Whats the deal with the A340 UC suites?

I have heard heaps of rumours about what is going on with them. I want to know the facts? Im travelling to tokyo in UC at the end of July 2004 and returning on the 4th September 2004. What are the chances of getting the new UC suites?

Some people have said as soon as the A340s get them they will be switched to US routes.

Some people have said they wont be out till the end of the year but ive heard that by the end of august they will all be fitted with suites.

What is the deal?

[Pete]

The A340-300s aren't (at this stage) slated to get Suites. That may change if they stay in the fleet longer, but don't hold your breath.

The A340-600s should all have Suites by August.

Can't answer any of your other questions, sorry. Haven't heard those rumours - but they do sound like rumours.

Pix

Thanks for the quick reply!

So my flight back from Tokyo on the 4th of September will deffinatly have the suites?

[Pete]

No way that anyone could tell you that you'd definitely have Suites, since aircraft schedules change all the time, and there may be delays in getting Suites fitted. The A346 may, as you've speculated, move to a different route.

It would sound pretty likely that you'll be on a Suite-fitted aircraft. However, there are no guarantees, and any number of things may change between now and September.

Pix

Just out of interest - what happens when you try to reserve your seats in the Virgin flight management system on the VS website. We are off to JBurg in November and the seat plan that came up was for a 744 (LHR) spec with no suites - using the "which Plane" resource on here that plane only accounted for 3% of the flights from LHR to JBurg - so I am speculating that now you can book seats 336 days in advance VS must have a pretty good idea about which plane will fly which route!!

This is merely their booking system. A lot of the time, the old seat layouts get assigned even tho the suites are being used.

Hmm. Things can and do change, however the mid-week flights to JNB in October/November are showing an A340-300 and the weekend ones a 747-400 in non-suite configuration.

Given that both ways is a night flight, I would be rather annoyed if all the other LHR flights were UCS equipped but not JNB. We are likely to do this trip around then, and I am seriously considering some alternatives if we are not going to get suites.

BC