V-Flyer

We are currently in Florida and have just got back to our rental home from Orlando International. Parking was really easy in garage C and we were the only two passengers on the shuttle to and from the terminal, which was very quiet.

We are booked on the VS 27 next Saturday. Given the very limited details available on the VA website (and the request that only those travelling within the next 72 hours should contact VA) we decided to go to MCO to see if we could get any updated information about VA flights for the coming week(s).

At VA’s check in area at MCO, two very helpful VA staff – Richard, monitoring the check in queues and Alandra at the PE desk – told me that VA personnel had just been in contact, on a conference call, with VHQ in Crawley. At present they had no information about repatriation flights for UK nationals currently stuck in the USA; and a decision from the US government was awaited. Despite the flights from Tuesday (17 March) onwards still showing as operating on the VA website, currently there are no flights at all scheduled for the coming weeks. That was the situation earlier this afternoon, but may well have changed by the time I post this.

Tonight’s flights are still on and passengers were checking in as usual. However, there were no spare seats available. A number of people were trying to get tickets for tomorrow’s flights (the last scheduled before the ban comes into effect) with limited success. A family with a little two-year old, and a lady from Ireland with a companion in a wheel chair, were among a number of passengers who had arrived on last night’s VS 27, and were trying to get tickets for their return as soon as possible. One of the passengers said that they had contacted the FCO (presumably) the British Consulate in Miami and, as expected, had been told that they should make their own return arrangements.

If anyone has any more up-to-date information, perhaps they would kindly add to this thread.

Kind regards,

John

I wouldn’t count on there being any VS flights from MCO from Tuesday. It’s not one of the 13 approved airports for European arrivals (although I’m not clear on whether VS would still be allowed to fly OUT of MCO as long as the aircraft arrived empty).

Either way I would strongly recommend any UK holidaymakers still in Orlando to try to get out tomorrow if possible, by whatever means possible. Otherwise you may have to fight for limited space on a skeleton service out of MIA, ATL or one of the eastern seaboard airports - not necessarily operated by VS.

Since Trump's declaration about UK/Irish flights staff in all the airlines are assiduously working to bring people home as quickly as possible. My son works with Aer Lingus and has been working full on to bring passengers back from Europe as the borders closed. He came home for the weekend on Friday arriving late and went straight to bed. On Saturday he was up early and working from home while eating his breakfast. He took a break in the late afternoon and visited his friends and while there Trump made his announcement about the UK/Irish flights. He was recalled to work, returned home and went to bed at 8.30 and was up before the lark to head off to Dublin once more to help the situation.

All airlines are doing likewise as far as is possible. To go back to Aer Lingus, without compromising their US flights, they are sending their larger airlines to Spain to bring back holidaymakers who are stranded there.

Hi everyone,

Just got back from a very quiet OIA. Plenty of spaces in parking garage C and we were again the only two passengers on the shuttle to and from the terminal.

We arrived at the VA check in/bag drop desks at around 1345 hrs and there was a crowd of about thirty queuing at the eight PE/UC desks opposite. It took just over an hour before we reached the front of the line, where we were called over to be greeted by the extremely helpful Kathleen. Another twenty minutes or so saw us finally fixed up with a couple of seats on tomorrow’s (Tuesday) VS 28. Naturally disappointed at having to cut our stay short by four days, but somewhat relieved to have, at least, fixed our flight home

It takes quite a while for each booking to be rearranged/confirmed and involves several telephone calls. The VA staff were marvellous. All working very hard and from time to time almost all of the eight desks were manned.

While we were queuing I had the opportunity to chat with Arian, another very helpful member of the VA staff, who told me that today’s (Monday) flights were all fully booked, but they were taking bookings for tomorrow, when there are expected to be three flights, the two scheduled for Gatwick and Manchester, and another non-scheduled later Gatwick flight (probably around 2100 hrs) VS 50. At the time, there was also expected to be at least one flight, to Gatwick, on Wednesday and possibly others. Beyond that, there was no further information.

From what I could tell, just about all those queuing ahead of us were able to get on flights over the next two days. Clearly, the situation is developing day to day. VA flights for the rest of the week were not known at the time we were there, but it does seem very likely that anyone wishing to bring forward their departure dates, and who have been unable to contact VA by telephone, should go along to OIA and speak with the VA team there. I was advised that it was a good idea to get there around 1245. The desk opens at 1315 and I was told there was a queue already developing by the time they opened up today.

I’m afraid I don’t know the situation with any other airlines, but I would imagine they are all working along similar lines.

Hope this is helpful for any of you still out in Florida at the moment. I will try and elicit any more up-to-date information when we are at OIA tomorrow, and post it as soon as I can. In the meantime, if anyone has any updates or anything they can add which might be useful, would they please post it here. Thanks.

Kind regards,

John

We are not due to fly back from Fort Myers via ATL to MAN on 30th. Managed to speak to VS on telephone after 45 minute wait. They were able to rearrange return for Wednesday 18th via JFK. Charged us £73 each for change but better than staying around and hoping something will be sorted.

‘Southroma’ thank you for your detailed information. Glad you’ve managed to arrange a flight home. We are at the Florida beaches at present and was contracted by Virgin last night. Guess it’s a waiting game now to see our options. Please post again your experiences at the airport later. For info did you have care hire to sort out too.
Thanks

All I can say is that Virgin's response to Hurricane Irma (no health issues / risks, I admit) was brilliant. They flew empty planes out from the UK on minimum turnaround times to operate flights back to the UK, 3 hrs earlier than the normal schedule.

The flights to the USA were fully crewed, so the crew were being told "you're going to be in a hotel in a possible CAT-5 Hurricane". Enjoy the trip. Thankfully Orlando got let off a bit & Irma had dropped to a CAT-3 by the time it hit.

I am sure Virgin & all other carriers want to resume services as soon as is practicably possible. Bums on seats make money, planes parked up at stands don't.

I see even LHR is abandoning parking charges for aircraft - probably because the likes of VS & BA don't have enough space to park up planes that should be absent & in the air.

Hev60 wrote:‘Southroma’ thank you for your detailed information. Glad you’ve managed to arrange a flight home. We are at the Florida beaches at present and was contracted by Virgin last night. Guess it’s a waiting game now to see our options. Please post again your experiences at the airport later. For info did you have care hire to sort out too.
Thanks

Hi Hev60,

Very pleased to hear you have been contacted by VA. I had an email from them confirming our flight later today.

Regarding the car, I haven't spoken to Alamo, although I believe they are being quite helpful with renters who are being forced to stay longer than they had anticipated. I will just return our car later today, four days ahead of schedule. I doubt there will be any possibility of a rebate but I will have a word with them and report back on what they say. We also have the Visitor Toll Pass tag, which I am planning to just leave in their return box at OIA.

I will let you know how we get on.

Kind regards,

John

Apologies for not posting earlier, but have only just got back home, in UK. Had problems with laptop while in the Delta Lounge so couldn’t update before.

Regarding further flights in the next few days, there is still some confusion. Several airport staff said that they had been told that Tuesday was the last day for flights to the UK, but I wasn’t convinced and tried to check with the VA staff who told me there was definitely one flight on Wednesday, possibly more, but they didn’t know the situation after that.

General feeling was to try and get a flight back to UK as soon as possible, just in case.

I see, on the VA website, that both the VS 28 (MCO/LGW) and the VS 76 (MCO/MAN) are presently shown as flying today (Wednesday), also Thursday and Friday, so if anyone can confirm this please post the information as soon as possible.

Car rental situation is pretty much as we would have expected. Had a word with the Alamo representatives at MCO, Audrey and Chris, about the current situation and asked what renters should do if they thought they might have to overstay their booking dates. No problem getting another booking when the current one expires, but would need to go to an Alamo office to arrange it; and car would need to be returned and another collected. Cost would be higher than booking through the usual UK-based rental outlets and the price would be that currently being charged on the day. They suggested contacting original supplier – Alamo Brits, VA Holidays, DFCH, etc - to get a better deal. Obviously, no problems returning the vehicle early, but very little chance of a refund on unused days.

I hope to do a trip report on our flight back, in due course. At the moment, all I want to do is sleep:-).

Best wishes,

John

Hi everyone,

Just in case anyone, still out in Florida (or away from the UK) and waiting to get home, isn’t aware of the ‘Contact details registration form’ on the Virgin Atlantic website here are the details and a link to the website page:

If your flight has been cancelled and you are away from home, It's really important that you register your contact details with us, using the form at the bottom of this page.

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/e ... -home.html

Best wishes,

John