VA 777 - New Business Class rollout [Delayed until 2016]

[Ben6]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

I'm going to play devils advocate here...but wouldn't it be quite logical that VA aim to get people to pay $$$ for seats?!?!?

I totally understand that loyalty is very important and the ability to earn/burn points is a major part of that, but if they're filling seats with paying customers due to their superior service/product, they would be stupid to stop that.

I understand your point but it doesn't change my concerns. VA has always promoted themselves as having superior reward availability and that definitely used to be the case but not at the moment. There are literally no J seats being allocated to reward seats even the full 10-11 months out and if they want to keep me loyal and earning points to VA (over say KF) then I do expect 'some' seats to be available, even if I have to plan ahead or be flexible which I am prepared to do.

Basically I don't believe that they have started selling every J seat to revenue customers which has led to the shortage of seats. At the end of the day, I will end up choosing with my feet I suppose but I do think that feedback to the airlines is important so they are making informed decisions and forums like this are certainly monitored by them.

 

[james4321]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

I think the real issue here is the likely extension of the almost non existent J Reward seats currently available to the States. Whilst the new seats look clearly excellent, the current service is still really, really good. The only problem is, you can't get a bloody seat without paying $$$.

I can live with just about everything else Virgin do but this current drying up of LH reward seats really devalues VA. Maybe they are trying to match QFF in every aspect, including impossible to use points!!

Managed to get 3 Bus Rewards BNE-LAX for April about a month ago. So there are (were?) some about still.

 

[serfty]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

Managed to get 3 Bus Rewards BNE-LAX for April about a month ago. So there are (were?) some about still.

yeah .. i have seen them at 270-300 days in recent weeks but you have to be quick ...

Back OT ...

This change puts paid to my Dec chances but June is still likely.

 

[Ben6]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

Managed to get 3 Bus Rewards BNE-LAX for April about a month ago. So there are (were?) some about still.

That's good news James, I must admit, I don't recheck availability every week so maybe it's improving. I am trying to plan a family holiday next year and the long term availability that used to be excellent was basically non existent when I checked recently. I also am off to the States later this month and couldn't find a single upgrade/reward seat anywhere close to my dates which again is not what I'm used to.

 

[Ben6]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

yeah .. i have seen them at 270-300 days in recent weeks but you have to be quick ...

Back OT ...

This change puts paid to my Dec chances but June is still likely.

Certainly sounds like it but it may be tight depending on how long the delay is. I'm flying in the new seats MEL-PER so will have a better idea just how much of a difference the new seats will make over the existing offering. Were your flights booked due to the new hard offering?

 

[serfty]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

... Were your flights booked due to the new hard offering?

Nup ... I stalked and booked the travel i was after at 330 days ... 328 in June as the USA to MEL trip reques a connection two days after departure. That was back mid July.

I have moved my seat selection from row 5 to foward window in June.

 

[Ben6]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

Nup ... I stalked and booked the travel i was after at 330 days ... 328 in June as the USA to MEL trip reques a connection two days after departure. That was back mid July.

I have moved my seat selection from row 5 to foward window in June.

How many seats did you get? Is there a time of day they release the seats, my dates haven't appeared yet but there's not a single J seat showing for the entire month of August 2016 currently and I had lost all hope of J through VA.

 

[serfty]

I just searched single seats in the first two weeks of May ... quite a few days have availability. No time to expand that one currently - it takes time on the VA site.

 

[cavemanzk]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

I do wonder if it's really a 'technical issue' or the 3 shareholders putting there foot down on VA losses, and trying to reduce the current loss.

In NZ recent end of year report, they did say that VA would be implementing cost cutting to help them to return to profit in 2016, maybe the big three want to see that happen before they pump anymore money into the airline.

In the same meeting NZ did say that we're going after the Aussie-Americas market, even if it had some cost to VA services. Does make you wonder how much the shareholders are behind VA LH

 

[Virgin Bart]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

I do wonder if it's really a 'technical issue' or the 3 shareholders putting there foot down on VA losses, and trying to reduce the current loss.

In NZ recent end of year report, they did say that VA would be implementing cost cutting to help them to return to profit in 2016, maybe the big three want to see that happen before they pump anymore money into the airline.

In the same meeting NZ did say that we're going after the Aussie-Americas market, even if it had some cost to VA services. Does make you wonder how much the shareholders are behind VA LH

That would be a very technical issue!

 

[RAM]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

Certainly sounds like it but it may be tight depending on how long the delay is. I'm flying in the new seats MEL-PER so will have a better idea just how much of a difference the new seats will make over the existing offering. Were your flights booked due to the new hard offering?

Could it be all the 3,500+ lots of 110,000 velocity points being redeemed from the AMEX Platinum Velocity CC offer perhaps?

 

[theevilmuppet]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

Honestly, I wouldn't mind part of VA status recognition including preferential access to reward seats/upgrades.

The ability to book business reward seats on partners more easily (or at all in the case of NZ J to LAX) or to upgrade as per the Alliances would also be nice and would help with this sort of availability issue.

 

[TomVexille]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

Honestly, I wouldn't mind part of VA status recognition including preferential access to reward seats/upgrades.

The ability to book business reward seats on partners more easily (or at all in the case of NZ J to LAX) or to upgrade as per the Alliances would also be nice and would help with this sort of availability issue.

Well long haul upgrades are only available to SG and WP

 

[theevilmuppet]

Re: VA pushes back 777 upgrade to 2016

Well long haul upgrades are only available to SG and WP

Very true. The fact that they come out of the same pool as general reward seats negates that benefit to a degree though.

 

[MrMNJ]

VA 777 - New Business Class rollout

Hi All,

I am looking at booking flights MEL-JFK in April (April 18 to be exact).
What do you reckon are the chances VA1/2 will be ready with the new business seats by then?

I've search extensively online, and I gather the rollout will be complete by April 2016. Does the certification delay affect this plan?

Cheers!

 

[serfty]

I would expect quite reasonable.

The refurbishment program is indicated by the absence of VA29, SYD-AUH for a period between January 30th and April 7th.

That would indicate they expect to get them all done in that 10 week period, taking about 2 weeks each.

 

[MrMNJ]

Thanks Serfty.

It's quite the punt though! I really enjoy the privacy and direct aisle access, so VA would be great, and the SCs would take me to Platinum. However, if I get an old J class seat, then I'm stuck with the worse hard product compared to QF….

Do you think BNE or SYD would get priority for the first refurbed 777s?

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Thanks Serfty.

It's quite the punt though! I really enjoy the privacy and direct aisle access, so VA would be great, and the SCs would take me to Platinum. However, if I get an old J class seat, then I'm stuck with the worse hard product compared to QF….

Do you think BNE or SYD would get priority for the first refurbed 777s?

I reckon they'll mix it up so that both routes get chances to try the new product. Same as what has been done domestically coast-to-coast.

 

[MH_fan]

I'm hoping they're all done by April coz I'll be flying to LAX in May and I really want to be in the new seats!

 

[Spizz]

Just made a booking for the 15th of April for LAX-SYD on VA and the seat map is showing the new config 1-2-1. Oh happy days