TWO aircraft at a time!

[Pete]

quote:Originally posted by vsdan
With the UCS on LHR 744s and A340-600s, the bar has been made more private than the previous ones, but will the LGW 744s have a more open one (not seperated from the cabin) or a smaller version of the other bars with UCS.

Thanks In Advance

Dan - the bar is shown on the seatmap - it's positioned where the IFBT station would be on the LHR fleet. Smaller, but better than no bar at all. And it'll have the same chandelier as the LHR fleet

Pix

Mcuth

Michael

Are you just being provocative or were your comments made with toungue in cheek.

You know that most passenger pay around 800 to 900 to fly PE from LGW.

The point I,m making is that in Oct you can fly LHR>JFK £1900 UC
LGW>MCO £1470 UC (prices from VS travel store today)

If by then these flights have suites, will have VS club house facilities and newer aircraft, then UC on the Man 747 200's should be cheaper as they will have old cabins with outdated seating, no bar etc and only the use of the general lounge at MAN.

Paul

Paul,
I would imagine that the main reason for different prices is supply and demand.
AFAIR there is only one flight MAN-MCO and two or sometimes three LGW-MCO.
The MAN flight always seems busy even with a premium cost, so VS are going to get what they can, which is what a great marketing advantage Club Orlando is!
If the demand for MAN waned, then the prices would come down

Paul

quote:Are you just being provocative or were your comments made with toungue in cheek.

Neither mate, you've met me - do you really think I'm a provocative person? I'm trying to get my head around this, that's all

quote:You know that most passenger pay around 800 to 900 to fly PE from LGW.

On a restricted fare, very probably.

quote:The point I,m making is that in Oct you can fly LHR>JFK £1900 UC LGW>MCO £1470 UC (prices from VS travel store today)

I think you have to exclude LHR>JFK - not the same destination, so not really up for comparison. I had a look at some fares on VTS' site this morning - let's compare the same dates.

Outbound 12th Oct, Inbound 26th Oct (no particular reason, just midweek flights for a 2 week holiday):
MAN>MCO Business fare (D) £1,374.20
LGW>MCO Business fare (Z) £2,023.30

MAN>MCO PE fare (heavily restricted) £1,022.40
LGW>MCO PE fare None @ VTS or on VS website for return on 26th.
Using return date of 25th:
PE fare (flexible) £1,463.70 (VS)
PE fare (heavily restricted) ££972.80 (VTS)

quote:If by then these flights have suites, will have VS club house facilities and newer aircraft, then UC on the Man 747 200's should be cheaper as they will have old cabins with outdated seating, no bar etc and only the use of the general lounge at MAN.

Although I don't think the age of the actual plane should be factored into any price equation, I do agree that the price should be less for "UC" from MAN than it is from LGW for the older cabin and non-clubhouse lounge access.

From the above, it looks like there is a price differential between MAN & LGW to account for this - or am I missing something?

Cheers

Michael

[Pete]

Paul, I agree that fares from MAN should be cheaper than London, since it's not a full Upper Class product.

Where you've got to be careful in making comparisons in price, is when looking at the deepest discounts available. Obviously there are diminishing numbers of seats available on any flight in the cheaper buckets, so the 'average' cost (a figure we'll never really know) is where the true comparison lies. If you can get all seats on the MAN flights in a D fare, that's the average price - you can't really compare that with the cheapest Z fare, you have to take into account the D & J fares; or compare D to D (still flawed, but better than Z to D).

As Alan also points out, fares find their own level. If the cabin isn't selling, they'll lower the price (or make more seats available in the cheaper buckets). On the LHR-JFK routes there is intense competition - so not only does the price have to be competitive with other carriers on the route, the product offering has to match (or exceed). Whilst I'm not going to defend whether it is fair for VS to offer a worse product in MAN, at least they brand it differently and price it to be competitive in that market (which I guess it must be, since they sell seats).

As a savvy traveller, you're probably more aware of the differences than others buying tickets from MAN. Most probably don't even realise Club Orlando is anything other than Upper, as it's a holiday route with minimal business travel.

Bottom line is, being aware of the product offering you have a choice. You can buy a Club Orlando seat knowing what that entails, or get a flight down to London and pick up an Upper Class seat. Who knows - you may get lucky and find Z class in Upper which works out similar or cheaper to Club Orlando,

Pix

Virgin would do better to push both together, push UCS for the business, while enticing cattle classs (like moi) with the V:port.

there's only 40 odd passengers per flight in UCS, while there's 200-300 economy and premium economy.

V:port benefits all onboard.

[Pete]

Blythy,

Last time I spoke to Marketing, they hadn't changed the plan of getting V:Port rolled out across the fleet, there's just a commercial reality in doing it bit by bit. If they did it all at the same time, the coffers at VS would deplete pretty quickly and then we'd all be in danger of not getting any kind of VS product to enjoy.

As for concentrating on the UCS, that's again a commercial issue. V:Port may benefit everyone on board, but it's very difficult to sell a seat simply on the strength of the IFE. Upper Class passengers also bring in around 10 times more revenue per seat, and they will make a purchasing decision based on the 'flat bed'.

Don't worry, VS are getting there - even if we'd all like them to get there just a little bit quicker.

Pix

[Pete]

quote:Originally posted by Blythy
when did ruby tuesday get suites? according to the site a couple days ago, it was still in J2000

Just got confirmation that Ruby Tuesday is due back on 27th Jun with Suites. Her first flight is scheduled to be MIA.

Pix

cheers pix.

damn, you've got a lot of sources.

any HP?

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY RESERVATIONS SAY THAT IN OCT THE 600 AIRBUS TO HKG IS SHOWING OLD UPPER CLASS, I THOUGHT AND HOPED THAT THE UCS WAS ON ALL LONDON HEATHROW FLIGHTS BY AUG?

ANYONE HELP WITH A ANSWER?

ITS DEF A 600 AIRBUS ON EVERY DAY IN SEPT AND OCT

quote:Originally posted by jonathan2122
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY RESERVATIONS SAY THAT IN OCT THE 600 AIRBUS TO HKG IS SHOWING OLD UPPER CLASS, I THOUGHT AND HOPED THAT THE UCS WAS ON ALL LONDON HEATHROW FLIGHTS BY AUG?

ANYONE HELP WITH A ANSWER?

ITS DEF A 600 AIRBUS ON EVERY DAY IN SEPT AND OCT

Because until, that actual aircraft is done, and not delayed in any way, they play it safe.

SO HOPEFULLY IN OCT THAT ROUTE WILL BE UCS WHAT DO YOU RECON?

AND WHICH WINDOW SEAT IS BEST, ON OLD UC THE 2 ROW WAS BEST ON 600 AIRBUS

quote:Originally posted by jonathan2122
SO HOPEFULLY IN OCT THAT ROUTE WILL BE UCS WHAT DO YOU RECON?

AND WHICH WINDOW SEAT IS BEST, ON OLD UC THE 2 ROW WAS BEST ON 600 AIRBUS

Looks good, a amall chance it wont be. 3 or 4 are good windows,
not too close to the loo !

i would hope that they pull their finger out and get the suite fitted the route is popular and i would of thought it would be one of the first, strange?

so you think there is a chance it wont be done?

hope it is!

quote:Originally posted by jonathan2122

so you think there is a chance it wont be done?

Yes, but pretty slim all the A346 going to NRT,PVG and HKG
should be done, but, sometimes there are delays in completing the refit.

[Bazz]

Given Declan started this thread with the news G-VFAB, Lady P was in for the suites on 15 Jun which was the day we arrived back on her into LHR at 07.50 from MIA and I see the Aircraft database says she has since done another round trip to MIA then BOS and MIA again, what's the score?

G-VFAB will go in on June 26th for Suites and V-Port throughout.

Two A340-600 are now flying with suites

[Bazz]

Thanks Declan

With the new UCS and change to the B zone what will be the rules for the toilets! With two toilets at door 1 and one at door 2 will the PE passengers be asked to go back to door 2 or will there be a queue in the UC galley?

So i hope all 600's will be be done soon, does anyone know when? these allways fly the asia routes.

Has anyone been on a 600 suite? The crew say the layout is strange any comments?

[honey lamb]

quote:Has anyone been on a 600 suite?

http://www.v-flyer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1698