Any Virgin Atlantic crew that commute, can you help?

[K-Boy]

I'm a Manchester lad and have applied to Virgin but don't want to move down south. I've heard that quite a lot of crew commute to other bases and was wondering how they find it. Do you get a lot of standby's on your roster with Virgin? If so, how do they cope with that?

If anyone can help me out i'd appreciate it.

Cheers

[Crew_MYT]

Hi, Check your private messages

[hottowel]

Hi MYT

Good you post me that Private msg too as I am interested in finding out about commuting to London too

Cheers Hottowel xx

[flyblue]

Why not post it on this thread and let everybody take advantage of it? ;)

[Southern Belle]

Hi There

A huge amount of our cabin crew do commute from various parts of the country and in fact Europe.

However you dont receive your concessions until six months after you have joined and I am not sure if you receive concessionary travel with other airlines after 6 months or 1 year (perhaps someone would be able post this info).

Manchester is pretty well served with flights down to Heathrow and although a lot of commuters do experience problems at busy periods, the sheer volume of crew that do commute would indicate that it is generally a straight forward process.

You would have to relocate for your training and your first six months but most crew either make plans on their training courses or there are plenty of rooms to rent either in the Gatwick area or Brighton.

Standby is a headache for all of us but generally speaking you are notified of a duty before your standby period giving you time to make your way down. Some of the commuters travel down for their standby and sit at cabin crew check in, if they don't get a flight they either stay at a b&b or with friends. It would be a great help if you have friends in the London area but if you don't you may always make some on your course!

A lot of crew end up relocating down south in the end but I think this is just because of personal circumstances not because the commute is so dreadful.
However should you wish to stay in Manchester once you have your concessions you wouldn't have any major problems, just always be prepared and give yourself plenty of time to get down.

Good luck with the application and interview, if they ask do say that you are more than willing to relocate to the local area.

[Tiger]

Its usual that you get full concessions after a year.

I know that MAN-LHR/LHR-MAN with BA are often very busy, if not full. A few VS crews do commute, but remember "an" airlines own staff come first.
BA use A319/320 aircraft on the route with the odd 75 thown in here and there.
bmi also op. the route not sure how busy they are.

Other ways by rail> Virgin Trains- Manchester-Watford Junction then shuttle bus between Watford & LHR runs every half hour. If you book early loads of cheap fares and I believe being Virgin staff you get free shuttle bus. see virgin trains website.
Or
Midland Main Line to St Pancras then A2 bus limited stop service to LHR.

[K-Boy]

Thanks so much for that, its certainly given me something to think about. Cheers.

[hottowel]

Thanks very much for those posts... Definetley show's that it is possible to commute. I have friends in the area so it wouldn't be a prob to stay with them. Now all I have to do is get applying.

Cheers :D