ( I had some fruit at the bar mid-flight). As we flew towards the Rockies south of Salt Lake City the skies cleared and we were treated to a magnificent view of the mountains with some snow still on top of the higher mountains.
As we descended we flew over Lake Mead and I had a wonderful view of the Valley of Fire with the different rock colours which I would tour whilst I was in Vegas. We approached Vegas from the West and I could see the airport at about our 1o’clock position before we turned on to our final approach to Runway 25 and as we flew over the rocky hills to the east of Vegas I could see the Strip and the Stratosphere Tower come into view. We landed at around 2:50pm (25 minutes ahead of schedule) and taxied to Gate 3 at Terminal 2. It was a balmy 104 degrees according to the Captain. We arrived at the gate at around 2:55pm and I was amongst one of the first off the aircraft. After a short walk to Immigration, all the desks were available and there was only one person in line in front of me, the passport was stamped with no questions and I was at baggage reclaim by 3pm. My luggage with the priority Premium economy tag was amongst the first few bags off the plane and I walked through customs with no problems and I was outside of Terminal 2 by 3:05pm ( a new record -10 minutes- previously the absolute shortest time to clear customs/immigration has been around 30mins at IAD.)
This was an excellent flight with excellent food and service by the entire UC cabin crew.
By 4pm I was at the beach at Mandalay Bay with 4foot waves.
During my 2 weeks in Vegas,Phoenix, I had a great time at the Mandalay Bay with an excellent day trip to Lake Mead and the Valley of Fire with www.anniebananie.com, (http://www.anniebananie.com,) I met Mr& Mrs yyzflyer at the Bellagio for a very good buffet dinner( thanks to yyzflyer for a line pass to avoid queuing to pay at the buffet), Good flights on HP ( no secondary searches at the gate) with flights on time and a very good stay at HGI Scottsdale ( good at Hilton Tapatio Cliffs) before returning to the Luxor for 3 nights and Doubletree Club for the final two nights.
The weather was hot (average 105 with temperatures up to 110+) with 14 days of sunshine- only one overcast morning-the morning I flew down to PHX and it cleared on enroute.
VS 44 LAS-LGW 30th June 2002
B747-400
G-VROS “English Rose”
Dep 1805:Arr 1120+1 (Sch 1155+1)
After checking out of the Doubletree Club LV airport at 2pm I got the complimentary shuttle to Terminal 2 arriving about 2:10pm. There was already a lengthy queue for Economy but only one in front of me for PE. After passenger identification we had to put our hold/cabin luggage through the xray machine prior to check in I was the 41st person to check in and given my pre assigned seat of 78A. Having plenty of time to spend before boarding at 17:15 I decided to walk to Terminal 1 and spend sometime there as there are more limited facilities in T2. It took around 5minutes and it was hot as I enjoyed the Last of the LV sunshine. Queues to check in were not too bad for most of the airlines ( slightly longer for National- maybe 30people). I went upstairs to look at the shops.The line for security at the A gates was a fairly long but moving not too bad. There are not too many eating places before T1 security and the queue at Starbucks was long so I visited WHsmith and Waterstones buying a couple of books and visited the Mandalay Bay store and bought something before wandering back to T2 at around 3:30pm , allowing plenty of time for security which turned out to be a breeze only taking 5minutes and no further detailed search.
After a very nice Cinnabon and spending a few quarters on the gambling machines we started boarding around 17:15 for an 18:05 departure. Peeople requiring assistance/ families with young children were called forward first then Upper Class were invited to board at their leisure and then us in PE.I climbed the stairs and got settled into 78A and was served with a choice of juice or champagne almost immediately( I chose champagne). There are side storage compartments by the window seats in PE on the 747-400 – I do like those as it saves having to put everything under the seat infront of you.
The layout on our aircraft “English Rose” and the Nova IFE was the same as on the outward aircraft “ Pretty Woman” described above.
Shortly prior to departure the gate agent came up to my row and for a moment I thought my luck was in!! but he only asked my traveling companion to follow him.- Oh well! Never mind- at least it is better than economy. A man was shown into the now vacant 78B.
We pushed back on time and after a manual safety demonstration taxied out to 7L which was a short taxi away from T2. From 78A I had a very good view of the Strip hotels as we accelerated and took off towards the east. We climbed out over Lake Las Vegas and saw the Hyatt Regency resort as well as Celine Dions $9m hillside home with helicopter pad on top of the hill for when she comes to play at the Coliseum at Casears Palace next year before flying over lake Mead where you could see the wonderful Valley of Fire and the different colour of desert rocks shining in the late after noon sun. About this time drinks and pretzels were handed out ( I chose a diet coke and got given two cans that was nice) and the In flight entertainment was started.
At first when I tuned in to the audio channels I could hear two channels- one from the left earphone and a different channel from the right earphone which became annoying and there was no films apart from the sky map. The in flight supervisor came upstairs and I mentioned the problem to him , he had a quick listen and tried to change channels without success . He then said that he would reset the IFE. A few minutes later the audio was sorted and very shortly afterwards the movies started.
The movies included: A Beautiful Mind, Snow Dogs, I am Sam, Crossroads, Harts War,Vanilla Sky, 24 Hour Party People.
Dinner service started soon afterwards and we were given a choice of Fish, Chicken or Vegetarian.
I chose the Chicken and the meal comprised of
Salad
Bread roll ( cold this time unlike warm in UC)
Grilled chicken with a tomato sauce and pasta swirls
Strawberry Cheesecake
Coffee and a Giradeli chocolate.
Rather than being given a bottle of wine, our choice of red/white wine was poured out for us out of a large bottle and came round a second time towards the end of the meal.
As we flew North east over Wyoming/Colorado the clouds took on a brown tinge to them –I assume that was the effect of the forest fires in that part of the US.
We were treated to a beautiful sunset as the sun sank below the clouds with tinges of fiery red breaking through some clouds and the sky slowly changing colour to black. As we flew over North Dakota (north of mount Rushmore) you could see a landscape full of thousands of lakes ( near Devils Lake as we approached the Canadian Border) and we closed our blinds and settled down to get a few hours of sleep. The recline on PE seats is more than Economy and with an extendible footrest so it was more comfortable than standard economy. We continued NE over Canada, Hudson Bay and just south of Uqava Bay before crossing the southern part of Greenland( south of Gothab).
Breakfast was started to be served around 2hours prior to landing consisting of a fruit plate, blueberry muffin, a hot scrambled egg roll , orange juice and coffee/tea.
On the sky map I noticed that just prior to flying over the Irish coast on the circle route(SE) we turned to head almost directly east towards the northern tip of Scotland before resuming the south east heading down the western coast of Scotland and England( a problem with Irish airspace perhaps). All the way down the coast the UK was covered in thick cloud so no view of the ground from the window seat. The headsets were taken away as we started our decent as we approached LGW from the SW before turning to land on the Westerly runway and only saw the green countryside as we turned onto our final approach.
We landed smoothly and as reverse thrust was applied to the engines, I noticed that the middle leading edge slat on the port wing between the Nos 1 and 2 engines retracted while the outboard and the inboard slats remained deployed. As reverse thrust was cancelled at the end of our roll out the slat extended again before all of them were retracted as the wing was cleaned up (apart from that the landing was perfectly normal) and we arrived to a 59 degree LGW at 11:20( 35mins ahead of schedule) as we taxied to Gate 32 satellite.
We arrived at the Gate shortly afterwards, disembarkation was quick for us in PE, took the shuttle to the main terminal, breezed through UK passport control and waited by baggage reclaim. Before our PE/ UC bags emerged there were a few bags that were tagged to final destinations such as Inverness and Manchester then my bags came, walked through the Green nothing to declare channel and headed to the North Terminal to check in using the eticket machines for the BA2940 LGW-EDI at 16:00 (last year there as a 14:00 flight that was handy). Using the machine I was able to get seat 01F on the BA flight(only one class of service) which was a bulkhead and the 01E would turn out to be vacant. I then handed my bags to be labeled to EDI and although my ticket said only 1 piece of checked baggage, no comment was made regarding my two pieces which was good of BA.
Overall the VS PE flight was very good and if you can get a discounted PE ticket (K class) it is very good value for money.
Regards
TBS
[This message has been edited by The _Banking_Scot (edited 07-06-2002).]