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Wow....a slightly empty plane

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Old Nov 1, 2014, 3:21 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by Englishlee0710
Mrs Englishlee and I I flew back from Chengdu on 7th October in a 787, there were only 39 of us on board. 6 business, 3 Y+ and 30 Y. Almost like a private jet and we did get our first choice of meals! Excellent service as well.
When are they going to cut this route?
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Old Nov 1, 2014, 6:08 am
  #17  
 
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Took a post strike 747 to HKG some years back - alone on UD in CW, one pax downstairs CW and four in Y. 6 pax total - very good service from the 14 crew members
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Old Nov 1, 2014, 6:12 am
  #18  
 
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I was on a BA 777 back from Beijing (via Seoul) during SARS.
There were 11 passengers in total apparently - only 6 of us in WT.
Pretty sure that we were outnumbered by crew.
One of the best flights I've ever had.
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Old Nov 1, 2014, 8:01 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by rxfleming
Quote:





Originally Posted by Englishlee0710


Mrs Englishlee and I I flew back from Chengdu on 7th October in a 787, there were only 39 of us on board. 6 business, 3 Y+ and 30 Y. Almost like a private jet and we did get our first choice of meals! Excellent service as well.




When are they going to cut this route?
This is an interesting one as this route doesn't seem to be pulling any traction and building up that much. I read somewhere that Cargo does well on this route so that might be why it's allowed to survive - also I think the Chinese Government I think subsidise this route.
There was also another article that 30 airlines are on the waiting list to get slots into London and a lot of them are Chinese carriers so this might pick up eventually......

FD.
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Old Nov 2, 2014, 8:21 am
  #20  
 
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Wow....a slightly empty plane

What time was your flight?

I had an almost empty LHR EWR earlier in the year. Thursdays LHR JFK was 99% full and all of today's JFK LHR are pretty much 0 across all classes.

So I wouldn't assume anyone travelling to NYC will get empty flights due to it being a quiet time or so.
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Old Nov 2, 2014, 8:27 am
  #21  
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I had a half empty LHR-DEN flight last week. I was in CW and about half the seats were empty. I took a peak into the back of the plane and it also looked to be about half empty as well.
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Old Nov 3, 2014, 7:05 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by chris1979
What time was your flight?

I had an almost empty LHR EWR earlier in the year. Thursdays LHR JFK was 99% full and all of today's JFK LHR are pretty much 0 across all classes.

So I wouldn't assume anyone travelling to NYC will get empty flights due to it being a quiet time or so.
2:15pm
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Old Nov 3, 2014, 7:28 pm
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by Englishlee0710
Mrs Englishlee and I I flew back from Chengdu on 7th October in a 787, there were only 39 of us on board. 6 business, 3 Y+ and 30 Y. Almost like a private jet and we did get our first choice of meals! Excellent service as well.

This load is pretty common for that route. There was a flight canceled last month and pax booked on the flight the next day. Still wasn't full even with two days worth of loads.

You were lucky, CTU - LHR is probably the most common route I travel and I have never had consistently good service. Of course you get a gem in most crews, but it seems like this route brings out the worst in the disenfranchised senior staffers.

Very tempted to give the WT+ cabin a try on that route as someone who doesn't sleep on flights, being able to lie down is not essential. Given the number in the cabin is usually lower than in CW it does seem to be a lot more 'private'!
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Old Nov 3, 2014, 7:46 pm
  #24  
 
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Originally Posted by Flying Doctor
This is an interesting one as this route doesn't seem to be pulling any traction and building up that much. I read somewhere that Cargo does well on this route so that might be why it's allowed to survive - also I think the Chinese Government I think subsidise this route.
There was also another article that 30 airlines are on the waiting list to get slots into London and a lot of them are Chinese carriers so this might pick up eventually......

FD.
That's the anecdotal evidence that seems to be propping it up - Seems they haul back about 5,000 Ipads each trip and the Chengdu government subsidises up to 100,000,000 rmb a year.

It's a handy route to have so I hope it does stick around - less than 3 hours from Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai so has great potential as a gateway.

For selfish reasons I'm quite happy for the status quo to be maintained however
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Old Nov 4, 2014, 1:43 am
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I was on a 747 coming back from LAS last year when they discovered there was a problem with the toilets during turnaround which (try as they might) they just could not fix.

In the end, all the Y and W passengers were off-loaded and we flew to LHR (many hours late) with just F and J.

it was very strange walking to one of the only two serviceable toilets at the back through rows and rows of empty W and Y and then returning to a pretty full upper deck.
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Old Nov 4, 2014, 2:22 am
  #26  
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"During the Ash ..." in 2010 we just managed to get on a re-instated 747 at 10:50 from LHR-IAD, which had been brought back into the schedule around midnight [so the CC told me]. We had about 20 pax spread throughout the aircraft, as unsurprisingly nobody except a lucky few knew it was going to fly.

Very glad we decided to phone in at 0900 to check - we scampered from the Sofitel with our cases, re-ticketed at 0930, through almost empty Security in 3 minutes and in 5 minutes we were at Gate A10B really to board the bus!
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Old Nov 4, 2014, 2:29 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by T8191
"During the Ash ..." in 2010 we just managed to get on a re-instated 747 at 10:50 from LHR-IAD, which had been brought back into the schedule around midnight [so the CC told me]. We had about 20 pax spread throughout the aircraft, as unsurprisingly nobody except a lucky few knew it was going to fly.

Very glad we decided to phone in at 0900 to check - we scampered from the Sofitel with our cases, re-ticketed at 0930, through almost empty Security in 3 minutes and in 5 minutes we were at Gate A10B really to board the bus!
That's quite possibly the first time I've ever seen "glad" and "Gate A10" appear in the same sentence.
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Old Nov 4, 2014, 4:01 am
  #28  
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Somewhere west of Ireland at 30,000+ ft


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Old Nov 10, 2014, 1:41 am
  #29  
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Bit fuller tonight for me. Zero GCH recognition.
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Old Nov 10, 2014, 1:51 am
  #30  
 
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Wow, that plane looks kind of spooky without passengers!
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