Updated Schedule - Winter 2020 / Summer 2021

Indeed. It seems unlikely to me that a man who’ll base his campaign to be re-elected in six months on how he saved America from the ‘foreign virus’ will suddenly fling open the doors and welcome all those nasty diseased foreigners.

True..... but we're dealing with the most unprepared and erratic president in modern history. So there is no telling what's going to happen.

The new 14 day quarantine requirement for all arrivals into the UK (including UK residents) adds significant weight to decisions to travel even if elsehwere the world is opening up.

OMG , I hope not. 2 days ago he was saying they need to open up and get the economy going, and nothing generates cash like tourism does. Back to nail biting I think. This is the THIRD time I’ve booked this trip, I was hoping it was third times the charm .

Doesn't the FCO guidance supersede whatever US restrictions there are? My understanding is that even if the US or other countries were 'open' if the FCO guidance is against travel then travel insurance may become void?

FCO advice is just that, advice. I’m fortunate to have a policy that covers me to travel even against FCO advice as long as all local guidelines are followed. I’m terrified that if they don’t get back in the air soon there will be zero airlines left in the near future.

That policy must be gold dust. Didn’t know such thing existed. Seperately I wonder how credible this is: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.stan ... html%3famp

That policy must be gold dust. Didn’t know such thing existed. Seperately I wonder how credible this is: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.stan ... html%3famp

It was a very good annual policy with Aviva , and I was surprised myself lol. I feel the government is crippling the industry at this moment whilst at the same time refusing loans to help them rise it out. It’s a joke .

VS schedule resumption of meaningful passenger flights from July 1st (as it stands, may change particularly given 14 day quarantine announcement).

Reported by routesonline: https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/ai ... f-22may20/

Summary:

London Heathrow – Hong Kong 1 daily
London Heathrow – Lagos 1 daily
London Heathrow – Los Angeles 1 daily
London Heathrow – Johannesburg 1 daily
London Heathrow – New York JFK 1 daily
London Heathrow – Tel Aviv 1 daily

The rest of passenger service to be resumed as early as 13JUL20.

I’m due on one of the VS rotations on 8th July - wonder whether I will be transferred onto the sole daily flight (VS3 Dep 9.05am/Arr 11.55am) particularly if lots of passengers have already cancelled/deferred?

Also to note - VS will expand their current cargo operations still using PAX aircraft adding Brussels, Beijing and Chicago.

After whinging on here that Virgin need to update their bookings to reflect that flights will now be (a) going from LHR rather than LGW and (b) that the seating plans will all change without the 747's I was delighted to see today that my booking was indeed updated.

Its a shame that I wont be in the bubble for one last time but I was pleased to see that we had been allocated a pair in PE on the replacement 330 and not shoved in the middle.

I have booked a hotel the night before at heathrow too and keeping the gatwick one there just in case. Its a pain as we fly into LGW thw day before and now have to transfer to Heathrow. Things could be much worse of course.

Flying to Barbados on the 20th of Jan.

My flight to mco in September still showing as Gatwick

Not sure if this is accurate https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/tr ... 48351.html

Not impressed with the withdrawl of the 744's.
Summer next year is down for VS75 to be a 332, so my seat width in PE has dropped from 21" down to 18" - only 1" more than Economy.
Indeed, the UC seat on a 332 is 1" narrower than a PE seat on a 333!
GO FIGURE !!

I don't see BOS in the 2020 schedule? Could that be correct?

The tentative resumption of flights is to key destinations only, one on the east coast (JFK) one one the West (LAX) but since the introduction of the 14 day quarantine the start date in July will likely keep slipping until that restriction is lifted.

Not impressed with the withdrawl of the 744's.
Summer next year is down for VS75 to be a 332, so my seat width in PE has dropped from 21" down to 18" - only 1" more than Economy.
Indeed, the UC seat on a 332 is 1" narrower than a PE seat on a 333!
GO FIGURE !!

The Upper seat on the A330-200's are different to the rest of the fleet. As for PE, the A350's new seat is only 18.5" wide which isn't a problem for me being slim, but it does represent a downgrading of the product by virtue of the space being cut. If you're lucky, some airline's Y seats are that wide. It's why moving forward I will struggle to justify PE over Economy/Economy Delight depending on the aircraft.

FYI Virgin Holidays seem to have announced that holidays due to depart up to 12th July will be cancelled - seemingly impacted by the 14 day quarantine requirement. Imagine at the very least this date will be tracked for VS flights too.


https://www.virginholidays.co.uk/import ... AgA1341su0

My 4th July flight with VS was cancelled 2 days ago.

Should I be concerned...should I contact Virgin...or will it all just work itself out?! Thanks in advance...

Originally had return flights UC LGW-ANU for May/June. Virgin moved them for us to 29th Oct outbound returning later in Nov. All good.

However, when I logged into the booking today (to check if we had been moved from LGW to LHR) I find that there are now 3 flights showing. The first is LGW to ANU and says under it "Passenger Status - Contact Delta". The second flight is LHR to ANU but on the day before 28th Oct which will not connect with our flights from ANU to EIS and is therefore a problem for us. The third flight is the return ANU to LHR which is fine, different timing but it still works for us.

Why are there now three flights showing. What does Delta have to do with it. And why has the outbound date been changed?

Should I be concerned...should I contact Virgin...or will it all just work itself out?! Thanks in advance...

Originally had return flights UC LGW-ANU for May/June. Virgin moved them for us to 29th Oct outbound returning later in Nov. All good.

However, when I logged into the booking today (to check if we had been moved from LGW to LHR) I find that there are now 3 flights showing. The first is LGW to ANU and says under it "Passenger Status - Contact Delta". The second flight is LHR to ANU but on the day before 28th Oct which will not connect with our flights from ANU to EIS and is therefore a problem for us. The third flight is the return ANU to LHR which is fine, different timing but it still works for us.

Why are there now three flights showing. What does Delta have to do with it. And why has the outbound date been changed?

As VS have ceased operations at LGW, the ANU flights have moved to LHR. If it is under the same flight number, I expect the now defunct LGW departing flight to cease being on the booking at some point. As to the change of date, it is possible that ANU is not running from LHR daily and therefore you've been put on the next closest flight. Best to contact VS and check, but thats my guess.

The only reason Delta is mentioned is because VS use DL's booking system "under the hood" and thats one of the things that VS haven't yet modified (whether they will remains to be seen). But it basically means "contact the airline".

[mitchja]

I've seen the same thing happen with several DL bookings. The new and old flights both show on your booking initially but the old one then drops off a few days later.

As for the date difference, you will need to speak to VS about that.

Thank you James & CommanderB,

That makes sense. In which case I will wait for the old LGW flight to disappear and in the meantime start looking for a hotel for the night as we can't change our connecting flight from ANU. There are worse things I suppose than having to slum it in Antigua for a night!

Seat selection doesnt seem to work at all on the new flights. It allows you to do it but then just returns an error message when you click confirm. Perhaps something else that will shake itself out eventually.

I've seen the same thing happen with several DL bookings. The new and old flights both show on your booking initially but the old one then drops off a few days later.

Yeah, exactly. I've done a couple of same day changes on DL connecting flights with a VS transatlantic on the booking. It does the same thing there, where your new earlier flight goes onto the booking and the old connecting flight stays there. It's super gnarly. The first time I ever did it, I rang VS to make sure they made a note on the booking to protect the inbound, so I wasn't down as a no-show for the original flight.

[mitchja]

The seat maps should work again once the old flight drops off.

Do check both the app and the website as sometimes one will work whilst the other won't!

Thanks James,

I got a WhatsApp message back from Virgin saying:

"At the moment there is a technical issue with logging in to book seats. The engineers are still working on it. please try to log in each day to book the seats"

VS just tweeted out they are restarting flying from the 20th July to Orlando, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and ShanghaI

https://twitter.com/VirginAtlantic

Has it been confirmed that MCO will be allowed to accept UK arrivals by then?

Does VS know something we don’t?

Surely this will be dependent on the US lifting their travel ban and the UK scrapping the planned quarantine for arrivals?