Virgin 747 - Las Vegas

Sexual Chocolate

Hi all !

Will be heading out to Vegas in the near future, flying out of Manchester (VS085) and back through Gatwick (VS044) with Virgin Atlantic on board their 744 aircraft, fingers crossed.

This will be a first for me on a jumbo so I'm just looking for a heads up on what seats should I try avoid and what to expect of the flight in general. I've booked through a travel agent so I dunno if that means I won't be able to choose my seat ?

And does anyone know if its possible to upgrade at check in at the airport and would I be paying a pretty penny to do so ?

Thanks

boredatwork82

Www.seatguru.com is your friend here.
Enjoy Vegas. 1 tip -learn how to play craps. Best casino game by far. Just go stand at a table and dealers will tell you what to do. Before you know it you will be hooked. Really simple but great fun.

Danbo!

Flew LHR-SFO return in early 2015 for work, in economy BUT, the upper deck has economy seating. If it's your first (or 50th) trip on a jumbo, it's worth the novelty. Think I had to pay £40 per flight to choose a seat there.

There were a couple of threads on it a while ago where I posted some pics:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin//showthread.php?t=2057495590
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057367138

EDIT: I should also mention I asked about a business upgrade on the way home which I was considering paying myself until I heard it was north of £2k. Was hoping for some last minute deal

towger

https://v-flyer.com

This a good site for all things Virgin.

Upgrade to Premium Economy is a nice option, Virgin PE is quite good.

Idbatterim

Make this trip at least once a year. Last time it was via Gatwick. On way over was delsued over an hour, sitting on ground. Then learn its airport with most delays in uk. Also a dump of an airport. Couldn't connect without exiting and going through security again. As you are going through uk. You won't be pre clearing. Good thing in my opinion. Just make sure you get ahead of the rest when getting off, my mates and I paced it ahead, were off plane and out past immigration In about five minutes!

vonbarracuda

Did this trip last year , the travel agent will give you a reference number for virgin to select seats, think it was 24 hours before flying to pick for free! We didn't bother as only 3 of us so got selected together !
Agreed on Gatwick being a bit of a kip , I've heard Virgin are moving terminal now so if your connecting to Aer Lingus like most the packages now , you will land , have to do immigration , exit terminal , transfer to other terminal and back through security again .
Vegas - Visit the Nine Fine Irishman in New York New York!

faoiarvok

Flew with them to Vegas via Manchester in 2013. Window seats in upstairs economy have much more space than the standard. Due to the curve of the fuselage up there, the seat can't go too close to the wall, so you have a small upright locker beside your elbow.

Sexual Chocolate

Cheers everyone. Out of all of us going I'm the most excited about going on a 747 :pac:

From reading the linked threads it seems that upstairs is worth the extra for reasons varying from getting off quicker and onto immigration and more privacy.....

Yeah I'll be on Aer Lingus going and returning from the UK. For 4 flights and the Excalibur I got a really good deal. The two T/A flights when I checked them on virgin website were coming to nearly the same as the whole holiday itself.

9 hours over and back from the UK would sound about right I guess ?

fg1406

Flew there out of LHR and back via MAN on virgin last year. 747s on both routes. The MAN flight was entirely economy, with no 1st class or even business class, just the "premium economy" that virgin offer.

Idbatterim

Excalibur is decent location. The Tropicana across the road has a lovely pool and if you access it via back entrance, you don't usually get asked for room key card ghost bar in palms is class, free in and happy hour on certain nights. There are also roof top bars in Rio hotel and Mandalay bay... The views are incredible!

DubDani

Took that route in May, and it was a complete shambles both ways for us in terms of connection. Even though we were traveling on one Ticket Aer Lingus in Dublin couldn't check the bag through. On Arrival in Gatwick it took literally forever to get a stand, and then again for the suitcases to arrive. In the end we had 30 minutes from the moment the suitcases arrived to the scheduled departure in Gatwick. We had to race to the Virgin Check In desk to get our bags checked in, got some priority cards to pass Security and were told to leg it. What a nightmare getting through that glorified shopping mall. In the end we made it, but only just about, and we were actually not the only ones who had to do this race, there were at least another 20 people having to do it.

I am not sure what the problem was with the bags that day, but it really put me off taking that route ever again.

On the way back they again fecked up. Even though our flight was on time someone from Virgin had cancelled our connections, as they thought we would not make it. We only found out when we were trying to board the original Aer Lingus flight. About 30 passengers had been rebooked on later flights, and people were seriously unhappy. The Aer Lingus Agents must have had to deal with that problem a few times before, as they were just shaking their heads when stating "AGAIN"?

Had to leave the Departure Area, back to the Check In, get new boarding passes for a later flight (4 hours later, IIRC) and some people had to argue hard to get any flight at all that day. After that we had to do security again etc.

Wouldn't take that connection again, and usually we take one of the US Carriers out of Dublin anyway.

faoiarvok

DubDani wrote: »

Took that route in May, and it was a complete shambles both ways for us in terms of connection. Even though we were traveling on one Ticket Aer Lingus in Dublin couldn't check the bag through. On Arrival in Gatwick it took literally forever to get a stand, and then again for the suitcases to arrive. In the end we had 30 minutes from the moment the suitcases arrived to the scheduled departure in Gatwick. We had to race to the Virgin Check In desk to get our bags checked in, got some priority cards to pass Security and were told to leg it. What a nightmare getting through that glorified shopping mall. In the end we made it, but only just about, and we were actually not the only ones who had to do this race, there were at least another 20 people having to do it.

I am not sure what the problem was with the bags that day, but it really put me off taking that route ever again.

On the way back they again fecked up. Even though our flight was on time someone from Virgin had cancelled our connections, as they thought we would not make it. We only found out when we were trying to board the original Aer Lingus flight. About 30 passengers had been rebooked on later flights, and people were seriously unhappy. The Aer Lingus Agents must have had to deal with that problem a few times before, as they were just shaking their heads when stating "AGAIN"?

Had to leave the Departure Area, back to the Check In, get new boarding passes for a later flight (4 hours later, IIRC) and some people had to argue hard to get any flight at all that day. After that we had to do security again etc.

Wouldn't take that connection again, and usually we take one of the US Carriers out of Dublin anyway.

Not quite as bad but we had a very quick connection to make in Manchester without the bags connecting also.

Idbatterim

Dubdani I gave a short run down of my issues with the place. I had many of the same problems as you. To be honest I hate flying backwards to the uk to fly over Ireland two hours later. Prefer connecting in us. Only thing about that is showing up ages early to Dublin airport for pre clearance. Have to book flights for may. The only cert will be avoiding Gatwick ... Real pain in the ass that they don't fly from Dublin...

FR85

Idbatterim wrote: »

Dubdani I gave a short run down of my issues with the place. I had many of the same problems as you. To be honest I hate flying backwards to the uk to fly over Ireland two hours later. Prefer connecting in us. Only thing about that is showing up ages early to Dublin airport for pre clearance. Have to book flights for may. The only cert will be avoiding Gatwick ... Real pain in the ass that they don't fly from Dublin...

That was the worst part of the trip home with Virgin, they seemed to track right in over Dublin on approach to Gatwick. I would have jumped!!!

OP, you have heard about Gatwick.....that will be one of the worst parts of your trip. When there get down to Fremont Street and do the Zipline and see some oldschool casinos. Just across from the Bellagio on the other side of the street outside Paris and across from The Cromwell if you get me there is a few small shops, one of them is called "tickets for tonight", it's a great place to get last minute deals on show and gig tickets if you are not fussy. In the Venetian at the back there is a restaurant called The Grand Lux Cafe, get the steak and eggs with hashbrowns.....amazing food!

Finally depending on how long you are there for go to the airport, rent a Mustang and go to Lake Meade for jet skis or to the Hooverdam or Grand Canyon just to give yourself a break after a couple of days!!!

Have fun!!

Idbatterim

yeah if you fancy getting out of vegas, the hoover damn and death valley could be worth checking out! Depends on how long you are going for, personally as I work monday-friday, I usually head on a Friday, get the two weekends in back on the sunday or monday. Have a stags there in may and one mate is actually contemplating coming over for 3 nights, if there were direct flights, its fairly mad , but the idea would be entertainable. The transfer is what makes going there for less than 6 nights minimum , madness in my opinion...

Sexual Chocolate

Just a follow up on this.

Very happy with how the travelling end of things went for the most part. Virgin are very good to fly with, would have no problem with flying with them again.

The novelty of being on a jumbo is great. I can definitely see where it gained its "Queen of the sky" reputation.

Going over I was on Ruby Tuesday and coming back I was on Barbarella, which was the aircraft which had the landing gear incident a couple of years back at Gatwick.

Security passing through Manchester was the most strictest I've ever experienced while travelling. You could really see these folks were on high alert giving recent events.

Inflight service was brilliant, more so going over then coming back. Food is okay, if your a picky eater maybe have something in the airport before hand or bring your own food. Your given three meal choices anyway.

IFE was decent as well. Comes with Movies, TV series, music and games. Most movies are ones that would have been in the cinema within the last 6-9 months.
Coming back seemed to have a slightly better selection. LA Confidential and Goodfellas to name a few.

Two bad points I will say are that you can see these aircraft are starting to age, especially on the inside, maybe the dull wine coloured seats add to this though. Virgin do have plans to have their 747 fleet retired by 2020 and replace them with the a350.

And the noise inflight was the loudest I've ever experienced on a flight, obviously 4 engines will do that but yep it was quite loud. Maybe being seated behind the engines had a part in this.

All in all it was an experience but when Aer Lingus start flying to Vegas next year I would gladly chose the direct route quicker.

California Dreamer

If you have led a bad life and when you die you go to hell!! Enterence to hell is via Gatwick airport!!!

If the budget stretches, pay for PE. It's worth it for the 10 hours.

If not, upper deck all the way.

Don't expect to get loads of drinks, they "run out" after about an hour!!

DO NOT take taxis in Vegas. Download the uber app and use them. Far cheaper.

Take an uber out to Millers Ale House, pay $2-3 for a beer, $8-9 on the strip. Get the zingers. Thank me later.

When you out there, look up as you'll be on the departure path and look out for the "JANET" aircraft.

Sexual Chocolate

California Dreamer wrote: »

DO NOT take taxis in Vegas. Download the uber app and use them. Far cheaper.

I also thought here was bad for taxis until I went to Vegas. $30 from the airport to the Excalibur !

For those to judge the distance, it would be nearly the same as going from the Omni in santry to the airport.

California Dreamer

$14 in an uber

xlogo

California Dreamer wrote:

$14 in an uber

Probably a bit cheaper again with Lyft.

ssmith6287

I flew from gathwick to vegas last year on the 747. tight squeeze despite the size of the plane. I paid for exit seat but picked the wrong ones going out. The 1s I picked were the right hand side wing. loads of leg room for aisle and middle but the window has like a big ridge on the door so very uncomfy. coming home we had the exits on the left hand side. excellent.

word of advise make sure you get them to confirm your bag is on the plane at the gate in the uk.

Sexual Chocolate

Seats with extra leg room are window seats from rows 38 to 45 I think. However coming home Virgin were looking for $70 for these.

Middle section looked a tight squeeze alright but window seats werent too bad.

FR85

On the topic of Ruby Tuesday (G-VXLG) I was on it back in Feb 2012 and it was tired looking then!!

Sexual Chocolate

Think the jumbo fleet had an interior make over after 2012 ? Open to correction though.

California Dreamer

It did get a refurb. New interior, seats etc but even at that the gatwick fleet does not get the same love as Heathrow.