A350 Production Thread

How nice of TPG to add their watermark to a video they took from somewhere else. They're no better than UNILAD these days.

I'm currently deciding if I really can justify a reward flight on the A350 to JFK, then slumming it back on Norwegian a few days later.

There are not avail yet....

There are not avail yet....

What aren't?

There are not avail yet....

What aren't?

Any reward avail in any cabin on the 350.

There are not avail yet....

What aren't?

Any reward avail in any cabin on the 350.

So why can I see flights on an A350 for 47.5k miles and £447?

Oh, book it then. They hadn’t been loaded into the system before now (ish).
What month are you looking at?

[mitchja]

Reward inventory is loaded now as I found reward availability in both directions in all cabins for 2 random dates I picked for November on the A351 flights.

I seem to be the unlucky one!

We booked 3 UC returns back in October 2018 for Sept 2019

VS137 becomes a A350-1000 on Sept 25th
We're flying out on VS137 on Sept 26th

HOWEVER, looking at the flights that week, using dummy bookings. we see

Wed 25th - A350-1000
Thu 26th - A330-300
Fri 27th - A350-1000
Sat 28th - A350-1000
Sun 29th - A350-1000

Is this real? - do they have a day off after the first A350 flight to check whether anything's fallen off?

Or am I just unlucky!

Peter

PS - coming back we're flying out of Newark, so that's definitely a A330-300

Thursday is it's weekly routine maintenance day.

From late October it's not operating on a Tuesday. As per reports on one of the blogs.

Tonty

Thanks for the explanation!
I suppose at least I get a bar, which I wouldn't on an A350....

Peter

Are there any press events soon for the A350? BA seem to be trying to get some positive reviews for theirs.

I imagine it's hard to say until a delivery date is on the books!
Mind you it might be at VS are keeping it under wraps...!

In this months Buiness Traveller magazine they are indicating that Friday 20th September is VS first A350 delivery date

[mitchja]

In this months Buiness Traveller magazine they are indicating that Friday 20th September is VS first A350 delivery date

Not sure where they are getting that date from as VS are showing an A351 for the VS153 from Sept 10th onwards so I would imagine delivery will actually be a few weeks before that date for crew training/ familiarisation etc.

My guess for delivery would be sometime in August?

Airlines get 30 days notice of delivery from Airbus so BA would have known at the end of June when they were getting their first one.

BA got theirs officially last Friday and flew it into LHR last weekend and will shortly start the LHR-MAD in air training flights before they start proper service to DXB around the 2nd of September (moved forward by other a month on that route).

Depends on how VS handle training crew on the new plane (safety procedures etc) and on service issues such as meal and drink service in the new suites. Perhaps land based with VS crew / staff acting as passengers?

For both BA and VS if crew have been used to delivering drinks and food in a specific way for heavens knows how long it's going to take a while getting used to a different layout and (partial) doors for example

Oh my bad it was the 10th September, the date is within the BA article;

https://www.businesstraveller.com/busin ... -162975113

First one coming in a week. Crew have been being trained on it since June ready for first jfk flights early September

Ooh I am excited now! Booked flights to JFK on a Wednesday in December and so guess we will be on an A350! Without reading all through this thread, can anybody post a link which will tell me what's new on this plane, please? Thanks.

This should sum everything up!

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/e ... -a350.html

[mitchja]

There's even more info about the VS A350's on this page

Oooo, nice surprise for a Sunday morning. Our VS45 on 28/9 has changed to an A350.

Looks like there’s two a day from (at least) then.

[mitchja]

Nice one.

My VS3 in Dec still shows as being a 789 so far.

If you're near or can get to Edinburgh cheaply, there are some great deals EDI-LHR-JFK connecting with Flybe onto Virgin and the new A350 for around £1650 in Upper.

Very tempted

David

(Just did a live chat with VS and they say hand baggage allowance on one ticket will be as per Virgins allowance - have heard horror stories regarding hand baggage size with Flybe at the gate)

A350 will go twice daily to JFK on the 45/154 from 24 September