VS300/01 LHR-DEL-LHR - trip report
Sep 22, 2010, 1:40 am
#1
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: back to my roots in Scotland!
Programs: Tamsin - what else is there to say?
Posts: 47,843
VS300/01 LHR-DEL-LHR - trip report
Having a friend living in India, and with enough VS miles for my first UC trip on them, we hatched a plan last September for me to travel to India in February, do some tiger watching, and generally holiday out there.
Life intervened. My friend was moved to the UK by his company for a while, meaning the trip had to be postponed. Correctly interpreting that the time period his company were suggesting would be elongated, I amended the ticket to the limits of its eligibility (thanks to some great help from the Indian call centre, who found out which flights had seats available before transferring me to the UC call centre, who actually made the changes on my behalf), and the trip was moved to September 2010.
More life intervened, meaning that due to illness, the doctor finally gave me the ok to go two days before I was due to depart
Because I'm not London based, I also had the problems of split PNRs, so even though the DEL flight was a 2200 departure, I came down the night before, and overnighted. In the event, with my illness, this broke the outbound into easily manageable bite-sized chunks - going EDI-LHR-DEL in one day, non-stop, would likely have set me back again
So, I left work early on Wednesday, 8th of September, to go home and pack, and then drive to EDI, for BA 1463. Standard BA domestic, the only thing of note was the fact that I was able to eat the savoury snack without musing as to how anyone could possibly think that that particular combination of foods went together - the much hated 'bird-seed' was no more, and instead their evening 'snack' was a packet of random nibbles which was almost edible.
An overnight at the Radisson Edwardian (where, with that ridiculousness you sometimes encounter with hotels, a B&B rate was Ł60 less than what any of the LHR HIs were asking
), and the lovely reception lady had given me a 2 pm check-out. Nice hotel, nice breakfast, would happily stay there again. Although to be honest, I can't really remember too much about it, except for the friendliness of the lovely reception lady.
I arrived at the airport about 1445, and sat outside in the sunshine for a bit, trying to avoid the cigarette smoke blowing around the plaza, aware of just how early I was for the flight, wanting to spend a decent amount of time in the Clubhouse, but also aware that there are limits!
It's been a while since I flew out of T3 - and I was not surprised to see much of it little changed, and still as unlovely, dark and dingy as ever. In that way that too much flying starts to blur in your mind, I'd been unsure if I ever had - but the low, black ceiling, the feelings of claustrophobia, and the sighting of a TK check-in desk assured me I most definitely had.
Still, nothing daunted, I was UC, and entitled to a better class of Terminal. So I took myself off to the UC check-in desk. For once, since I had a seat reserved, I decided not to do OLCI or SSCI, but instead do it the old-fashioned way at the airport. Perk of J
An inquiry to the UC concierge as to how early I could check in for DEL assured me I could do it now (only about 6.5 hours before departure - kudos for an airline which does that, since it can be hard to manage!), so I did. Check-in was empty, staff were lovely, friendly and welcoming and I was quickly on my way, clutching my pass for 1K, my pre-selected seat.
I liked the private security channel, even though in the best tradition of travellers anywhere, I'd only been half-listening when they told me where to go, so had to guess due to slightly unclear signage (that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it), but guessed correctly.
I was the only person going through. A request for a bag (I'd last minute decided to carry on some moisturiser) caused problems before a compromise was reached, and staff took a common sense decision which, while not exactly within the letter of the rules did prove that the little plastic bag is not, in itself, an essential part of the security checks so long as you are honest in advance
A quick stroll around the delights which are T3 duty free (girls cannot survive without chocolate, although the absence of any Hotel du Chocolat products, such as can be found in T5 was a disappointment I will admit!), and then I took myself off the Clubhouse.
Now, some might argue about 6 hours is probably too long to spend in a lounge - I'd say that properly prepared (i.e. carrying swimmy cossie), and for a first visit to the Clubhouse, it was about perfect. It gave me the opportunity to
- book a facial
- have lunch from the deli bar
- have dinner from the a la carte
- enjoy several cocktails (which might explain the haziness of the recollections
)
- enjoy the spa pool etc
- play online - be grateful I didn't start a PUTI thread
- sit outside some more enjoying the sunshine, the roar of the aircraft and the smell of the aviation fuel
- keep posting updates on facebook telling everyone what I was doing. My friends, all at work, seemed to greatly appreciate this
In short, I loved the Clubhouse. Staff were brilliant, they loved my travel companion, and I was able to scrounge hair products from the hair dresser (and a hair brush!) post spa pool - definite advantage to have a hair salon in lounge
Food was good and tasty, cocktails distinctly moreish. I thought the decor was fun, quirky and very VS! The CH was quiet when I arrived, but picked up for the evening flights out, then quietened down again, before eventually the DEL departure was called. I gathered up my belongings, and Tamsin and left for the plane.
(and I'll leave it there just now. Sorry, I do loquacious trip reports - I'll try and get a few photos up this evening as well!).
Life intervened. My friend was moved to the UK by his company for a while, meaning the trip had to be postponed. Correctly interpreting that the time period his company were suggesting would be elongated, I amended the ticket to the limits of its eligibility (thanks to some great help from the Indian call centre, who found out which flights had seats available before transferring me to the UC call centre, who actually made the changes on my behalf), and the trip was moved to September 2010.
More life intervened, meaning that due to illness, the doctor finally gave me the ok to go two days before I was due to depart
Because I'm not London based, I also had the problems of split PNRs, so even though the DEL flight was a 2200 departure, I came down the night before, and overnighted. In the event, with my illness, this broke the outbound into easily manageable bite-sized chunks - going EDI-LHR-DEL in one day, non-stop, would likely have set me back again
So, I left work early on Wednesday, 8th of September, to go home and pack, and then drive to EDI, for BA 1463. Standard BA domestic, the only thing of note was the fact that I was able to eat the savoury snack without musing as to how anyone could possibly think that that particular combination of foods went together - the much hated 'bird-seed' was no more, and instead their evening 'snack' was a packet of random nibbles which was almost edible.
An overnight at the Radisson Edwardian (where, with that ridiculousness you sometimes encounter with hotels, a B&B rate was Ł60 less than what any of the LHR HIs were asking
), and the lovely reception lady had given me a 2 pm check-out. Nice hotel, nice breakfast, would happily stay there again. Although to be honest, I can't really remember too much about it, except for the friendliness of the lovely reception lady. I arrived at the airport about 1445, and sat outside in the sunshine for a bit, trying to avoid the cigarette smoke blowing around the plaza, aware of just how early I was for the flight, wanting to spend a decent amount of time in the Clubhouse, but also aware that there are limits!
It's been a while since I flew out of T3 - and I was not surprised to see much of it little changed, and still as unlovely, dark and dingy as ever. In that way that too much flying starts to blur in your mind, I'd been unsure if I ever had - but the low, black ceiling, the feelings of claustrophobia, and the sighting of a TK check-in desk assured me I most definitely had.
Still, nothing daunted, I was UC, and entitled to a better class of Terminal. So I took myself off to the UC check-in desk. For once, since I had a seat reserved, I decided not to do OLCI or SSCI, but instead do it the old-fashioned way at the airport. Perk of J
An inquiry to the UC concierge as to how early I could check in for DEL assured me I could do it now (only about 6.5 hours before departure - kudos for an airline which does that, since it can be hard to manage!), so I did. Check-in was empty, staff were lovely, friendly and welcoming and I was quickly on my way, clutching my pass for 1K, my pre-selected seat.
I liked the private security channel, even though in the best tradition of travellers anywhere, I'd only been half-listening when they told me where to go, so had to guess due to slightly unclear signage (that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it), but guessed correctly.
I was the only person going through. A request for a bag (I'd last minute decided to carry on some moisturiser) caused problems before a compromise was reached, and staff took a common sense decision which, while not exactly within the letter of the rules did prove that the little plastic bag is not, in itself, an essential part of the security checks so long as you are honest in advance
A quick stroll around the delights which are T3 duty free (girls cannot survive without chocolate, although the absence of any Hotel du Chocolat products, such as can be found in T5 was a disappointment I will admit!), and then I took myself off the Clubhouse.
Now, some might argue about 6 hours is probably too long to spend in a lounge - I'd say that properly prepared (i.e. carrying swimmy cossie), and for a first visit to the Clubhouse, it was about perfect. It gave me the opportunity to
- book a facial
- have lunch from the deli bar
- have dinner from the a la carte
- enjoy several cocktails (which might explain the haziness of the recollections
)- enjoy the spa pool etc
- play online - be grateful I didn't start a PUTI thread
- sit outside some more enjoying the sunshine, the roar of the aircraft and the smell of the aviation fuel
- keep posting updates on facebook telling everyone what I was doing. My friends, all at work, seemed to greatly appreciate this
In short, I loved the Clubhouse. Staff were brilliant, they loved my travel companion, and I was able to scrounge hair products from the hair dresser (and a hair brush!) post spa pool - definite advantage to have a hair salon in lounge
Food was good and tasty, cocktails distinctly moreish. I thought the decor was fun, quirky and very VS! The CH was quiet when I arrived, but picked up for the evening flights out, then quietened down again, before eventually the DEL departure was called. I gathered up my belongings, and Tamsin and left for the plane. (and I'll leave it there just now. Sorry, I do loquacious trip reports - I'll try and get a few photos up this evening as well!).
Last edited by Jenbel; Oct 18, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Sep 23, 2010, 1:16 pm
#2
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: back to my roots in Scotland!
Programs: Tamsin - what else is there to say?
Posts: 47,843
Boarding was perfectly timed, and walked straight onto the airbridge, and boarded to turn left and claim my seat - 1K. Pyjamas were available virtually instantly, so given the cabin was pretty quiet, I sloped off to change immediately, and put my clothes away. All very civilised. Tamsin had esconced herself on the foot stool and was happy at her own special seatbelt, even if it didn't quite reach, and we had to tie her tail to it.
I found the amount of storage space around the seat for stuff a bit disappointing. I'm kind of used to the upstairs on 744s, where you get the at-seat-no-need-to-get-up storage. OTOH, it's still better than further back on the plane. Champagne was served, and was pretty drinkable.
Amenity kits were already on the seats - yes, VS have downgraded them, as with many things flying, it was only slightly better than the ones I used to get in CX Y when I first started flying LH 12 years ago Socks, shoe bag, eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste... where's the moisturiser, the lipsalve, the pen etc etc etc?
Bottles of water, and menus were handed around, crew introduced themselves (the crew were fabulous throughout the flight, very friendly and warm and they loved Tamsin), and they collected clothing, jackets etc. Flight time was announced at 7.5 hours (which really isn't long for an overnight flight), and we pushed back and took off, pretty much on schedule.
Dinner was served pretty promptly - with such a short flight time, I'm sure I wasn't the only person keen to eat (even though I'd eaten in the lounge, so I wasn't too hungry) and get my head down.
Starters:
Smoked halibut, salmon and marinated prawn with radish and shiso cress and balsamic lemon dressing.
Cauliflower and herb soup with vegetable crisps
Anardana tikka and chilli fish with date and tamarind chutney
Warm breads:
white sesame roll, white roll with olive oil, rosemary, black pepper and onion or garlic baguette
Mains:
Fennel and mushroom risotto with paprika and garlic-roasted chicken, red pesto and truffle oil
Seared cod with tomato served with green beans, new potatoes and pimento sauce
Chicken saagwala with lentil daal, spicy cauliflower and pulau rice
Paneer pasanda (a delicately flavoured dish made with Indian cheese) with lentil daal, tempered vegetables and paluo rice (spelling inconsistencies are VS')
Cheese - yes there was some. I'm not typing out the blurb.
Dessert
Chocolate and orange torte
Rasmalai - a traditional Indian dessert
I went with the smoked fish starter. Crew was apologetic about the size of the serving, but it was actually very nice - hard to go wrong with it and tasty. Bread was offered a couple of times.
Mains, nothing enthused, so I went with the cod. It wasn't great - overcooked and quite dry. Potatoes were the best bit
I declined dessert, as I wanted to sleep, so the crew offered to make up my bed while I went off to the toilet. By the time I got back, bed was magically made up, looked very tempting, and I feel asleep pretty quickly, with more than 5 hours of the flight to go.
I never sleep through on a flight (well, very rarely), and this was no exception. At the same time, I found the bed comfortable to sleep in... it wasn't so narrow I couldn't get into a semi-fetal position, and had no problems getting sleep. Which was probably as well, since the IFE seemed a little bit ropey.
I woke up as we crossed out of Afghanistan into Pakistan. I was a bit unhappy at missing the mountains - but sleep important too! You could see some of the floods in Pakistan from the air - but you were also curiously detached from them. The scenery about an hour out from Delhi is pretty spectacular though.
The cabin started to wake up, and crew offering breakfast to those that wanted. I did.
Breakfast:
Selection of breakfast cereals
Citrus fruit salad with organic yoghurt
Hot toast with butter and your choice of jam
Croissants with butter and your choice of jam
Blueberry griddle cake and berry compote
Lamb sausage sandwich made on a soft wholemeal roll with ketchup or brown sauce.
Cooked breakfast of cheddar cheese omelette, sauteed mushrooms, hash browns, baked beans and grilled tomato half.
I really couldn't see beyond the griddle cakes - they were very nice, and I probably could have had two servings - terribly, terribly moreish
We arrived early into Delhi. The one area the crew were not great at was returning hung jackets - pax were having to check all the different wardrobes to find them themselves
For those who haven't been, Delhi's new Terminal 3 opened only a few months ago, and works terribly impressively. While the carpets are shockingly 1970s Indian restaurant, you are sped to immigration, where there is a dedicated first/business line. In fact, they were being so efficient, I'd to step out of line as my landing card was not quite complete... but stamped into India, and off to baggage reclaim, where my bag was already on the belt Through the tempting shops, to customs, where you hand in your slip from the landing card, and in 20 minutes from disembarking I was meeting my friend at the arrivals door in Delhi.
For the next 10 days, we travelled around India, flew Kingfisher and Jet, visited Bangalore and Goa airports, and stayed in some awesome hotels. Then we returned to Delhi, and with a bulging case, I readied myself for the return flight... (and if anyone wants more details on India, happy to discuss by PM!).
I found the amount of storage space around the seat for stuff a bit disappointing. I'm kind of used to the upstairs on 744s, where you get the at-seat-no-need-to-get-up storage. OTOH, it's still better than further back on the plane. Champagne was served, and was pretty drinkable.
Amenity kits were already on the seats - yes, VS have downgraded them, as with many things flying, it was only slightly better than the ones I used to get in CX Y when I first started flying LH 12 years ago
Socks, shoe bag, eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste... where's the moisturiser, the lipsalve, the pen etc etc etc? Bottles of water, and menus were handed around, crew introduced themselves (the crew were fabulous throughout the flight, very friendly and warm and they loved Tamsin), and they collected clothing, jackets etc. Flight time was announced at 7.5 hours (which really isn't long for an overnight flight), and we pushed back and took off, pretty much on schedule.
Dinner was served pretty promptly - with such a short flight time, I'm sure I wasn't the only person keen to eat (even though I'd eaten in the lounge, so I wasn't too hungry) and get my head down.
Starters:
Smoked halibut, salmon and marinated prawn with radish and shiso cress and balsamic lemon dressing.
Cauliflower and herb soup with vegetable crisps
Anardana tikka and chilli fish with date and tamarind chutney
Warm breads:
white sesame roll, white roll with olive oil, rosemary, black pepper and onion or garlic baguette
Mains:
Fennel and mushroom risotto with paprika and garlic-roasted chicken, red pesto and truffle oil
Seared cod with tomato served with green beans, new potatoes and pimento sauce
Chicken saagwala with lentil daal, spicy cauliflower and pulau rice
Paneer pasanda (a delicately flavoured dish made with Indian cheese) with lentil daal, tempered vegetables and paluo rice (spelling inconsistencies are VS'
)Cheese - yes there was some. I'm not typing out the blurb.
Dessert
Chocolate and orange torte
Rasmalai - a traditional Indian dessert
I went with the smoked fish starter. Crew was apologetic about the size of the serving, but it was actually very nice - hard to go wrong with it and tasty. Bread was offered a couple of times.
Mains, nothing enthused, so I went with the cod. It wasn't great - overcooked and quite dry. Potatoes were the best bit
I declined dessert, as I wanted to sleep, so the crew offered to make up my bed while I went off to the toilet. By the time I got back, bed was magically made up, looked very tempting, and I feel asleep pretty quickly, with more than 5 hours of the flight to go.
I never sleep through on a flight (well, very rarely), and this was no exception. At the same time, I found the bed comfortable to sleep in... it wasn't so narrow I couldn't get into a semi-fetal position, and had no problems getting sleep. Which was probably as well, since the IFE seemed a little bit ropey.
I woke up as we crossed out of Afghanistan into Pakistan. I was a bit unhappy at missing the mountains - but sleep important too! You could see some of the floods in Pakistan from the air - but you were also curiously detached from them. The scenery about an hour out from Delhi is pretty spectacular though.
The cabin started to wake up, and crew offering breakfast to those that wanted. I did.
Breakfast:
Selection of breakfast cereals
Citrus fruit salad with organic yoghurt
Hot toast with butter and your choice of jam
Croissants with butter and your choice of jam
Blueberry griddle cake and berry compote
Lamb sausage sandwich made on a soft wholemeal roll with ketchup or brown sauce.
Cooked breakfast of cheddar cheese omelette, sauteed mushrooms, hash browns, baked beans and grilled tomato half.
I really couldn't see beyond the griddle cakes - they were very nice, and I probably could have had two servings - terribly, terribly moreish
We arrived early into Delhi. The one area the crew were not great at was returning hung jackets - pax were having to check all the different wardrobes to find them themselves
For those who haven't been, Delhi's new Terminal 3 opened only a few months ago, and works terribly impressively. While the carpets are shockingly 1970s Indian restaurant, you are sped to immigration, where there is a dedicated first/business line. In fact, they were being so efficient, I'd to step out of line as my landing card was not quite complete... but stamped into India, and off to baggage reclaim, where my bag was already on the belt
Through the tempting shops, to customs, where you hand in your slip from the landing card, and in 20 minutes from disembarking I was meeting my friend at the arrivals door in Delhi. For the next 10 days, we travelled around India, flew Kingfisher and Jet, visited Bangalore and Goa airports, and stayed in some awesome hotels. Then we returned to Delhi, and with a bulging case, I readied myself for the return flight... (and if anyone wants more details on India, happy to discuss by PM!).
Last edited by Jenbel; Oct 18, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Sep 26, 2010, 5:47 am
#3
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: Virgin Atlantic FC Gold, Intercontinental Royal Ambassador, Hilton Hhonors Gold
Posts: 30
Thanks very much for your report,
Am flying VS300 for the first time in a few weeks and its good to know what food is onboard
Good to know there's a dedicated First/Business immigration line as well
Hope you had a fantastic time in India
Am flying VS300 for the first time in a few weeks and its good to know what food is onboard
Good to know there's a dedicated First/Business immigration line as well
Hope you had a fantastic time in India
Sep 26, 2010, 4:53 pm
#4
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: back to my roots in Scotland!
Programs: Tamsin - what else is there to say?
Posts: 47,843
Thanks - and welcome to FT. I'll be adding in the return soon, and finally got the photos onto my computer.
Sep 27, 2010, 3:38 pm
#5
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: back to my roots in Scotland!
Programs: Tamsin - what else is there to say?
Posts: 47,843
The Return
VS301 leaves at 1315.
The journey from my accommodation to the airport takes 45 minutes on a good day...
This was monsoon season with regular rainstorms and all bets are off. I listened to the rain overnight over and over and over again and started to worry.
Nevertheless, we left at 10, assuming a 2 hour check-in time.
And then disaster struck - trying to get onto the freeway, the road was chocka.. cars in the outside lane were tootling along, but our section was crawling. And we crawled, and we crawled and we crawled. Starting to get nervous, I pulled out the confirmation (necessary to access the terminal) to check minimum check in times... and it's one hour... I started to breathe more easily, we might just make it by 1215!
And then, magically the roads cleared, we picked up speed, and made it to the terminal by 1115 - pretty much on our original schedule! The Indian airlines take the first couple of entrances to T3, with all other airlines at the final entrance point.
We waved over the VS guy (there to help UC pax with their bags), loaded my bags onto the trolley, I said my farewells and wandered into the bosom of DEL Terminal 3 and VS. Security once again checked my itinerary - and at least checked my photo id to make sure it was me, before I was waved in.
There were two people in front of me in the UC queue - I could quite clearly hear the guy at the front desk trying to talk himself into row 1... where I was already pre-assigned, and the queue comber had already confirmed me as still in that seat when she welcomed me into the UC queue. The check-in lady was holding her ground in saying row 1 was already occupied - at least I didn't hear her give away my seat, so well done to her polite insistence!
After he had been dealt with, it wasn't long until I moved up to check-in, and in the meantime, the queue comber gave me my hand luggage tags - all clearly marked UC. You have to have these tags on all your hand luggage, as they are stamped at security to ensure your bags have been screened, and then checked again before boarding - it's a world of pain if you manage to lose them, so after a week of travelling around India, I knew the score in putting them on securely.
Check-in was friendly and efficient, I was confirmed into 1A, bags were checked and boarding passes issued. My escort appeared to take me to the entrance of security, and she explained where to go to find the lounge.
Indian security is segregated, with the ladies getting little private cubicles for clearing. At many airports, this makes for shorter queues - unfortunately, DEL isn't one of them, and security took exception to my car keys and my fountain pen. For all the high tech of the new airport - everyone's boarding pass details are still written in a hard backed book at each security point... A final salute to Indian bureaucracy for the departing pax!
Airside, the new terminal is open, bright and airy. Not all concessions are open yet, and a quick look at Duty Free showed international prices. I popped into WH Smith to buy some chocolate for the flight and a book - sadly, I didn't notice the dedicated bookshop further down departures hall, so had a restricted choice. Then off to the Premium Plaza lounge.
It should be noted, it took maybe 20-30 mins to go from dropping off bags to clearing airside - that's pretty good going.
There are currently two lounges in DEL - ITC, operated by the hotel group which is associated with SPG and Premium, which is also the Priority Pass lounge. Unfortunately, the outside bit is open to the terminal, so not much privacy, while the inner bit is terribly, terribly dark. Plug sockets are in short supply as well, and the number of computer desks is low, and were being queued for. There was some hot food on offer though, and it still beats sitting in the terminal!
Flight announcements were made, and we were called to go board. It was a bit of a trek down to the flight, but I was waved onwards encouragingly by the lady who had escorted me to security. And I saw my final new bird species of the trip... boarding was already well advanced, so I was able to board straight away, and UC pax had their own queue.
Back onto Jetstreamer, the A340 which had brought me out, and I settled into 1A. M... the crew member on my section came around, introduced herself, took our drink orders and distributed our amenity kits - it was a very personal welcome, and appreciated. She took the time and trouble to check we knew how to work the seats, and generally made us feel welcome. Champagne was forthcoming (I did confirm this time we were on the Lucas Carton) and we waited for pushback - the Jet departure was delayed, and would be taking a similar routing so ATC were trying to sort out routings and flight levels. M came around handing out the menus for the flight - lunch and afternoon tea. Flight time would be a rather leisurely 9 hours..
Eventually, doors were closed and the 180-odd people on board prepared to take off.
The journey from my accommodation to the airport takes 45 minutes on a good day...
This was monsoon season with regular rainstorms and all bets are off. I listened to the rain overnight over and over and over again and started to worry.
Nevertheless, we left at 10, assuming a 2 hour check-in time.
And then disaster struck - trying to get onto the freeway, the road was chocka.. cars in the outside lane were tootling along, but our section was crawling. And we crawled, and we crawled and we crawled. Starting to get nervous, I pulled out the confirmation (necessary to access the terminal) to check minimum check in times... and it's one hour... I started to breathe more easily, we might just make it by 1215!
And then, magically the roads cleared, we picked up speed, and made it to the terminal by 1115 - pretty much on our original schedule! The Indian airlines take the first couple of entrances to T3, with all other airlines at the final entrance point.
We waved over the VS guy (there to help UC pax with their bags), loaded my bags onto the trolley, I said my farewells and wandered into the bosom of DEL Terminal 3 and VS. Security once again checked my itinerary - and at least checked my photo id to make sure it was me, before I was waved in.
There were two people in front of me in the UC queue - I could quite clearly hear the guy at the front desk trying to talk himself into row 1... where I was already pre-assigned, and the queue comber had already confirmed me as still in that seat when she welcomed me into the UC queue. The check-in lady was holding her ground in saying row 1 was already occupied - at least I didn't hear her give away my seat, so well done to her polite insistence!
After he had been dealt with, it wasn't long until I moved up to check-in, and in the meantime, the queue comber gave me my hand luggage tags - all clearly marked UC. You have to have these tags on all your hand luggage, as they are stamped at security to ensure your bags have been screened, and then checked again before boarding - it's a world of pain if you manage to lose them, so after a week of travelling around India, I knew the score in putting them on securely.
Check-in was friendly and efficient, I was confirmed into 1A, bags were checked and boarding passes issued. My escort appeared to take me to the entrance of security, and she explained where to go to find the lounge.
Indian security is segregated, with the ladies getting little private cubicles for clearing. At many airports, this makes for shorter queues - unfortunately, DEL isn't one of them, and security took exception to my car keys and my fountain pen. For all the high tech of the new airport - everyone's boarding pass details are still written in a hard backed book at each security point... A final salute to Indian bureaucracy for the departing pax!
Airside, the new terminal is open, bright and airy. Not all concessions are open yet, and a quick look at Duty Free showed international prices. I popped into WH Smith to buy some chocolate for the flight and a book - sadly, I didn't notice the dedicated bookshop further down departures hall, so had a restricted choice. Then off to the Premium Plaza lounge.
It should be noted, it took maybe 20-30 mins to go from dropping off bags to clearing airside - that's pretty good going.
There are currently two lounges in DEL - ITC, operated by the hotel group which is associated with SPG and Premium, which is also the Priority Pass lounge. Unfortunately, the outside bit is open to the terminal, so not much privacy, while the inner bit is terribly, terribly dark. Plug sockets are in short supply as well, and the number of computer desks is low, and were being queued for. There was some hot food on offer though, and it still beats sitting in the terminal!
Flight announcements were made, and we were called to go board. It was a bit of a trek down to the flight, but I was waved onwards encouragingly by the lady who had escorted me to security. And I saw my final new bird species of the trip... boarding was already well advanced, so I was able to board straight away, and UC pax had their own queue.
Back onto Jetstreamer, the A340 which had brought me out, and I settled into 1A. M... the crew member on my section came around, introduced herself, took our drink orders and distributed our amenity kits - it was a very personal welcome, and appreciated. She took the time and trouble to check we knew how to work the seats, and generally made us feel welcome. Champagne was forthcoming (I did confirm this time we were on the Lucas Carton) and we waited for pushback - the Jet departure was delayed, and would be taking a similar routing so ATC were trying to sort out routings and flight levels. M came around handing out the menus for the flight - lunch and afternoon tea. Flight time would be a rather leisurely 9 hours..
Eventually, doors were closed and the 180-odd people on board prepared to take off.
Last edited by Jenbel; Oct 18, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Oct 18, 2010, 1:27 pm
#6
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Asia
Programs: Yes!
Posts: 15,512
Just came across this TR!. ^
By the way, I have heard that the loos at the new DEL airport can be quite confusing.
P.S. This 'friend' sounds like a real cutie though.
By the way, I have heard that the loos at the new DEL airport can be quite confusing.
P.S. This 'friend' sounds like a real cutie though.
Oct 18, 2010, 3:55 pm
#7
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: back to my roots in Scotland!
Programs: Tamsin - what else is there to say?
Posts: 47,843
And a timely bump for the final section 
We cleared the cabin for take off, at which point the purser informed me that my travel companion could not remain on the foot stool. Apparently it's safer for a small companion to rattle lose around the cabin than to be secured with a seat belt
Mindless adherence to rules which show no understanding of the basis for them actually really annoys me. It's not often Tamsin doesn't get to sit where she wants - VS gets added to a very short list of airlines.
Food on board was lunch and afternoon tea. This being the day flight, I was looking forward to some scenery watching, and working out the IFE, which I'd failed to master on the outbound. There were a number of films I hadn't seen and wanted to watch, so I kicked off with Iron Man 2 and watched as we flew out over Pakistan and Afghanistan - the scenery was as amazing as I remembered on the inbound.
Lunch was served - unfortunately, I forgot to lift the menu. But there were a couple of Indian and European choices, so that there was a vegetarian and meat option in both food types. I went for the Indian chicken starter - it was like little tandoori tasty bites with a pakora type thing. Very nice, and not too spicy. For the main, I'd also gone chicken, a chicken stuffed with spinach with cheese on a mash. This was really nice actually - chicken wasn't dry and very well done. Breads included an Indian bread which I really enjoyed and managed to snag several portions of. Dessert, again, was an Indian or European dessert, so I went for mango pudding. It was ok, quite tasty, but not the highlight. I had some green tea to finish off the meal.
I continued to watch both the IFE and the scenery as we travelled onwards - flying over the Black and Caspian Sea was impressive, the scenery broken only by the stentorious snores rattling around the cabin. Someone close by the snorer was trying to arrange a seat swap with the snorer, into the back cabin...
Afternoon tea was served, the crew apologetic that it wasn't a proper English tea, since it was locally catered - they were especially damning of the cream. Nevertheless I ventured the scones and found them adequate.
And so the flight continued. Cabin crew were in evidence throughout, found me a quilt when I felt cold. As we started to descend into LHR, the cabin purser had a literal tussle with Tamsin who was once again very firmly secured on the foot stool, and once again it was decided it was safer to have her floating loose in the cabin
We held briefly in the north London hold, before landing on 27L, approximately 1 hour delayed due to the ATC problems at DEL. I was slow to disembark and had to leg it to get to immigration ahead of the horde. The bag was off relatively promptly, and I left the arms of VS.
I overnighted at LHR at the Sheraton, encountering en route a fabulous Hoppa driver. When chatting to him I admitted I was only 90% sure I was booked in the Sheraton and not the Skyline, he waited for me, and would have taken me to the Skyline. Sometimes, the kindness of strangers is unexpected, but welcome. In the event, I was in the Sheraton, got my 4k bonus points, a good nights sleep, before returning back to Scotland on BD.
More photos available at http://web.mac.com/jenbel/iWeb/India...%20travel.html
Yay - I've actually finished a trip report!
We cleared the cabin for take off, at which point the purser informed me that my travel companion could not remain on the foot stool. Apparently it's safer for a small companion to rattle lose around the cabin than to be secured with a seat belt
Mindless adherence to rules which show no understanding of the basis for them actually really annoys me. It's not often Tamsin doesn't get to sit where she wants - VS gets added to a very short list of airlines. Food on board was lunch and afternoon tea. This being the day flight, I was looking forward to some scenery watching, and working out the IFE, which I'd failed to master on the outbound. There were a number of films I hadn't seen and wanted to watch, so I kicked off with Iron Man 2 and watched as we flew out over Pakistan and Afghanistan - the scenery was as amazing as I remembered on the inbound.
Lunch was served - unfortunately, I forgot to lift the menu. But there were a couple of Indian and European choices, so that there was a vegetarian and meat option in both food types. I went for the Indian chicken starter - it was like little tandoori tasty bites with a pakora type thing. Very nice, and not too spicy. For the main, I'd also gone chicken, a chicken stuffed with spinach with cheese on a mash. This was really nice actually - chicken wasn't dry and very well done. Breads included an Indian bread which I really enjoyed and managed to snag several portions of. Dessert, again, was an Indian or European dessert, so I went for mango pudding. It was ok, quite tasty, but not the highlight. I had some green tea to finish off the meal.
I continued to watch both the IFE and the scenery as we travelled onwards - flying over the Black and Caspian Sea was impressive, the scenery broken only by the stentorious snores rattling around the cabin. Someone close by the snorer was trying to arrange a seat swap with the snorer, into the back cabin...
Afternoon tea was served, the crew apologetic that it wasn't a proper English tea, since it was locally catered - they were especially damning of the cream. Nevertheless I ventured the scones and found them adequate.
And so the flight continued. Cabin crew were in evidence throughout, found me a quilt when I felt cold. As we started to descend into LHR, the cabin purser had a literal tussle with Tamsin who was once again very firmly secured on the foot stool, and once again it was decided it was safer to have her floating loose in the cabin
We held briefly in the north London hold, before landing on 27L, approximately 1 hour delayed due to the ATC problems at DEL. I was slow to disembark and had to leg it to get to immigration ahead of the horde. The bag was off relatively promptly, and I left the arms of VS.
I overnighted at LHR at the Sheraton, encountering en route a fabulous Hoppa driver. When chatting to him I admitted I was only 90% sure I was booked in the Sheraton and not the Skyline, he waited for me, and would have taken me to the Skyline. Sometimes, the kindness of strangers is unexpected, but welcome. In the event, I was in the Sheraton, got my 4k bonus points, a good nights sleep, before returning back to Scotland on BD.
More photos available at http://web.mac.com/jenbel/iWeb/India...%20travel.html
Yay - I've actually finished a trip report!
Oct 18, 2010, 4:30 pm
#8
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: London, U.K.
Programs: bmi British Midland International Diamond Club
Posts: 3,370
Good stuff Jenbel! They should cater for the cream by stocking on the outbound flight individual pots of real clotted cream. You cannot have a proper afternoon tea without real clotted cream!
Oct 19, 2010, 3:19 pm
#9
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,929
Nice TR!
Better than BA in F ex-DEL, where we got quoted the "can't open booze until airborne due to local regs"
And in hindsight, I think we should have headed off to the lounges via PriorityPass, rather than BA's coffee shop malarkey.... The one used by VS looks much more, err, lounge like!
And in hindsight, I think we should have headed off to the lounges via PriorityPass, rather than BA's coffee shop malarkey.... The one used by VS looks much more, err, lounge like!
Oct 20, 2010, 5:57 am
#10
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: back to my roots in Scotland!
Programs: Tamsin - what else is there to say?
Posts: 47,843
I'd hoped that VS wasn't the PP lounge, so I could try them both (the ITC actually looked a little bit grander) but of course it was. I do remember seeing the coffee shop BA are currently using - I'd have gone PP too. The only thing wrong with it was where my companion is sitting is pretty much open plan to the terminal - the bit behind her is closed off, but is very murky and difficult to read in!
ISTR 2 glasses of champagne on the ground, but we did have a bit of sitting around and waiting!
ISTR 2 glasses of champagne on the ground, but we did have a bit of sitting around and waiting!
