Update on the captioned films on Virgin Atlantic - NOT good news

[Mazzy]

As some of you may remember, after Sept 11 Virgin Atlantic withdrew it's captioned film service for the deaf and hard of hearing. I had heard nothing from them so emailed them a couple of weeks ago to see what the situation was, and received a letter this morning.

The bottom line is that they can't afford to provide the service currently so it has been suspended indefinitely, so it's anyone's guess if we will ever see it back. The letter offered no compensation, just apologies so I decided to give them a ring.

After some time I have managed to get a £50 voucher which I can use when I pay off the balance of December's holiday, and a complimentary upgrade to Premium Economy on our return flight on a 'space available' basis.

At first they said they couldn't upgrade all 4 of us but when I asked about just the return flight (as we would appreciate the legroom more on the overnight flight) they decided to do it. Apparently there are about half the number of seats left in PE at the moment - does anyone know how many seats in PE? So I think the day before we leave for WDW I will just go into VA website and check availability, then at least we will know if it is full rather than get our hopes up!

Apparently it makes no difference how early we get to the airport, as they won't offer upgrades to PE until the flight has closed - 1 hour before takeoff.

So... not brilliant but better than a slap in the face! We may end up with just a £50 voucher but at least I can say I tried! Just have to try and find some decent reading material to keep me interested for 9 hours!

All I can say is thank God that my children are hearing, so this discrimination won't affect them.

[WDWfan,uk]

I'm sorry to hear that they aren't restoring the service Mazzy. It is difficult enough for hearing people to keep amused on long-haul flights and so I really sympathise. Is this the case with other airlines?
At least if you can have the PE seats you'll be much more comfortable.

[signtalker]

Mazzy, not good news huh after the 100s of emails we must of sent between
us, which number was used to get this discount?, weve just booked with virgin
and travelling with DS this is going to make a BIG differance to us also. It will be interesting
to see if we can obtain some sort of compensation also, PM me or mail me at my home address


Jules

[Hilary]

What a shame, Mazzy - I can imagine how frustrating this must be for you (and anyone else affected).

I suppose if you look on the bright side, you could buy yourself a lot of nice new books to read for £50!

Fingers crossed for the upgrade coming through for you.

[Mrs Dazzle]

Oh Mazzy:( sorry Virgin did not come through.

Bit frustrated with them ourselves - they've just sent a letter to tell us one of the hotels we're going to will be refurbed whilst we're over thre (5 star luxury hotel Registry at Naples); phoned yesterday to move to a different hotel after a couple days of humming and hahing. They nly wanted to "investigate whether they would need to charge an admin fee for the move" . . . however, once I'd pointed out the hotel we were moving to on neighbouring Marco Island was actually costing us more - and the fact they it was not OUR (or to fair their) fault the hotel was being refurbed, they had a change of mind:rolleyes: . . and just as well!

However, full marks to Virgin, though, for writing to let us know about the refurb.

Fingers crossed for the PE on the flight home. Wouldn't have hurt them to offer it both ways, hmmm?

Take care
x

[Boo Boo Too]

It is a real shame that the Registry at Naples is being refurbished during your stay: it is a really nice hotel. We stayed there last August (for a week post cruise) and really enjoyed.

Hubby paid to upgrade us to a suite (which was fantastic and had a HUGE ocean and pool view balcony), but I got a peak inside the standard room (being nosey, I know) and they looked really nice too.

The hotel has a lovely lobby and some really nice pools. We rented bikes from the hotel one morning and cycled around the neighbourhood and long the coast for a couple of hours (in 90'F heat!). The only drawback of the Registry is that it has no self-laundry facilities (and I didn't want them to wash my smalls at $3 a pair!)

Another nice looking hotel in Naples is the Ritz Carlton (although I don't think that is offered by many/any British tour operators).

Naples is a great place: make sure you do the trolley tour (you can get on and off as often as you like) and if you like steak, try Shula's (at the new Naples Hilton - close to the Registry). Naples/Marco island is also a great location from which to do an Everglades tour too. Be warned though, we wore industrial strength insect repellent the whole week...

The West coast of florida is a rather nice place....

Boo

[Mazzy]

Shirley, no other airline provides the captioned videos, which is why it was so great that Virgin did! They did offer to talk to Virgin Holidays (who we are booked with) to see if I could cancel with no charge and book again with another operator, but there's no point as noone else has captioned films, and I still need the personal screen for the children and hubby, no reason why they should suffer as well! Fingers crossed for the PE but as there are only 20 seats and 10 are already booked, it's only a slim chance of getting them I would think, as we have 7 months to go yet! :rolleyes:

Jules - I have just PM's you, good luck. Let me know how you get on won't you?

Hilary - well I intend to spend the £50 in the Home Store at DTD, hoping to get some nice Pooh stuff for my new kitchen! :D

Mrs Dazzle, I have since checked on the VA website and Premium Economy is actually fully booked on the flight out (Boxing Day) so we didn't miss out anyway, so that's made me feel a bit better! ;)

[Goofyish]

I've just been looking in the Thomson Florida brochure and in the Premium Flight Service bit its says that you get hand-held DVD players if there are no seat back video screens. I ssume that these hand-held DVD players can display the subtitles and/or closed captioning that normal DVD players do.

If Thomsons can afford to provide them why can't Virgin?

[Boo Boo Too]

Sometimes (it may be always, but have never asked to use one) Upper Class carries DVD players and a library of films. They don't carry many and I don't know if they would consider lending one to a PE/Economy passenger, but it might be worth asking.

Alternatively, do you know anyone with a laptop that they could let you borrow? A lot of laptops these days play DVDs... Still you could only use it until the batteries run out: economy seats don't have laptop power ports and I don't think that PE seats do either.

How much are personal DVD players now days? If they came down in price - and you fly regularly - it might be worth thinking of investing (they might be shockingly overpriced though :-( )

Boo.

[Mazzy]

Thanks for that info Tim, it may be worth looking into, which airline do Thomson use? Subtitled films come in two formats, they are either already subtitled and will work on any machine, or they have captions coded into them and need a special caption decoder for the subtitles to show. I am referring to videos and video players here as I don't have a DVD player so haven't a clue how they would work, but my guess is that the dvd itself would have subtitled on it ie added to the film, so whether Thomson would have these is not very likily I wouldn't think, but still worth looking into, but they are charter flights aren't they? Not much leg room is there, as I am 5ft 9 and DH 6ft 2 and we struggle to be comfortable on Virgin. Any more info you have would be helpful! :D

Boo Boo - Virgin no longer have hand held DVDs in Upper Class, they are not mentioned on the website, they seem to be putting a new system actually into the 'fixed' screens which lets you choose more films, which is all very well for Upper Class, but leaves nothing for the hearing impaired.

I'm not sure how much personal DVD players are, but the biggest stalling point is whether they would pick up the coded captions off the DVD - another thing I may look into - DVDs are all new to me as I say, as I am still using videos at home, but I will try and find out whether personal DVDs would have a facility for picking up captions, but not getting my hopes up as 'normal' video players don't pick them up, I had to buy a special machine to decode - but I will certainly do some research re availability and pricing!

Thanks both of you for your interest and suggestions :D

[signtalker]

Mazzy, the majority(if not all) DVD's have subtitles function on them, you have to
pick your selection when the DVD starts up, however im not sure the portable players
that thompson have have this facility.
Let me know how you get on.

Jules

[Mazzy]

Hi Jules - did you manage to get through to Virgin Customer Services or are you only open Mon-Fri? It's too late for this year anyway as we are committed to Virgin for December, but I will certainly look into Tomson at a future date.

Just to update, I've just searched through Comet, Currys, and Dixons websites and for the life of me can't find ANY personal DVD players that play films, just the usual ones that play music, maybe I am looking in the wrong place? Anyone have any ideas on where to find them?

Thanks :D

[Boo Boo Too]

Okay, so they are expensive :-(

I guess that you would really need to get some worth out of it (probably entertaining your kids in addition to providing entertainment for yourself when you fly - unless you fly an awful lot).

http://www.dixons.co.uk/store/martprd.dll/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1505397235.102181119 0@@@@&BV_EngineID=eadceddgliifbedcfgmcfcki.0&chain=Dixons&channel=WEB&browserName=ie&browserVersion=4&platform=pc&firstrun=yes&page=Product&timestamp=1021811430572&sku=321829

That is the cheapest which I can find (but others are listed at http://comparestoreprices.co.uk/dvd-players.asp ).

The other thing to consider is to buy one in duty free at the airport: not a huge amount cheaper, but Dixons do stock them at Heathrow and Gatwick (because it is not uncommon for flyers to want to buy them).

Boo

[Mazzy]

£700!!! Well that's that idea well and truly biting the dust! :rolleyes:

Thanks anyway Boo, for your help. Just out of interest I've emailed Panasonic to see if the model is caption-friendly so wait and see if I hear back from them.

Thanks :D

[Goofyish]

Thomsons use (and own I think) Britannia Airlines. The Premium Flight Service (where you get the personal DVD players) is £140 extra pp.

I love the subtitle functions on DVD's. (by the way Panasonic also make a VCR that records subtitles from the TV).

[signtalker]

Tim all video's are capible of recording subtitles, which alot of people dont know.Its the playing them back that can be problematic!

Boo Boo Too, i think you will find the links you have supplied are for bog standard DVD players, these arent the same as the ones used by virgin,

Mazzy im gonna dig around this end contact probaly a company called conevans who deal specifically with equipment like this, will let you know.

Jules

[WebmasterPenny]

Mazzy,

Who told you there where only 20 seats in PE? I guess it will depend on the plane you get, but on the Virgin Atlantic website is says a maximum of 38 seats which is quite a big difference...

Penny :)

[Mazzy]

Hi Penny

Well I did a bit of research and usually the planes Virgin use from Gatwick are 747-400 I believe and that has only 20 seats in PE. It also said that the 747 had 30 seats and the A340 -300 had 28 seats so don't know if that is correct, it was on a website which gives you the seat plans on planes, can't remember the name of the website though Duh!

Anyone who has travelled recently on a 747 400 from Gatwick to Orlando in PE know how many seats they have?

[BevS97]

Jules if you go to the bottom of the list of DVD players on ****ooToo's link, there are a number of portable one's - they start from £700 though! so hardly an economy purchase.

Bev

[Jen80370]

Mazzy...

Hi I usually post on the resort boards. I was over here checking into Virgin's World Pass deal when I saw this thread. All DVD's have subtitles on them (usually in English and Spanish...sometimes French too) and this has nothing to do with the player itself.

The players are indeed costly...especially when for a few hundred more, you could get a laptop computer. However the portable DVD players can also run on batteries, which would help you on the flight. My brother will not travel without his now. He said it was worth every penny.

If I were you, I'd write a letter to Virgin's Corporate office and suggest providing DVD players to people missing the movies previously provided. You just never know...

Good luck!

[signtalker]

Jen, myself and mazzy have written so many emails and phoned concerning this matter, if you read back on the thread you will see that virgin, DO NOT supply video watchmans or DVD players to hearing impaired /deaf people, because of the sept 11th and cutbacks deaf people and hearing impaired have lost out due to the service for them being scrapped, actually the video watchmans that are provided by virgin ARENT your bog standard DVD player, hence the reason i said, playing back of subtitles was a problem,these are portable watchmans and have prooved excellent for my son and deaf people i work with in my job.
There is no simple answer to this, mazzy(im sure you dont mind me saying) is hearing impaired, my son also, and im interpreteur for the deaf, this is something we come across every single day of our lives, the DDA doesnt cover airlines, so really apart from kicking up a stink and getting some sort of compensation, there is little to be done, beleive me , this has been an ongoing thing for months now, with me mazzy and virgin.
It is an avenue to look into, for anybody who is computer techy minded,, we would have no trouble marketing this idea, if we did it at an affordable price LOL!!, the other thing to bare in mind is to have subtitling in BSL and not english, that way profoundly deaf people would have even more access!.
Off soapbox now

Jules

[Mazzy]

Jen, thanks for your input, but as Jules said we have tried everything and not really got anywhere, apart from a little compensation, it is just a case of waiting now to see if Virgin will bring back some kind of service for the deaf. As I am not a regular traveller on long haul flights (once every 18 months usually) it is a large amount to spend on something I would only use that often. Thanks for posting, it is nice for you to take the time to do so. :D

Jules, you have taken the words out of my mouth! Do let me know how you get on tomorrow when you ring Virgin, let's hope you make an impression on them! :D

[Jen80370]

Jules,

Sometimes a soapbox is the only way we can be heard over the din of the ridiculous...I only wish I had one big enough to hold all of you so you could be heard.

I am not familiar at all with services for the hearing impaired. MY SIL works for the MS Society in NJ and I have heard stories of people pooling resources for equipment only used in rare occasions (Like a portable DVD player) that are shared. Maybe this is something services in the UK could order...maybe I'm just a hopeless idealist, but if a central group had DVD players that people could rent or sign out for holidays...just at thought. Then again, if the world were that swell, we'd also have world peace and I'd have thinner thighs...

Regardless, my good vibes and pixie dust are firmly in your corner...good luck!

Jen

[Mazzy]

Jen, you really made me lol!!!! Yes, it would be nice to have a perfect world wouldn't it? It sounds a wonderful idea to have such a scheme, I will see if Jules can shed any light on that, but I don't have high hopes!

I've just noticed you are off to the Dolphin in June. I too am a Dolphin fan, we stayed there in May 99 on our first ever trip to WDW and absolutely loved it! We were due to go back last Xmas but had to cancel as I have problem with one of my feet, but we will be there THIS Xmas as I have serious withdrawal symptoms, even if I have to go in a wheelchair, I will be there with bells on! I hope you have a fab trip! :D

[Jen80370]

Thanks so much...I cannot wait to go! Be sure to check the trip reports boards in July. I'll be sure to post when I get back!

[Jen80370]

Mazzy...I just saw this on the Budget Board...

Portable DVD player deal
Just got a Wal-Mart circular, they have an Apex portable DVD player at Walmart.com (just the website, not the store) for $199.77. That is an awesome price!

We recently bought one (different brand, higher price, but a great deal at the time) to bring along for our drive down to WDW. Hope this helps someone!


__________________

the link to where it is can also be found on the Budget Board. I'm sure Walmart ships to UK...good luck!

[Mazzy]

Thanks for that Jan. Can you believe they are out of stock already?

I'm not quite sure how I stand with US DVD players. I know that US and UK videos are not compatible, does anyone know if DVDs are different too?

[UKDEB]

Yes, Maz, they are. US DVDs are Region 1, UK are Region 2. Most players bought in the UK can either be 'chipped' to play both, or come already compatible for both regions. Not sure how easy it would be to get a US (Region 1) player chipped to play Region 2.