Upper deck on a Jumbo

Dr.Rieux

Hi all,

Flying from Gatwick to Vegas next month with Virgin on a 744 for my honeymoon. I'm really looking forward to being on a Jumbo, and would like to sit on the upper deck, is it worth spending $80 to book seats for the 2 of us now to guarantee seats on the upper deck?

Thanks

Edit: Here's seat guru for the plane, http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Virgin_Atlantic_Airways/Virgin_Atlantic_Airways_B747-400_LGW-1.php. Think we'd be looking at seats 77A & B. Another option is paying another 30 each for a seat with extra leg room.

Long Time Lurker

Dr.Rieux wrote: »

Hi all,

is it worth spending $80 to book seats for the 2 of us now to guarantee seats on the upper deck?

.

Depends on what makes it worth your while. If only to say you were upstairs on a Jumbo then yes but my favourite seat is just aft of the wing.

afatbollix

I would recommend it. Some people rate upstairs better than first class because of how small and private it is.

January

You'll be one of only a few economy 0assengers up there so may receive better service.

Enjoy the honeymoon we went in January for ours and had a ball.

fits

Went upstairs on an A380 recently. Service was very fast due to the small numbers of economy passengers up there. Plenty of top ups etc. We didnt pay extra for it, and I am not sure if I would now I have been there. But it was quite nice. It was also nice that it was 2 4 2 configuration so we had the two seats by window to ourselves (and a shelf!). Not sure what configuration is like on your flight.

lynchie

The upper desk also has Premium Economy who are usually offloaded before economy - The benefit of being upstairs is that you will also be offloaded before the rest of the main cabin downstairs which means a potential smaller queue time at immigration

faceman

Given its your honeymoon splash out. It's a lovely novelty being on the top deck and slightly quieter too

Dr.Rieux

faceman wrote: »

Given its your honeymoon splash out. It's a lovely novelty being on the top deck and slightly quieter too

That's what we were thinking, being further forward and above the engines it should be quieter. Also going to see if it's possible to get a cockpit visit on the ground if at all possible, so being closer may help

LXFlyer

It's almost like being in a short haul aircraft on a long haul flight, but with the extra leg room of course.

faceman

Dr.Rieux wrote: »

That's what we were thinking, being further forward and above the engines it should be quieter. Also going to see if it's possible to get a cockpit visit on the ground if at all possible, so being closer may help

Oh and do tell the crew it's your honeymoon. They might make a fuss.

Stealthirl

Flew on the upper deck with Virgin in PE 24K last time i was in LAS and thought it looked very cramped in Economy. But its worth it for the experance of being on the upper deck and getting off early for Customs/Immagration state side

Danbo!

Some posts about Virgin's upper deck in this thread -

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057367138

I flew LHR-SFO return earlier in the year in upper deck, was great

ArdRi71

I just flew this route last Wednesday in the upstairs economy cabin. Highly recommend you book it, definitely worth it.

As another poster mentioned you get priority getting off as Premium Exonomy share the upstairs cabin and the service is much faster.

Also on my flight about 4 hours prior to landing the cabin crew supervisor advised that the bar service was being stopped due to the "high consumption of alcohol on the flight"!! Can only imagine that it was messy in the main cabin as there were no issues upstairs. Flown with Virgin a lot to various destinations and never came across a situation like this before!!

faceman

ArdRi71 wrote: »

I just flew this route last Wednesday in the upstairs economy cabin. Highly recommend you book it, definitely worth it.

As another poster mentioned you get priority getting off as Premium Exonomy share the upstairs cabin and the service is much faster.

Also on my flight about 4 hours prior to landing the cabin crew supervisor advised that the bar service was being stopped due to the "high consumption of alcohol on the flight"!! Can only imagine that it was messy in the main cabin as there were no issues upstairs. Flown with Virgin a lot to various destinations and never came across a situation like this before!!

It's common enough on some of their routes, particular the Vegas route.

January

faceman wrote: »

It's common enough on some of their routes, particular the Vegas route.

Definitely, I've heard of the same problem on BA's Vegas routes too.

Locker10a

ArdRi71 wrote: »

Also on my flight about 4 hours prior to landing the cabin crew supervisor advised that the bar service was being stopped due to the "high consumption of alcohol on the flight"!! Can only imagine that it was messy in the main cabin as there were no issues upstairs. Flown with Virgin a lot to various destinations and never came across a situation like this before!!

This is very common on the Vegas route! It's the transatlantic equivalent to the Notorious Ibiza summer flights

Dr.Rieux

Booked the upper deck last night. Thanks for all the help

January

Come back and review it for us! Enjoy.

RHJ

This post has been deleted.

Dr.Rieux

RHJ wrote: »

Good luck on your honeymoon when you have time do report back on your experience of sitting in the top deck of the 747.

It's such a shame, the aircraft is coming to the end of its lifespan. It truly is a beautiful piece of engineering.

Will do. Not heading for another few weeks.

Its a plane I've always wanted to fly so am looking forward to it. Finishing the honeymoon in New York so will also get to fly on an a340 coming home

bronn

I've been on the upper deck on a KLM 747-400 a few times and have always picked the same seat, 77A. Not much storage up there (they take your wheelie case and store it in a cabin baggage thing) but, apart from that, it was the best seat in the house. Even more leg room than the usual because you face a jumpseat and nobody can recline into "your" space. They've upgraded the cabins now and I haven't been in the new one, but I'd still go for this seat. It might be a little colder than elsewhere but I think that's because you're beside an emergency door. Nothing like the upper deck on a plane.

Sorry about the crappy photo. Was trying to give an impression of the leg room and failed miserably. A nosey parker was beside me.

smurfjed

Have to admit that i preferred the upper deck on the 747-100, around here it had coffee tables, sofa's and held around 12 people. Normal passengers weren't allowed to sit there so it was ideal for staff travel. It also had the largest crew rest area that i have ever seen in an aircraft, literally two double beds.

The upper deck in the 747-400 just doesn't have the same charm

yermandan

Can't wait to hear how you get on. Congrats!

Ashbx

Go for it! We flew the upper deck going to South Africa and its definitely more private and quiet!

Dr.Rieux

Back from the trip a week now so will give an update on how we got on.

We had 7 flights in total...
DUB -> LGW - Aer Lingus A320
LGW -> LAS - Virgin Atlantic B744
LAS -> IAH - United A319
IAH -> CUN - United B739
CUN -> EWR - United B739
EWR -> LHR - Virgin Atlantic A346
LHR -> DUB - Aer Lingus A320


The flight on the Jumbo was as pleasant as a 10:45 hour flight could be really. Upstairs there is a storage box running alongside the windows where we were able to leave things like ipads, books, headphones so they weren't in the seat pocket in front of us taking up space for our knees. The dinner was merely alright, but all the other food they brought around like the mini pizza was quite nice. It was quiet and the touch screen IFE was quite good, although the head phone jack was dodgy and I had to keep the plug supported by my leg to make sure I got sound.

By far the least comfortable plane was the A340 on the way home, I couldn't sit with my legs directly in front of me and I'm not really tall. I had to sit with my knees either side of the seat in front of me, the seats themselves weren't that comfortable. And it was quite noisy, admittedly we were seated just behind the wings as they were the only available window seats. The 2-4-2 configuration was nice though as it was the only flight where we didn't have someone else beside us. Also the older IFE was quite dark and could be difficult enough to get an angle to see it clearly.

Overall I'd recommend going upstairs on the Jumbo (which was my original point in the thread :pac:) but wouldn't recommend the flight on the 340, although I'm delighted I got to go one one, I wouldn't be keen on going back on one.

Dr.Rieux

Also, the Jumbo's reg was quite appropriately G-VAST

Brendan Bendar

Dr.Rieux wrote: »

Back from the trip a week now so will give an update on how we got on.

We had 7 flights in total...
DUB -> LGW - Aer Lingus A320
LGW -> LAS - Virgin Atlantic B744
LAS -> IAH - United A319
IAH -> CUN - United B739
CUN -> EWR - United B739
EWR -> LHR - Virgin Atlantic A346
LHR -> DUB - Aer Lingus A320


The flight on the Jumbo was as pleasant as a 10:45 hour flight could be really. Upstairs there is a storage box running alongside the windows where we were able to leave things like ipads, books, headphones so they weren't in the seat pocket in front of us taking up space for our knees. The dinner was merely alright, but all the other food they brought around like the mini pizza was quite nice. It was quiet and the touch screen IFE was quite good, although the head phone jack was dodgy and I had to keep the plug supported by my leg to make sure I got sound.

By far the least comfortable plane was the A340 on the way home, I couldn't sit with my legs directly in front of me and I'm not really tall. I had to sit with my knees either side of the seat in front of me, the seats themselves weren't that comfortable. And it was quite noisy, admittedly we were seated just behind the wings as they were the only available window seats. The 2-4-2 configuration was nice though as it was the only flight where we didn't have someone else beside us. Also the older IFE was quite dark and could be difficult enough to get an angle to see it clearly.

Overall I'd recommend going upstairs on the Jumbo (which was my original point in the thread :pac:) but wouldn't recommend the flight on the 340, although I'm delighted I got to go one one, I wouldn't be keen on going back on one.

Well done- excellent review