V-Flyer

Suffered a last minute plane change (although still config 4 LHR 747) for VS029 out of LGW tomorrow. 6 year old Tizer now sat in Zone A, with Mrs V and me in B. I know, we can swap seats between us, but still, putting a child the other side of a WC, galley and exit from her parents is pretty brainless.

Oh, and we can't check-in online and UC reservations can do knack all to help us (and keep telling us that 19K and 20K and 'next to each other'). Nice relaxing start to the holiday...

I'm sure they will be able to help at the airport, or in the CH, or once onboard.

We witnessed a fantastic game of musical chairs on our PE return from MCO on Sunday, think we had 5 different people sat in the row in front of us in total throughout the flight. To be fair the crew were excellent at accommodating everyone and trying to sort our a solution.

Hope it all works out, should at least make an interesting start to the TR!!

Let's hope so Neil. Just a ball-ache when best laid plans are messed around at the last minute. And UC Reservations were worse than useless. A real 'computer says no' scenario.

Sorry to hear that.

As Neil says, they'll try to sort out at the desk, but I too have seen the crew go to amazing lengths to help out once on-board...

As you say though, not the thing you want before you've even taken off!

Hope and trust it'll work out for you - and have a great time in the little paradise that is Barbados.

From personal experiance the staff on the desk in the CH are very helpful in arranging seating changes. You might have to wait until check in closes though.

Sorry to hear about that.

Maybe its Tizer's cunning plan to get away from her parents for 8 hours. I can see her now chatting to the FA ..... "It's fine, mum and dad said I could have another G & T as long as I don't spill any"

I hope it gets sorted at LGW tomorrow morning.

Going to give twilight check-in a go. Sadly, just realised that the only reason we can't check-in on line is because VS have separated a child from the rest of the family. Great system they've got there.

Oh l do hope you are able to sort it out, l would be beside myself!
What an earth are VS thinking of here.
I am beginning to lose faith with them at the moment!

arent you tempted to just leave it as is -and when someone shouts 'we have an unattended 6 year old here we cant have that' ..just go............ 'its your problem ' ?????

flabound - it's a good question. If I were answering it with my 'argumentative sod' had on then it would be a definite yes. But with my other 'parent of small children' hat on then it's not a gamble I'd want to take!

flabound wrote:arent you tempted to just leave it as is -and when someone shouts 'we have an unattended 6 year old here we cant have that' ..just go............ 'its your problem ' ?????

Heehee... now thats something I would like to see happen... But Dont think Mdvipond would do that as a responsible parent none the less I'd love to see the faces of the Crew if that were to happen....

): ): ):

Ghostrider79 wrote:

flabound wrote:arent you tempted to just leave it as is -and when someone shouts 'we have an unattended 6 year old here we cant have that' ..just go............ 'its your problem ' ?????

Heehee... now thats something I would like to see happen... But Dont think Mdvipond would do that as a responsible parent none the less I'd love to see the faces of the Crew if that were to happen....

): ): ):

Well, it isn't the crew's fault really....

When this happened on a United flight a few years ago their response was to find a lone traveller and tell them that they had to move without so much as a "please" or "would you mind". Yes, I was that lone traveller. And no, it didn't impress me much.

Hope it all gets sorted soonest.

Paul

pjh wrote:When this happened on a United flight a few years ago their response was to find a lone traveller and tell them that they had to move without so much as a "please" or "would you mind". Yes, I was that lone traveller. And no, it didn't impress me much.

Hope it all gets sorted soonest.

Paul

Reminds me of the time I was on a United flight with Aer John who was then 13. A cabin crew came up to me and told me she would have to move me as there were two young sisters that needed to sit together and had been separated at check-in. I asked how old they were and was told that they were about 16 and 17 but could not be on their own because of their age! I gestured towards Aer John and asked who would sit with him then as he was only 13. ): At that she sniffed indignantly and flounced off without a word of apology to find her next victim

Adds to the challenge of throwing m&m's accurately.....
I'm sure all will get resolved by the time you have to fasten seatbelts..

northernhenry wrote:Adds to the challenge of throwing m&m's accurately.....

Has Mark not grown out of that yet?

I bet it was Tizer who phoned VS to change the seats (and probably read on here that the A-zone is the place to be)

Clever girl!

Coming back from LA a few months back was my first trip in UC and so when I chose the seats for me + 2 kids I didn't realise the location of a dividing wall.

Kids had two adjacent window seats and I was opposite in the middle of the plane hoping I could see them but due to the divider, was unable to actually see my son unless I leant right forward.

Crew insisted that we had to move as the rules were that I needed to be able to *see* both children during take-off and landing.

After a carefully negotiated swap involving 4 other pax changing seats all was fine....

Until the obligatory v-port failure on my son's screen during the safety briefing at which point they wanted to give him a manual briefing - luckily I told them I'd turned my screen around so he could see it but they gave him a bit of a grilling to ensure he'd understood it.

I guess its the way of the world - Health and Safety gone mad!

Once I sat down

BuddingPilot wrote:
I guess its the way of the world - Health and Safety gone mad!

Sorry but no its not H&S gone mad at all.

What if (and yes its a big if) something happened to the plane your first instinct would be to get to yout kids and being separated by the wall would mean you could cause problems for an orderly evacuation - going against the flow of other pax, you kids getting in the way of other pax etc.

Sorry but no its not H&S gone mad at all.

What if (and yes its a big if) something happened to the plane your first instinct would be to get to yout kids and being separated by the wall would mean you could cause problems for an orderly evacuation - going against the flow of other pax, you kids getting in the way of other pax etc.

I agree that obviously safety is very important and being separated by vast (or even relatively short) distances from your kids is ill advised especially if they are in the "wrong" direction against what would be the normal flow of an evacuation.

However, my main gripe is that many rules that are derived from H&S considerations, have no flexibility and don't allow for common sense. In my case I was sitting directly opposite one child and my view of the other was *slightly* obscured so I had to lean forward to see them.

Given the construction and layout of the UC cabin, its actually impossible to see someone if they are sitting next to you would they have enforced the same rule if we had been sitting in a row of three?

Hello from the executive lounge at the Gatwick Hilton! Did that twilight check-in thing (had to queue - what's that all about??) and we're now all back together again for tomorrow's flight.

They still, bless them, tried to insist that 19K and 20K are next to each other, and I had to point out that other than the exit, galley and WC between them, they were quite right. Perhaps the seat maps should be updated so that they don't automatically and inadvertently split families up. Now, still 10 minutes of free gin left, so if you'll excuse me...

mdvipond wrote:Hello from the executive lounge at the Gatwick Hilton! Did that twilight check-in thing (had to queue - what's that all about??) and we're now all back together again for tomorrow's flight.

They still, bless them, tried to insist that 19K and 20K are next to each other, and I had to point out that other than the exit, galley and WC between them, they were quite right. Perhaps the seat maps should be updated so that they don't automatically and inadvertently split families up. Now, still 10 minutes of free gin left, so if you'll excuse me...

Result y) . Well done - shame about the queue though :0

Theres normally a queue at twilight check in. No seperate lines for UC or PE, all pax are in one queue.

Pleased it all turned out ok - I am sure the Gin took a battering....enjoy, Lady Penelope will take great care of you all tomorrow..

horburyflyer wrote:Pleased it all turned out ok - I am sure the Gin took a battering....enjoy, Lady Penelope will take great care of you all tomorrow..

Thanks, HB; although, I have a sneaky feeling that it might be Tinkerbelle looking after us, hence the plane change.

Glad you got the result y) y)

Hopefully, the lost gin this evening, can be amply replaced in the CH tomorrow :w :w

buns

Any pink in that there lounge this time ?