Monday 10 December 2012

Flight Review: Virgin Premium Economy London to Hong Kong

Who:  Me & Sky (14 mths)
Where:  VS 200 London Heathrow to Hong Kong, Premium Economy
How Long?  11.5 hours, departs 9:30pm arrive 5:00pm the next day

Precheck In
I chose Virgin's Premium Economy over BA as I was able to book an aisle bassinet seat.  For some reason, BA would only let me have a middle bassinet seat (no thank you)

Check In
It's a bit of a scramble at T3's Virgin Check In area.  Designated desks for Premium Economy.

Security
This was dreadful.  We were ushered into a 'Family Lane' which despite being half the size of the normal queue, took twice as long due to parents being stopped to 'test' milk, unpack strollers, tend to crying babies etc.

Onboard
I took the stroller to the Gate and was given Priority Boarding as I had a baby.  I transferred her to my Ergo baby carrier and then trudged aboard.  The plane was an old A340-600 but I do seem to equate old planes with bigger seats.
Seating was 2-4-2 and I had the aisle seat of a '2'.  As luck would have it, there were some empty seats in Premium and the guy seating next to me, moved leaving me with an empty seat beside me.


Seats in Premium Economy are roomy and recline quite far back.  The seat was not in the best condition however and the tray table was dirty.

The Premium Economy pack contains an eyemask, pen, earplugs, socks and toothbrush.

The stewardesses were helpful and filled up her bottle with milk whenever requested.  They weren't overly attentive (as I have experienced on other flights) but would appear quickly if I pressed the call button.

Food was pretty awful and I wasn't offered anything for Sky. Luckily I shared my meal with her and had packed snacks.  The drinks service was good and they regularly offered water.

I hadn't packed much to keep her entertained. She was quite happy to crawl around at my feet, eat the inflight magazines, mess around with the window blind and play with the remote controls.

Bassinet/Sky Cot
You need to request this before you fly and then keep requesting at Check-In/Onboard to make sure they allocate you one.

Virgin's Sky Cot was an odd contraption that looked like a sunken car seat.  On the outbound flight she wasn't that comfortable in it but on this flight, she slept a good 7 hours.  I did have to spend about 10 minutes rocking the bassinet and also draping us both in a blanket to provide darkness!  Check here for dimension's of the baby cots and also weight/height restrictions.

Don't panic... she always sleeps with her comforter over her face!

On landing in Hong Kong, my stroller was at the door of the plane although I did have to wait about 10 minutes for it.

Read my review of Heathrow's Terminal 3 here:

Here's what I packed in my Hand Luggage on this flight:

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