V-Flyer

Looks as though most of the UK, including LHR/LGW is going to get around 10cm of snow on Saturday night into Sunday.

LHR have said that only 70% of flights are going to run on Sunday to minimise congestion. BA are offering free re-booking for a limited period.

VS seem to have a 'watch this space' approach at the moment.

Vs cancelled flights now on flight status. NYC, Washington, LA, Tokyo

McMaddog wrote:Vs cancelled flights now on flight status. NYC, Washington, LA, Tokyo

Seen that, looks like VS 3, 7, 21, 900 and 1 are the cancelled services.

Snowing in Gloucestershire...so it's on it's way to LHR LGW

If you go here http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/index.html and press the play button you can see there is a shedload of crap moving eastwards !

McMaddog wrote:Vs cancelled flights now on flight status. NYC, Washington, LA, Tokyo

Seems a bit 'health and safety' when we don't know how much, nor how much disruption - after all, hasn't BAA got the kit now to deal with snow?

slinky09 wrote:
Seems a bit 'health and safety' when we don't know how much, nor how much disruption - after all, hasn't BAA got the kit now to deal with snow?

I'd perfer 'belt and braces' and a bit of proactive cancelling might well be best in terms of managing pax numbers at the airport.

At least with the NYC flights there are other options for people to be rebooked onto.

tontybear wrote:I'd perfer 'belt and braces' and a bit of proactive cancelling might well be best in terms of managing pax numbers at the airport.

At least with the NYC flights there are other options for people to be rebooked onto.

Let's toss a coin, heads for it's all a bit health and safety, tales it's note?

I bet the new management team at Gatwick will want to get back into service before Heathrow ):

Sympathies to anyone who is due to travel this Sunday

buns

Looks like a busy night for me to keep my platforms clear!

Hamster wrote:Looks like a busy night for me to keep my platforms clear!

Should we be calling you the Fat Controller?

I can imagine that my flight tomorrow (vs009 to JFK) will be a bit busy then. Assuming it goes... Better do OLCI now I think!

Best of luck to anyone else travelling. Just started snowing where I am (just N of London)

RC

ratechaser wrote:I can imagine that my flight tomorrow (vs009 to JFK) will be a bit busy then. Assuming it goes... Better do OLCI now I think!

Best of luck to anyone else travelling. Just started snowing where I am (just N of London)

RC

I think the idea of the pre-emptive cancallations is to ensure (as far as possible) that the rest of the flights can get out.

Good luck !

I did like the way BAA asked airlines to reduce arrivals/departures for Sunday. Hardly a sign of confidence.

Walking boots out, chain shoes at the ready. Have legs, will walk.

Darren Wheeler wrote:Have legs, will walk.

It's a long walk to Tokyo.

Thick in uxbridge now. LHR only a few minutes away.

Plenty of delays/cancelations/diversions at MAN this evening too.

Plenty of Aircraft overseas at the moment are being held there as their return workings are cancelled (2,4,8,22,901) Guess these will return in place of tomorrows outbound cancelled flights

It was vile here earlier (West of Cardiff). Major problems getting up the (slight) hill to my house,and when I manged it eventually, the driveway down to the house was treacherous. I shovelled lots of snow trying to keep my path to civillization clear but since then it's rained and the snow has disappeared :0 .
Hope nobody is inconvenienced too badly.
DL

jbis wrote:Thick in uxbridge now. LHR only a few minutes away.

Many a true word there !

Started snowint here (Brentwood, Essex) about an hour ago - over an inch and coming down fast.

LGW will probably suffer over night...

Chap from BAA on radio tonight explaining that LHR is normally running at 92% capacity and they've reduced that to 70% using the "cars travel more slowly on the roads, so aircraft also have to travel more slowly" line...

Good luck to all who are due to travel...

DragonLady wrote:It was vile here earlier (West of Cardiff). Major problems getting up the (slight) hill to my house,and when I manged it eventually, the driveway down to the house was treacherous. I shovelled lots of snow trying to keep my path to civillization clear but since then it's rained and the snow has disappeared :0 .
Hope nobody is inconvenienced too badly.
DL

You should really think about winter tyres!
Had really bad snow this afternoon and on a really steep local hill near to my workplace I just sailed past (well at 30mph) all the stranded cars,lol..........

Hi, I'm new to this forum and I'm hoping for some thoughts please.

I'm stuck in Tokyo with my girlfriend as VS901 has been cancelled. I received text message confirmation last night which was helpful but the call centre staff were less so. After about an hour on the phone we were placed on Monday's flight instead, no chance of getting back today (half empty BA flight leaves Narita at same time but won't put us on that). We weren't offered any accommodation, only when we pressed them did they offer to re-imburse us for up to a 3-star hotel and 'reasonable' food and drink expenditure. We are flying in Upper Class.

I don't want to rant, we're both just disappointed with Virgin. Yes there are worse places to be stuck but we both miss work on Monday, they haven't offered to put us on another carrier and they haven't helped on accommodation.

Our flight out had just 100 passengers and only 17 in Upper. Our flight back looked even quieter. Cancelling the flight might seem a sensible business decision on their part but it leaves a very sour taste for passengers affected and therefore brings a hidden cost of lost loyalty/bad word of mouth. My experiences with BA when things have gone wrong is far better.

Does anyone have experience of what 'reasonable' expenses are? If there a set limit on hotel costs? If we stay in a 4-star hotel can we still claim partial re-Imbursement?

Thanks

Lost in translation wrote:I don't want to rant, we're both just disappointed with Virgin ...

I feel very disappointed for you, that is really shoddy service and you should contact VS and be very specific about your questioning, it's too late now for today's flights I assume, so ask for all the limits on hotel and food, make sure you keep all your receipts, and be prepared for a long wait - VS is absolutely appalling when it comes to reimbursing, just awful - this is one of the very worst sides of the airline I am sorry to say.

You can use Facebook and Twitter to vent and get answers too.

VS ar obliged to re-imburse hotel and reasonable food. I can't recall the limit but we found it quite easy to stick to when we were in shanghai due to the ash cloud. I believe the limit varies by destination as obviously Tokyo is more expensive than Vegas for example.

What is poor is if the agent has tried to deny that you're entitled to this.

I don't believe that rebooking on another carrier would be offered by any other airline.

Finally BAA have forced a 30% capacity cut at LHR for Sunday, so VS had no choice to cancel some flights. I think you've done OK to get away with a 24 hr delay.