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MIA-LHR

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 12:49
by Petmadness
What an awesome site! First post so be gentle!
I am travelling on 17th August (tomorrow) from MIA - LHR and noticed that there have been a few delays to this flight especially Sundays (14th) flight which was delayed for around 26 hours! Can anyone shed any light on what happened on the 14th? Also I think we are flying on a Airbus....what I do know is we are flying PE

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Will be actively posting as I think this is a great forum To share experiences!
Re: Mia - Lhr

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 13:52
by tontybear
Welcome
Delays occur for all sorts of reasons - ATC, weather, Airport Operations - gates not being available, needing to offload a pax that hasn't turned up, problems at the destination airport which mean it can't leave its departure airport
All the VS flight Status says is "Due to unforeseen circumstances ..."
A delay that long would infer a technical issue that required a part to be flown in to resolve.
Re: Mia - Lhr

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 14:10
by Petmadness
tontybear wrote:Welcome
Delays occur for all sorts of reasons - ATC, weather, Airport Operations - gates not being available, needing to offload a pax that hasn't turned up, problems at the destination airport which mean it can't leave its departure airport
All the VS flight Status says is "Due to unforeseen circumstances ..."
A delay that long would infer a technical issue that required a part to be flown in to resolve.
Thanks tonty 8D . Hopefully a one off, been flying Virgin for 11 years and never had a massive problem that hasn't been resolved quickly & to my benefit. Are there anyways other than trying to book seats to see if the flight is full? Flight seating said it was an Airbus but most flights out this week have been 744...

Re: Mia - Lhr

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 14:15
by Neil
Welcome,
The best way to know which a/c is due to operate your flight is to check the manage my booking section of the VS site. This will show the seat map for the a/c that is currently planned to operate your flight.
MIA is operated by both the 747 and A346.
Thanks,
Neil
Re: Mia - Lhr

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 14:27
by RyanJW
This time of year, with it being hot and humid in Miami, the afternoon thunderstorms can cause diversions to MCO if the weather is bad. It's usually not for long, but adds to the delay.
We were delayed coming back by an hour 3 weeks ago because of a afternoon storm closed MIA but as we were travelling down from Cocoa Beach, we didn't see anything except for loads of standing water on the way into the airport!
Re: MIA-LHR

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 14:29
by tontybear
If you have a look at the 'schedules' in the 'toolbox' you can see what planes / types have operated a route in the past. it's is no guarentee of what planes will operate in the future though but as Neil says the MIA route uses a mix.
As to seeing if a flight is full if you join v-flyer as a paying member you get access to expert flyer where you can see numbers in detail. There is another site that does the same but is free but I can't remember it's name!
Planes are incredibly complex pieces of equipment and in general are very reliable but they do go wrong at times and the vast majority of pax understand that (except for some celebs who go on twitter rante) and often delays are down to factors not under the control of the airlines itself - recently a VS flight had to do a 250 mile diversion and land at Cardiff to refule before heading to LGW because of weather over the atlantic.
Re: MIA-LHR

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 15:36
by Petmadness
Thanks for your replies all. Virgin website says flight is serviced by the Airbus and says that all except UC is full.....upgrade anyone!!
Tonty, how much is it to join as a paid member?
Re: MIA-LHR

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 15:47
by Neil
Petmadness wrote:Thanks for your replies all. Virgin website says flight is serviced by the Airbus and says that all except UC is full.....upgrade anyone!!
Tonty, how much is it to join as a paid member?
Membership information can be found
here
Re: MIA-LHR

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 16:41
by downhillski1
tontybear wrote:As to seeing if a flight is full if you join v-flyer as a paying member you get access to expert flyer where you can see numbers in detail. There is another site that does the same but is free but I can't remember it's name!
Flightstats.com does it for free. You need to register, but it's easy. It is under Travel Planning > Flight Availability at the top. Although it is free, it isn't as good as Expert Flyer.
Re: MIA-LHR

Posted:
16 Aug 2011, 18:19
by Petmadness
Cool thanks downhillski
Re: MIA-LHR

Posted:
17 Aug 2011, 05:14
by Petmadness
So anyone know what actually happened with Sundays flight? Can't help but be intrigued ?|
Re: MIA-LHR

Posted:
17 Aug 2011, 07:40
by Neil
Petmadness wrote:So anyone know what actually happened with Sundays flight? Can't help but be intrigued ?|
The chances of finding out that info is highly unlikely. The airlines just don't release the cause of delays, so we have no way of getting the reasons.