Originally Posted by EIPremier

Actually, the "dark" plane is not a spare--VX does not currently have a full operational spare. VX does schedule the routing for the dark plane in advance. At least for the past month, the dark plane has been used on a daily basis for up to three round-trips a day. The fact that certain flights get the dark plane day-after-day (for up to two weeks at a time) certainly does not look like last-minute substitution to me! I'd have to think that VX knowingly sells seats on flights that have, at the very least, a very high probability of being operated by the dark aircraft, which is not disclosed to the customer at the time of booking. Just because VX does not send out the email to customers until about 24 hours in advance does not mean they don't know further in advance. I'm sure they'd like to create the impression of it being a last-minute sub.