The Big Volcanic Ash from Iceland Thread

^)
Hey peeps...just thought id have a look for any Jet stream forecasts......dont look like we will see and wind change till Wednesday

http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/jetstream.asp

Then Next weekend wind shifts to the north blowing the cloud back at Iceland and the north.

fingers crossed

Hi guys. Stuck in LA and virgins phone line cuts me off after 3 minutes or so. Am using 18008628621 number. Any advice?

It's probably overloaded - try the US FC Au line, there'll be a wait, but it might eventually get through.

Unless you are travelling as an Au customer then it's foolish to call the number.

The UC line is jammed because non-UC people are calling it assuming it will be quieter. As a result the standard line is actually a smaller queue than the UC one.

We're a Japanese specialist, we've got lots of people stuck out there on different airlines and I must say that VS are being the best in giving out written instructions on what to do and actually saying that they will pay for the hotel. BA have been complete d1cks about it and have told some people that us as their agent (even if they just bought the flight from us) have to pay all their expenses which is complete rubbish.
The tour operator side of the business is interesting, we just have to say, stay in the hotel, tell the hotel to charge us and we try and get them home as soon as possible.
It's going to cost us as a business a fair packet in not making any money on new flight-only bookings for the next few days as all staff are occupied in dealing with the current issues. We then have the losses on the tour operator side as we have to keep paying as long as they are out there and the full refunds for people who have their outbound flights cancelled.
But that is part of business and hopefully we have built this contingency into our business model.

Anyway, I'm away from London in sunny Devon and it is the clearest bluest sky I have ever seen!

I'm not a seasoned traveller, but being offensive to staff cannot be excused by inexperiance. Whatwould these people like for airlines to do??????

DO THEY SERIOUSLY THINK RISKING THEIR LIVES IS AN OPTION???


jackasses!!!!!!!!!!!

We have to look for the silver lining, we are not in immeadiate danger (sorry icelandic folk), we are not dying, i mean get a freaking perspective.... i will be upset if i cant travel, i'm not lying. but yelling at some poor sod who is only doing their level best is pissy.

WE CANNOT AVOID THIS, SO LET'S JUST JUST TRY AND BE NICE!! PLEASE

goldenapple

I am not aware that anyone was saying that being offensive to staff was acceptable. Tontybear said that people were regailing their tales of woe (I would assume to the papers /tv) - that is somewhat different.

I suppose 'yelling at some poor sod...' is slightly different from shouting in a discussion forum.

Stuck in Vegas. Should have been travelling back on the 44 tomorrow. 1.5 hour hold for AU line. Earliest they can get me a seat is now not until next Saturday They looked at SF, LA, NY etc. but none sooner from there. They did say things might start to open up once flights are operating again. Need to call travel agent to look into non-Virgin option.

[Darren Wheeler]

Stuck in Vegas. Should have been travelling back on the 44 tomorrow. 1.5 hour hold for AU line. Earliest they can get me a seat is now not until next Saturday They looked at SF, LA, NY etc. but none sooner from there. They did say things might start to open up once flights are operating again. Need to call travel agent to look into non-Virgin option.

Unfortunately, at the moment there isn't much in the way of any options. No airlines are flying in or out of the UK until 07:00 Sunday morning at the earliest. You might be able to get a flight to somewhere like Spain but you then have the problem of getting back to the UK. Eurostar and all the cross channel ferries are advising not to turn up unless you have a confirmed booking.

The problem is the cloud is moving south and even Spain and Portugal is starting to get it and they are closing airspace now too.

Stuck in Vegas. Should have been travelling back on the 44 tomorrow. 1.5 hour hold for AU line. Earliest they can get me a seat is now not until next Saturday They looked at SF, LA, NY etc. but none sooner from there. They did say things might start to open up once flights are operating again. Need to call travel agent to look into non-Virgin option.

on the phone now. Am booked for a week on Monday from lax. That's a whole 8 days delay. The chap on the phone seemed a little surprised when I asked for a hotel. However, no luck.

Was on the phone for 83 minutes until answered

good luck with Vegas!

Saturday/Monday might actually be a good days to have booked!
Looking at the jet stream forecast, there is a high likelihood of all flights up to Friday being canx.

How are you guys getting through to the AU line?

I am trying here in the US, but after a couple of minutes of 'press option x/y/z etc' it just cuts to the enaged signal.

It's been very very quiet overhead here the past few days.
Those stuck overseas have my sympathy (particularly if they're having to fund their stays out of personal leave entitlement and a non- corporate pocket). DL the Elder , my stepfather and brother (Nessy) are travelling to Australia/ New Zealand in a couple of weeks so I am hoping that this extraordinary incident will have settled down.The impact on industry is going to be far reaching. Let's hope all those businesses involved (directly or indirecttly) survive.
DL

Now suspended til 1300BST tomorrow....

Cheers
Michael

How are you guys getting through to the AU line?

I am trying here in the US, but after a couple of minutes of 'press option x/y/z etc' it just cuts to the enaged signal.

Took me an hour to get through this afternoon. Music was Ok though

Miopyk 8D

Is it me are all these updates anout 'no flights until 07:00 then 13:00' etc is just giving false hope to people?. I know the situation is hard to assess and constantly changing bt at present the deadline is always moving forward rather than back.

BA and (spits at meer mention) Easyjet appear to be cancelling for whole days which does appear to be a bit more certain. Probbaly gives them more control when flights eventually are able to start.

BTW my comment on 'tales of woe' seamed to be conflated with comments about pax being rude to staff. I do not condone any sort of rudeness to staff no matter the circumstances and all the people I saw on the news have been neutral (at worst) or positive about the airlines and airports.

I was trying to say that these 'news' stories are not really news and I was getting fed up of seeing them !

Also, there was a comment pages ago about spring cleaning etc. There was a report about East Midlands (sorry if this has a fancy name now) Airport on SKY that they were doing all sorts of jobs on the run and taxi ways. BBC web also mentioned LHR was able to give the runway a proper daylight inspection too.

So well done airports !

[Scrooge]

Stuck in Vegas. Should have been travelling back on the 44 tomorrow. 1.5 hour hold for AU line. Earliest they can get me a seat is now not until next Saturday They looked at SF, LA, NY etc. but none sooner from there. They did say things might start to open up once flights are operating again. Need to call travel agent to look into non-Virgin option.

Normally I do not promote an on line travel agency on the open forums, however with these extraordinary circumstances I don't think anyone will mind.

When it comes to Las Vegas hotel the best rates are always found at http://www.travelworm.com , I am in no way involved with these guys, but have used them a number of times with no issues.

Anyways,for a week starting tonight in a nice hotel, your looking at around $100...for the week...told you it was a good site :w

Wow ! just got to Perth after a camping trip across the Nullabor Plain (which had quite a lot of trees, it turned out !) & catching up on the news ... Thankfully not booked to fly back to the UK until 27th but have that sinking feeling about declining the "acts of god" clause in my travel insurance this time around.

Ahh well - there could be worse places to be stuck..

[Darren Wheeler]

Interesting views...

Robert Peston's Blog

[Darren Wheeler]

Now extended to 01:00 Monday.

I'm not a seasoned traveller, but being offensive to staff cannot be excused by inexperiance. Whatwould these people like for airlines to do??????

DO THEY SERIOUSLY THINK RISKING THEIR LIVES IS AN OPTION???


jackasses!!!!!!!!!!!

We have to look for the silver lining, we are not in immeadiate danger (sorry icelandic folk), we are not dying, i mean get a freaking perspective.... i will be upset if i cant travel, i'm not lying. but yelling at some poor sod who is only doing their level best is pissy.

WE CANNOT AVOID THIS, SO LET'S JUST JUST TRY AND BE NICE!! PLEASE

goldenapple

I am not aware that anyone was saying that being offensive to staff was acceptable. Tontybear said that people were regailing their tales of woe (I would assume to the papers /tv) - that is somewhat different.

I suppose 'yelling at some poor sod...' is slightly different from shouting in a discussion forum.

yelling at poor sod here is also unacceptable, please excuse me, i have severe coffee deficiency!!

Other than wages, what costs do the airlines have when they are grounded?

They don't use fuel, don't pay landing fees, don't pay for hotels for crew, and don't pay for all the meals etc. that passengers consume. They also (I suspect) have lower maintenance costs as the aircraft isn't flying.

Yes, they will have to keep paying staff, and are losing money as in they are not making a profit, but a good business model should have wages covered by business continuity insurance (which you can get to cover acts of God etc.).

While I wait for confirmation that daughters flight tomorrow is cancelled I was wondering how many VS cabin crew are "stranded"? I wonder if the contracts address this problem?

You hear a lot about the problems being experienced by pax but extended time away will be fine for some of the younger crew but not for those with commitments at home.

If you mean just the planes then they will still be paying the capital costs of buying and/or leasing the planes.

But they will also have office costs - rates / heat / light etc etc for all the admin staff so for VS the centre at Crawley. Same at the airports, BAA will still want rent for the CH space and the office space VS has there (same at LGW and whoever owns that).

BAA will still want paying for the the general airport costs - running the terminals, security etc etc

Airlines may be doing extra maintenance etc whilst the planes are grounded so that could be an added expense not a saving - though that may just be bringing some forward so not a new but a shifted expense.

We have had discussion here previously on the cost of meals and they, in the scheme of things not that large an expense.

They will still be paying hotel costs, meal allowances etc for all the crew they have stranded overseas.

And whilst a business might have continuity insurance the cost of insuring incidents like this may be a prohibitive cost for how often they happen. In any case that insurance wont be open ended

Seems their facebook page is more up to date than web page here is the latest

Update: UK Airspace remains closed until at least 01.00H (UK local time) on Monday 19 April. All flights in or out of the UK until 13:00H Monday 19th April are cancelled. An update will be made after 17:00H on Sunday 18th April.

Supposed to be off to Sydney tommorow night for christening next week and I am bringing the family Christening outfit. But it is looking increasingly unlikely
jo


Allegedely

this is 'hidden' on the 'notes' page of the VS FB Page but might be helpful to some

Due to the ongoing nature of this event and the need to secure seats for passenger who are away from their homes we are unable to accept any re bookings for passengers who have not yet started their journey for flights scheduled to depart up to and including Monday 26 April 2010, neither can we accept new bookings.

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks for that Tonty, I certainly hadn't seen it and I thought I had read just about everything. ^)

It applies to us, as we are due out Thursday. We have already decided that if we can't go Thursday, we won't go.

It is a pain, but ours is just a beer and baseball jaunt. Our car parking, car hire and all hotels, apart from one night, can be cancelled without charge, so it should only be a couple of game tickets that we are down, and we can live with that.

Still - ever the optimist - it may be clear by Thursday afternoon. ):

Nick