V-Flyer

I'm travelling on an A340-600 to New York and back in November and as this will be my first time on an A340-600 I was doing some research on the best places to sit in UC. Whilst carrying out this research I stumbled across the following on FlyerTalk which was only posted a couple of days ago:

I believe it is just a few VS45/46 services that will see the 787. Most of the JFK flights will be operated with the 346. (largest J cabin in the fleet).

If it makes any difference all the 346's are getting a refresh in UPPER with new colours and upholstery to better align them with the 787's.
(I believe 3 have already been done). Also the 7 x 346's staying for a few more years will also get new Y seats and inseat power.

All the fleet is getting wifi installed as well over the coming year.

I've put the relevant part in red bold above.

Does anybody know anything else about this as I can't seem to find it anywhere else and does anyone know what aircraft have already had the "treatment" if indeed this report is correct?

If my ability to search the forums correctly is flawed and this has already been discussed elsewhere, my apologies.

First I've heard of it but that doesn't count for much ! I will watch with interest as I'm on one to Ewr in dec , TBH I've always found the seats on the 346s in UC not too bad

News to me too....

I don't suppose the poster on FT actually backed up their claims with a source of some sort?

Unfortunately no, to the source of this information. This is the link to the actual post :

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgin-atlantic-airways-flying-club/1704419-789-route-schedule-jfk-lhr.html

The posting on the other forum is by ANStar who is generally well informed.

I flew to JFK on 15th vs003 no change on that aircraft and due to fly back this Saturday also due to be a340-600

lemeng wrote:The posting on the other forum is by ANStar who is generally well informed.

Yes, you should be able to take his comments as a given. Good to know that UC on the 346s that remain will be cleaned up a little - it'd be great to hear they're getting the latest IFE too, those screens are getting scratchy!

ANStar has added a bit more information to their previous posting on the other site and has now stated what aircraft have had the UC refresh, they are:

G-VWIN - Lady Luck
G-VRED - Scarlet Lady
G-VBUG - Lady Bird

Until we know the registrations of the 7 A340-600's that are staying on until 2018 it will be difficult to work out what aircraft have been done. I assume they're being refreshed whilst at Manila for maintenance unless they can be done at Heathrow very quickly, guess that depends exactly on how much work is involved.

Sunseeker wrote:I flew to JFK on 15th vs003 no change on that aircraft and due to fly back this Saturday also due to be a340-600

I had a quick check on the Heathrow & Gatwick Airport Movements website and it is showing G-VFIT as operating the VS003 on the 15th August, so that ties in with the list above as not being one of those that have been "refreshed".

I was on the VS1 on Saturday and it turned out to be G-VRED. One of the 346's that has been refreshed. If I hadn't seen this thread prior to boarding I wouldn't have known for definite that work had been done. It's nice to see the 346's having work done on them, but don't get too excited about the makeover. Took some pictures of my seat (7K) for you to see the changes (if you can) (hope you can see the pics as first time trying to post pics to this board):

The seat:
2015-08-29 16.54.01 by darren, on Flickr

New upholstery on the non-IFE divider (this is the only thing which made me wonder if something had changed):
2015-08-29 16.51.39 by darren, on Flickr
The honeycomb upholstery appeared to be on the back of the seat for the bed, but I never converted mine to see if it was all over.

New leather on the divider top (as reported on flyertalk):
2015-08-29 16.56.28 by darren, on Flickr

Same old IFE:2015-08-29 16.51.49 by darren, on Flickr

Drinks holder and armrest/pocket:
2015-08-29 16.52.25 by darren, on Flickr

Very worn seat belt:
2015-08-29 16.53.50 by darren, on Flickr

There may have been other updates around the UC cabin, but to my eye, I didn't notice any.

Looks exactly the same as my flight on vs4 on Saturday aboard dancing queen an unreburbished plane

Wow! Really great to see the pics - thanks for sharing, and agree I would struggle to see the difference I think, but nice to see the investment none the less... to prevent another Vera Reel situation happening where people dread getting certain aircraft!

G-VFIT has been refreshed. We were on it to San Francisco yesterday. Imagine our horror when one passenger trailed their bag and marked the wall in front of the K seat all the way along!

It was a noticeable improvement. Much cleaner, things did not rattle as much and the bed felt much more supportive than on other non-refreshed cabins. No change to the IFE screen though.