V-Flyer

the entertainment systems on each plane?

kids are quite dissapointed they wont have the nintendo games on the flight im on to and back from antigua on the 30th june, seems kind of unfair of virgin to offer some customers the most modern systems while the rest have to be content with an old model.

it's quite accurate unless a plane needs to be swapped for technical reasons. As you can probably guess "fairness" doesn't really come in to it - you work with what you have. I could go into a long explanation but I'm sure you can see the point.

Hi omslemming, welcome to the site,

The database should be pretty accurate on the type of entertainment system, although the predictions of the actual aircraft you're going to get on a specific flight is only an indication based on historical data since Virgin don't release an operating schedule.

The issue of the different types of equipment has been discussed before, but the bottom line is it comes down to economic reality. Whilst Virgin are doing their best to fit V:Port across the fleet (along with the Upper Class Suite), the cost runs at about £2m per plane for the entertainment system alone. Fitting out an aircraft also takes time, and with a small fleet, it's quite a juggling act to book aircraft in for the refit in between normal maintenance, new route requirements and commercial growth.

The Nova system you're talking about (without Nintendo) was originally intended to be delivered to Alitalia, but Virgin bought the 747s when Alitalia cancelled their order. When the UCS are fitted to those aircraft (anticipated from the end of this year to Spring 2005), those planes will also get V:Port. Unfortunately I know this doesn't make your kids feel any better about it on your flight on 30th June, but at least I hope you'll understand the situation a little better. If Virgin hadn't bought those aircraft, or they had concentrated their efforts on upgrading the existing fleet, the Antigua route may well have never started.

Pix

I get frustrated with the Nova system at times, its often faulty or not working.

But ... i guess we all should look back to when there were no such things as seat back tv's. Nova has 8 film/tv channels which beats the pants off watching the same boring film from a badly positioned single screen on the plane. Im sure your kids will find a film or two that they will enjoy?

You could always invest in a Nintendo GameBoy or something to keep them amused. I have one as i fly frequently and its a good distraction when i get bored of tv and reading.

Yeah I must admit Nova dissapoints me too but its still better than you get on a lot of airlines. My brother had a faulty Arcadia system once (froze during a game of FZero) and the air hostess said to switch off and back on (like we hadnt already tried that) and raced off, so he put up with no IFE for the rest of the flight.