Virgin Hotels opens in Edinburgh

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• Will in SJC says:

  4 Jun4 June 04:56

  It is back! Lots of South Bay residents have been waiting for the return of SJC.

  This service was going to be a 744 for Summer 2020 but, of course, that never happened. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the service to get back to a 789 (it is starting out on the 788) and whether it will ever end up with anything larger than the 789 operating it.

  And don’t forget that SJC is also an Alaska Airlines focus city so there are pretty good connection options routing via SJC as well as PDX.

  Great to see PDX finally starting also.

  • Lady London says:

    4 Jun4 June 13:43

    It’s such a pity Portland has deteriorated from what it was, in recent years though.

    • Doug M says:

      4 Jun4 June 15:26

      Not sure quite what is meant by this, never been to Portland, definitely on my list. Similar to say Austin and San Francisco, both ruined by tech money. Austin went from being a great and genuinely different US city to being an unintentional parody of itself, Keep Austin Commercial. Around a month a ago I spent a couple of weeks in southern California. I’m writing this near Seattle, with plans for Vancouver tomorrow. The US (well the further down the food chain parts) is clearly suffering economically, pot shops aside. The general decline in service, versus the increase in prices for hotels is very noticeable. Closed/boarded businesses and other tell-tale signs all over the place. As an example yesterday I went to a Walmart, I have a thing for these super sized places selling car batteries and bread in the same shop. What was noticeable was the number of things now on locked shelves, stuff like underwear and socks required a staff member to access. I just asked asked her and she said it had been done about a month earlier, theft was so increased the management had decided they needed to be locked. What this said to me rightly or wrongly was that theft had moved from resellables like electronics, to essentials like clothing, desperate times ahead.

      • Johnny Tabasco says:

        4 Jun4 June 17:36

        Portland is suffering a significant problem with homelessness at the moment and doesn’t seem to have the infrastructure to currently deal with it. I suspect this was what the initial comment was referring too.

        • dougzz99 says:

          5 Jun5 June 01:51

          As an aside does anywhere in the US have infrastructure to handle homelessness? My last visit to San Fran was an endless mix of guilt at how fortunate I am, versus fending off an endless stream of beggars. The times I offered money seemed to just generate further asking from anyone in the vicinity. It wore on me to the point I just don’t want to return.
          I’m not unaware of the failure of the UK to deal with homelessness, so not seeking political debate about US social welfare provision.

      • DevonDiamond says:

        4 Jun4 June 22:48

        I was surprised to see batteries in the local Tesco round here are security tagged – not seen that before

• Tom says:

  4 Jun4 June 04:57

  I don’t think BA has three class 787-9s, either it’s four class or a 787-8.

  Also I am in Thailand for the Jubilee Weekend; not mad enough to be checking this at 4am despite how good HfP is 🙂

  • Richie says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:53

    BTW BA’s B787-10 are four class with Club Suite.

• Sammyj says:

  4 Jun4 June 05:43

  Has anything been murmered about relaunching Charleston or Savannah?

• SammyJ says:

  4 Jun4 June 06:21

  *murmured!
  Any idea why any comments I make here always get stopped for moderation? Been happening for a few weeks. Does this happen to everyone or only me?

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 06:26

    We are not told why the system puts comments into moderation, oddly.

    • SammyJ says:

      5 Jun5 June 10:26

      Literally every comment I post goes to moderation, I’ve just put one on today’s Virgin credit card post quoting some redemption prices and it’s sat in the queue too! Even posts where I just say ‘thanks’!!

      I’ll try a different email, thanks!

  • lumma says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:42

    Try using a different email address. The email I use for the forums with no problems always gets moderated on the regular comments, but this one works fine

• Cwyfan says:

  4 Jun4 June 06:43

  What about Calgary?

• Mike Music says:

  4 Jun4 June 07:12

  Amazingly I see the inaugural flight BA 267 to Portland left on schedule yesterday without a hitch, and made good time, arriving early! Rare praise from me for BA 😊✈️

  • Phillip says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:34

    But which (probably shorthaul flight) did not, or got cancelled as a sacrifice to make that happen? 😉

• NSL says:

  4 Jun4 June 07:31

  I’m flying to SJC on this route at the end of July. I’m pretty much the only person on the plane as is stands. Have BA overcooked the pricing or do Facebook execs book last minute?!

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:12

    Bit of both but ‘new’ routes always take time to bed in.

  • Andrew J says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:37

    A cheap way to get a flight to San Francisco then

  • Nick says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:16

    How do you know you’re the only person booked?

  • Hardpack says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:28

    My ground experience of SJC a couple of years ago was poor. No point going to the lounge early. There were a couple of tables in a lounge marked “BA passengers only” or similar. In F, Desk staff printed the wrong tickets for us. I wouldn’t have high expectations on the ground, but I suppose it is another option around San Francisco.

    • Will in SJC says:

      4 Jun4 June 18:27

      You have to think of SJC @Hardpack like LCY. Arrive relatively late and board. Maybe swing by the lounge for a quick glass of fizz.

  • Will in SJC says:

    4 Jun4 June 18:25

    Variety of factors. It has always been a niche route. Despite it being near to SF it is mainly used by corporate travelers and ex pats in the South Bay looking to get to Europe easily.

    Also worth mentioning a) they are launching this smack bang in the middle of the CA summer break, a lot of execs will not be traveling during June – early Aug, b) Big Tech is still not fully back at work in the Bay Area- corporate travel is likely still restricted also, c) the flight isn’t operating daily that probably pushes people to SFO (despite the ease of SJC), d) BA got rid of staff in the Bay Area who were responsible for launching routes like this and pushing corporate travel- I know of a couple that have ended up at Virtuoso travel agencies, e) takes time to bed in.

    Corporate travel is also relatively last minute.

• Alex Sm says:

  4 Jun4 June 07:52

  Getting to a large foreign airport for a 7.55 flight will ruin your previous night anyway, so not much of a relief, tbh

  • John says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:21

    And wastes the rest of the day too

    • Rob says:

      4 Jun4 June 10:15

      One other benefit is that your last day is clear. No messing about with negotiating late check out, or storing bags, or having to time your day so you’re ready to leave at the right time. Enjoy the day, go to bed, get up and go home.

      I stayed on UK time for my recent trip (bed at 8-9pm, up at 5am) anyway so a day flight at 8am would have been no stress.

  • Michael C says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:28

    Actually, we’re already booked onto the EWR 0755h for next Easter: evening before at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, with its incredible views over Manhattan, then 20 mins by Uber to the airport a.m.
    An earlyish start, but looking forward to avoiding post-East Coast nightflight hell the following day, as it’s straight back to school in the morning!

    • NorthernLass says:

      4 Jun4 June 09:07

      We got the 7 am service home from BOS in April. It does involve an extra hotel night, admittedly (though the Hilton BOS is incredibly convenient), but we did find that we weren’t as jet lagged or tired as we normally are after a 6 hour overnight, plus we were in time to get a late connection to MAN so the journey was 1 calendar day instead of the normal 2. I’d do it again and probably not bother with J, either.

    • Blindman67 says:

      4 Jun4 June 09:50

      Hyatt
      In the Priceline days I used to get this for $30 per night….

      The view is great from the rootop.

  • Leo says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:33

    In your 50s not so much….especially in the summer.

  • Andrew J says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:38

    And wastes a whole night’s hotel cost

  • lumma says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:47

    I think there’s (was?) a 10.30am American Airlines flight from JFK that gets you into Heathrow around 10pm which I always felt was great. 6 hour overnight you’re not getting great sleep anyway but with this you don’t have to get up ludicrously early and you get to sleep in your own bed in the evening.

    AA lock the booze away until 9am in their Flagship Lounge however

    • Himalayan Hiker says:

      8 Jun8 June 08:56

      AA does indeed have a 10:30am flight. I flew this last month. Very civilised.

  • Thegasman says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:50

    I’m a big fan of a day flight from East coast. Gets you out of bed at a vaguely normal UK time, long enough block time to enjoy a meal & film or do some work but short enough to not get bored & gets you home in time to unpack & go to bed.

    Overnight you get about 4 hours with seat belt signs off that you can try & get some poor quality sleep to then arrive back at LHR feeling hideous facing a drive or public transport in rush hour. Ends a holiday on a low note & any work you try & get done in the day you’ve saved by flying overnight will be lower quality than you could have done sat on the plane in the day!

    Before anyone says “why are >90% of US-UK flights overnight then?” That’s down to efficiencies as otherwise you’d have a load of airframes sat on the tarmac paying parking fees & not earning revenue for 12-18 hours.

    • lumma says:

      4 Jun4 June 09:13

      Yeah, living in East London I hate switching from the Piccadilly line to the District around Hammersmith, and getting on a packed train feeling tired with luggage. Arrive in the evening and there’s hardly anyone at immigration and the tube (soon to be Elizabeth line) is deserted

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.