V-Flyer

Morning All,

Just requested seats for my LGW - CUN VS93 flight at T60. Strangely the seat map was showing a LHR config 744 and not a LGW one. Is this normal?

Cheers.

It's certainly not unheard of - they do sometimes "borrow" an LHR 747 for the LGW routes for the extra UC capacity although I thought it was mainly for the Caribbean routes in the winter.

Likely a LHR config is helping out at LGW due to maintenance of one of the LGW a/c, happens quite a lot.

Thanks for the replies. Given it's still a number of days away, I suppose it may be this changes closer to the time?

What's the LHR 744 fleet like, is it dated compared to the LGW counterpart?

It's a bit more dated, yes, as the LHR fleet wasn't refurbished a couple of years ago like the LGW one was. The main difference is probably the IFE - it's not the latest touch screen version. Still on demand though.

The LHR 744s are all due to leave the fleet in the next couple of years (possibly apart from one or two of the newest aircraft which may go to LGW) so they won't be refurbished in the meantime.

I just requested UC seats on VS016 MCO to LGW and it too was an LHR configuration. It really took me by surprise. I had my mind made up on which seats I was going to try to request and then all these other seats were available. It took me a little while to figure it out.

blackjack wrote:I just requested UC seats on VS016 MCO to LGW and it too was an LHR configuration. It really took me by surprise. I had my mind made up on which seats I was going to try to request and then all these other seats were available. It took me a little while to figure it out.

You and me both! If the map were to change to a LGW 744 closer to the time, will I have to re-request all over again, or will the seats read across? I've chosen ones in the nose.

Yes, an aircraft change would render all seat requests invalid.

The way it looks to me is the LGW configuration only has 14 UC seats. If they book more than 14 seats figuring to use the LHR configuration and then switch back to the LGW configuration someone is going to be left behind.

blackjack wrote:The way it looks to me is the LGW configuration only has 14 UC seats. If they book more than 14 seats figuring to use the LHR configuration and then switch back to the LGW configuration someone is going to be left behind.

True. But given both are leisure routes, I'd of thought they're more likely to fill Y seats. Using a LHR a/c reduces Y capacity. Although given this is out of the "silly season", I suppose it balances out.

I would have thought they'd sell the flight based on its usual LGW config - ie 14 UC.

Yes there is a risk they'll be left with a shortage of Y seats but I doubt it's a real problem in October when demand on the LGW/MAN routes is much lower.

Indeed it's not unusual during the quieter months for the two daily LGW-MCO flights to be consolidated into one. And I note BA have cancelled their LGW-LAS route altogether for 3 months over the winter so clearly demand falls very considerably.

blackjack wrote:I just requested UC seats on VS016 MCO to LGW and it too was an LHR configuration. It really took me by surprise. I had my mind made up on which seats I was going to try to request and then all these other seats were available. It took me a little while to figure it out.

I just posted this same question for VS016 as well. I guess we will wait and see.

websteth wrote:

blackjack wrote:I just requested UC seats on VS016 MCO to LGW and it too was an LHR configuration. It really took me by surprise. I had my mind made up on which seats I was going to try to request and then all these other seats were available. It took me a little while to figure it out.

I just posted this same question for VS016 as well. I guess we will wait and see.

Just out of interest, what's the date of your flight?

sean.ride wrote:

websteth wrote:

blackjack wrote:I just requested UC seats on VS016 MCO to LGW and it too was an LHR configuration. It really took me by surprise. I had my mind made up on which seats I was going to try to request and then all these other seats were available. It took me a little while to figure it out.

I just posted this same question for VS016 as well. I guess we will wait and see.

Just out of interest, what's the date of your flight?

Flight is 8 Oct

Cool, day after my flight then :-).

So I just picked seats for my return from LGW - > MCO and it is a Gatwick style seat map so it looks like there is indeed a LHR plane in there. A co-worker is flying over next week and he also shows a LHR seat map.

sean.ride wrote:

blackjack wrote:I just requested UC seats on VS016 MCO to LGW and it too was an LHR configuration. It really took me by surprise. I had my mind made up on which seats I was going to try to request and then all these other seats were available. It took me a little while to figure it out.

You and me both! If the map were to change to a LGW 744 closer to the time, will I have to re-request all over again, or will the seats read across? I've chosen ones in the nose.

Our aircraft changed from a 747 to A330 and our seat requests were transferred across, keeping the exact same seat numbers, which was fine for us. I guess if they can't do an exact read across, then they might just cancel the requests.

hunterdwmgzt wrote:

sean.ride wrote:

blackjack wrote:I just requested UC seats on VS016 MCO to LGW and it too was an LHR configuration. It really took me by surprise. I had my mind made up on which seats I was going to try to request and then all these other seats were available. It took me a little while to figure it out.

You and me both! If the map were to change to a LGW 744 closer to the time, will I have to re-request all over again, or will the seats read across? I've chosen ones in the nose.

Our aircraft changed from a 747 to A330 and our seat requests were transferred across, keeping the exact same seat numbers, which was fine for us. I guess if they can't do an exact read across, then they might just cancel the requests.

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago on the VS2. Had seats selected at T-60 and when I checked in online it had changed from a 330 to a 343. My seats (4/5K) were automatically transferred to to he same positions on the new aircraft.

Seat requests for my return haven't opened yet, but we'll see if that shows as a LHR or LGW config.

Good to know seats have been read across when changes are made.