LGW UC History

Did the LGW fleet go straight to UCS from Recarro (sp?) or were any of the 744s fitted with J2000 first?
Also, was Club Orlando the same as UC?

VS.

Club Orlando had its own kind of seats..... and the LGW fleet went straight for UCS, although some of the current LGW fleet were originally LHR fleet, so would have had J2000 on them at one time.

Club Orlando was (AFAIK) on the MAN-MCO flights when they were operated by Air Atlanta 747-200s. The LGW fleet moved over to UCS from Recarro a few years back and also when they received a/c from LHR fitted with J2000.

Club Orlando seats ceased to exist when flights ex-MAN moved over to LGW-based 747-400s full-time on 1st May 2005 by which time the a/c allocated to LGW at the time had been fitted with UCS. Since May 2005 a few more 747-400s have moved over from LHR and were fitted with UCS and reconfigured to LGW spec (the latest a/c being G-VXLG)

As a sidenote, all LGW/MAN a/c are fitted with UCS and all have NOVA or ODYSSEY as their IFE and have old style seats in PE and Economy.

I stand to be corrected on any of the above pointers.

I flew from MCO to LGW in November 2002 and am 99% sure I was on a B744 with J2000 seating in Upper Class. From what I remember, the config was pretty much what we are used to now on a LGW/MAN B744, bar the obvious arrival of UCS up front.

It would be interesting to have a section on the history of the routes and cabin/service chnages on the site somewhere. Or have I missed this on the site somewhere?

[mitchja]

Originally posted by Kraken
I flew from MCO to LGW in November 2002 and am 99% sure I was on a B744 with J2000 seating in Upper Class. From what I remember, the config was pretty much what we are used to now on a LGW/MAN B744, bar the obvious arrival of UCS up front.

This might have been one of the old B742's, as I flew on one of these on the YYZ route which departed LGW but did have J2000 in the nose section and on the upper deck. I remember this flight very well as this was my first time in J [:w] There was no bar but there was an IFBT onboard.

The A/C was G-VIBE (the original Dancing Queen later renamed Spirit of New York) with Odyssey as the IFE.

Some of the B742's had J2000 in the nose section, others had PE seats there instead.

Regards

Has anyone got any pictures of what the Recarro seats ,looked like? Im curious.

kev.

[mitchja]

One here another here

Regards

Makes me quite nostalgic, while I like to sleep on the night flights I do miss the space and beign able to chat.

[Scrooge]

oh the memories, still miss the Recarro's on day flights.

Originally posted by GrinningJackanapes

These photos tell us everything we need to know about why we love VS, and why we become so peeved when they insist on backtracking the steps they have taken to bridge the gap between this Recarro seat and the Upper Class Suite.

Ladies and gentlemen, I say ye: SRB and Virgin Atlantic.

GJ

I think the point is that when it appeared that SRB had some say good things happened. When he did not have some say and the accountants run the airline things go bad very quickly!

Paul

originally posted by manymiles

It would be interesting to have a section on the history of the routes and cabin/service chnages on the site somewhere.

I second that, I never knew VS used to fly to Chicago and Toronto before seeing some of the posts on this site, and didn't know the Virgin UC of old other than J2000 and UCS. It would certainly be a great addition to the site.
Cheers,
Chris

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by manymiles
It would be interesting to have a section on the history of the routes and cabin/service chnages on the site somewhere. Or have I missed this on the site somewhere?

There is a chapter on the history of Virgin Atlantic in the V-Book, which is currently being updated and will hopefully be available soon through this website.

Nick

Thanks for the replies everyone:D

Any reason as to why ex-MAM the class was called Club Orlando instead of UC?

VS.

[Pete]

Because it wasn't even close to the Upper Class service touted out of London, so they priced it a little cheaper and slapped the Club Orlando monika on it.

Pete

Pictures of a Club Orlando seat circa 1999
[url="http://www.v-flyer.com/forum/flyer_viewphoto.asp?photo_id=34&airline=&aircraft=&registration=&airport=&photographer=alana&keywords=&category=&lastpos=90&fromsearch=yes]here.[/url]
There is also a Club Orlando menu on the picture site AFAIR very much like todays UC menu...

Those Club Orlando seats don't even compare to recarro[:0]

VS.