Does anyone know what happened to TCD

Does anyone have a link to the story as to waht happened on Wednesday/Thursday to the TCD flight from SAN-LGW?

I have read rumours that they "lost an engine" whatever that means

I have friends looking to book TCD over VS as the cost is a saving of almost £1,000!

TIA

Cant see anything on pprune or any of the news websites which may mean it didnt happen- normally is put onto pprune.

"lost an engine" will mean the engine had to be shut down for some reason or another. It happened to a BA 744 from West Coast US- London a while back and got a lot of media attention as BA carried onto London and didnt turn around despite being only an hour into its journey.


There was one case of an engine of a 747 actually falling from the sky. It got detached off an Evergreen or Southern Air 747-100 cargo aircraft back in something like 2003. The engine landed somewhere near Michigan- surprisingly no one was hurt and the a/c landed safely.


Btw Orlando Sanford is SFB....SAN is San Diego!

[Pete]

Originally posted by AlanA

I have friends looking to book TCD over VS as the cost is a saving of almost £1,000!

As they say, you get what you pay for. I've never travelled with them, but read several reports on boards like The DIBB which don't encourage me.

My motivation for booking a flight isn't necessarily based on who is cheapest. It's a combination of cabin type, destination airport, frequent flyer rewards, previous experience, customer service, loyalty and (yes) price (and probably lots of other factors). What is it that causes many of us who read these boards to check flights with Virgin first, when we all know we could probably fly Thomas Cook cheaper?

If price is your only motivation, then Virgin clearly isn't the right choice. But then you're comparing apples to oranges.

Originally posted by Pete

Originally posted by AlanA

I have friends looking to book TCD over VS as the cost is a saving of almost £1,000!

As they say, you get what you pay for. I've never travelled with them, but read several reports on boards like The DIBB which don't encourage me.

My motivation for booking a flight isn't necessarily based on who is cheapest. It's a combination of cabin type, destination airport, frequent flyer rewards, previous experience, customer service, loyalty and (yes) price (and probably lots of other factors). What is it that causes many of us who read these boards to check flights with Virgin first, when we all know we could probably fly Thomas Cook cheaper?

If price is your only motivation, then Virgin clearly isn't the right choice. But then you're comparing apples to oranges.

Pete,
the problem for our friends is the fact that they don't have the disposable income that many of you on this forum have.
£1,000 is aLOT of money to them, especially with three girls to bring up, one of them autistic.
Of course they would like to fly Virgin/BA but the fact of the matter is that many people cannot afford this luxury.
Virgin are great in some ways but have started to become very expensive, for example, the same dates that they wish to book for, the Virgin price is £2.008 and that's without car hire. TCD including car hire is £1,160.
That is a hell of a saving. As they have said, sure TCD don't have seatback Tv's but for the saving they can buy a couple of dvd players for £100.

I've read reports of a compressor stall from someone who claims to be in the know on the DIBB and a passenger who claims they were told it was a fuel leak. It went tech and turned back appears to be the simple story.

BTW not too sure but I wouldnt imagine the TCD Brand will be around a lot longer. Would guess it will be fully phased out and replaced by xl.com who now own TCD.

[Pete]

Originally posted by AlanA

Originally posted by Pete

Originally posted by AlanA

I have friends looking to book TCD over VS as the cost is a saving of almost £1,000!

As they say, you get what you pay for. I've never travelled with them, but read several reports on boards like The DIBB which don't encourage me.

My motivation for booking a flight isn't necessarily based on who is cheapest. It's a combination of cabin type, destination airport, frequent flyer rewards, previous experience, customer service, loyalty and (yes) price (and probably lots of other factors). What is it that causes many of us who read these boards to check flights with Virgin first, when we all know we could probably fly Thomas Cook cheaper?

If price is your only motivation, then Virgin clearly isn't the right choice. But then you're comparing apples to oranges.

Pete,
the problem for our friends is the fact that they don't have the disposable income that many of you on this forum have.
£1,000 is aLOT of money to them, especially with three girls to bring up, one of them autistic.
Of course they would like to fly Virgin/BA but the fact of the matter is that many people cannot afford this luxury.
Virgin are great in some ways but have started to become very expensive, for example, the same dates that they wish to book for, the Virgin price is £2.008 and that's without car hire. TCD including car hire is £1,160.
That is a hell of a saving. As they have said, sure TCD don't have seatback Tv's but for the saving they can buy a couple of dvd players for £100.

Alan,

I'm not defending Virgin's pricing structure. But if price is the overiding factor, then they shouldn't be flying Virgin. Simple as. TCD, Thomas, Globespan and a heck of a lot of other carriers will no doubt get your friend to their destination cheaper, but stating that those other carrier can do their family package a grand cheaper than Virgin is missing the point why most people on this site choose one airline over another. I could walk into a car dealership tomorrow and shout "hey look, this Fiesta is thirteen grand cheaper than this BMW!", and those around me would be unimpressed.

Pete

Originally posted by AlanA

Pete,
the problem for our friends is the fact that they don't have the disposable income that many of you on this forum have.

I think that should read many of "us" rather than "you" - what with you being a UC flyer don't you think Alan?

I really don't see what the big deal is with flying VS in economy - what is "special" about it?. I would happily fly TC etc as the seat pitch is as good (bad) and the food is, well - so what?

Regards

John

Originally posted by willd
Cant see anything on pprune or any of the news websites which may mean it didnt happen- normally is put onto pprune.

"lost an engine" will mean the engine had to be shut down for some reason or another. It happened to a BA 744 from West Coast US- London a while back and got a lot of media attention as BA carried onto London and didnt turn around despite being only an hour into its journey.


There was one case of an engine of a 747 actually falling from the sky. It got detached off an Evergreen or Southern Air 747-100 cargo aircraft back in something like 2003. The engine landed somewhere near Michigan- surprisingly no one was hurt and the a/c landed safely.


Btw Orlando Sanford is SFB....SAN is San Diego!

PPRune running a little late on this one. Topic now on there about it.

Originally posted by JAT74L

Originally posted by AlanA

Pete,
the problem for our friends is the fact that they don't have the disposable income that many of you on this forum have.

I think that should read many of "us" rather than "you" - what with you being a UC flyer don't you think Alan?

I really don't see what the big deal is with flying VS in economy - what is "special" about it?. I would happily fly TC etc as the seat pitch is as good (bad) and the food is, well - so what?

Regards

John

John,
the difference for me is that my UC flight is once a year at my own cost, many on here, the "Gold carders" either fly for buisness a lot or are (and this is not a criticsm) "DINKYS" or "SINKYS" who don't look second at paying for either UC or PE many times in a year.
It has been a complaint (and yes, I am as bad) that this site is taylored towards the high end of the flights, that economy is there but like the Single cousin with a prediliction for Mars bars and taxidermy not to be mentioned.
My concern for my friends is not the economy package as I agree with you that Virgin have seriously lost the plot with Economy, but that I want them to get there relativly on time, not 39 hours late and in one piece

Pete,
Maybe it's a London/Single/Youth thing, but is the Fiesta gets you from A to B than to me its better than paying So much more just to drive a badge and not a particulary good or exclusive badge at that! [}:)]

Getting back on-topic...on Thursday 5th April the aircraft involved (I'm presuming it was TF-AME) went tech at MAN causing a massive delay meaning that they had to hire in an Air Atlanta 747-300 (TF-AMK) because they couldn't repair TF-AME in time. 24 hours later the next days flight took off on-time using TF-AME MAN-SFB just as the aircraft that substituted for it arrived from SFB.

Mind you I see the aircraft used on TCD services every time I go to MAN and the age of the aircraft scares me a little bit.

Originally posted by VS075

Mind you I see the aircraft used on TCD services every time I go to MAN and the age of the aircraft scares me a little bit.

She isnt that old to be honest- first flight in 1984. and was used by SQ until 1997- so would have been kept in an excellent condition.

She is a lot younger than the a/c used by VS at the turn of the century for example. JL and NW are still operating older 747s for example and half the BA 757 fleet is only a couple of years older.

Where it counts though is the number of cycles she has done rahter than age.

Originally posted by willd
She isnt that old to be honest- first flight in 1984. and was used by SQ until 1997- so would have been kept in an excellent condition.

She is a lot younger than the a/c used by VS at the turn of the century for example. JL and NW are still operating older 747s for example and half the BA 757 fleet is only a couple of years older.

Where it counts though is the number of cycles she has done rahter than age.

Excellent points. My fault because I was referring to the fact that it is a 747-300 aircraft.