G-VWOW is now half-and-half upstairs

Hi folks,

While flying to SFO on Friday on G-VWOW, I noticed that the upper deck cabin is now half J, half Y, like G-VFAB is.

In fact, I suspect most or all of the LHR fleet has been converted now, as the tell-tale sign in the aircraft DB is whether or not the aircraft has spent about a week on the ground at Gatwick, which they all seem to have done.

(It's definitely making it a bit tougher to get mileage upgrades to Upper!)

Hopefully that will get echoed in the aircraft database in due course.

Mike

[honey lamb]

Recently when checking for my SFO flight on the Manage my Booking page I have noticed that the back half of the upper deck has been totally greyed out even though the loads have been light. It has made me wonder whether they are being held back until all of the fleet has been converted.

I was hoping, in the absence of any reports of other aircraft being converted that the program had been put on hold.

I feel particularly sad that G-WOW has been converted as one of my first VS flights to the US was on her in PE just after she had joined the fleet. I do wish they had gone back to PE in the upper deck

IIRC all the aircraft have now been converted to the new config.

IIRC all the aircraft have now been converted to the new config.

Which is a great shame and a great mistake, but thanks for the update Tinks.

Really, if VS was so insistent on this, when premium travel is picking up again, they should have left some high J configs and some low J configs for flexibility. Look next week at flights to New York and every single one has low digit J availablity (747s and 346s), I can't help still feeling that VS has shot itself in the foot with this move.

[buns]

I can't help still feeling that VS has shot itself in the foot with this move.

Icould not agree more - thanks all the same Tinks

buns

[HighFlyer]

Totally agree with Slinky. BA's model of high and low J config seems to work for them (on the SEA route we see a mix of high/low and 777/744 depending on the day of the week) so I do wonder why VS took the approach to do the whole LHR fleet. It will be a costly mistake if J loads and J seats do not match up.

Recently when checking for my SFO flight on the Manage my Booking page I have noticed that the back half of the upper deck has been totally greyed out even though the loads have been light. It has made me wonder whether they are being held back until all of the fleet has been converted.

When I first booked for our SFO trip "Manage My Bookings" showed a Config 3. Then it changed to a Config 4. Then it changed back to a Config 3. I've just checked again and it is still showing a Config 3.

However, per HL, for the flight out on Aug 3 the entire Upper Deck is greyed out and for the return on Aug 18 the rear section of the Upper Deck is greyed out. The load check in the Schedules tool shows a fair amount of availability, so perhaps VS opted for simply greying the seats out as a way of managing the change.

Totally agree with Slinky. BA's model of high and low J config seems to work for them...

Though I do recall there was a suggestion that BA would eliminate their high/low J configs for a standard config per aircraft type - but that doesn't seem to have happened, from what I've seen.

Of course, BA also have a bigger fleet, so it's easier for them to do this. It would have been interesting to consider what would have happened if VS had been a much bigger 747-400 user - i.e. not gone with the 340-600, and stuck with Boeings. We'd have had a 744 fleet that is around twice the size, probably, so high/low J configs might have actually worked.

I do rather selfishly wish VS had put some PE back in the bubble, and maybe reduced the size of the main-deck PE by about 2 or 3 rows to accommodate more Y.

I can imagine it is a mixed benefit to VS - the 30 or so extra Y seats do make those aircraft more usable on leisure routes - subbing a LHR ship onto an LGW flight must have been hell in that sense - but with the BA strike, VS must have been winning some high yield J pax from BA, some of whom might stick around, and the larger J cabin might have been useful.

Mike

Had a look upstairs on Friday (Tinker Belle) really don't like the idea at all, although the economy passengers seemed happy.

Not sure if it makes business sence either as Economy and PE were only 3/5 full whilst there wasn't a single spare seat in J.

-Steve

Do the Economy pax all storm the stairs on arrival and get off the plane first?

Do the Economy pax all storm the stairs on arrival and get off the plane first?

Yep, pretty much. Noticeable on the way to the customs hall.

Mike

Bad, bad decision, totally opportunistic, poor long term business sense to this, especially when new aircraft orders are delayed and travel is picking up somewhat again. Mind you, it will be mostly upgraders who are hurt by this, but upgraders are frequent fliers who pay $2K for a PE seat and reduce their considerable mileage number by regularly bumping themselves up to the J cabin. Not exactly a class of pax VS wants to blow off completely, I would think.

I read on Seat Maps that the Manchester & Gatwick fleet are getting upgraded to the Heathrow config so they all will be the same.

Had this been done yet & when is it complete?

Do any of the Manchester fleet have the config yet with some Economy seats upstairs in the bubble?

[buns]

I read on Seat Maps that the Manchester & Gatwick fleet are getting upgraded to the Heathrow config so they all will be the same.

Had this been done yet & when is it complete?

Do any of the Manchester fleet have the config yet with some Economy seats upstairs in the bubble?

No changes to the existing Gatwick and Manchester fleets will take place until the new A330s come on line - expected to be in the Spring on 2011

buns

[Neil]

I read on Seat Maps that the Manchester & Gatwick fleet are getting upgraded to the Heathrow config so they all will be the same.

Had this been done yet & when is it complete?

Do any of the Manchester fleet have the config yet with some Economy seats upstairs in the bubble?

They aren't getting the same config as the LHR fleet. The upgrade will include a new IFE and also they will get the new purple leather PE seats that the LHR fleet have.

There are no plans to have any economy seats upstairs, and as Buns has already said, nothing is due to happen for at least a year.

Neil

Thanks to both of you for your quick responses!

Cleared that one up.

I look forward to my trip in July on the run down LGW & MAN aircraft!-)

Do the Economy pax all storm the stairs on arrival and get off the plane first?

Us poor folk aren't all slack jawed yokels, some of us have manners.... (just thought i'd say)

Just checked my flights to SFO at end of the month, like PJH when first booked it was a config 3 then changed to 4 now back to 3 again. There are Upper seats available in the front of the bubble, but the back is greyed out. So despite being listed as a config 3 more likely to be a 4.....

Have got myself 19A. which set of doors do they usually connect the airbridge to?? The front ones behind that seat or the next set between UC and PE??

Just checked my flights to SFO at end of the month, like PJH when first booked it was a config 3 then changed to 4 now back to 3 again. There are Upper seats available in the front of the bubble, but the back is greyed out. So despite being listed as a config 3 more likely to be a 4.....

Have got myself 19A. which set of doors do they usually connect the airbridge to?? The front ones behind that seat or the next set between UC and PE??

in SFO the first door is used for UC disembarkation and boarding.

Thanks Tink, so can get ahead of the crowd for immigration and customs

Would anyone be kind enough to tell me if the upper deck on flight VS005 on the 31/7 or VS06 on 16/8 is greyed out due to it becoming Econ? It's our first time in Upper and at the moment we have 19AK outbound and 5AK inbound. Is the upper deck mainly for sleeping on night flights?

Thanks for any info you can give, much appreciated ^)

[honey lamb]

Would anyone be kind enough to tell me if the upper deck on flight VS005 on the 31/7 or VS06 on 16/8 is greyed out due to it becoming Econ? It's our first time in Upper and at the moment we have 19AK outbound and 5AK inbound. Is the upper deck mainly for sleeping on night flights?

Thanks for any info you can give, much appreciated ^)

The only way that you can see if it is greyed out is by you going into the Manage my booking page on the VS website and looking at the seat map. We can't do it unless we are also on that flight. We are surmising that the latter half of the upper deck is greyed out on the flights we have mentioned is because of the conversion to economy but it is only guesswork on our part. If, as Tinkerbelle says, all the LHR 747s have been converted then VS would need to change the seat maps to indicate this is so.

The snooze zone for flights from the east coast of America on 747s was the front half of the upper deck. I presume it is still the same. We haven't heard differently

Snooze zone was still in effect Friday eve from Boston with 1/2 & 1/2 bubble. On a side note I wouldn't want to be the crew member working economy upstairs he didn't stop up & down those steps all the time.

I used to love the upper deck, but that was when I only had to elbow past some PE folk, now there's 30 econ, no way would I take the upper deck unless I had no choice (think op up).

As the back section is greyed out inbound and outbound, I think I might change our seats to downstairs for the return, just in case it is converted.

Thanks for the replies.