We were flying today (june 14 2008) on CO 19 from LHR to EWR. The flight was delayed and then effectively canceled. We were quick on our feet and re-booked on virgin flight 017 into Newark. It was a bit crazy, as these things always are, but I'd like to give a serious compliment to the staff at Virgin who took a bunch of irritated continental passengers and treated them with professionalism and courtesy that was above and beyond. In particular, Salome Cupid - who guided us through such debacles as the e-ticket number not being properly applied. I can't thank them enough.

Flyertalk is the first place that many people go to complain - given a great experience I wanted to be the first to compliment.

Great to hear about Virgin. However, what do you mean by "effectively" canceled?

Shouldn't the compliment for the Virgin staff go in the Virgin forum?

Any idea why CO19 was canceled? MX?

I mean, right now it's scheduled to go at 7am tomorrow morning. It was originally scheduled for 4pm today. So, I'm not sure if that's a technical cancellation, but in my mind it's the same

Disclaimer: the following is hearsay and rumor

What we over heard is that it had been "damaged on the ground in newark" and that it was a) delayed coming in and b) having operational difficulties completing the EWR to LHR route.

They weren't really clear or detailed on specifics. The official "letter" that was handed to us said:

"Due to operational reasons where there was aircraft damage due to weather, from a flight from EWR to LHR, there was an aircraft swap and unfortunately CO 19 will be delayed today."

We got a slightly different version of the story from everyone we talked to. Given that we didn't have any connection, my spidey senses told me to pull the rip cord and get on another flight. As such, we got out of there pretty quickly.

FWIW - co.com is showing that CO19 is delayed because they are awaiting crew.

Glad to hear you were able to jump over to Virgin!

tell me about this rebooking you did... don't you have to rebook via Continental, even if they put you on another airline?

Yes, went to the continental ticket desk. The VS 017 is a codeshare with continental "Continental flight 8237 operated by Virgin Atlantic Airways."

I heard the other night that this ship was struck by lightning and would be out of service for a while. This might be the same plane to be used on this canceled flight.

772 Ship #11 N79011 flew EWR-FCO Saturday night, and came back Sunday afternoon, and went to TLV and back. If it was taken out of service, it wasn't for long.

We were on the 762.