1010101

Do VS charge credit card fees? I havent flown with them since the age when it was my parents doing the booking.

ajamieson

But it's also combining flights with annoying regularity, so no net difference - average fares have definitely risen, albeit by only about 25% in my experience.

ANstar

From what I hear around the web is that bmi were carrying alot of other airlines connecting traffic on these services (at interline rates).


Presumably VS will be carrying its own connecting pax to feed its own longhaul flights - which is what BA do and it seems to work ok for them.

francismc

I received the following email from Virgin this lunchtime:

Dear francismc,

We are excited to announce that we have been offered all of the Heathrow short haul remedy slots available following the International Airline Group's acquisition of bmi.

We have fought hard for the right to fly short haul and take a strong challenge to British Airways within these shores. For 28 years both airlines have battled for customers all over the world and it has meant that British consumers have ultimately had some of the world's best flying and lowest fares.

This is the beginning of an exciting new era in Virgin Atlantic history and we now feel a responsibility to everyone that has supported us in this challenge. You can look forward to a great short haul service with us but most importantly reap the benefits from the re-injection of vital competition we can provide on these routes.

Over the next two weeks, we will work to finalise our plans for utilisation of the available remedy slots and to confirm a flying timetable. We will primarily focus on flying between Scotland and Heathrow, running multiple daily flights from Edinburgh and Aberdeen to London Heathrow.

Flights will commence around 31st March 2013 and complement the new Heathrow to Manchester route that we are also introducing next year. We will be working with a wet lease partner to provide narrow body Airbus A320 aircraft to operate these short haul flights.

We will be revealing specific details of our short haul product and famed onboard customer experience in the coming months, so watch this space!.

We look forward to seeing you onboard soon


Steve Ridgway
Chief Executive - Virgin Atlantic Airways

dunk

Damp ? Or just slightly moist ?

BApilotinsider

So it won't be a Virgin aircraft or Virgin crew...

destere

I'm sure Virgin is looking at the longer term. As I understand it, in 2016 the restrictions on the slots are lifted and VS will be free to convert some if not all to long-haul.

That said, if all goes well for VS demand is likely to decrease for BA - maybe there will be an opportunity/excuse to consolidate the schedule somewhat and open up a few slot pairs.

Roger

Yes, 2.5% IIRC if you book with VS, and it's on the WHOLE amount! Double miles with Virgin Flying Club, up to 4x with the black AmEx.

Probably better to book with Expedia or other TA.

NoY

...and we, the pax, care because.....

NoY

All I care about (relatively speaking) is the cash I save on a like-for-like flight. With the added bonus I can also get miles in their programme to boot.

NoY

Relatively, yes, in the big picture though, where there's a will there's a way

BApilotinsider

BMI was making horrendous losses on it's domestic network before it's demise. BA still claims not to make any profit on most of it's shorthaul network.

Virgin lost over £80 million last year, hmmm...

And why if they were so committed to the UK regions did they for the last few years lease out spare LHR slots they owned to other carriers. They could have started them years ago?

Littlegirl

.......because it isn't really Virgin if it is a wet lease and it sounds like an expensive way to run a shorthaul network!

However if he makes it work that's fine. A flight is a flight, what people want is regular, reliable, reasonable flights. BMI offered competition to BA and now it will be Virgin.

ANstar

I doubt VS could have started a viable shorthaul netwrok with the 3 slots they had leased out

Perhaps they realise that they might loose a little on shorthaul, but deem it worthy if they can get enough pax connecting onto their OWN LHR long haul flights and therefore providing profits on longhaul- exactly what BA do.


I don't think they had much choice... they have 3-4 months to start the route from this announcement. Hardly enough time to order aircraft and get crews trained up etc.... makes sense for them to capitalise on this one off gain (ie 14 LHR slots in one hit). Sure it might be costly short term, but the long term gain is worth it.

Crew will wear Virgin uniforms, aircraft will wear Virgin colours and the onboard service will be per Virgin's standard. So to the average punter they will not know anything about it being a wetlease.

Kind of like most pax don't realise that most groundstaff wearing an airline's uniform aren't actually employed directly by the airline... Or looking back a little how most BA pax wouldn't have realised they weren't on BA if the were flying GB/BMED etc

As for being costly - presumably they have done the numbers... I guess the benefit of a wetlease is you know what the costs will be upfront.

Littlegirl

I was not criticising it at all. I was just explaining that wet lease is not actually Virgin crew, and that this is an expensive venture, that's all, just stating a fact which you seem to agree with.