Virgin Atlantic is closing the spa in the Heathrow Revivals arrivals lounge

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• Ian M says:

  9 Aug9 August 06:18

  OT – I’m due to fly to Sydney with Emirates in F in November on a redemption booking.
  I noticed yesterday on the app that there’s been a equipment change for the Dubai – Sydney leg (EK414) from a A380 to a 777-300ER.

  I called Emirates to ask if this is one of the new 777s with the private suite in F or one of the one ones. I was told it’s the new one. However the seat map on the app shows 8 seats. 1 – 2 – 1. But none of the middle seats are available.

  What’s the best way to know for sure what kind of 777-300ER I’m due to fly on? If it’s an old one I would rather try and change my flight.

  • Spaghetti Town says:

    9 Aug9 August 12:31

    1-1-1 is the new F class. If it’s 1-2-1 that’s the old one.

  • Lady London says:

    10 Aug10 August 20:09

    I believe technically an equipment change counts as a flight change under EU261. If it’s more than two weeks before the flight does your right to choose to rebook to another flight, or refund still apply? Perhaps another poster will know for sure.

    • Shoestring says:

      10 Aug10 August 20:15

      only if you get a downgraded seat (eg Business—> Economy) or get bumped

      the airlines are allowed to change the plane flying the route

• Anna says:

  9 Aug9 August 07:23

  OT – any aviation experts reading? Just checked in for our LHR to GCM flight tomorrow (BA253) and my son and I have been allocated seats 2E and 2F which are described as middle seats and OH has been put in row 15. We are all supposed to be travelling in CW but we can’t find any version of this plane where both those rows occur in the CW cabin! It’s normally a 3 class 777 plane (no F) but not flown this route for a couple of years. Any ideas what might be going on?

  • Genghis says:

    9 Aug9 August 07:34

    The Saturday flight appears to recently consistently be a 777-200ER with 14F seats. A such, 2E and 2F are in F and row 15 is J. Fingers crossed for you…

    • Anna says:

      9 Aug9 August 07:40

      Thanks Ghengis. I was wondering about that but didn’t think it could be true! There ihas never been F as such in this route (just tried dummy bookings for future dates and they don’t seem to have introduced it), so would that mean we would be in an F cabin with CW service?

      • Genghis says:

        9 Aug9 August 07:45

        You could be right. BA Source just notes the aircraft variant, not the service. Even if it’s FLUB, not too shabby.

        • Anna says:

          9 Aug9 August 07:52

          I’ll be more than happy if that’s the case! Not so much for the OH though, who’s going to be sitting between 2 strangers for 12 hours (he has chivalrously refused the swap I offered, though that might be because strangers are actually preferable to our moody teenager 🤣)

        • Stu N says:

          9 Aug9 August 08:00

          It’s a 4 class 777 according to ExpertFlyer. Almost completely full – 2 blocked seats and 2 unoccupied on the entire plane so they will definitely use the F cabin. You’ll get the F hard product and Club World meals and service. Lucky darts.

        • Anna says:

          9 Aug9 August 08:10

          Refusing to pay for seat selection in advance may have paid off then! Better not mention that the boy & I are on award seats with Lloyd’s upgrade vouchers 😱

        • TripRep says:

          9 Aug9 August 08:19

          Anna – fingers crossed for you, pls give us an update if it is indeed an OpUp

      • Stu N says:

        9 Aug9 August 08:31

        It’s not an “Op-Up” as such. BA are, for whatever reason, using a 4 class plane on a 3 class route. Because it’s almost completely full they will need to use the seats in the F cabin for CW passengers. Anna and her son have been allocated those seats by the algorithm, again for reasons unknown.

        Given recent reports there’s not a vast difference in soft product between F and CW so you’ll probably get 75% of F experience in the air. Husband will have much to be grumpy about.

        • Anna says:

          9 Aug9 August 08:54

          Well I’ve got a PhD so I do use the “Dr” designation in any circumstance where there might be an upgrade lol, but I suspect it’s more likely that a lot of other passengers had status or chose to pay for their seats earlier but wanted 4 seats together or window seats and didn’t realise there was an F cabin.
          Anyway, I am off to check Expert Flyer to see whether there’s any chance of getting OH moved to a better seat when we show up for our MAN connection in the morning!

      • Nick says:

        9 Aug9 August 10:00

        lol lol lol lol lol
        After all the panicking and stressing and worrying you end up in a better seat 😂
        Congrats though – hope you enjoy it. Maybe in it’ll help you stay calm in future 🙂

        • Anna says:

          9 Aug9 August 10:30

          More a case of hoping for the best but planning for the worst, but thank you.

        • LewisB says:

          9 Aug9 August 10:41

          I must say I’m rather invested in this after the daily comments about this trip. Hoping you do get the F ‘upgrade’! 😀

        • Lady London says:

          9 Aug9 August 21:29

          Please let us know Anna.

      • Lawro says:

        9 Aug9 August 11:20

        A couple of family members experienced FLUB on that route a few months back, so not unheard of. Hope that’s what happened here.

  • Optimus Prime says:

    9 Aug9 August 10:17

    Great way to start a holiday! Enjoy!

  • Lyn says:

    9 Aug9 August 11:21

    Anna – hope all goes well and you have a wonderful trip and are able to relax after all you planning?

    Is your son old enough to be in CW by himself if you do end up with two F seats?

    • Anna says:

      9 Aug9 August 11:59

      Thanks Lyn, he is just about but it’s a 12 hour flight and it would be pretty obvious to the crew and the rest of the CW row that we’d done that!!

      • Lady London says:

        9 Aug9 August 21:41

        Who knows perhaps your son might volunteer to swap?

• Shoestring says:

  9 Aug9 August 07:50

  O/T some quite good availability loaded recently on the £1 Hertz rentals https://www.hertz.co.uk/p/hertzone

  • jane says:

    9 Aug9 August 08:21

    I’ve been checking daily but still not what I’m looking for (Southampton) and we go on Sunday. I think time to give up and make alternative arrangements now.

  • TripRep says:

    9 Aug9 August 08:21

    Anyone seen similar deals from LHR?

    • Oh! Matron! says:

      9 Aug9 August 08:32

      You’ll NEVER see deals FROM LHR. It seems that people always seem to start the one way rental from LHR. Shame, as you do a one way rental north, then another one way rental south

      • N says:

        9 Aug9 August 09:41

        LHR to EXT was a regular hire from me from Europcar when they ran their £1 deals…

  • The Lord says:

    9 Aug9 August 11:19

    Is Europcar £1 dead now?

• ankomonkey says:

  9 Aug9 August 09:00

  Russell Who-ward? Never heard of him unless it’s regular HfP poster @russellh.

• @mkcol says:

  9 Aug9 August 09:42

  I wonder how long the breakfast of champions typo has been on their site.

  https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/virgin-experience/clubhouses-and-treats/our-clubhouses/london-heathrow-revivals-lounge.html

• Sprout7 says:

  9 Aug9 August 09:51

  Sorry OT.
  I’m trying to book an open jaw reward flights for next summer for my family (4 people). Outbound flights are now available. I have 2 2for 1 vouchers and my wife has 1. However, she currently doesn’t have an amex card (although I’ve just applied for a supplementary on my SPG card).
  I want to use 2 vouchers but only seem able to apply 1 on the online booking. Do I need to ring BA or is what I’m trying to do not possible? The only alternative I can see is to wait for her supplementary card to arrive but I’m worried the flights will be taken.
  I’d be very grateful for any advice – tia.

  • Sprout7 says:

    9 Aug9 August 09:53

    Just to add in case it makes a difference…
    All 4 of us are in a household account.

    • Stu_N says:

      9 Aug9 August 10:20

      If you phone you should be able to book 4 people using 2x 2-4-1s in your account and stick it on your card.

      Amex don’t do name validation so you could book you +1 from your BAEC account using one of your vouchers and your wife +1 from her account and pay with your card. You’d be on separate bookings but would avoid a phone call.

      • Sprout7 says:

        9 Aug9 August 10:25

        That’s great – thanks for help, I’ll try calling them.

    • Alex M says:

      9 Aug9 August 10:29

      Sprout,
      my understanding is that:
      – your wife needs to pay fees with amex, but it can be anybody’s amex, e.g. yours;
      – you should be able to book 4 tix using your 2 vouchers. if the system doesn’t allow you to – do it via phone (make sure they don’t charge you phone fee since you couldn’t do it online).
      If I were you I would use 2 vouchers out of 3 that have earliest expiry date.
      Hope this helps.

• Steve says:

  9 Aug9 August 10:08

  OT- After hoping and waiting for the BA Pilot strike I’ve given up am about canceled my fully flex J from East Coast USA to Far East. I’m also canceling the 3 BA flights reward saver I’ve got UK to North Europe.

  I had hoped to be awarded 50000 avios and 600 tier points plus EUR 1,200 in EU261 compo but i just don’t see the strike happening. Net cost £18 lost.

  I’d be interested to hear everyone’s views.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    9 Aug9 August 10:29

    My view is that I’m pleased you lost money, it’s just a shame you didn’t lose even more.

    • Alex M says:

      9 Aug9 August 10:30

      Chris,
      +1.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Aug9 August 10:42

    Its a pity no one seems to have booked on the day of the IT meltdown this week. Or, if BJ did he’s not saying :-).

    That would qualify for compo part of eu261. Pilots strike or Unite strike won’t. Duty of care part of eu261 applies in both cases though.

    • Rob says:

      9 Aug9 August 11:54

      Rhys was on the BA A350 press flight to Madrid – but that went OK!

  • Steve says:

    9 Aug9 August 12:59

    Thanks for the motivational comment. I’ve held off cancelling, bumped the j flights along by a few days, and rebooked reward flights on £3 fee. 😀

    • Lady London says:

      9 Aug9 August 21:32

      I will buy @Shoestring a drink if the BA pilots strike anytime before 3rd September. I’m betting they won’t.

      • Shoestring says:

        9 Aug9 August 21:41

        pretty sure we’re all going back on 2nd, an extra day or 2 out in the sun wouldn’t go amiss, I think by first week of September the planes are a bit emptier so finding 5 seats on a later date might not be too hard

• BC says:

  9 Aug9 August 10:51

  O/T: Moral conundrum re BA system issues. Booked an award ticket STR – LHR on Wednesday at circa 9am for a flight that day at 19:05 (was not aware of the system issues at the time). By midday, flight had been cancelled, alternative flight offered for next day was not suitable, and I selected refund option. Ultimately, I am not out of pocket, and managed to hold the meetings via skype the next day, should I still claim the EU261 comp I am entitled to? On the one hand, I value the last minute short haul award bookings as my greatest benefit of the avios scheme, and would hate to see anything hit availability, plus I was not really inconvenienced that much. On the other, 250 euros…

  • Lyn says:

    9 Aug9 August 11:28

    It sounds as if you made a genuine booking, unaware of the IT issues that could cause a cancellation, and the replacement flights offered were genuinely not suitable.

  • Alex M says:

    9 Aug9 August 11:29

    compo is not reimbursement for your out of pocket expenses, it’s compo for inconvenience. You should claim; if uncomfortable using that money – give it (or half of it) to someone who needs it more, e.g. charity.

  • Paul says:

    9 Aug9 August 12:37

    Funny how all the moralists about not striking for better pay and conditions are not similarly all over your post saying not to hit shareholders in the pocket for making such a claim!

  • Charlieface says:

    9 Aug9 August 14:39

    It’s not a moral dilemma. It’s part of the contract and the EU made special regulations to compo people for the inconvenience.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Aug9 August 21:47

    I think you should go for compensation. How many times might you miss out on other occasions, or have to fight hard to get it another time. This one can make up for it.

    Some airlines have been known to offer miles as a settlement too – you can insist on EU261 but I suppose it depends if miles could be for a higher value if you can use them

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Aug9 August 21:51

      I saw today that BA are sometimes now offering EUR600 of BA credit for future flights instead of EUR400 of real money – quite a good offer

      • Lady London says:

        10 Aug10 August 20:14

        That sounds like it could be a good offer. Acceptor would be wise to check if the deal comes with any restrictions as to when it can be used, whether must be used by a given date etc., if offered.

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