Boris spatsky
Established Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2010
- Posts
- 1,860
First trip report on AFF for you. Thought I would do one as I flew VX in F for the first time.
CBR-SYD
E190
Seat 1A
Booked the VA ticket to LAX return on VA website. Connection offered ATR in Y, or E190 in J but much earlier for the same price. Went the E190. It would be a waste of money to pay for it yourself, considering it is the same seat as the Y seats.
Happy with the service, I was the only one in J. They managed to serve me pre-drink, egg pie with chutney (yum) and 2 coffees all in 25 minutes. Good effort. CSM very nice (in more ways than one
Landed in SYD with 4 hrs 40 to make next flight.
Connection:
Went to the international connection area (near bay 37) to connect. Waited 25 minutes, and the guy kept saying that the bus would soon be here. He then asked us all to line up to get our boarding passes as the International check-in over at the Int terminal was having issues. We then all queued and got our passes. Very very slow service, they didn't seem to have a clue. Then waited another 30 minutes before we got our bus. Total wait time from entering the transfer lounge to boarding the bus: 1 hr 20 minutes. Unacceptable.
Air NZ Koru lounge:
Made my way to the Koru J lounge at Int terminal. I am both WP on VA and QF and am used to the QF F Lounge. I wasn't expecting much from Air NZ, honestly.
The lounge is ok, but really they could do much better. Very little food, and nothing substantial except hot dogs. Good selection of beer (I love Steinlager) but no champagne (only Kiwi sparkling, which wasn't to my tastes). Good wifi speed. Got quite busy towards boarding time.
SYD-LAX
777
Seat 5H
I was allocated seat 5H automatically as WP - tried to change it to 1C online, but it kept defaulting back to 5H. Accepted 5H as I had heard good things (but also bad things).
Boarded and had no one next to me - great! Served Lanson champagne on boarding (fantastic, and vintage 2002 too). Had a few too many glasses of that, but it was so good. Rachel the FA was very nice and professional.
Family of 3 next to me (mum, dad, teenage son) who were fine. Mum next to me across the aisle, her first time in J so very excited.
Across the other side of the plane, a very loud mouthed DYKWIA male and wife. From the moment he got on board, he did not stop talking until touchdown. He spent the entire night sitting at the bar, speaking extremely loudly and laughing uncontrollably at times, whilst his wife slept. Unfortunately he was sitting up my end of the bar. At times, he was joined by other males and it was simply impossible to sleep with all the noise. I asked the FA to see if they could be a bit quiet but the volume never changed. So frustrating, and I did not sleep at all on the leg.
Seat 5H is pretty good overall - they have curtains that block off all the seats in row 5. The curtain comes down the aisle, so 5H and K are blocked off by curtain together. Fine for me as I had no one next to me.
The VA seats are not that good though IMHO. I prefer QF Skybed Mk II. I found them very very uncomfortable (even with the bed underlay), with the ridges from the seat components sticking through into my thighs (bit like Skybed Mk 1). They are also not fully flat, which I find annoying.
Food was very good. Nice salad entree, then duck main. The wines were nothing special (Kiwi Sav Blanc, Yarra valley pinot noir).
Flight was very early (45 minutes!) and customs at terminal 5 LAX was a breeze. So much better than QF has to go through at TBIT or terminal 4. It really was very quick and simple.
Connection:
I then had 7 hours to kill until my Virgin America (VX) flight. There was one flight that was 1 hr 30 after the VA flight landed, but I thought this too close, considering I was booked on F, but non flexi fare.
I had done some research about lounges - none at Terminal 3 (VX) until Sep 12, so I went to the reLAX lounge in TBIT. You can get in for free if you have a Diners club card (which I do), so I used that and got entry for 6 hours. Free wifi, snacks etc. the only annoying this was 1) no showers 2) the bathrooms were outside the lounge, and were general use for the public, so were absolutely disgusting.
VX Check-in:
VX check-in in terminal 3 is very funky, with nice flowers, music and cool vibe. Short queue at F check-in. Very nice staff member (male) - he even ran after me and gave me my passport when I left it at the desk (whoops). Given seat 2D (window).
Terminal 3 security very fast, but the terminal itself is quite a dive. Turned up at the gate to find that the flight was delayed an hour (no sign of this on the outside boards).
Oh well - then 30 minutes before it said we were due to board, they suddenly declared the flight back on original schedule. Some people not there as they had seen the delay. So we ended up being delayed anyway whilst they tried to find those people. Apparently there was a delay by ATC for their departure slot, which then cleared up and ATC put them back on original slot. Happens in the US.
The aircraft internally seems very new. Nice white leather in F, very big seats (like VA Domestic J). Gina the FA was quite old (55+) but very nice. Nothing special though, still a normal domestic US FA who missed the finer points.
I was excited about the Red entertainment system - I had read that you could order food at your leisure through the touch screen. Unlimited in F it said on the brochure!
Unfortunately, brochure fail - when you clicked on Eat Now, it said this was disabled for this flight. Normal food service came through once, as per normal US domestic flights. No ability to order on Red. Disappointing. Also only had one option when they got to me - spaghetti. Whilst it was nice, (as was the quinoa salad for starter), it really wasn't anything special.
Overall the flight was very comfortable, and we arrived an hour late. Off at ORD in windy conditions. Bit of a rock show to get our bags, as the conveyor belt that VX use is not clearly marked. A lot of the pax walking around like zombies trying to find their baggage belt.
All in all, VX was better than other US carriers in F, but still has room to improve. I will definitely fly them again. Their live tv is great as well.
CBR-SYD
E190
Seat 1A
Booked the VA ticket to LAX return on VA website. Connection offered ATR in Y, or E190 in J but much earlier for the same price. Went the E190. It would be a waste of money to pay for it yourself, considering it is the same seat as the Y seats.
Happy with the service, I was the only one in J. They managed to serve me pre-drink, egg pie with chutney (yum) and 2 coffees all in 25 minutes. Good effort. CSM very nice (in more ways than one
Landed in SYD with 4 hrs 40 to make next flight.
Connection:
Went to the international connection area (near bay 37) to connect. Waited 25 minutes, and the guy kept saying that the bus would soon be here. He then asked us all to line up to get our boarding passes as the International check-in over at the Int terminal was having issues. We then all queued and got our passes. Very very slow service, they didn't seem to have a clue. Then waited another 30 minutes before we got our bus. Total wait time from entering the transfer lounge to boarding the bus: 1 hr 20 minutes. Unacceptable.
Air NZ Koru lounge:
Made my way to the Koru J lounge at Int terminal. I am both WP on VA and QF and am used to the QF F Lounge. I wasn't expecting much from Air NZ, honestly.
The lounge is ok, but really they could do much better. Very little food, and nothing substantial except hot dogs. Good selection of beer (I love Steinlager) but no champagne (only Kiwi sparkling, which wasn't to my tastes). Good wifi speed. Got quite busy towards boarding time.
SYD-LAX
777
Seat 5H
I was allocated seat 5H automatically as WP - tried to change it to 1C online, but it kept defaulting back to 5H. Accepted 5H as I had heard good things (but also bad things).
Boarded and had no one next to me - great! Served Lanson champagne on boarding (fantastic, and vintage 2002 too). Had a few too many glasses of that, but it was so good. Rachel the FA was very nice and professional.
Family of 3 next to me (mum, dad, teenage son) who were fine. Mum next to me across the aisle, her first time in J so very excited.
Across the other side of the plane, a very loud mouthed DYKWIA male and wife. From the moment he got on board, he did not stop talking until touchdown. He spent the entire night sitting at the bar, speaking extremely loudly and laughing uncontrollably at times, whilst his wife slept. Unfortunately he was sitting up my end of the bar. At times, he was joined by other males and it was simply impossible to sleep with all the noise. I asked the FA to see if they could be a bit quiet but the volume never changed. So frustrating, and I did not sleep at all on the leg.
Seat 5H is pretty good overall - they have curtains that block off all the seats in row 5. The curtain comes down the aisle, so 5H and K are blocked off by curtain together. Fine for me as I had no one next to me.
The VA seats are not that good though IMHO. I prefer QF Skybed Mk II. I found them very very uncomfortable (even with the bed underlay), with the ridges from the seat components sticking through into my thighs (bit like Skybed Mk 1). They are also not fully flat, which I find annoying.
Food was very good. Nice salad entree, then duck main. The wines were nothing special (Kiwi Sav Blanc, Yarra valley pinot noir).
Flight was very early (45 minutes!) and customs at terminal 5 LAX was a breeze. So much better than QF has to go through at TBIT or terminal 4. It really was very quick and simple.
Connection:
I then had 7 hours to kill until my Virgin America (VX) flight. There was one flight that was 1 hr 30 after the VA flight landed, but I thought this too close, considering I was booked on F, but non flexi fare.
I had done some research about lounges - none at Terminal 3 (VX) until Sep 12, so I went to the reLAX lounge in TBIT. You can get in for free if you have a Diners club card (which I do), so I used that and got entry for 6 hours. Free wifi, snacks etc. the only annoying this was 1) no showers 2) the bathrooms were outside the lounge, and were general use for the public, so were absolutely disgusting.
VX Check-in:
VX check-in in terminal 3 is very funky, with nice flowers, music and cool vibe. Short queue at F check-in. Very nice staff member (male) - he even ran after me and gave me my passport when I left it at the desk (whoops). Given seat 2D (window).
Terminal 3 security very fast, but the terminal itself is quite a dive. Turned up at the gate to find that the flight was delayed an hour (no sign of this on the outside boards).
Oh well - then 30 minutes before it said we were due to board, they suddenly declared the flight back on original schedule. Some people not there as they had seen the delay. So we ended up being delayed anyway whilst they tried to find those people. Apparently there was a delay by ATC for their departure slot, which then cleared up and ATC put them back on original slot. Happens in the US.
The aircraft internally seems very new. Nice white leather in F, very big seats (like VA Domestic J). Gina the FA was quite old (55+) but very nice. Nothing special though, still a normal domestic US FA who missed the finer points.
I was excited about the Red entertainment system - I had read that you could order food at your leisure through the touch screen. Unlimited in F it said on the brochure!
Unfortunately, brochure fail - when you clicked on Eat Now, it said this was disabled for this flight. Normal food service came through once, as per normal US domestic flights. No ability to order on Red. Disappointing. Also only had one option when they got to me - spaghetti. Whilst it was nice, (as was the quinoa salad for starter), it really wasn't anything special.
Overall the flight was very comfortable, and we arrived an hour late. Off at ORD in windy conditions. Bit of a rock show to get our bags, as the conveyor belt that VX use is not clearly marked. A lot of the pax walking around like zombies trying to find their baggage belt.
All in all, VX was better than other US carriers in F, but still has room to improve. I will definitely fly them again. Their live tv is great as well.
