Advantages of booking through Virgin Holidays

I'm still putting together our Vegas trip for September and yesterday spoke to Flying Club regarding flight options. The problem I'm encountering is that, even now - eight months ahead, there are a lack of eligible fare classes. For example, one of the options is to pay for Economy and then use miles to upgrade to PE. However on our dates (and days either side of these dates) there were not enough upgradeable "L" fares available. Another option ws to pay for PE ann upgrade to UC on one of the sectors, but the same problem prevailed. The agent even looked at using LAX instead of LAS but still not enough upgradeable fares on offer. I'm now looking at Virgin Holidays and have noticed a couple of interesting things:

(1) The ticketing rule "stay must include a Sat night in USA" (to get good value fares) does not seem to apply when it comes to VH's pricing for Las Vegas, i.e. you can fly out on a Sunday and back on a Friday without this impacting on the price of the hol. This is particularly interesting for us when, this year, we specifically want to rendez-vous with friends on the Tues/Wed. In the past we have always spent the weekend in Palm Springs so as to get the cheap flight and spend the Sat night in USA (whilst avoiding Vegas on the Sat as the room rates are double or even triple the Sun-Thurs rates).

(2) When it comes to upgrades to PE or UC Virgin Holidays offer fixed prices in their brochure/website. The web site says tells you to build up and book your holiday based on Economy flights and then simply phone VH afterwards to upgrade. Do VH not have the same limitations on number of upgradeable seats available per flight? Or is that because with VH we are actually paying cash for the upgrade as opposed to miles they can offer as many upgrades in this way as there are seats available? It's almost as though they are saying there will be no problem in being able to upgrade, just go ahead and book the whole thing based on Economy and sort out the upgrade afterwards!

I'd be interested in people's views on this as I'm now seriously considering using VH for this autumn's trip. PLUS we also get 10% knocked off the final price for being FC members!

[Decker]

We're having to go to LAS for a conference in May so needed 5 seats. We booked via SFO and there was good reward availability. Using VH seems like a good idea though as flights including accommodation are normally cheaper in any case.

Hello, I usually fly to vegas by booking on VA website, but on my annual Orlando trips I always book through VH because even the attraction tickets get 10% off if you are a frequent virgin. When I book I use the website for VH and it gives you date options which tells you which types of seats are available on a given date so I tick the box that has the seat type I want.

I have upgraded to UC however from economy by telephoning them, its usually another £895 each way ( VA wouldn't do it for me but said VH could ). If you want to allocate seats though you have to wait a little longer than VA ticket buyers to be able to do so because you don't get a flight input code or Eticket number, just the VH holiday reference which doesn't work on VA, you need to email them yourself to get the flight booking code.

VH always seems to be able to get the upgrade for you at their brochure prices and with the 10% discount you just can't get a better price anywhere else.

But just to easygoingeezer

the VH reference number should work on VS website i always use it for seat requests, there's usually just a 24hour wait after booking with VHols until it updates to VS, but it will work.

nah it didn't work for me with my vh orlando trip, when i telephoned va they said vh gave me a vh booking ref and to ring them for the correct one for va, may have been a fluke on their part

[Bazz]

VH have an internal booking reference system which uses different coding to the VS booking reference required for the seat allocation feature on the VS website. You will need to specifically ask VH for the VS booking reference to use this feature.

There has also been some discussion about VH only having the VS booking reference available some two weeks or so before the flight. I think this is not fixed as I am sure I have had my VS booking reference much earlier than that in the past.

I booked my Nov 05 holiday in Jul 04 with vh, the code for retrieving my flight was given to me on Jan 13th:)

I've just tried my VHols ref number for the VS web site the 12345/S05 reference number also my last name and the date of flight, and it brings up my flight details, and its just under 6 months away.

I've always found that works for me aswell, no matter how far ahead I've booked..... even up to a year ahead [y]

We nearly always book through VH and upgrade at a later date from the brochure, securing 10% off. Just got an Virgin umbrella through my door (the postman did a good job!) and a letter thanking me for booking my 10th holiday with them! Lovely thought.

Last time however we booked flights through VA as they were reward flights and hotels trough VH as VA don't do accomodation, though they said they might in future. Like you, some of the flights were out of reward seats, even booking in October for this June, so we can get to JFK then onto Vegas, bot on the return route, the only way he could get me home on reward was from Newark (rather than LAX of SanFran), which means an internal 5 hour flight. A slight nuisance, but at least I can get UCS both ways only paying for PE seats.

Hi,

I too am a regular user of VH. (nearly at the umbrella!)

The vh reference e.g. 53976/W03 etc. always acceses the flight details for me on the VA website, and has done for ages. Maybe it was an internal glitch that stopped yours working?

In terms of the seat upgrades, VH do have some good upgrade prices although they are not as good this year! but only have a limited availability on each flight. So while you may see UC or PE availability on the flight VH may have no allocation left and will not let you upgrade.

Neil.

[mitchja]

My VH refs have never worked at any time on the VS web site. I always need to get the PNR from VS before I can view bookings.

I too have noticed the increase in upgrade prices over the last few years from VH - due to their ever increasing popularity no doubt!!!

Regards

quote:Just got an Virgin umbrella through my door (the postman did a good job!) and a letter thanking me for booking my 10th holiday with them!

I wish I'd waited to book my 10th VH holiday as my surprise was some awful luggage straps (that are tucked in the back of a cupboard somewhere)........would have preferred the brolly and as I would have been pleased to use that.

Originally posted by Virgin Lover
Hi,

I too am a regular user of VH. (nearly at the umbrella!)

The vh reference e.g. 53976/W03 etc. always acceses the flight details for me on the VA website, and has done for ages. Maybe it was an internal glitch that stopped yours working?

In terms of the seat upgrades, VH do have some good upgrade prices although they are not as good this year! but only have a limited availability on each flight. So while you may see UC or PE availability on the flight VH may have no allocation left and will not let you upgrade.

Neil.

I had to call Virgin to have my number reinstated after a computer "glitch" but they were helpful and did it in about 2 minutes!

Originally posted by Ianflies
Last time however we booked flights through VA as they were reward flights and hotels trough VH

I do this too, but just a word of warning to the unwary - don't assume that all hotels in the VH brochure can be booked in this way. Some hotels can only be sold (or VH choose only to sell them) by VH if the flight is booked through VH too. It's worth checking with VH before booking those reward flights. Having said that, most hotels can be booked independently through other websites at prices that beat VH prices, even after the 10% discount.

The VH reference number brought up my VA ref number no problem[y]even less than 24hrs after making the booking.

Iain

I've never had an issue with a VH reference on the VA site. I think it's an almost immediate transfer of data from booking with VH to their system to VA system to VA website. As iforres1 confirms above, the VA booking reference always appears after you have logged in using your VH number.