V-Flyer

Hi, i was on VS 10 on Saturday which was delayed 3 hours and had to go to gatwick instead of heathrow (We took off as VS 110)... This was due to a "Technical difficulty" and we had to land in gatwick because jersy girl was the replacement a/c, this meant we had NOVA[:$] and had to be bussed from gatwick to heathrow after our flight. fair do's to virgin this was arranged really well.
I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the technical difficultes were to the outbound aircraft.

Chris

Well, assuming that the 9/10 on Saturday were planned on a 744, it looks like it might have been G-VHOT which went tech on Saturday, as all the other 4 aircraft in the Heathrow 744 pool appear to have worked.

It seems that G-VGAL was mobilised out of Gatwick by about 7pm in the evening to fly to JFK (I'd actually wondered if one of the MCO flights got cancelled and merged, and GAL got positioned in from MCO, but it seems she came from Gatwick). I'm assuming the VS9 crew were bussed over to Gatwick.

I wonder what happened to the VS9 pax? Put onto VS25 (or 17 into EWR) or bussed to Gatwick?

I'm guessing that going to Gatwick was the only option for minimising knock-on disruption to the Gatwick flying programme the following day. (The LAS flight didn't seem to leave until early afternoon, as a result of this.)

It seemed that someone in ops was faced with some difficult choices and managed to concoct what seems a reasonable compromise!

Mike

Mike,
Thanks for that. You always have good information.

Chuck-

Hi Mike thatnks for explaning , as far as i know VS9 crew and pax were bussed over to LGW. This also meant to many downgrades and tantrums ( I witnessed one and felt so sorry for the staff)

Chris

Originally posted by Airbus340
Hi Mike thatnks for explaning , as far as i know VS9 crew and pax were bussed over to LGW. This also meant to many downgrades and tantrums ( I witnessed one and felt so sorry for the staff)

Hm, if there was space on the 17 or 25, I'd have offered voluntary changes to those flights for UC pax which couldn't go J on the VS9.

As for who gets to go J on the VS9... well, bump down all the mileage upgrades back to their ticketed class, make sure all the Aus get to stay in the pointy bit, then first come, first served.

At the end of the day, at least an aircraft was sourced, and a flight operated. It could have been worse!

It does highlight one area VS shot itself in the foot with fleet configs - it's been said several times the J cabin on the LGW is too small for even some of the LGW routes (like LAS and BGI).

It would probably make sense to leave the entire upper deck on the LGW fleet as W (and fit laptop power where it isn't provided), but re-instate the "B zone" J cabin. Move the bar back to doors 2 (where it belongs), re-instate the IFBT pod in the "A zone" and you get an aircraft that can offer IFBT services out of Gatwick (providing service consistency) which is also capable of covering for LHR routes that have a slightly lighter J cabin load without causing a large number of involuntary downgrades.

I suspect it's been an expensive mistake in terms of lost J revenue on routes like BGI and LAS, involuntary downgrades becuase of inop suites on the other B&S routes, and loss of flexibility when cover is urgently needed for the LHR fleet.

Sure, it might mean the odd op-up from W to J on the routes with the lower J yield, but that will just give good PR and create happy people, while not costing VS that much - a full-fare W to J op-up only costs the difference in the meal service which is comparatively small on a ~£1500-2000 fare.

Hopefully, anyone who got an involuntary downgrade this time won't have to go through the same chaos EGG suffered after it happened to him.

Mike

Disclaimer: I don't work for Virgin. I just get some of these things because of my past in the travel industry.