PER HKT Premium Economy

[freofan]

Hi Folks,

I hope you can help me out - My friend has booked a Premium Economy ticket on the new PER HKT direct service. This service is shows as a 'DJ' flight on the Virgin website however the newspaper and VB marketing seems to refer to Pacific Blue operating the route.

Now my concern is that if I choose to accompany my friend on this service for a quick break that we'll get a PB aircraft which I don't believe are yet equipped with the larger Prem Eco seat.

Can anyone confirm;
A) If it is indeed a VB operated route with the proper Prem Eco or
B) If it is a PB operated route without the propery Prem Eco or
C) If it is a PB operated route with a reconfigured Prem Eco?

Thanks in advance! (7.5 hours in budget carrier economy would be a longggg way!!)

 

[Saab34]

It all depends on what Rego you get. Some are different like VUM which has no live-to-air, yet VUN does. Not sure if this is also relfected on the seating. Pacific Blue will be operating this route, not Virgin.

 

[freofan]

Thanks Sunstar, Do you know if there's any rhyme/reason to the rotations to be able to have a stab at it? Alternatively have many PB 738's had the refit?

Thanks!

 

[Mal]

In the back of my mind is a recollection that DJ do operate this flight on behalf of Pacific Blue. Can't recall the reason, but presumably it is licence related (eg Virgin Blue has landing rights, but Pacific Blue doesn't). There might be a thread here about it - will have to have a look.

 

[N860CR]

I believe that the flights are operated by VH registered (ie: Australian) "Pacific Blue" aircraft with Virgin crews simply due to the SQ/Virgin licencing agreement.

Not totally sure, but I think virtually all of the VH registered aircraft have the updated cabin.

I think you might also be overestimating with the 7 1/2 hours as well - a 737 can't stay in the air for that long!

 

[freofan]

Thanks Danielribo for your input.

On that basis we'll both probably make the call to fly Prem Eco. For 1350 return PERHKTPER they better be the proper thing! lol.

As for flight time, I was sceptical myself but this is what the VB website says:

DJ 4149 Total Hours 7.49 Mins. PER HKT

Its only around high 5s return.

 

[NM]

Virgin Blue is not permitted to use the word "Virgin" for flights outside Australia. That is why they created Pacific Blue to operate the trans-Tasman and Pacific region flights. So they painted some of their 737 fleet of aircraft in Pacific Blue livery for the international operations. They can use these on Australian domestic flights as well as their Virgin Blue painted aircraft, but can only use the Pacific Blue aircraft on international services.

They do not have the same PE seats as the V-Australia 777 aircraft. The seats are the same as used Trans-Tasman and on domestic Virgin Blue flights.

 

[mannej]

I think you might also be overestimating with the 7 1/2 hours as well - a 737 can't stay in the air for that long!

A 737 can travel 6000km according to Boeing, or a 738 can travel 5600km according to Boeing.
PER-HKT is a tad under 5000km's, so is an achievable route for either a 737/738, but the 7.45 hrs seems a tad much, considering TG advertise TG486 as 6.15hrs

Just browsing certain websites, it does seem a 737 can stay in the air for 7.5 hrs, and certain airlines do use them on such routes.

 

[straitman]

A 737 can travel 6000km according to Boeing, or a 738 can travel 5600km according to Boeing.
PER-HKT is a tad under 5000km's, so is an achievable route for either a 737/738, but the 7.45 hrs seems a tad much, considering TG advertise TG486 as 6.15hrs

Just browsing certain websites, it does seem a 737 can stay in the air for 7.5 hrs, and certain airlines do use them on such routes.

Without going in and working out all the details the issue here is fuel reserves. Basic reserve of 45 mi plus 15% of flight planned time. Therefore based upon 7.5 hr endurance the max flight time is around 6 hrs.

It is a little more complicated than that with planning for alternates, fuel burn rates and the ability to recalculate the reserves enroute but I'm sure you get the drift.

 

[mannej]

Sure do Bill

7.45 Hours does seem a long time considering the direct comparison (albeit on an A330) is advertised at 6.15 hrs)

 

[dajop]

Sure do Bill

7.45 Hours does seem a long time considering the direct comparison (albeit on an A330) is advertised at 6.15 hrs)

It does, I wonder where the 7:45 comes from.

The timetable (on the dates I checked) shows:

PER-HKT: 1035/1620 which is 1035/1720 PER time or 6:45
HKT-PER: 1300/2040 which is 1400/2040 PER time or 6:40

 

[StevePER]

It does, I wonder where the 7:45 comes from.

If you do a dummy booking on the Virgin Blue site it gives the flight time as 7:45.

 

[Cynicor]

Could it be a timezone issue with the website? If it's only 5 one way and 7 the other, BKK/HKT are 1 hour behind. Giving 6 hours each way in reality.

Jon

 

[dajop]

If you do a dummy booking on the Virgin Blue site it gives the flight time as 7:45.

Ah, I see. The problem is not with the flight time being 7:45 though, the problem is with the algorithm that calculates the flight time as 7:45! It seems it is using a 2hr time difference not a 1 hr time difference between PER and HKT as the return flight is also showing 5:40, where it should be 6:40.

 

[mannej]

Flight Memory (as an example) has the same issue with flights from Perth and the DLS issue.

6.45hrs on a 737 is still a long time in anyones language

 

[ANstar]

PER-HKT will indeed have Premium Economy seating a la Virgin Blue domestic.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

PER-HKT will indeed have Premium Economy seating a la Virgin Blue domestic.

I guess the extra space would be worth it... and the free food

There are plenty of 'long' B737 flights. I did SIN-DEL (6hrs20mins) on a packed flight - so I guess the range is there.

I also remember seeing Lauda Air did a VIE-DXB-CMB flight a few years ago - again on a 738 and I think the longer segment had a flight listed of around 7 hours (although DXB-SIN is only 7rhs20 and CMB is a fair bit closer... )