Mrs TCAS and I are heading west shortly courtesy of the A332, aka "Berlin Bomber", which hopefully will have a refitted cabin. Can anyone advise me whether there are baggage bins over the centre pairs of seats in Upper, ie 1E/F, 3E/F, 5E/F?

they were all supposed to be refitted by now -- edit All four planes are due for completion by the end of January.
and yes they have bins in upper - they look much nicer than the herringbone - the middle double seats are good for couples

Virgin and CPT
(and JNB) sigh

Virgin for past 20 years have faffed around with SA for one reason or another - In-fact all of Africa. NBO too came and went a couple of times.
LHR - JNB was often a 747 and could have been a double daily flight from very early on as it was so popular - possible on most days of the week and likely all year round - same as BA and SAA, but VS never took it on until almost 20 years later.
Lagos could have been double daily too.

As for the LHR-CPT always seasonal with the aircraft then doing the then seasonal BOS in the Northern summer.
That was the plan BUT they stopped before Easter so they lost that high season share of holiday market to/from CPT.

At the time SAA still had their own year round direct 747 CPT flight and BA was double daily 747 in summer season and one a day in winter (777 some times) Now BA has 3 daily in season - the extra from LGW 777
KLM and LH was/is daily too (from AMS and FRA with also MUC in summer season - all popular with British flying in from UK regionals to connex along with AF now daily from CDG)

This was all before the influx to CPT of cheap fares on Emirates Qatar Turkish and Ethiopian etc via their hubs and plus Thomas Cook and Condor flying direct to CPT from UK and Germany. Now even folk book Rwandair and Air Namibia coz its cheap.

Virgin then stopped the CPT route but restarted it again some years later again not all year round but it was messy so passengers, tour companies and businessman did not know where they were with schedules etc sometimes it was daily then it wasn't.
Virgin was also a day flight for many years on the return to the UK and was not popular versus BA and SAA's night flights home bound.

I knew the VS staff well at CPT and JNB and they struggled with massive fraud and corruption in obtaining revenue due from Travel Agents for VS tickets sold in Africa
(Hello - Welcome to Africa)
So much so they spent the whole off season (with no CPT flights) trying to deal with the matter and get the money in. I think this had much to do with giving up the CPT route and maybe why JNB and Lagos have not increased schedules until recently.

NBO came and went - Cargo was great - but the A340-300 was a crap aircraft to use out of NBO for a midday departure being payload restricted too often.
BA KLM Kenya LH Swiss AF all operate daily or almost daily NBO but VS cannot make it work.

(Virgin also had this corruption problem in Greece with the early ATH flights - VS stopped flying and now the LON-ATH route is massive)

rog747
Thanks for responding. While I am sure that there are bins over the window seats, are there also bins over the three pairs of seats in the centre?

yes from the new photos of the refurbish there are centre bins

rog747

Cheers!

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-a8772006.html

New flights announced to Tel Aviv starting in September.
Busy route.....

excellent news

rog747 Thanks for the great run down about JNB + CPT. I often did the open jaws and did not mind the daylight return as the view of the Sahara never fails to delight.

I have lived in ZA and have family and friends there still, so do understand about the fraud problem BUT to leave this lucrative market to their arch enemy? Astonishing.

I agree that the 744s were always well populated and the 346s. As well as the carriers you mention, Condor and TCA have piled in. It has to be some of the strangest behaviour by an airline that I have seen.

Maybe Virgin are able to make more money with the aircraft on a different route.

RSA flights
 

No probs - you seem to know the RSA situation too - my UK pals have homes in Fresnaye and Clifton beach... They go like Swallows to the South with the coming of each Northern winter...

Cannot see VS going back to CPT -
That ship has sailed for VS long ago, despite the CPT flight arrivals board over this weekend looking like a summer Saturday at Ibiza !
With in bound wide bodies from KLM AF OS LH x 2 BA x 3 OS DE TCK Edelweiss (AMS CDG VIE FRA x 2 MUC VIE ZRH LHR x 2 LGW x 2)
Directs from IST with TK and big stuff from ME and African hubs, and Asia EK QR ET MK SQ CX KQ x 2 from NBO and VFA (a KLM connection)

As you know VS now double daily to JNB (could have told them 20 years ago to do that)
BA up to 3 a day to JNB - 2 x A380, (plus they now serve DUR again, and 3 daily to CPT, 2 are 747's)

Whilst poor old SAA now only now one A330 to JNB
Seems SAA leased the other LHR slot, with CPT slot sold years ago - how long will SAA last -
Germany flights to/from CPT are now operated only by LH on a code share.

Condor have been a solid operator to CPT from Germany for many years (along with LTU, the Germans love the winter sun) and now seasonally TCK UK have joined the fun and seem to be doing well with it.

Yes indeed. VS decided they really didn't want any seasonal routes ( misguided Brits go to Orlando in summer) - they cost more to promote and operate. The transatlantic and Delta feed are now the most important market. Am surprised by Tel Aviv though expect it will be okay- there is a lot of competition but the premium and Upper options may tempt those prepared to pay a bit more.

Indeed - faffing around for 10 years with the seasonal CPT route - couple that with the fraud on ticket sales made within Africa saw no recovery.

I can understand doing TLV - The feed at LHR onto both VS and DL USA flights are what they are thinking of...

If LHR-ATH was still being flown, apart from a hugely busy route, there are plenty of Greeks wanting to transit to both USA and possibly JNB - Although DL do operate from ATH.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-v...-idUSKCN1Q11YS

EU clears Virgin/Air France-KLM/Delta deal. All going on at VS just now.

Well, all the best to them. As illustrated by rog747's post above Virgin are the ADHD teenager of the airline world, perhaps this new alignment with a couple of adults will knock some discipline into them.

I frankly couldn't tell you where Virgin fly today, except Orlando in the Summer and probably New York daily. Or have they dropped that too?

And I'm aligned with the aviation World. Imagine what perception Mr Smith from Basingstoke has of them.

Glory days were when I worked on all the VS P/W 747 Classics 1988-1993

We just had 2 747's at first, with 2 more ships added each year - total 8 at LGW by 1991.

VS1 EWR
VS3 JFK 1988 (iirc went over to LHR 1991)
VS5 MIA
VS7 LAX 1990 (went over to LHR 1991)
VS9 BOS 1991
VS25 MCO first ran as twice weekly charters to MCO Tues & Thus for Thomson and Virgin Holidays (went scheduled 1992 going double daily 747's VS15 and VS75)
VS901 NRT first ran via SVO 1989

We had ''VIRG & GIN''
Followed by G-TKYO G-VRGN (Both from SQ, with more powerful PW JT9D- 7Q's for the LAX and NRT non stops)
G-VMIA An old -100 series with 14J and 474Y for MIA and MCO
G-VOYG, ex G-BMGS ''going sick'' as well known with BA and CKT
Lastly, G-VJFK G-VLAX both from QF

I can name them all if you want LOL

Those were the best days.....

Enough of us "misguided Brits" to fill 5 744's on the day last July when I departed MCO.

Having to wait onboard for 2 hrs after arrival due lightning in the vicinity was a bit of a pain though! (but well-handled by VS)

Indeed, apparently due to Union rules. The ramp workers can't come out to play until there has been no lightning detected for 15 mins within 5 miles (I think). We sat watching the bolts came down counting-up the further 15 minute delays :-)