V-Flyer

Hi all,

Have seen this mentioned on a couple of threads, and was just wondering what it is going to be like. I thought with the UC refit of the 747-400 (LGW) they were going to have V:Port installed. Is this still happening or ar ethey just upgrading the IFE to "Super-Nova"?

The consensus seems to be that the LGW 747-400s are going to get an uprated Nova system, despite wishful thinking hereabouts that they would get V:Port.

BC

I have some answer from flying club regarding Nova LGW Suite planes.

See below response from Flying club
Dear Jason,

Thanks for your reply.

At this stage the priority has been to refit the aircrafts with the Upper Class Suite. Once this has been completed on all of our fleet, we will then be looking into re-fitting the new V-PORT entertainment system.

Kind regards,

Contact Centre Customer Service Team

So Unless anyone knows more than the FLying Club it looks like we are stuck with Nova for a while longer.

Regards

Jason Coles

Hello

Basically Nova is having a software upgrade as the cost of re-fitting all the LGW a/c with v:port was considered too expensive. 'Supernova' will have 11 movie channels (currently 7) and 6 TV channels (currently 1). There will be no games and the audio channels will be as at present.

Cheers
Alan

Alan.

Will the refit include bigger screens, or will it just be the servers that will be upgraded?

Nick

Hi Nick

I don't know for sure but I presume the screens will be unchanged seeing as none of the other hardware is being replaced.

Cheers
Alan

Hi Alan,

I have been looking at pics of the suites, how will they get the old screens which have been previously stowed in the arm rests to fit into the new suite hardware with major modification surely it would be simpler to use new screens that are designed to fit?

Regards

Jason Coles

Will probably only need a bracket connector to fit it to the arm, all the wireing would go through the arm, it would jusat have a lot of space around it in the chair.

Hi Alan,

This seems like a crazy situation, all the LHR a/c are updated to suites and most now have VPORT. Yet the LGW a/c are getting suites, no beautician area and now no VPORT. It seems to me that Virgin have either run out of funds to update the LGW a/c to VPORT or they are treating LGW customers as a poor mans LHR. It must surely make logistical sense to refit a plane with a new IFE system when you are putting new seating in as they will be ripping the plane apart. Otherwise why would they bother changing the LHR IFE when they did the suite upgrade. Saying that I seem to remember someone saying that the VPORT screens will not fit in the current LGW seating in the rest of the plane. What I am hoping is that they give the LGW suite new screens.

Regards

Jason Coles

I would imagine that the they will use the same new screens that all the UCS seats currently use, as V:Port and Odyssey have the same screens on the UCS seat (Odyssey has smaller screens in PE and econ. compared to V:Port), they just use a different hand-set.

I think the TV screen comes as a package with with UCS seat unit - it's just a case of connecting the screen to which ever IFE system is already there...isn't it [?]

Any system should be able to cope with using a bigger screen on some seats (ie UCS).

Regards

Hi James,

I am aware of the cost of the VPORT update, but why only do LHR aircraft ?? That said I am pleased to hear that UCS's come with new screens as part of the package.

Best Regards

Jason Coles

V:Port was only fitted to LHR A/C that had Arcadia (G-VFAB for example)

G-VWOW was the first ever A/C to be fitted with V:Port before the UCS re-fit started (this had V:Port fitted from been new). G-VROC was brand new in December so too came already with V:Port. The A/C that had Odyssey still have it now.

Any brand new A/C brought into service will get V:Port.

Regards

Hi James,

I was not aware that it was only 1 LHR a/c that was upgraded. Nova is ok as an IFE, an it will be even better with extra channels. If the LGW a/c once fitted with suites have the new screens and the 11 movie channels it will be a fairly good system (loads better than some other airlines). There has been mention that once the Nova IFE gets the software update that it will have games too. We will just have to wait and see me thinks. Also I have never used VPORT myself but from what I read it tends to be slow on first use and also hangs sometimes. Nova is very reliable in my opinion never had a problem myself.

Best Regards

Jason Coles

Sorry Jason it may have been more than 1 but it's not that many in reality. I'm having to wrap my brains on what the A/C had before the UCS re-fit started.

No idea what IFE G-VBIG and G-VHOT had before...anyone [?]

Regards

BIG and HOT had Arcadia before V-Port.

Seats in Y on LGW aircraft will stay the same as present, so screen will stay the same.

UCS seats on LGW400 will be same size as other Suite aircraft but with V-Port.

The system will still be good with loads more movie and tv channels.

Hi Declan

Thanks for clearing that up, im glad to hear that LGW UCS will have the new screens, they would look rather daft with nice new suites and tatty old screens.
Do you know if as mentioned in other threads that the software upgrade that is going to allow the extra channels will add games as well ???

Best Regards

Jason Coles

Hi 748748,

I very much doubt that VH will make it clear in there brochures, they have been some what misleading previously. I was on a UC flight to St Lucia earlier this year and a couple were very upset about the fact the a/c did not have J2000 seats, VPORT, IFBT etc he said he was promised that when he booked. Think he took it up with the purser on the flight.

Anyway, anyone want to confirm or disprove whether games will be activated on Supernova???

Regards

Jason Coles

It has always seemed silly to me that the LGW - MCO route has had no games on it, despite the fact that I am a big kid it must have the most actual kids on it than any other route.

The Virgin Holiday brochures do say that

'Games are not avaliable on all aircraft'

Hi all

Sorry if I caused any confusion with regard to the screen size - I was thinking in terms of Y/W class which AFAIK are not being altered apart from the additional W seats. Obviously J will have completely new seats so i would presume also new screens the same as the LHR fleet.

As per my first post, there will be no games...the software upgrade will just add extra film/tv channels. I agree that the MCO route is an obvious one to have games included in the IFE package, but it would seem that this is not a priority. I also agree that LGW J pax are the poor relations compared to LHR pax and I suspect the reason for this is that yields just aren't as good ex-LGW. The LGW operation has at best broken even in recent years even though flights are nearly always full, so from an accounting point of view it is difficult to justify major expenditure for little or no extra profit. I was told the figure of £4M per a/c to replace Nova with v:port so unless the LGW fleet was going to contribute that much extra profit then it's a non-starter really.

Re the LHR fleet, it was only those with Arcadia that were converted to v:port and the 343s won't be converted to v:port (AFAIK) so it's not quite as LHR vs LGW as it might appear! On the plus side, when the 2 ex-LHR 744s are transferred to the LGW fleet next spring then at least some leisure routes will have games.

Cheers
Alan

I can see Alans point about the economics.

If Nova was to get games, then all the Y class seats would need game pads installed, which means new seats throughout as well I would have thought.

Remember that VS has BA to compete with at LGW, and SuperNova would appear to trump BA's Omnia IFE slightly, and we all know that the UCS beats NCW.

why should VS invest more?

Hi all,

But will the NOVA system actually support games, if the hardware will support them, then they could enable games for UCS as the control pads are already there. Can someone techy give us an answer ??

Regards

Jason Coles

I think Nova will support games, I say this because of the design of the handset in the current Upper class seat.

Im confident that Nova will stay and LGW will get games one way or another, ;) (my lips are sealed););)

Hi Declan,

That is most interesting, can you not let us in on this one ??

Cheers Jason

I cant..