V-Flyer

Used this flight several times over the last 6 years and have been late getting into MBJ every time

Anybody willing to bet on 9th January?

I have never been on time on this flight:( But its worth it when you get there. I prefer the Thomson flight as it leaves earlier so you get to mobay in daylight. Have a great trip

Not sure I'd ever prefer a Thomson flight :-/

Looking back over the last couple of months it has only been 'late' 3-4 times.
IMHO Still worth considering TOM with their 787's and prices - unless you want UC ......

This route was the final straw for me 2 hours late outbound and 4 hours inbound which then cost our family £800 to change onward flights. Going next month via KIN with BA

We must have been lucky. We go to Jamaica alternate years and although VS65/66 has usually taken off a few minutes late for us it has always caught up time. I hope I haven't jinxed our trips on 1st and 15th Feb by posting this!

We've always been late into MBJ, the normal scramble to find your cases in the baggage area [only to find that somebody has been taken them off at the other end];then we have a 90 minute ride to Negril, check-in and get to the restaurant before it closes at 21:30!

Just spotted it left 53 minutes late today! Her indoors will not be happy when I tell her!

Why does this route seldom leave on time? Is there a punctuality issue at LGW or just always on this flight? VGAL flew in yesterday so they cant blame "late arrival of inbound aircraft" as they did in 2014 until I showed them that was not the truth!

ghtconc wrote:Just spotted it left 53 minutes late today! Her indoors will not be happy when I tell her!

Why does this route seldom leave on time? Is there a punctuality issue at LGW or just always on this flight? VGAL flew in yesterday so they cant blame "late arrival of inbound aircraft" as they did in 2014 until I showed them that was not the truth!

Could be the wheelchair army always delaying boarding...

(Oops, will have to qualify this. For some reason massive amounts of older people, who seem perfectly able to walk, seem to want to get the wheelchair onto the plane. Seems to affect the Montego Bay flights).

(Oops, will have to qualify this. For some reason massive amounts of older people, who seem perfectly able to walk, seem to want to get the wheelchair onto the plane. Seems to affect the Montego Bay flights.

Yes we have seen this. But one year on the return flight they got their comeuppance - on arriving into Gatwick the CC announced that only 2 wheelchairs were available to take people off the flight. Suddenly the lame could walk!

The aircraft on the MBJ route often leave gatwick late, having flown this route several time and also seen the flight boarding whilst flying elsewhere through gatwick I would suggest its largely down to the time it takes to board this flight.

Like others have said there seems to be an army of wheelchair passengers on this flight, almost like a convoy of special assistance vehicles parked outside the gate at times. Also for some reason this flight seems to attract a lot of passengers who turn up late to the gate

VS65 made up some time today and ended up only 22 minutes late.

Not too bad in the end!

I fly VS65 every year. I treated myself to a PE flight for the first time, travelling next month. I can honestly say that I have not experienced delays of more than 45 minutes but we always arrive on time or earlier. Yes, there are a lot of wheelchair travellers. Many are folk who immigrated to the UK in the 50's and are now very elderly to navigate the very long walks to and from the aircraft. As well as this, landing when other flights are coming in can back up immigration desks. Try getting an elderly 70 or 80 plus y o person to stand for hours. Not nice.

It's also due to the huge amount of baggage that people try to bring on to the aircraft that then cannot be stowed and has to be tagged and taken down to the hold

Left 9 mins late today, so no worries after all.
Don't think anyone will lose their job over that!

Have a great holiday.

G-VROS....

If you want to skip the queues at MBJ immigration & customs, Club Mobay offer an arrivals service for $50 per pax. They meet you at the end of the jet bridge & escort you through to a special line which bypasses any queues. We've used it in the past & it was really good.

Well done Virgin, arrived exactly on time in MBJ after taking very southerly route to avoid the high winds. Pushed back about 12:45, wheels up about 13:00. Noticed that boarding started much earlier than previous years, about 45 mins before departure which must have helped!!

Good smooth flight, food better than in 2014, crew regularly serving drinks but was this because we were on the upper deck. Bit of a scrum getting off as Y passengers from main deck were not stopped and therefore queuing on the stairs got interesting! Normal high number of wheelchairs also creating chaos. Why aren't these taken off last?

Normal chaos in MBJ arrivals as there are now about a dozen electronic immigration machines in order to register and get a receipt BUT then a single queue where a human then checks it! Odd,

Baggage hall normal , bags everywhere with officials taking them off the conveyor belt and so you have look on the belt and in a big pile for your bag. Doesn't work well ,

Road traffic in Montego Bay wad bad probably due to rush hour?nand being Friday night.

ghtconc wrote:Well done Virgin, arrived exactly on time in MBJ after taking very southerly route to avoid the high winds. Pushed back about 12:45, wheels up about 13:00. Noticed that boarding started much earlier than previous years, about 45 mins before departure which must have helped!!

Good smooth flight, food better than in 2014, crew regularly serving drinks but was this because we were on the upper deck. Bit of a scrum getting off as Y passengers from main deck were not stopped and therefore queuing on the stairs got interesting! Normal high number of wheelchairs also creating chaos. Why aren't these taken off last?

Normal chaos in MBJ arrivals as there are now about a dozen electronic immigration machines in order to register and get a receipt BUT then a single queue where a human then checks it! Odd,

Baggage hall normal , bags everywhere with officials taking them off the conveyor belt and so you have look on the belt and in a big pile for your bag. Doesn't work well ,

Road traffic in Montego Bay wad bad probably due to rush hour?nand being Friday night.

Electronic immigration machines? I was there last year and didn't experience this at all. Is it new, how does it work?

We were there in November and I didn't see them, but we were 2nd off the plane so went straight to an immigration booth. 5 mins later we had our bags:)

ghtconc wrote:Used this flight several times over the last 6 years and have been late getting into MBJ every time

Anybody willing to bet on 9th January?

I have flown this route a few times & don't recall having being particularly late leaving, wouldn't though have been worried if delayed as the bubbly consumed in the Club House we have put me well in to holiday mode.

oldboy

The machines worked ok, it takes a headshot photo of you and gives a cheque size receipt which a man then checked, don't ask me why. After that, it was never requested again.

There are about a dozen of these machines and it appeared that everybody with a "Chip Passport" was directed to them.

Got back this morning on the VS66, early and much improved service in my eyes which I will write a report upon in the next few days.