LGW 744 scheduled on LHR route?

Just logged into my booking on the VS5 (LHR-MIA) in January, and when I went into the seat map, got a pleasant surprise when it seems they have updated the aircraft type from an A343 to a 744. I quickly changed the assigned seats to something more favourable as there was loads of availability.

When I checked the seat maps on Vflyer, I noticed that the map on my booking is that of the LGW/MAN suite 744 and not the LHR Suite 744 - i.e. Y starts at row 21, the upper deck just contains premium economy (rows 70-80) etc.

Is this a normal occurrence for VS to put a LGW/MAN 744 on a LHR route and to be so specific on the flight this far out? Could it be that they figure MIA will be mainly leisure pax at that time of year, so wanted to have more eco + premium eco seats and less UC? I'd have thought all the LGW VS routes were equally touristy and that the LGW/MAN suite aircraft would be tied on those as usual.

I'm still happy that it's a 744, but would have liked a LHR based one for the high probability of V:Port these days, rather than the probability of Nova or Odyssey at best on a LGW ship.

Any guesses/advice greatly appreciated!
Michael.

seems everyones planes are changing, mines gone from a suite to j2000
though my reply from VA was that it isn't cause they don't have any.

Me thinks there is a glitch on the site, so long as there is a bubble and my seats are in it (PE) I don't mind what it is.

My seat assignments and aircraft type for December have changed twice this week. I'm having to keep a close eye on the seating plan now!

For our flight back from LAS to LGW on 23/9 the seat map has disappeared altogether, it now says "We're sorry. The seat map is not available at this time. Your seats will be assigned at check in". [:(] Still shows fine for LHR to SFO though

Sounds like everyone is getting strange changes!

Alas it's now back to an A343 again I've moved my seats back to what they were before as the change was only useful on a 744.

I noticed the VS site was down before my seat map changed, so perhaps they were updating them.

Anyone elses changed back now?

I'd have thought they had the winter schedule pretty firm by now, so looks like it's a 343 for me

It's bizzare. I've hand an email from Cust Services confirming a 340/600 but seatmap is still showing as a 340/300! I'll let you all know whats going on when i find out. You're right though, the winter scedules etc should be sorted out by now.

Same happened to me a couple of days ago. The scheduled A340-300 for my IAD flight this week had changed to an LGW based 747-400, except the seat layout indicated it was a non-UCS aircraft (seemingly impossible since all LGW aircraft are now UCS). I guessed it was a glitch of some sort, and the A340-300 is now back in the system.

Luckily got just enough miles in the account on Friday to upgrade to UCS as well. Still J2000, but at least it isn't Y!

AF

That's the thing I don't understand - seeing as VS only do a single daily to MIA in the winter, yet BA manage to sustain 3 x 744 daily and AA 2 x 777 daily (departing within 2 hours of each other!), I'm amazed that VS would only put a 343 on this single daily flight.

I couldn't find exactly how many pax each VS type seats, but I did some calculations from the v-flyer seat maps and got it to:

343 non-suite: 40J, 28W, 187Y = 255 pax
343 UCS : 34J 35W 171Y = 240 pax
346 : 45J 28W 235Y = 308 pax
744 LHR UCS : 45J 32W 306Y = 383 pax

So it would really surprise me if a single daily flight to MIA could only just fill the type with the lowest capacity in the fleet when AA and BA are filling 2 x 777 and 3 x 744 respectively

I'll be keeping a very close eye on the seatmap from now on, as my selected row doesn't exist on the 346 which is what I suspect it may eventually go to. Even if it went to 343 UCS (the map is the non-UCS aircraft), it doesn't exist on there either!

I took a look through expertflyer for different dates and it seems that as it stands now, they have the 343 on VS Sun-Thu, and the 346 Fri+Sat around my dates.