Heathrow 747's at Gatwick

I'm flying to Barbados on Saturday and it looks like a Heathrow 747 has been operating the route for a few weeks. Does anyone know if that is right.

Also how do Virgin overcome the issue of having so many more UC and PE seats when a Heathrow 747 is flying out of Gatwick.

Its holiday so flying economy, but will having a silver card help me get a better seat if it is a Heathrow 747 or do they sell for a low price or is it just luck?

If anyone knows it would be much appreciated as I'm not overly looking forward to economy and non v-port

Thank you

[Neil]

Yes, sometimes the LHR 747's help out ex LGW to cover maintenance etc and BGI is the most likely route. As for UC/PE, then some lucky people will be upgraded, usually FOC, but most likely done on FC status and what class you are currently booked in etc. It is unusual for them to sell them as upgrades. If you are bumped up to say UC, then there won't be access to the CH however.

Neil

Upgrade selling is a frequent situation on the SFO route with the larger PE cabin in my experience.

Hi There
Just visited Barbados and 'YES' I can confirm they are using Heathrow configs[^]
We travelled both legs on Tinker Belle, Its just a shame your not in UC as upstairs service was fantastic, Although did spend considerable time at the Bar[:$]

Trip Report to follow when I get time

Have a nice trip

Colin

I flew back from Barbados this morning on Tinker Belle which is a Heathrow aircraft, I flew Upper Class and the cabin was pretty much full, I could only see two free seats which says to me that they had no problem in selling the extra seats!!

The upside is that you'll have v-port but that aircraft had problems for a week with the inflight entertainment and it wasn't working for 7 days. I was offered £50 worth of duty free or 10,000 miles on the outbound trip. However I can confirm that it was working fine this morning with no problems.

When this happened to me this was what happened:

J Class Passengers were kept in the nose of the plane where they had originally booked their seats (and we were able to realize who was originally booked in J).

W Class Passengers that were upgraded were then put in B Zone and Upper Deck.

Y Class passengers were moved to Premium but I am not sure how these passengers were selected.

GG

pity they did not use that rational when it was used at MCO last week !, 100 seats short and a scramble for one, was not a prety site at the airport

[Neil]

quote:Originally posted by tomsmith
I flew back from Barbados this morning on Tinker Belle which is a Heathrow aircraft, I flew Upper Class and the cabin was pretty much full, I could only see two free seats which says to me that they had no problem in selling the extra seats!!


As Galley Guy says, a lot of those will be op-ups on the day. The configs are so vastly different they would need to be selling a lot of upgrades to make it work and with such a short time to move everyone it wouldn't be practical or fair.

Neil

Thank you for all your replies and I'll see what happens tomorrow

quote:Originally posted by Galley Guy

When this happened to me this was what happened:

J Class Passengers were kept in the nose of the plane where they had originally booked their seats (and we were able to realize who was originally booked in J).


GG


Thanks for the info GG.

Just wondering if there is any diffrence in the service you, as CC, offer paid J pax against those who were OP Upped ?

Thanks,

HG

quote:Originally posted by hackneyguy
[quote]Originally posted by Galley Guy

When this happened to me this was what happened:

J Class Passengers were kept in the nose of the plane where they had originally booked their seats (and we were able to realize who was originally booked in J).


GG


Thanks for the info GG.

Just wondering if there is any diffrence in the service you, as CC, offer paid J pax against those who were OP Upped ?

Thanks,

HG


The customer is not treated any different. If they are in an Upper Class seat then they are Upper Class passengers and they will get the Upper Class Service. The only difference would be that those who originally booked Upper would get their choice of meal before the upgraded.

GG

[Scrooge]

In the same way that Gold cards always get their choice of meals first ? Sorry could not resist [:I]

I was hoping that the PAX that had paid to fly in UC may have also got a 'good few glasses' of the meager stock of Champagne that VA seem to load these days.

HG

hubby flew back to LGW from BGI on Nov 11th on LHR config - he was booked Y class and got his reserved seat in the front nose section. V-port was not working.

on his return again he had nose section booked but he ended up upstairs as again was the LHR aircraft. Both sections were full so obviously a large number of upgrades.