PE seats on VS043 / VS044 LGW/LAS

Anyone know if the PE seats have been upgraded on the LGW-LAS flights or are we still stuck in the 80's ?

Thanks
C.

Hi

We did the flight last week - still 80's - although upstairs is very pleasant...

Alhtough the seats on the LGW fleet are not the purple leather ones that one will find on the LHR fleet, I am not certain they hearald from the 1980's or not.

Hackneyguy

I keep flying this route because it's the easiest way for us to get to London from Salt Lake City where we live. Hop a Delta flight to Vegas then Virgin to Gatwick. Each time I hope and pray that they've upgraded the seats but ever since doing that route it's been the same, musty red don't-fit-the-passenger-very-well seats with compressed padding [:#]
Seems like they've done the upgrade to just about every plane in the fleet now except the one on the Vegas route.

The eight 747-400 based at LGW are the only aircraft in the fleet which have the older style PE seats upstairs.

The main deck offers the seats between the new leather ones and the older style upstairs seatss.

Three of the a/c have the Oydessy entertainment with removable remote controls and Nintendo games.

The remaining 5 have the Nova+ system which has a remote control on the inside of the armrest.

If you prefer to sample the new seats maybe its worth flying from SFO or LAX, although not sure how this fits in with your connections.

Hope you enjoy your flight which ever routing you take.

That's good to know. Is there any plan to change all the seats on these 8 aircraft or are they just leaving them as-is?

One other question - for the first time, their website isn't allowing me to select seats for part of my flight. I called their 1-800 number and the girl there was useless - she just kept saying 'use the website 24 hours before you travel'. She didn't understand that 5 months ago when I made the booking, I was able to select seats for one leg of the journey but not the other. All I wanted to know was why I couldn't select seats for the return flight.
Any ideas why this might be? I've always been able to select seats when making bookings online with Virgin.

quote:Originally posted by chrisell
One other question - for the first time, their website isn't allowing me to select seats for part of my flight. I called their 1-800 number and the girl there was useless - she just kept saying 'use the website 24 hours before you travel'. She didn't understand that 5 months ago when I made the booking, I was able to select seats for one leg of the journey but not the other. All I wanted to know was why I couldn't select seats for the return flight.
Any ideas why this might be? I've always been able to select seats when making bookings online with Virgin.


This generally means that the number that are released for pre-allocation (60%?) have been snaffled and the remaining seats - save for bulkheads and exit rows - will be released 24 hrs before the flight during the OLCI period.

Paul

(where's Neil when you need him?)

Bizarre-o. 5 months ahead of time and all the pre-allocated seats were booked already? I find that really hard to believe given that the outbound flight was an empty cabin when I booked it - I was able to pick any seat.
I really want to like Virgin. They've been pretty good - only lost my bags twice in five flights (as oppose to 14 times in 14 flights with Delta) and they offer premium economy - something barely anyone else does now. But I just wish they'd have some consistency in their booking system and cabins.

[Neil]

quote:Originally posted by pjh
(where's Neil when you need him?)


Here I am, yey (well I'm happy I'm here anyway.

Back to business. Firstly, just to back up what HG says, the seats, whilst not the new leather PE seats, are only a maximum of 8 years old, as that is all the a/c is. Personally, I find the PE seats on the upstairs on the LGW fleet very comfortable, and way better than the old PE seats on the LHR fleet.

Re, the not being able to pre-select your seat. Paul is right in as much as that only 60% of seats are available for pre-selection. The other problem with PE allocation on the LGW fleet is that the front half of the upper deck is purely for pax booked through Virgin Holidays, so it does limit the amount of seats available for pre-selection when booking direct with VS.

Your only real option now is to do OLCI exactly 24hours before your flight. Any remaining non selected seats will open up here, of course there is also the possibility of getting the exit row upstairs (the best non UC seat on the Virgin fleet IMO) as this is only available for allocation at check in.

Neil

quote:Originally posted by chrisell
Bizarre-o. 5 months ahead of time and all the pre-allocated seats were booked already? I find that really hard to believe given that the outbound flight was an empty cabin when I booked it - I was able to pick any seat.


I guess 5 months out does seem a little odd, unless there's a party booked ?

Paul

Has anyone been to the checkin area at LGW recently? Virgin are advertising PE upgrades for 150 upgrade to PE with a huge picture of the new PE seats.

The planes were booked for their refurb this year but due to the econmic downtown this was cancelled and now wont happen for at least a couple of years unfortunately

I fully understand why the refurb has been delayed. That said, there is no excuse for Virgin advertising the PE upgrade at LGW check-in with a picture of the new purple leather seats - they are 99% certain that the PE product ex-LGW will not match the picture, unless a LHR aircraft is making a brief appearance at LGW.

quote:Originally posted by Kraken
I fully understand why the refurb has been delayed. That said, there is no excuse for Virgin advertising the PE upgrade at LGW check-in with a picture of the new purple leather seats - they are 99% certain that the PE product ex-LGW will not match the picture, unless a LHR aircraft is making a brief appearance at LGW.


They'd be better off extolling the 'private cabin' feel of the bubble, except for the fact that some will inevitably end up in the PE seats downstairs..

Paul

Yeah - I like flying in the bubble because it's relatively quiet. The 80's reference was simply referring to how the seats look and feel. That they're only 11 years old is surprising though.