FlyerTalker7654

You should both tell that to Borris's mate who had the virus, yet decided to go on a road trip over the UK.

MSPeconomist

IIRC MCO isn't on the list of a dozen or so USA airports that do health screening for international arrivals and are therefore MCO would not be authorized to accept international flights (without preclearance, etc.), so I don't see how VS can fly nonstop to MCO from England. Could this be a direct flight that initially stops elsewhere in the USA or maybe at DUB (which is preclearance IIRC) ?

Also, MCO isn't viewed as a high yield market as it's mostly leisure travel. Thus it seems surprising that MCO would be so high on the route priority list for VS.

CosmicGirl

You may be surprized to see what UK leisure travellers are willing to pay for a direct flight to MCO, especially in the peak season. If I'm not mistaken VS normally do up to 7 MCO flights on certain days in Summer (3x LGW, 2x MAN, 1x GLA, and 1x BFS). These are not all dailies obviously, but they wouldn't do it if it wasn't a big market for them. To my knowledge there were at least one LGW and one MAN per day year round in recent years, but quite often 2+1, or even 2+2.

Right now I believe it's high up in their list of priorities mainly because of Virgin Holidays. If they can't fly they lose all the other VH revenue (hotels, cars, theme park tickets,...) and have to refund that, as well. Whereas if they fly but UK tourists can't enter the US then they may be able to push that liability onto insurance companies or offer a VH voucher rather than a refund. They can't control the travel ban but they may have some sway with MCO to try and get health screening in place, which would at least allow them to fly. Whether flying empty is is less costly than refunding everyone is another question, but they can do the math. I'm just speculating, of course, but I would be surprized if VH wasn't part of the equation somehow.

mrow

Two wrongs don’t make a right and I would class the PM’s special advisor’s behaviour as equally unacceptable.

skipness1E

You should appreciate the difference in that Cumming’s self isolated. Not quite the same thing as what’s being suggested here. The whole COVID thing is incoherent across the board as no one really knows what’s been going on. A public enquiry will get to the bottom of it but there are so many variables and unknowns at the moment, and much conflicting advice from experts, that you can’t be surprised that the public is sceptical.

skye1

One piece in news on flying Virgin post-lockdown:

LHR HKG this week

FlyerTalker7654

lol you serious?

skye1

From the Virgin Atlantic website, for flights from 1st August

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/g...l-updates.html

From the 1st August, we’ll be delighted to offer our Upper Class, Gold Flying Club members and eligible customers of our partners access to the Plaza Premium Lounge in Terminal 2.

Plaza Premium has been awarded the prestigious SKYTRAX award for the World’s Best Independent Airport Lounge for three consecutive years. You can find it on level 4 in the Terminal 2 departure lounge. Just show your Upper Class boarding pass or Gold Flying Club card as usual to access the lounge.

Customers can also make use of the Plaza Premium Arrivals lounge when arriving in to Heathrow Terminal 2, located on level 1 of the Arrivals Hall, whilst our own Terminal 3 Revivals lounge is temporarily closed.

Our Upper Class customers are welcome to use the Fasttrack security lane in Terminal 2, located behind our temporary check in desks in zone C.

AlanA

unlike the Scottish MP who took a crowded train back to Scotland whilst Suffering from Covid? Oh, yes, that’s the same as Cummings Being isolated in his car, or the Labour MP and those still visiting their mistresses, or the Covid spices in certain towns where they gaffe failed to follow lockdown as it doesn’t suit their religion?
lot of moral hypocrisy around comments about Cummings

mrow

Whilst the Plaza Premium lounge in T2 isn’t a bad space and it’s great to see Virgin putting lounge provision in place whilst they’re displaced from T3, I suspect those who were anticipating the Clubhouse will be disappointed with the T2 lounge offering.

From my perspective, the Clubhouses are one of the highlights of flying with VS so I hope that things continue to improve with COVID and demand for air travel so we can get back home to T3 as soon as possible.

skye1

Agreed - I think the Clubhouse is the best overall lounge at Heathrow, hands down, and worth getting to airport early for the experience. Yeah, it's not too bad - the complete absence of any windows takes a bit of getting used to, but the food offerings are tasty, and plenty of furnished options for sitting, eating, drinking, relaxing, sleeping. I'm sure it will be good to eat well before the "new normal" food offerings. The arrivals lounge seems quite small upon entry, but there's more to it than meets the eye on arrival.

mrow

I haven’t been keeping fully up to speed So apologise in advance if this is a silly question, but do we have an understanding of what the VS onboard service will be like? Are they emulating the dire BA offering or trying to be more like LX and LH with something close to normal?

skye1

I'm thinking that as they've literally only JUST started flying again, there's little anecdotal / experience reports out there. I'll even note that Plaza Premium's own website makes no mention of any of this, so clearly behind-the-scenes convo's going on.

There was one news story in the Times, with an eco traveller, which may give an idea.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/l...down-d8qpq2jq7

Noting the differences on the website I linked above, there's a clear distinction between before and after August 1. I'm sure Virgin will continue to update things as more arrangements get put in place, and tried out. As someone who has had to do a lot of risk assessment and risk mitigation-planning for work lately, even all the ideas and plans still need to be fleshed out in real-time, and I'm sure over these next couple of weeks we'll see a bit of that.

The big reason I chose Virgin for TATL travel is the amazing, and consistently amazing, crews and ground staff - and I have a feeling that's not changed yet at all,and if anything, they're grateful to have kept their jobs and grateful to be back to the skies again.

FlyerTalker7654

Anyone have ant idea on passenger loads since the 20th?

skye1

and Ithey have just now changed that lounge access date from August 1st to August 10th.

Probably beyond their control, depending on when Plaza Pemium decides to repen

Same page on the website.