V-Flyer

A couple of months ago I booked a flight back from JKF to MAN in Upper Class on the 1st September 2018 (I know, I plan very far ahead!) and having just logged in to check the reservation I notice the metal seems to have been swapped from a newly refurbished A333 to a 747-400. I suppose my questions are:

1) Is it likely to be changed back? It seems odd that a MAN flight would be a 747?
2) Or, is VS128 changing to a 747 for capacity reasons? That can only be a good thing...
3) How does the Upper Class product vary between a A333 (from memory when choosing my seat it would have been a newly refurbished one) and a 747?

Apologies if all of the above is obvious, I don't take too many Upper Class flights you usually the metal isn't really of much concern!

Welcome to V-Flyer

1) The plan always was to swap the JFK service at MAN to a 744 during 2018 so it’s unlikely to change back.

2) When you say capacity, it’s depends on how you look at it, as the whilst the number of Economy seats has increased significantly by switching to a 744 (from 185 to 375 per flight), the number of higher revenue Upper Class seats has dropped significantly (from 31 seats down to just 14 per flight).

3) The 744 Upper Class seats are actually the biggest in the fleet and are great seats, much better than the old Upper Class seats the none-refitted A333’s had.

Thanks mitchja! I'm glad you consider it an upgrade, I'm even more excited now. I've booked the 2nd row back, I know the seats are close together but I'm travelling with my partner so it should be fine.

Yeh thanks here too mitchja, you replied to me on my thread previously regarding this exact question and my concerns. Appreciate it

pryonic wrote:Thanks mitchja! I'm glad you consider it an upgrade, I'm even more excited now. I've booked the 2nd row back, I know the seats are close together but I'm travelling with my partner so it should be fine.

I know they are not to everyone's taste, but the first couple of UC rows on the 747 are our favourite seats as a couple.

We’re booked MAN to JKF in June. It was only when we came to look at seating that we realised they had changed to 747. Booked 9A and K on both legs. Just hope the lounge at MAN is better than our last visit.

The Escape lounge at MAN isn’t too bad at all now with a nice selection of food and drink as VS Upper Class pax get sent to the separate smaller lounge down the corridor.

It’s a hundred time better than that sorry excuse of a lounge at Miami!

Thanks for the info Mitcja, last March flying UC we were directed to use the Escape lounge and it was almost standing room only. I went down to the V lounge down the corridor and was informed that was for Virgin Holiday travellers only, even though it was almost empty. I duly made a complaint, but nothing happened. I wondered if they would have to open it up to UC flyers if they had a number of similar moans

No, the V-Room is strictly for VH customers. It is a completely separate operation to VS.

Lounges do get full (see BA at T5) but if there’s a consistent issue at MAN VS should be taking it up with MAG who operate the Escape Lounge and who can take steps like reducing the Priority Pass quota.

Although if VS now has use of a separate lounge it sounds like they have attempted to address the capacity problems.

gumshoe wrote:No, the V-Room is strictly for VH customers. It is a completely separate operation to VS.

Lounges do get full (see BA at T5) but if there’s a consistent issue at MAN VS should be taking it up with MAG who operate the Escape Lounge and who can take steps like reducing the Priority Pass quota.
.

Oi! Leave us Priorty Pass holders out of it! In my experience of using Escape and Aspire lounges on a weekly basis last year, the Prioity Pass demands are readily and easily controlled; they just say "no, sorry, you can't use the lounge today as we expect to be, or are, full", as happened to me on a few occasions. It is more of an issue about the number of pre paid entries they allow and whose bookings they have to honour.