Scotland 2023 Day 1: Getting there on Virgin Atlantic

We’d arranged with Sharon and Weo to pick us up at our house and drop us at SFO so we wouldn’t have to worry about stashing our car at long term parking, nor have to drive ourselves home at the end of our long journey upon returning to the US. So all we had to do was pack our bags and be ready.

For this trip we decided we’d each use a full-size suitcase for all our stuff and I’d carry on our new laptop backpack. I’d done a test run of the backpack when we’d taken Andrew to CU Boulder to move him into his dorm in August and had a good sense of what we could pack in that – and I was actually quite pleased with the way the backpack had worked out on that trip. So the backpack had my computer (supplemented with a Bluetooth mouse so I didn’t have to also bring along the USB hub just to have the wireless mouse’s receiver with me), both our tablets, cables, phones, electrical gear, noise-canceling headphones, passports, crossword puzzle books, water bottles, etc – and, of course, the Folder of Fun. We also grabbed our sunglasses and portable cell phone dashboard mount to make it easier to see the phone while driving. Eileen carried a small purse mostly so we’d have quick access for our pills and her phone. The plan was that, once on the ground, we’d use the backpack to tote around our 3-in-1 jackets and water bottles during touring with the intent of offloading the electric gear either to our suitcases or to another smaller backpack that we’d plan to keep in the car trunk during travel.

One of the “things” I’d done pre-trip was to periodically look at the history of our flights on FlightRadar24. This allowed me to see the actual takeoff and landing times for the most recent seven days. Based on that I could tell that VS20 typically left SFO 25-40 minutes late but still managed to make up that time in the air and arrive at LHR close to on-time. While this info didn’t change our timing for reporting to the airport – we are, still, us, and that means we’ll be chronically early even when it isn’t necessary – it did mean that we had a pretty solid understanding of what to expect once we got to SFO and there would be no reason to either rush nor to worry if our boarding call was delayed within the “normal” margins.

On the day of takeoff I awoke to an email from Virgin that our outbound flight was delayed 30 minutes and would take off at 531P. Looking online it was clear that the problem was that the inbound flight (VS19 from LHR) had been delayed leaving London so we were just suffering from cascade effects. No big deal.

Upon arrival at SFO we dropped our bags off at the Virgin desk and cleared security relatively quickly. Been ages since we had to take our shoes off, but there was no pre-TSA marks on our boarding passes so we had to do it old school. Once past security we stopped at a shop so Eileen could buy a reusable water bottle, as none of the ones we had at home was suitable. Bottles filled, we went and sat at the gate and read.

Boarding was also painless. As Premium Economy members we were in Group 2, just after 1st Class. All we had was our backpack which we put into the overhead bin since there was a surplus of bin space. (Post takeoff they appeared to move 4-5 Economy pax into some of the unused PE seats.)

The pacing of VS20 is as follows, with all times expressed as PDT/BDT(Elapsed from Pushback):

• 440P/1240A (T-0:40): Boarding
• 455P/1255A (T-0:30): Pre-flight Prosecco, juice, or water for Premium Economy
• 510P/110A (T-0:15): Cleanup
• 530P/130A (T-0:00): Pushback (about 28 minutes later than published schedule)
• 541P/141A (T+0:11): Takeoff
• 615P/215A (T+0:45): Snack/drink service. Salty/crunchy snack.
• 635P/235A (T+1:05): Cleanup
• 645P/245A (T+1:15): Dinner/drink service. In PE they started in the first row at least on the RH side, didn't notice the LH side...on the return flight it seemed liked they started the LH side from the back row. However, since there are only 5 rows in PE service is completed in about 10 minutes. As expected, our pasta was harmless and mostly tasteless. The key lime cheesecake dessert wasn't bad. The canned(!) Sauv Blanc that I'd selected was HORRIBLE, while E's canned rose was passable. Wines inflicted on us by https://nice-drinks.co.uk/..
• 710P/310A (T+1:40): Cleanup
• 745P/345A (T+2:15): Coffee/tea service
• 800P/400A (T+2:30): Clean up and lights out. E and I both watched the D&D movie – which was a hoot – before each trying to get some sleep. She managed to get 2-3 hours of semi-restful shuteye, but I got nada and gave up after 90 minutes and went back to ready on my tablet.
• 110A/910A (T+7:40): Lights on
• 130A/930A (T+8:00): Breakfast/drink service. We both had their “cooked breakfast”, which was a pretty decent take on a full English breakfast (minus the beans).
• 311A/1111A (T+9:41): Landing...which was still earlier than the officially scheduled arrival time, despite the 30 minute delay at SFO.

About to push back from the gate at SFO.  We wore masks at all times at the airport and on the plane except when eating or drinking.  In Premium Economy we were the only passengers doing so, and I didn't see any other random passengers in other sections wearing masks - but I saw very few of the others.

Enjoying our pre-flight Prosecco.  Premium Economy has some perks.  Note also the comfy leather seats.  We also had 22" wide seats, tons of legroom, and a footrest.  I tried using the footrest but it didn't do much for me.

The food menu on VS20 SFO-LHR.  E and I had both pre-selected the creamy pasta for our dinner about a week before the flight.  Virgin only allows pre-selection of the one meal - we had to choose our "In the morning" choice when they brought the food cart around.  However, since we were in PE and were served before Economy I assume that we would have been able to select any of the choices w/o worry of them being out.

The list of available drinks.  I had some (water-based) hot chocolate as part of the after dinner drinks service.

The seat-back video display. There were about 100 video choices, about 800 music choices, and (I assume) several video game choices.  The "follow the plane" app was pretty poorly designed.  Although you could select one of several views (e.g. "Cockpit", "Right window", "Top down", etc.) your selection would timeout after a couple of minutes and it would revert back to a loop that included boring/unhelpful things like "things to see at your destination" or "world view"  It was possible to use the game controller screen for this app which gave a very pared down look - this would have been OK if it hadn't insisted on displaying all units in metric rather than imperial form.  Finally, the USB plug on the bottom of the screen was VERY worn and our USB cables would tend to work their way out of the socket just from the weight of our cables.

Dinner.  The tray was pretty crowded and it took some stage management to get things situated!  My pepper shaker had a loose top, which I didn't realize until I tried to shake pepper onto my salad and dump the entire contents into my bowl!

The hot breakfast in the morning.  It was actually pretty decent!