V-Flyer

First post so be kind. Just noticed that today's 15 to MCO has been cancelled. The 27 has been delayed until 13.00. I'm quessing it's a consolidation but maybe not. Just wondering how this works when there are more UC travellers than can be fitted into a single flight. Some pax must be bumped I guess but any ideas re how they select the lucky 14? We are travelling in upper next month on this route and would be really disappointed to be downgraded to PE. We are only reds and I'm on a reward ticket with Mrs Traveller on a Z. Any thoughts? Thanks

Hi and welcome.

It's not unusual for VS to only operate one MCO flight on quiet days, however it IS very unusual for a scheduled flight to be cancelled at short notice due to light loads. Short notice cancellations cost airlines a lot of money so they only tend to happen for operational reasons which I suspect this is.

If you ARE on a flight that's cancelled they'll either offer you a full refund, a seat in the same cabin on the next available flight (which may not be the next actual flight) or a downgrade on the next available flight if that's sooner (with compensation). If you kick off they might rebook you on to another airline the same day.

Todays consolidation is a pre planned one, it is now a quite period for flights to MCO and VS often do this.

Traveller wrote:First post so be kind. Just noticed that today's 15 to MCO has been cancelled. The 27 has been delayed until 13.00. I'm quessing it's a consolidation but maybe not. Just wondering how this works when there are more UC travellers than can be fitted into a single flight. Some pax must be bumped I guess but any ideas re how they select the lucky 14? We are travelling in upper next month on this route and would be really disappointed to be downgraded to PE. We are only reds and I'm on a reward ticket with Mrs Traveller on a Z. Any thoughts? Thanks

We experienced a consolidation on a 747 based flight to St Lucia three years back, where the Barbados flight was cancelled and consolidated into our flight. The Barbados customers were offered the consolidated flight or transfer to the next day's Barbados flight. I don't think anyone in UC on the St Lucia flight was bumped, and I got the impression that a few of the Barbados passengers who were in the UC cabin had actually been upgraded. That said there was a couple who hogged the bar the entire flight to Barbados who were not seated in UC, so maybe they had been downgraded.

So all in all....I've probably just confused you.

Neil wrote:Todays consolidation is a pre planned one, it is now a quite period for flights to MCO and VS often do this.

I'm not sure it was planned - the VS flight status page is showing the 15 as cancelled. There do seem to be a few issues with the LGW fleet at the monent so presumably this'll help them get back on track for tomorrow.

No I'm sure it wasn't pre planned. VS is a 747 down as VROM is on the ground at LAS, presumably tech. VBIG is being sent empty LHR-MCO to collect the stranded pax from MCO.

Thanks everyone for the informative and helpful comments. Just have to hope that this does not happen on the 5th May. We are on the 27 and 15 is scheduled for that day as well.

Traveller wrote:Thanks everyone for the informative and helpful comments. Just have to hope that this does not happen on the 5th May. We are on the 27 and 15 is scheduled for that day as well.

We're on the 27 on 5th May too. See you onboard

Indeed the VS15 was cancelled today - a relatively light load so pax was placed onto the delayed VS27. It was operating originally as the VS16 back from MCO this evening was a very heavy load indeed.

So G-VBIG has been sent to ensure the VS16 could operate and things getting stacked up in MCO was avoided.

A busy few days with the fleet with very little or no wriggle room but things are gradually returning to normal.

Jon