V Port Problems

There seems to be a lot of complaints about V Port not working on a lot of flights. Is this just a small number of problems or is it a serious problem that Virgin are having with this system. I have just booked a flight to Shanghai in September ( I know its a lon time away) but I would go crazy if there was no IFE.- Keith

There aren't really a lot of issues its just that no-one posts to say v-port was working!!

I've never had an issue with any IFE system (touches wood)

The last three flights I've made there have been problems with V-port - and it is v disappointing and annoying to say the least!
I was offered an individual DVD player last time but the selection of movies was terrible and I was then asked if I would mind relinquishing the power lead as it was needed by someone else for their computer.
In return I was to be provided with a battery pack - however this never materialized nor did the DVD player which was taken away from me!
To cap it all - I was then asked for the player back at the end of the flight and for a while the crew member implied that I had hidden it away and was going to walk off with it!
However when V- port is working it is v good though not as excellent as SQ - but then their First Class is in a different league to VS Upper

This may be why V-Port has not beed installed on the LGW fleet, as on the B&S routes, when families are travelling, would YOU want to travel next to little Suzie (whose V-Port is not working) who is desperate to swap seats with little brother Johnny? You'd find parents swapping to middle seats to allow their kids access to SOME form of entertainment.....

Nova is a bit more stable, so there should usually be something on to keep the little ones (and the adults too) amused.

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by Juliet
This may be why V-Port has not beed installed on the LGW fleet, as on the B&S routes, when families are travelling, would YOU want to travel next to little Suzie (whose V-Port is not working) who is desperate to swap seats with little brother Johnny? You'd find parents swapping to middle seats to allow their kids access to SOME form of entertainment.....

Nova is a bit more stable, so there should usually be something on to keep the little ones (and the adults too) amused.

No thats not why it hasn't been installed on the LGW/MAN aircraft,it's a simple reason of cost.

I was on VS1 over the summer, and the FSM came on about an hour into the flight and said he wanted to appologize to those watching something because the system had to be reset as some of it wasn't working in Y.

He then explained that the aircraft had come in from Vegas meaning that v|port was probably used quite extensively for a long period of time, which has tendancy to overload the system. Some of it simply didn't come back online when they started it up after takeoff. He said a hard reset was needed to reset everything.

Seems to me like it would be more practical to completely shut it down upon landing and let it "rest" during the turn of the aircraft. He said it takes about 30-45 minutes to for it to reboot (my assumption was rebuilding the media database). I would think if necessary, do away with the little boarding movie they show and let it reboot completely on the ground. Once he did that everything was perfect, with no problems at all.

My guess is (and there's a lot of IT people here, so throw in your opinons), during extensive use the cache on the server and underseat clients probably fills up, with the only way to fix it being a hard reset of the entire system. I asked him if that had been done on the ground and he said no, but that seems to me like it'd make more sense.

[Scrooge]

WOW,LAS got a LHR aircraft,bet there were some happy PE pax...

it's seems strange to me that if it needs to be reset aftert a long flight then VS got ripped off,This is a linux server,i've known one that has now been going for 3 years without a reboot streaming video [:0]


If it does need a hard reboot,then why don't the crew take care of this while boarding,seems like a better deal for everyone rather than waiting for the aircraft to be up in the air to do it.

Can you reboot V:Port and get the boarding video at the same time?

Originally posted by csparker
Can you reboot V:Port and get the boarding video at the same time?

The boarding music, safety demo, and newsreels are played off Hi-8 tapes, as I recall. While they are integrated with the system as a whole, I have a feeling that they aren't dependant on the media server being up.

Cheers,
Mike

I still think its wrong for the system to have so many problems - What do we fly VS - comfort / style / luxury + ENTERTAINMENT

The system that SIA have is very alike and I have flown with them approx 5 times and never a problem

Well I just got back from NYC and on the VS1 and the VS46, V:Port was fine both ways on G-VROC and G-VBIG. I did once have a problem on an A346 last year to EWR but that was solved

Just been on G-VOGE and G-VSSH to/from HKG, no problem whatsoever with V:Port.

Flew G-VBIG - VS019 on 30th March, VPort was down for whole of flight. Same thing happened to my parents on self same aircraft only
couple of weeks before while it was on VS005. Very disappointing ..
Do Virgin offer up Flying Club Points to members by way of compensation?

We flew VS5 on 2nd April; V-Port working for first few hours then gave out for many on the plane; we were given the chance to choose gifts from the in-flight brochure to the value of £25 per family. I managed to borrow a portable DVD Player from the crew as well. On VS6 on 19th April V-Port worked for the first 10 mins then crew decided to re-boot the system for a small number who got error messages. Result? Most screens crashed so spent most of the flight trying to re-boot. Finally got going 50 mins before landing. FAs seemed confused by the system and I must have heard dozens of different excuses. Before landing those passengers without V-port were given Richard B's letter offering discounts on future flights or air miles. V-Port is great for keeping the children distracted during long flights but a nightmare if they can't use them but see other children using them. I will post my comments on the flights in another area but we think V-Port is awful, unreliable and staff have not been trained to properly re-boot the system. So we would prefer next time to use an airline with a better system.

You people must be very unlucky! In six or seven years of flying once every couple of months with Virgin I don't think I have ever had a problem with V.Port. Apart from occasionally being on planes which don't have it!

Chris

Originally posted by cshore
You people must be very unlucky! In six or seven years of flying once every couple of months with Virgin I don't think I have ever had a problem with V.Port. Apart from occasionally being on planes which don't have it!

Chris

I've never had a problem either - whenever I've been on a V:Port plane it has always worked!

[Nottingham Nick]

Same here, but as has been said before - when it works, it isn't news.

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Same here, but as has been said before - when it works, it isn't news.

absolutely, this thread is a bit wierd - if there had been big problems with V:Port you could guarantee the thread would be on its fifth page by now!

The lack of comment speaks volumes, and as they say - bad news travels much faster than good news.....

All flight by the VPort I have been on have had problems with IFE.

Flew MAN-MCO in 2002 and my screen was cracked and my g/f keypad kept scrolling left so had to hold to right button the whole time to avoid changing channel!

Flew LGW-BGI(think thats Barbados) and both mine and my g/f screens were dead. Luckily the flight was almost empty but we changed seat 6 times during the flight due to faulty screens, and then twice on the way back with faulty ones.

Thankfully though never had V:Port fail although only did a LHR-LAX-SFO-LHR flight in Sept 06 with it.

Hi Andy

Is that all flights bar the ones with V port you've had problems with - it doesn't quite read that way at the moment but you can get there by inference (e.g. MAN-MCO in 2002 was probably odessey and most ex-LGW flights are Nova)

Regards

Pat