Virgin Atlantic has introduced high tea at 30,000 feet with service in business class that includes finger sandwiches, scones and jam.
A reporter for Australian Business Traveler calls the service a touch of the Pam Am glamour era back to flying.
British High Tea service is for passengers in the airline's Upper Class business class cabin.
“So what's it like? We can attest that High Tea a la Virgin is a welcome bit of glam in an otherwise long and fairly boring afternoon/evening leg of the flight to Hong Kong and on to London,” writes John Walton.
He calls it a clever way to fix the problem of humdrum second meals on flights that don't arrive at breakfast-time. Virgin Atlantic's Sydney-Hong Kong flight leaves at lunchtime and arrives in the evening after nearly ten hours in the air.
“High tea is a nice touch of British charm towards the end of the flight. The center piece of High Tea is the three-tiered tea trolley that rolls up and down the aisles for you to pick sandwiches, cupcakes, scones and other assorted cakery,” writes Walton.
Your selections are presented on a little double-tiered red-and-white plate set of your very own with finger sandwiches on the bottom and cakes on top.
He reports everything is served fresh and moist, being freshly unwrapped to avoid it drying out in the cabin. No more curling, stale sandwiches or cakes that explode in a cloud of dried-out crumbs.
“More smashing additions to the service are the brilliant mugs with aviation-themed pencil line drawings. Farewell and good riddance to dinky thimble-sized airline teacups, we say! Virgin will give you a proper tea cup, but for us it's mugs all the way,” writes Walton.
Source: Australian Business Traveler