A few more questions if thats ok?

Well I got into the seat map this morning Woo Hoo! Its exciting to see our nams and be able to pick our seats! [:I]

We are defo on the 343, I was hoping for seats 11AC but the whole front row is blocked out - I suppose that means they are only going to be available at check in?

Anyway, I picked 12AC and 13AC do you think these are good seats? There is a big space behind row 13 - do you think that there will be a CC seat directly behind row 13 and the recline will be limited? Im a bit worried about people congragating in the space behind the seat, should I stick with what I picked or shift to the other side 12HK and 13HK but the loo's are directly behind row 13. God its confusing! Its so hard to tell without knowing what the a/c is like inside!

Kids meals - is it worth booking them? oldest daughter wont eat anything with gravy on it or tomato based curry sauces, not sure if I should go with a kids meal (or even if she is allowed one as she will be celebrating her 13th Bday) If anyone has flown with kids could you let me know what the kids meal consisted of?

Flying club - is there any point in me joining it? I think we would only be able to fly once every 2 or 3 years. Do miles expire or have to be used within a certain time frame?

And my last stupid question for today is.....even though its an Etihad plane, will the cabin crew be Virgin crew?

Thank you for your patience! [:)]

[honey lamb]

I can't answer the seat question or the kid's meal question except to say that my son steadfastly refused to eat the child's meal when offered when he was 12.

with regard to joining Flying Club I would definitely say yes. There's loads of ways to earn miles apart from flying. Some of the options are listed here. In addition the Flying Club credit card enables you to earn miles as you spend and you have three years in which to spend the miles. They could soon mount up to allow you to upgrade or even get a reward flight.

The Etihad plane will have Virgin crew.

Hi there,

All bulkhead/exit rows are blocked until check in.

Now on the kids side of things, I am 16 and freequently travelled alone with my sister 2 years younger than me. She has always had the kids meal everytime we have flown. There is no age limit age with kids meals, so your daughter should be fine here. The kids meals are normal something like meat balls and pasta things, sausages beans and chips etc etc. Not normally any gravey, or curry sauces. There is sometimes the tomato sauce on the pasta things. This comes with a bag of haribo, fruitshoot, bag of fruit and a gingerbread man normally, but that kinda thing. My sister isnt a fan of airline food, so I normally have hers after I have had the normal offerings. Comparing the two offerings, the kids meal is deffently worth it for fussy eaters.

And flying club? Deffinatly worth it. ISTBC but miles expire once the flying club acount has been in-active for 3 years, i think.

VFLY

If you are thinking of joining flying club get a member to recommend you (via email) this will give you an additional 3000 miles after your first flight. They also benefit by earning miles when you first fly. Once you have a membership number you could then invite the other members of your family and earn miles when they fly - it all adds up!

Originally posted by Ptarmigan

And my last stupid question for today is.....even though its an Etihad plane, will the cabin crew be Virgin crew?

It wont be an EY plane by the time you get on it. She will be painted up in VS colours, have a UK registration etc.

It is no different to other a/c that VS have operated in years gone by that have been operated by airlines such as Air New Zealand.

No different really to buying a second hand car I guess.

Originally posted by Ptarmigan
Flying club - is there any point in me joining it? I think we would only be able to fly once every 2 or 3 years. Do miles expire or have to be used within a certain time frame?

As HL and VFLY have said, yes it is. Though I have generally flown VS once a year, the majority of my FC miles have been earned from hotel stays, credit cards and the like. Each time you earn points pushes out the maturity of the whole balance regardless of whether the miles were earned on flight, credit card, hotel stays...

Paul

[Neil]

Originally posted by willd

Originally posted by Ptarmigan

And my last stupid question for today is.....even though its an Etihad plane, will the cabin crew be Virgin crew?

It wont be an EY plane by the time you get on it. She will be painted up in VS colours, have a UK registration etc.

It was reported in another thread (can't remember which one) that due to the work load it might not actually be painted in VS livery until the summer.

In reply to the OP. As others have said, it is certainly worth signing up to FC. Your miles will expire when there has been no activity on your account for 3 years and as HL pointed out there are many ways to earn miles which you will then be able to use on a whole host of things from upgrades to money off flights etc. The collecting on miles can become a very addictive hobby too[:I]

With regards to your seat question, something like the recline, which seats are the best etc it is something that is difficult to answer accurately until the a/c has started service with VS and someone (crew or pax) have flown on it and know for sure. It will certainly be VS crew and VS service.

Neil

Originally posted by willd

Originally posted by Ptarmigan
It wont be an EY plane by the time you get on it. She will be painted up in VS colours

I thought I read earlier that it would operate in EK colours until its refit in August 2009? Regardless, everything bar the hardware will be normal VS.

Thank you all once again for your help.

Iv gone ahead and requested kids meals, eldest is fussy and some sort of pasta & sauce offereing or sausage & beans would be ideal. No doubt hubby and I will end up donating puddings/bread rolls etc to her if she cant eat whats given her!

Im not bothered what colour the plane is painted, but its nice to know we will have Virgin Cabin crew [:D]

Iv just joined flying club, and am going to look at various ways to build up miles.

So far its very quiet on our flight, we are the only people to have picked seats, my girls are hoping that there will be a couple of other kids on board so they can hopefully connect with their DS games!

I was hoping to upgrade to PE on our Etihad flight but it no longer offers it!!
At least you know you've bagged some PE seats!!

Originally posted by McMaddog

Originally posted by willd

Originally posted by Ptarmigan
It wont be an EY plane by the time you get on it. She will be painted up in VS colours

I thought I read earlier that it would operate in EK colours until its refit in August 2009? Regardless, everything bar the hardware will be normal VS.

Not EK, the plane is coming from EY (etihad) not EK(emirates).

It may well do. I would be suprised if it did. What would be more than likely is that it will operate in a hybrid livery. VS have done this in the past with this Boeing 767 which flew from MAN a few years back. They could also apply some dodgy stickers before its painted Virgin Nigeria did that this airbus recently.

It is not uncommon for airlines to operate like this either. One thing is clear if it is on lease it will be devoid of any EY titles if it is just like the QF jet.

Originally posted by rachie
I was hoping to upgrade to PE on our Etihad flight but it no longer offers it!!!!

FYI I dont think EY have ever offered PE.

looking at the seat map, I think you will be fine. You could always put the kids in the back row as they don't tend to recline so much and at 47' pitch, you'll still have loads of room.
I kicking myself that we didn't upgrade on the return leg as well...quite fancy 47' of room...
We have picked rows 57 & 58 HK as it narrows towards the back and a middle seat has been removed..
The agent at VA stressed that the aircraft could be changed again at any time so who knows..

Hi Rachie,

Hope you dont mind me asking, but where did you find the info about there being 47' of room in the PE seats? Iv trawled through this site and a few others but cant find any info?

Thanks!

p.s - was there PE available at the time of booking for your flight? or did you try and upgrade afterwards? I must have got lucky, when I booked our hol on line the option to upgrade the flight was right there and it was too tempting to pass up! Have you been to Beaches before? it always gets such mixed reviews, sometimes wonderful sometimes awful, will just have to go with an open mind! [:D]

First time to Beaches, usually do the Almond resorts in Barbados but fancied a change.
PE was never available through VH for the return for some reason, so only booked outbound. (every time I looked anyway)

Here's a linkto Etihads seat pitch which matches the Virgin seat plan




Edit by mod to shorten link......Nick

Originally posted by Ptarmigan
So far its very quiet on our flight, we are the only people to have picked seats, my girls are hoping that there will be a couple of other kids on board so they can hopefully connect with their DS games!

Sorry to disappoint you and your girls but the wi-fi on Nintendo DS's has to be disabled during the flight.

Thanks for the heads up ref the Nintendo DS [y]

On my flight last week - someone was using a DS and trying to get it wifi - the crew were incredibly patient trying to persuade her that it wasnt allowed - but she wasnt having any of it! The crew should have been given a medal for their persistence.... it finally ran out of power before either side won! Yay for VS crew!