Virgin Atlantic-2
 

Is MCO ever going to go this summer? now out to July at earliest.
Presumably the Disney school run is where most of the money comes from on this route so hopefully they can capitalise later.

Things are looking more positive from the UK-end with travel to the US well-placed for government approval (subject to C-19 tests etc.). But right now, UK travellers are still on the banned list from the US perspective. Given the success of the UK vaccination programme and the rapid fall in infection rates, I'd consider the odds of the US easing restrictions on UK visitors by July to be pretty good. Apprehension concerning the 'Indian variant' seems to be key. But the airlines will need some reliable advance notice of government plans if they're to take on the risk of running Summer programmes. The nightmare would be more ruinous last minute bans and restrictions being imposed by squeamish cowardly politicians.

Interesting post until the unpleasant last line. Avoiding unnecessary deaths is neither squeamish nor cowardly.

That is job done re C-19 in the UK. It is no longer even close to being the number one risk to life. Now it is time to accept the rewards we have earned and reopen the economy ... we've all made the sacrifices required to make that possible. And speaking of unnecessary deaths, this whole exercise has been a risk-reward trade-off between COVID-19 on one hand and legacy medical conditions on the other (cardiac, strokes, cancer, mental health issues etc.). A heavy price has been paid by many to place emphasis on C-19 mitigation. That was the right thing to do at the time, but circumstances in the UK have changed now. 'Avoiding unnecessary deaths' now means prioritising those conditions which have been neglected for well over a year. Opening up normal life and ceasing to demonise having fun are part of that process. Travel between safe jurisdictions is a good thing. And yes - some, not all - politicians are cowardly in facing up to decisions on this.

Well said Ozzy. I for one agree with you.

Seconded. Very well put post.

Quote..."That is job done re C-19 in the UK"...&c.

Deary me...Have a care matey & behave.

The topic of this thread is Virgin Atlantic

There is a separate thread on Coronavirus in Jet Blast - https://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/629061-coronavirus-thread.html

And a third from me for good measure...

Life is never zero risk...and we're fools to think we can make it so from any particular disease.

And to return to the thread, AFAIK VS have now cancelled the planned BFS-MCO flights for this season. As we only had a short seasonal schedule, there may be more hope for LHR and MAN, perhaps GLA. In any case, it's likely to be 2022 before a trip to Mickey's place looks more like the pre-Covid version, so it would be interesting to see what pent-up demand there would be for this year. Personally, I'm tempted to look to Jan/Feb 22...generally the quieter time of year, and still good weather.

Indeed, GLA now being loaded for 2022, with the Saturday direct service now bookable from April 2022. 1120 dep. Listed as A330-200. I had thought they would have left the fleet by then.

Using the VS website to try and book for the first time in nearly two years: Still difficult. I did not expect to be able to find points upgrades as flights are now filling so rapidly. But the site still seemed very poor at indicating where and how to seek for upgrades/companion etc. This included getting a 'ERROR: We cannot handle this request. Try Later." I paraphrase, but it was one of those automated banners like the old '404'.

After doing some other research esewhere, I returned to check prices and options again (LHR-ANU) and the price had increased by £700 for the two of us in the space of 45 minutes. You could say I was not impressed. Following an instruction to ring in with the question, I found an extremely helpful agent (as always) and got matters sorted.

Now I get the standard email: How would you rate your overall experience with our Customer Centre?
In short - I should not have had to cal the call centre!

Is it just me or has the VS website not improved in the last few years? Simple example, top right keeps saying 'Log In' when I am already logged in. This is lazy on their part. More irritating, I find the site does not work well on Firefox and I have to use Edge.

Other views?

BA is the same. Endless issues. The site jumps between different versions and often can’t do the basic tasks it’s supposed to.

What amazes me is that, the Virgin Group used to be far ahead on websites. They understood the importance and made them fun and easy. The move to the Delta system saw the change. Not that anyone in VS will admit that (at least, not publically).

V-Flyer, years ago had dozens of complaints about the Virgin website, and its functionality or lack of!

As publicised by VS
Virgin launch Nassau
After originally planned for 2009!
789 ex LHR W21

Relaunch. Virgin flew to Nassau before with a 747-400. Ended March 2007.

https://news.sky.com/story/virgin-at...arket-12375314

“Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways is plotting a surprise flotation on the London Stock Exchange as it pins its hopes on a rapid rebound in transatlantic travel.”

Raising finance on the stock market rather than by using leverage is a good plan, if there is confidence in the business model then it's a no brainer

And if there is no confidence he is exposed,
how many of us, personally, would invest any of our money now, in an airline, especially one that had trouble making a profit in the good times.
Any money made in a sale, goes to Branson with no guarantee it will be invested back in the airline.
With Virgin Galactic being loss making and bills to pay, it smacks of desperation given he turned down Air France’s bid for his share in Virgin Atlantic a few years ago.
Time will tell...

EDI
 

VS to launch EDI to MCO and BGI.

- MCO will launch 2 weekly from April 2022

- BGI will be 2 weekly from December 2021

Is EDI-MCO in addition to GLA-MCO or instead of?

EDI-MCO is replacing GLA.

Replacing, Glasgow PAX will need to connect thru Dubai.

Joking, perhaps Tui will do Gla-Mco

Glasgow-Florida is a strong point to point leisure market in itself but the end of the B744 doesn't mean both couldn't be served. It does make sense for some routes to be across both, as United and Air Canada both did well and Air Transat stayed West.

‘The Booth’ on the pack em’ high leisure config A351 sounds a waste of time / space.

is it not in a space which otherwise can’t be used like the lounge? If they can upsell experiences - champagne afternoon tea or something for an hour a time at say £100-£150 there are probably plenty of holiday makers who would pay it on special trips. A 8-10 flight can easily add £1000+ which they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

Another £400m needed to get through winter 2021-22

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/n...raising-report
https://news.sky.com/story/richard-branson-to-land-fresh-400m-funding-injection-for-pandemic-hit-virgin-atlantic-airways-12473208

When the A350-1000 was introduced, I understood that it was intended to operate the JNB route and the 787 CPT in the southern summer. Naturally, everything has changed since then but I see that the 787 is still on the JNB run. Does anyone know if this is to continue, or will the 350 take over this route?
Thanks.

Cuba axed before it started, due to "unique complexities".

Virgin Atlantic cancels planned Havana resumption – Business Traveller

Hopefully I'm not the only one wondering what the "the unique complexities of Cuban operations" actually are?

Delta wanting the airframes to support their network more closely? Delta not wanting to be associated with an operation into that 'commie country'?

The US is looking to reopen links with Cuba. https://www.travelpulse.com/news/des...l-to-cuba.html

it is probably more to do with an anticipated lack of profitable demand that the decision has been taken. When you look at fleet redeployment you always drop the least profitable routes to free up airframes and/or staff resources to concentrate on more profitable markets. If Delta are permitted to take non-US citizens on these reintroduced Cuba flights they might be able to offer connections but I recall last time that there were some restrictions on who could use them.

AFAIK, Delta own less than 50% of Virgin Atlantic and does not claim to have full control of VS. Any flights operated by VS involving Cuba will be from London, without a stop in the USA. Even if DL were to put their code on these flights, I think there would be very few people booking the flight as a DL ticket rather than a VS ticket, so presumably easy just not to put a DL code on the flights at all - similiar to JetBlue not putting their code on Emirates flights flying in Iranian airspace
Airlines in Canada and Mexico seem to send their aircraft to Cuba without a problem. It should not be difficult for a VS LHR-HAV flight to avoid US airspace if this were to prove necessary

So why would US sanctions cause a problem on a VS LHR-HAV route ?

I know that Delta own only 49% to meet international rules but ... after they bought their shares, many things changed. From a pax perspective one of the irritating ones was the website being hosted in the USA and the changes in it.

One simple example, having broken the BA + SAA hold on JNB + CPT, they then dropped CPT. With SAA imploding, this left BA a wide open target. Now they only serve it CPT the southern summer. Again, leaving BA to milk the route.

Thats life.

How did the first month of MCO-EDI do- Full to the gunnels with all the pent up demand ?

Today, their booking system was on form:

• We had booked to go to ANU.
• Had to postpone as it then coincided with the exact week we were moving house.
• Accepted a voucher and got all the emails to confirm.
• We were due to leave yesterday, 31st May.
• 1st June, I get a text (SMS) msg telling me that I can now check-in. The same message also tells me that check in will open in 5 days time.
• They wonder why do not trust them or their computer systems.

Perhaps unsurprisingly HKG relaunch been put back again for 6 months until Spring 23..

Trying to ascertain the validity time of a voucher. When logging in, the voucher screen appears to show 31st March 2023. I say appears because the screen is laud as if travelling from VOU to CHR. But all in very pale grey text, rather than clearly set out.

Anyone have knowledge on this? Cheers.

Have just managed to rebook a voucher with them, through online chat but - what an age. To rebook: Changing destination and one name; agreeing costs and ionfo about seats - took 75 minutes.

A phone call could have dealt with it in a max of 15 minutes. Based on the very long wait between responses from the Agent - I'd say they were having to handle 2 or 3 other bookings at the same time. If they were only handling me - then it is the most inefficient agent I've ever had!

This way of doing things might gets folks 'answered' faster but makes the process very much longer. So, what is the real customer experience like?

Correct me if you think I'm wrong.