Can someone make me feel better about this?!?

I booked UC flights for Mrs. Vips, Vips Jr. (not due till October!) and myself back in May to go LGW-BGI next April. Got Z out, D back for a total of £4571 - not too bad, all things considered. Checked BA Club prices at the same time and they were in the region of £1400 per adult each way (ouch!). Out of curiosity - and forgetting the adage about what this did for the proverbial cat - I've just priced up the same flight with BA: £3044 for all three of us.

Now, because Jr. hasn't arrived yet, VA won't take payment for my booking until they can stick his/her name on the ticket. If I could cancel this flight without and penalties, should I shift my allegiances to BA (for this trip, at least)....?

I've never known VS sell Z's without payment so dont know anyone in this position!!

Given your not flying out til next april I wouldnt feel too bad if you didn't fly

Assuming your tempted by the BA price..I'd call VS and explain that your not sure if you can still take the trip due to change of circumstances and see how they feel about canceling?

Obviously say your not sure yet and are checking out your options..?

That way you'll know if you can cancel, given you've not paid a bean I doubt its a big issue, even though technically your tickets are none refundable...

I was quite surprised not to have paid yet. Spoke with VA yesterday and apparently it's all down to Jr.'s lack of 'identity' at the moment. They can't take payment without issuing a ticket, and can't issue a ticket without a name.

If I can cancel, the big question is, should I? 1500 quid is a hell of a saving, but I've not flown Club since the cradle seat days (back in '99 I think). I love all things VS and the UCS in particular - how is Club (on a 777) supposed to compare?

Only you can decide if £1,500 is worth switching for..

I did a search for club and found this TR

edited for spelling!!

Thanks for the link, Jonathan. Hell of TR, isn't it? Looks OK, I suppose, not as swish as the suites though. Oh, what-to-do, what-to-do....

Originally posted by mdvipond
I booked UC flights for Mrs. Vips, Vips Jr. (not due till October!) and myself back in May to go LGW-BGI next April. Got Z out, D back for a total of £4571 - not too bad, all things considered. Checked BA Club prices at the same time and they were in the region of £1400 per adult each way (ouch!). Out of curiosity - and forgetting the adage about what this did for the proverbial cat - I've just priced up the same flight with BA: £3044 for all three of us.

Now, because Jr. hasn't arrived yet, VA won't take payment for my booking until they can stick his/her name on the ticket. If I could cancel this flight without and penalties, should I shift my allegiances to BA (for this trip, at least)....?

I can try and make you feel a little better!

The cheapest VS Z fare to BGI next April is on a fare basis of ZJXAP at £1425 plus taxes. The cheapest in BA's J cabin is the ubiquitous I fare (IHAPGB6 in this case) at £1590 plus tax. The cheapest BA D fare is £2700+, and the cheapest VS D £212 more.

Obviously, availability is an issue, and I can't check that on expertflyer without a date. But it's worth checking for VS Z availability on alternative dates if your programme allows - let me know the dates and I'll plug it in to Expertflyer.

Otherwise, sadly, for that much of a difference I wouldn't hesitate about pulling out of VS and heading for the BA flight.

Best wishes

David

Sorry - just noticed you're a member, so of course you can check availability yourself on the site.

D

[HighFlyer]

As Jonathan said alrady, how much is £1500 worth to you (after any change fee)??

With VS you will get the Suites that you know you will enjoy them and you know the standard you can expect, and plus you get a heck of a lot of miles (and TPS) that you can use towards another flight, you wont get this with BA.

If the above is less important than the £1500 in your wallet, none of us here would blame you for cancelling and going to BA

(i had a similar incident when booking flights to MCO, BA came out a bit cheaper and i didnt know whether to cancel. I stuck with what i knew on this occassion, but that was my choice and it may differ for you)

Originally posted by Jonathan
...I did a search for club and found this TR...

Glancing at the TR, Jonathan, I couldn't help but notice the picture of sausages and mash (in a bowl, for God's sake!), albeit with a menu containing rather more choice than we are getting in UC on VS just now. The BA menu does look more like the UC menu of the old days in terms of the number of choices - wonder if it's changed in line with the VS reductions in recent months?

Best wishes

David

Well only you can make the decision after you have balanced the costs of changing and all - my preference would always be Virgin if the prices were within say 10-15% but at potentially 30% then I think I'd be swayed by BA.

You could use the difference on more than a really good night out to assuage the guilt .

As Highflyer says, and you probably know, BA miles scheme is really poor compared to Virgin's and you'll need to do more Club returns to the US to match the Flying Club benefits.

Anyone ever tried bargaining with Virgin - as in BA will do this if you make me an offer I'll book VA?

Originally posted by mdvipond
Thanks for the link, Jonathan. Hell of TR, isn't it? Looks OK, I suppose, not as swish as the suites though. Oh, what-to-do, what-to-do....

Dont forget that TR is for Upper Deck on a BA 747.

For gatwick flights they are 777 - and 2-4-2 config. I've not flown them so can't comment personally, however from TR's they do not seem to go down nearly as well as the 747....

[mitchja]

Also worth checking if the coffins flat bed CW seats are installed on the LGW BA flights as well if you go for the BA option.

Regards

Having flown both BA Club and VA Upper I'm afraid that for £1500 I would definitely switch to BA. Much as I love VA I couldn't justify the extra cost.

I have flown BA Club on both a 747 and a 777 and whilst the 747 was much better we still had a great flight on the 777. I actually find the coffins really comfortable and have always found the food on BA to be excellent. The biggest downside to flying BA is the lounge which isn't a patch on the Clubhouse. I am sure you have already thought about this but before switching it might be worth checking out the availability of sky cots on BA.

Hope you sort it out one way or another!

I am with lilyjosh0 on this one. I am a VS person whenever I can, but at certain times VS just make that little bit too difficult to stay loyal.

Go for BA, but come back next time.

Oh and if VS are 'loose' enough not to have charged you yet, I would get the BAs on hold and then just cancel the VS and see what they say, it will be a customer not present charge and you can always dispute it if push comes to shove, however, you may find that you unwittingly commited to fly BA for the rest of your life (as you may not be welcome on a VS flight again)


Paul

I tend to agree with the above two comments. I have always enjoyed Club World to be honest (service can be a bit snobby, but I can live with that) - at the moment the food and wine choice seems better, the beds are quite OK and comfy (and the new improved ones are being rolled out) and to save £1500 is even better (to be put towards your next VA UCS flight of course!)

I'm loyal to an extent but when £1500 is at stake, then I would go BA. I belong to both loyalty card clubs (silver in both) and am flying RTW in First (I love these seats) later this year to rack up these points, so you can have the best of both worlds.

[Scrooge]

As everyone has said it comes down to how much 1500 is worth to you.We were in the same situation a couple of months ago when VS couldn't give us any upgrades,did we spend an extra $1000 in the hope's that there would be an upgrade,for save the $1000 for spending money.

Well it turned out that BA had a 2 day sale so we paid a little extra and went Club.Having flown club before IMHO im not that impressed,seats/beds are a little short for me,but for the ave person they would be fine.From what im reading right now the food is better on BA.

Yes you do give up the miles and TP's,but with 1500 saved your almost at a Z fare in savings.

Thanks all for your feedback. Bizarrely enough, p17blo, the prospect of being 'barred' from VS did cross my mind...

Had a look at the BA flight on the Expedia seat map for the flights in question (out 12/04/06, return 27/04). It's a 777 so all in one big block with very few seats together - the best bet would be 2 seats next to each other on the end of the central config of 4 (15 D & E, I think). Now, bearing in mind that we've got 6 A & K out and 8 A & K back, it does start to tip things just a teeny bit in VSs' favour. Also, we'd each lose out on the best part of 17K worth of miles (Mrs. Vips could do with the mileage for next autumn's SFO trip) and both drop back down to FC red. Then again, 1500 quid is 1500 quid. Restless night ahead for mdvipond, methinks.

Hi mdvipond

What have you decided to do?

If it were me I wouldn't hesitate to try BA - £1500 is a big saving.

Hope your nights haven't been too sleepless (you'll get plenty of that when the mini mdvipond arrives [|)])

Hi Daisy.

No decision made as yet, but leaning towards sticking with VS at the mo. Partly due to the seats we've pre-booked with VS compared to those on offer with BA. Only 'off-set' aisle seats left on BA's 777, 2-4-2 config - worries us a bit as to how easy it would make baby sharing duties. As I mentioned in my previous post knowing the UCS cabin quite well, the seats we've pre-booked will be ideal with Jr. Not sure how we'd cope on a 777.

Secondly, we're booked out in Z and back in D. Although we haven't paid yet (this in itself is rare indeed, so I'm told) a Z class ticket is normally a no change, no refund kinda fare, and D isn't much better. Not entirely sure how VS would take to our cancelling at this stage...