Changes to V Australia

[DVCAustralia]

I just read an article on The Australian website and quote the following as the most relevant part: -
"V Australia will change its Sydney-Los Angeles services to a morning departure and move to daily services from December 10. Services from Melbourne to LA will also increase from December."
In particular if you have existing bookings you may need to check what impact this has on your plans.

 

[darren123]

Which equals more trips to Disneyland

 

[zaccy]

Thanks for posting this - we all cope much better flying through the day as compared to the night.

Have to keep that in mind for the 'next trip'

 

[lovintheland]

I'm glad this doesn't start until December. We actually booked our flights via Sydney rather than direct from Brisbane just so we could depart at night not in the morning like the Brisbane ones do.

 

[BecBennett]

I actually thought they were already daily flights from Syd to LA

VAustralia called me to let me know changes to my flight times, it didn't include these changes though, just half an hour here or there...

 

[SnowWhite09]

Thanks for posting this - that's great!

 

[ZADS]

Got an email from them an hour ago advising they'd brought my 9pm flight forward to 12.15pm which is a bit inconvenient, but what can I do. Gonna call them shortly.

 

[kyl]

I just called as we leave in late/mid sept our flight times haven't changed. The girl I talked with said she thought that it was for flights as of October. But I would double check your flights just to make sure. Also our flights home in October were the same times so no changes for us! Thanks for the head up though ZADS.

 

[aussiegirls]

AAAAARRRRGHHHHH......I have just spoken to V Aust and they have changed my flight - I am not a happy camper ATM!!!!! I don't wanna get into LA at 8am (and I can't find a tantrum emoticon).

Ok, now that I have vented, I am off to get a coffee and remind myself how blessed I am to be even going at all, so I should just get over myself

xxx

 

[kyl]

Oh no aussiegirls, just think it means you get to be in magic land a few hours earlier? Now deep breaths.

 

[Jade+3]

I'm glad this doesn't start until December. We actually booked our flights via Sydney rather than direct from Brisbane just so we could depart at night not in the morning like the Brisbane ones do.

This is what we were going to do for our holiday next year. I am not a fan of the morning flights. My kids were awake for the first 9 hours of the flight. The early morning arrival is a killer too.

 

[Mum from oz]

No way! I am booked in with them for May next year and specifically went with them (and spent more to do so) as I wanted the night flight so my kiddos could sleep.

So it leaves at 12:15pm with a 14 hour flight time their body clocks will say its 2:00ish am when it will be 8:00am in LA and we won't be able to check into our hotel until 2:00pm?

I am ringing them tomorrow to check but seriously I am having a tanty over this too

 

[aussiegirls]

Good luck mum from oz. I spoke to them this week. They were very apologetic about the time change and offered to change dates for me if necessary, at no cost. But it wouldn't really help because no matter what date I chose they still all leave at the same time. So I stuck with my original flight and I just have my fingers crossed that we can check into our hotel early.

xxx

 

[Mum from oz]

I just called V Aust, and after 20mins on hold I spoke to someone who told me my flight would now be leaving SYD at 11:15am arriving at LAX at 8:00am.

He said my options were to either change the second leg of the journey for no cost or I could cancel the whole thing at no cost. He siad they were being pretty lenient at the moment with so many people put out from these schedule changes.

Now what to do..... He said instead of staying over in LA for one night I could bring the second leg of the journey back a day and fly though to MCO but I would have 1 hour and 55 mins to get to the next flight with two little kiddies, not ideal he said. Plus don't know how I feel about such a massive travel time. Decisions, decisions....

 

[Jade+3]

I just called V Aust, and after 20mins on hold I spoke to someone who told me my flight would now be leaving SYD at 11:15am arriving at LAX at 8:00am.

He said my options were to either change the second leg of the journey for no cost or I could cancel the whole thing at no cost. He siad they were being pretty lenient at the moment with so many people put out from these schedule changes.

Now what to do..... He said instead of staying over in LA for one night I could bring the second leg of the journey back a day and fly though to MCO but I would have 1 hour and 55 mins to get to the next flight with two little kiddies, not ideal he said. Plus don't know how I feel about such a massive travel time. Decisions, decisions....

I wouldn't risk a connection time that close, especially with young kids. If you are taking a pram or car seats, they always seem to be the last things to come off the plane which is no good if you are in a hurry.

We stayed overnight in LA, before flying onto MCO. My kids were the same ages your will be when you travel plus we also had a baby. The kids really needed the break from travelling. Our flight also arrived at 7am, and we were not able to check into our hotel early. My advice would be to pay for the extra night so your room is available. It is a pain to incur extra holiday expenses through no fault of your own.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I just called V Aust, and after 20mins on hold I spoke to someone who told me my flight would now be leaving SYD at 11:15am arriving at LAX at 8:00am.

He said my options were to either change the second leg of the journey for no cost or I could cancel the whole thing at no cost. He siad they were being pretty lenient at the moment with so many people put out from these schedule changes.

Now what to do..... He said instead of staying over in LA for one night I could bring the second leg of the journey back a day and fly though to MCO but I would have 1 hour and 55 mins to get to the next flight with two little kiddies, not ideal he said. Plus don't know how I feel about such a massive travel time. Decisions, decisions....

I wouldn't risk the apparent 'short' connection time either, with two little kids. Where are you planning on staying for the one night and are you hiring a car? If you arrive in LAX at 8 am in the morning, you probably would be out of customs by about 9.30 - 10 am in the morning. If you hired a car, you'd be on the road around 11 am, go somewhere to grab a bite and potentially look to check in at about 1 pm or after. Some of the hotels may allow you the early check in at 1 pm, if you asked.

 

[kyl]

On our way back from orlando we are staying one night at the holiday inn in LAX. We ended up having to pay for two nights accomodation just with the time we land into LAX being early and so on. It was the cheapest one I could find at the airport, plus they have a free shuttle service that leaves every 15mins from the airport. It looks quite nice, they have a pool so kids could have a swim etc. Make sure you book the airport one though because there are heaps around that area.