How long until all UCS?

This should be contentious.... A post in Ask A Guru has prompted me to think - "When is UCS going to be across the fleet?"

At the moment there are 2 non-Suite A343's doing Lagos, Mumbai, and New York Newark / JFK in the last month. Although these may not be the trailblazing business routes ( New York surely is?! ) I would be very disappointed to be a passenger on these. I've booked 2 Upper Class tickets for Dubai next Easter and will be furious if I ended up on a non-suite 343 then, regardless of any 'operational reasons' get out clause.

I'd hope that the new A346's will resolve this, as it must be galling to find you are on a J2000 aircraft when all the Virgin advertising is for the UCS. For all the fanfare over these adverts - how long will it be before these are perhaps not breaking advertising law, but not really in the spirit of the law?

Thanks,

David.

[fozzyo]

Aren't the A343's being retired / sold-off sometime soon? Hence not having a refit.

Mat xxx

[Bazz]

All the aircraft that will be re-fitted will be completed before the end of the year, as Mat says some of the older Airbus aircraft will not be re-fitted and will eventually be sold. All new orders are already UCS equipped.

Originally posted by fozzyo
Aren't the A343's being retired / sold-off sometime soon? Hence not having a refit.

Mat xxx

A couple ( 1? 2? ) have gone to Virgin Nigeria, and from the aircraft database a couple of them haven't flown in May, not sure where they are.

Thanks,

David.

There's only G-VAEL & G-VFLY that aren't UCS now (see this reply I just did in the other thread), and they're down to leave the fleet by the end of the year I think...(trying to remember if someone said they were off to Finnair or something....)

Cheers

Michael

Originally posted by mcuth
There's only G-VAEL & G-VFLY that aren't UCS now (see this reply I just did in the other thread), and they're down to leave the fleet by the end of the year I think...(trying to remember if someone said they were off to Finnair or something....)

Cheers

Michael

Thanks Michael, and thanks for the updates detailed in the other thread.

It would be nice to know by the end of the year that regardless of route you were flying on, you were 100% guaranteed to be on a Suite equipped aircraft, whether it's the first choice aircraft or an operational change. It would be disappointing if any non-suite A343's are kept on standby for that eventuality.

Thanks,

David.

Errr as far as I know we only have 1 J2000 A343 left flying?
(Or certainly thats what was on our intranet).
This aircraft is leaving the fleet well before the end of the year (as long as the A346 deliveries go to plan).

Where a route is advertised as full UCS Customer Relations will consider complaints favourably should the J200 aircraft be switched.

David, this is a brilliant topic started by you.

Virgins advts in papers here in April said all flights to DEL and BOM will have UCS from 27th April. DEL has had but BOM has VAEL(the only J2000 343) coming every other day which means we in BOM have about 60% UCS when a Virgin advt said 100%. This stinks. Now I am flying BOM LHR on Sat and though my seat map shows UCS there isnt a guarantee that I might end up disappointed and let down on G-VAEL. operational reasons im quite sure are only an excuse cause why should only bom get this aircraft. sadly 2+2 does not add upto 4 in this case.

Anyway fingers crossed for a UCS aircraft on Sat cause if you see the log of ;ast week there is a live possiblity of me being in a J2000 seat grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Originally posted by mcuth
There's only G-VAEL & G-VFLY that aren't UCS now

Hey Michael, just checked and from the info I have V-Fly is no longer in the fleet? So only 1 non UCS Aircraft left.

Assuming SUN joined BUS at Virgin Nigeria but where has FLY gone to? Also all a/c are still registered to VA - any chance they will transfer over?

Phil

Dear V-BEN could you please check whether VS 351 on Saurday is UCS or J2000 please

Originally posted by dell89

Virgins advts in papers here in April said all flights to DEL and BOM will have UCS from 27th April.

That does sound naughty, as the Virgin website says that UCS is on selected BOM flights i.e. does not guarantee, which is fair enough. Saying 'all flights' is a different matter though.

David.

David the website does say selected however advertisements in the economic times and other papers did say all flights from 27/04 and there fav term of operational reasons was also mentioned with an asterix

Originally posted by dell89
David the website does say selected however advertisements in the economic times and other papers did say all flights from 27/04 and there fav term of operational reasons was also mentioned with an asterix

I do agree with you, I think the press advertisement is misleading. For May, the figures for 28 flights BOM-LHR show G-VAEL did the route 6 times. For LHR-BOM it's 29 flights logged and G-VAEL did 7 times ( obviously, one is linked to the other )

I don't think having a non-suite aircraft do the route nearly 25% of the time since 27/04 can be attributed to 'operational reasons'. I would hope that these adverts are not reprinted with the same terms.

Thanks,

David.

Has anyone noticed that the info on the VS website about what flights the suite is on is differnt on differnt parts of the site!

[Bazz]

Originally posted by V-Ben
Hey Michael, just checked and from the info I have V-Fly is no longer in the fleet? So only 1 non UCS Aircraft left.

Ben, thanks a lot for looking that up for us [y]

Originally posted by V-Ben
Hey Michael, just checked and from the info I have V-Fly is no longer in the fleet? So only 1 non UCS Aircraft left.

Hi Ben, that's great info, thanks - any chance you can find out the detail on when/where VFLY went, and what the new reg is please (just so's I can update the fleet db & FAQ)?

Thanks

Cheers

Michael

[preiffer]

Mike,

G-VFLY:

De-Reg. Date: 26/05/2006
Reason: Transferred to another country or authority
To: FINLAND

Thanks Paul - I've updated the FAQ and removed her from the fleet d/b [y]

Cheers

Michael

G-VAEL is scheduled to leave the fleet by the end of September*

* for operational reasons please note this date may be changed

Yup, G-VFLY has gone to Finnair although I don't think it's a permamenent thing - but it won't be coming back to VS AFAIK. I think that Finnair is using this A340 to test out for a fleet renewal.

VS.

[preiffer]

Going back to David's original point, I do have to agree with him to an extent.

VS' fleet is NOT that large - and to take 2 years (Yes, it was the end of '04 when this all started) to update it all does seem like an awfully long time...

I'm not questioning the amount of work that goes into a refresh, but if you consider the size of fleet that BA had to fit out with NCW, they certainly SEEMED to make less of a meal of it in the end... [:w]

Originally posted by preiffer
I'm not questioning the amount of work that goes into a refresh, but if you consider the size of fleet that BA had to fit out with NCW, they certainly SEEMED to make less of a meal of it in the end... [:w]

Remember, BA have a slightly larger fleet, and therefore can afford to have more aircraft down for maintenance and/or interior work at the same time.

VS were going through a period where they could only afford to have one aircraft per fleet away at a time on refit, and it looked like it had to be balanced against the need for other aircraft to be down for checks as well. There simply isn't the same amount of slack in the VS fleet, when compared to that in BA's.

Things certainly seemed to accelerate once more A346s arrived, but usually there was only one aircraft of each type down for refit at any one time. At 4 weeks per aircraft, it's easy to spin it out over 2 years.

Cheers,
Mike

Originally posted by preiffer
Mike,

G-VFLY:

De-Reg. Date: 26/05/2006
Reason: Transferred to another country or authority
To: FINLAND

Farewell! I have fond memories of my first ever business class flight being on her LHR-DEL.

Anyone up for a quick flight to BOM before September to say goodbye to the J2000's *

Phil

* Due to operational reasons J2000 cannot be guarunteed