What happened to VH-VPH? [773 Out of Service June 15th to July 4th]

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jun 19, 2019
Posts
1

So it appears that VH-VPH flew into LAX last Friday and hasn't left. It's causing big delays in VA's schedule and now my flight VA23 from MEL to LAX on Monday has been changed from a 11:20AM departure to a 7:50PM departure even though the metal comes in at 5:50PM a full day earlier? It's also screwed with my connections.

If they anticipate VH-VPH to be out of the air for over a week there must be something significantly wrong with it?

Regards,
CJ
 
I guess that's more likely than the alternative of breaking it up....

Funny you would mention that. We've stopped at Victorville sometimes. I think the airport doubles as a plane graveyard of sorts. There is a hub where beautiful old planes sit, surrounded by small machines that are in various stages of taking them apart. They almost remind me of some large insect being slowly disassembled by worker ants.
 
I guess that's more likely than the alternative of breaking it up....
For which there are options.
...
CAVU Aerospace is an aircraft dismantling and part sales company that offers end-of-life cycle solutions to aircraft owners. CAVU Aerospace

First Class Air Support is another aircraft dismantling and part sales company that offers end-of-life cycle solutions to aircraft owners. First Class Air Support

Aircraft Recycling Corporation is an aircraft dismantling and recycling company providing end-of-life cycle options to aircraft owners. ARC Aerospace
...
 
I am flying back to Aus from LAX tonight.

Originally was scheduled for JFK-LAX-BNE-MEL but was changed to JFK-LAX-SYD-MEL -- which appears to be have done because I need to be on a nighttime flight LAX for the JFK-LAX leg, and the BNE flight left this morning.

Still managed a points upgrade from Premium to Business, so happy days.

I didn't have to contact Virgin, all just seemed to happen behind the scenes (I just got an email and noticed that was VA2 not VA8).
 
Hmm, I'm on VA8 out of BNE on 13/7, hopefully all will be back to normal by then.

I did notice VA8 is not scheduled for 12/7 but that's been the case for at least a month,
 
Sponsored Post

Struggling to use your Frequent Flyer Points?

Frequent Flyer Concierge takes the hard work out of finding award availability and redeeming your frequent flyer or credit card points for flights.

Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, the Frequent Flyer Concierge team at Frequent Flyer Concierge will help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

Hmm, I'm on VA8 out of BNE on 13/7, hopefully all will be back to normal by then.

I did notice VA8 is not scheduled for 12/7 but that's been the case for at least a month,
I am on VA8 on the 15th, I wouldn't mind a few extra days in LA before returning home from a work trip.
 
I see that the VA delays are now finally getting into the press.

A VA spokesperson referred to delays of 12 hours. If only that were true. Call centre wait times of one hour or more have occurred and delays of 54 hours are what some VA passengers have been asked to endure. In the case I am aware of the passengers were told of a one day delay, sent to the LAX Marriott to receive an email advising of a two day delay. VA booked their hotel for only one day, and provided no passenger disruption documentation leaving the passengers to pay for everything and find a second night's accommodation for themselves. VA refused to refund anything unless there are documented receipts.

When seeking to get seats together for the heavily delayed return flight, VA demanded a further $450 fee as the only two seats together were in an exit row.

At one point, the Brisbane Centre operator (Mohammad) promised the passengers a apace available upgrade to Premium Economy but made no notation in the booking so it never happened.

VA offered $200 travel credit for their troubles (up for an original $100).
This does not seem to alight with the stated customer service claims of the Virgin brand as I understand them.
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

This is the the VA 'compensation code' of which section eight may be useful to kah:


No doubt the cancellations and late running are becoming a significant expense to VAi, but that's no excuse.

I bet it might be hard at times in LAX near the airport to find a reasonable hotel for A$220.

Very wise for kah to obtain the first name of the call centre staffer. In these cases, documenting everything - time and duration of call, what was promised, names - is most important.
 
Where are the news reports on this? And does anyone have any further insight since it flew to VCV five or six days ago?

I have friends coming out from the US on VA2 next week, then home on VA23 a couple of weeks later. They're on separate bookings, 2x award J and 3x cash Y. So risk of cancellation or reschedule of VA2 in the next few days is of special interest to me.

At the moment it looks like they still have four airframes operating and they're running VA1/2 and VA23/24 more or less on schedule (MEL was already 5/wk, right?) and have moved the BNE flights to morning exBNE for better utilisation. They cancelled a few initially but seem to be running those 5-6/wk now too. Is the number of flights materially impacted still at this point, or is it just a matter of service recovery taking a few days after the initial problem?
 
Looking back at the last week of VA2 on Flightradar24 it has been operating normally with only a few minor (~1 hour) delays. VA23 has had one serious delay in the last week. This thread mostly seems to be a lot of 'some people are saying' type rumours all coming from the one person that don't really gel with the reality on the ground.
 
With all these saga, VA head office staff are too busy hanging around their local cafe or taking coffee run like there is no work waiting for them...witnessed it often when passing by.
 
With all these saga, VA head office staff are too busy hanging around their local cafe or taking coffee run like there is no work waiting for them...witnessed it often when passing by.
So you know the roles of the staff ?

The plane would be fixed by the qualified engineers in the USA and not Head Office staff in QLD.
Whilst I expect there are call centre staff in QLD I highly doubt it’s the main call centre for the company.

If you are witnessing so many staff on coffee breaks, what you are doing lingering around ? Having a drive to your favourite coffee shop ?
 
According to FlightRadar24 there is still no sign of Boeing VH VHP. So this is now day 17 or 18 that VA is trying to keep their LAX schedules going with only 4 B77Ws.
Looking over the three routes - LAX to BNE, SYD and MEL, reveal the challenges of a small fleet being over-stretched. Lots of re-timed services, especially BNE. Must be chaos for both staff and passengers. I can see no signs of added equipment from other sources being used to recover and restore regular schedules.
Commentary in media generally negative about VA. One observation that daylight services for LAX is preferred to only night departures. Maybe that is a hint that VA might look into. Flights leaving LAX for BNE mean that arrival can be early enough to get same day connections to many ports including SYD, MEL and even PER. Maybe VA management might give this some careful thought.
 
According to FlightRadar24 there is still no sign of Boeing VH VHP. So this is now day 17 or 18 that VA is trying to keep their LAX schedules going with only 4 B77Ws.
Looking over the three routes - LAX to BNE, SYD and MEL, reveal the challenges of a small fleet being over-stretched. Lots of re-timed services, especially BNE. Must be chaos for both staff and passengers. I can see no signs of added equipment from other sources being used to recover and restore regular schedules.
Commentary in media generally negative about VA. One observation that daylight services for LAX is preferred to only night departures. Maybe that is a hint that VA might look into. Flights leaving LAX for BNE mean that arrival can be early enough to get same day connections to many ports including SYD, MEL and even PER. Maybe VA management might give this some careful thought.

KAH, could you please link us to some of the negative commentary? I had a quick look recently and couldn't find any (though some may be paywalled.)

Agree with your comments re day flights but as I suggested in the VA delays/cancellations thread, historically all airlines on TransPacific routes have run the traditional night time departures ex LAX/SFO due probably to a belief that the higher paying seatholders in J (and businessmen generally) prefer this time as it gives an early morning Oz arrival. I think that's a misconception but I don't run an airline. Also may have something to do with SYD curfew times given interworking.
 
Also, speaking of BNE, VA7 has been scheduled to depart at 18:05 for a few weeks now and is currently scheduled to go back to an 11:05 departure on Friday which I beleive is its "normal" time slot. Lets see if this eventuates.

Looking at the recent past its been reasonably on time I think.
 
Commentary in media generally negative about VA.
Could you link to some examples? I've had a look around and from what I can see there hasn't been any media coverage of this at all. The only thing I can find is the short AFF article and a lot of 'some people are saying' rumours on this thread.
 
According to FlightRadar24 there is still no sign of Boeing VH VHP. So this is now day 17 or 18 that VA is trying to keep their LAX schedules going with only 4 B77Ws.
Looking over the three routes - LAX to BNE, SYD and MEL, reveal the challenges of a small fleet being over-stretched. Lots of re-timed services, especially BNE. Must be chaos for both staff and passengers. I can see no signs of added equipment from other sources being used to recover and restore regular schedules.

How? A wet lease? That would take time to organise and have approved. I suspect that VA management expected their aircraft to be repaired before something like that could be arranged.

One observation that daylight services for LAX is preferred to only night departures. Maybe that is a hint that VA might look into. Flights leaving LAX for BNE mean that arrival can be early enough to get same day connections to many ports including SYD, MEL and even PER. Maybe VA management might give this some careful thought.

To leave the USA early enough to give a day flight, you’d be on the way at about 10am. So, too early for any of the USA connections. And, getting to Brisbane around 6pm, too late for most connections there too. Additionally, morning arrivals at both ends mean that there are many connections available (especially for missed ones), and it’s relatively unlikely that you’d need to provide accommodation. I suspect there’s a reason that most flights across the Pacific are at similar times.

There’s still no real information out there on just why the aircraft has been out of service for so long...that’s what I’d really like to hear about.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top