V-Flyer

Hi Everybody,

After a number of months lurking on the excellent and informative V-Flyer website I thought I would take the plunge and post.

I am interested in the Virgin Atlantic price guarantee (You won't find the same Virgin Atlantic flight for less on any UK website, that's guaranteed). My story is on Wednesday evening, I decided to book a long weekend in New York (LHR to JFK) in PE to visit my brother and sister in law. I first off checked the Virgin Atlantic website and they quoted 706.00. I used this as benchmark and had a quite spin around the usual travel websites (Kayak, Opodo, Ebookers, Expedia,etc.) and low and behold I find the exact same dates and flights for 526.00 on Expedia, a difference of 180.00. I quickly grabbed my credit card and booked the flights. Using Expedia also saved the credit card fee that I believe Virgin Atlantic charge. I suppose my questions are:

1. How can Expedia offer a substantially lower fare than Virgin Atlantic? Surely Virgin Atlantic have a idea how much Expedia will resell their tickets for?

2. Do Virgin do any policing of the price being offered by other websites to ensure the validity of their claim that a Virgin Atlantic flight cannot be booked for less on any UK website? Obviously, my experience proves it is not true. I know they offer way of claiming back any difference, but there are a number of criteria to meet including only having up until midnight on the day of purchasing the ticket to make a claim, which in my case would have given my about 45 minutes!

Happy Easter and Happy Flying.

Regards,

Mark

Hi Mark and welcome to V-flyer

I know that there are others who have a greater knowledge than me over this but I suspect that the fare that Expedia was quoting was in a lower fare bucket in economy than the one VS quoted you. Expedia gets an allocations of these fares which had not been yet been used up at the time you booked hence the difference.

There is a raft of different fares in each class of travel with associated conditions around flexibility, refundability etc. This link might help

Hi Honey Lamb,

Thanks for your welcome and swift reply.

I have checked my booking on the Expedia confirmation and it says Premium Economy Lowest. It does not seem to give the fare class.

The higher priced fare is still available with a Premium Economy fare class of K on the Virgin website. Both fares are endorsed as changes and refunds are not permitted at any time, so although my booking may be in lower fare code the advantage that the K fare class offers is not clear to me.

Regards,

Mark

Welcome to V-Flyer Mark [:D]

Sounds like you have grabbed a bargain with your fare [y] [y]

Your Expedia booking will also be a K fare (the lowest PE fare available, other than a Virgin Holidays H PE fare which other agents can't book)

Sometimes Expedia do offer some very low fares as special offers. A couple of V-Flyers grabbed silly rock-bottom BA First fares last year to DXB using Expedia.

As for the VS price match - it's really nothing more than a PR thing as most VS fares are now lower via other agents anyway due to the VS CC fee when booking direct.

Regards

Hi James,

Thanks for the welcome.

I certainly agree I bagged a bargain. Indeed I think the economy fares was £400.00 so getting a PE for less than £530.00 is very pleasing.

It does strike me that other people could take the price guarantee at face value, and not check other sites for lower fares and therefore end up paying more than they need. Caveat emptor, I suppose. Perhaps, if the price guarantee is just PR it is time for it be removed? After all Virgin have just had their knuckles rapped for misleading adverts on PE seats.

Out of interest does all this mean that Expedia would buy a selection of fare codes from Virgin for particular flights, and are then free to set their own fares?

Regards,

Mark

Do Expedia-booked fares count toward the accrual of tier points? Can you tell which fare class is being proposed by Expedia before you press the 'Purchase' button?

Thanks

Do Expedia-booked fares count toward the accrual of tier points? Can you tell which fare class is being proposed by Expedia before you press the 'Purchase' button?

All PE fare qualify for 3 tier points per leg.

Originally posted by casey0999
Can you tell which fare class is being proposed by Expedia before you press the 'Purchase' button?

Thanks

You do not know the fare code. All you know is the cabin you are booked into and whether changes and refunds are permitted.

Regards,

Mark

I had a similar experience on Thursday. After days of checking airline fares to LAX and deciding whether I could afford a holiday, I came across an expedia special fare of £563 LHR-LAX in PE for both legs! The lowest fare on VS website was closer to £800 I think. I booked it asap!! I had previously been looking at flying outbound in econ and inbound in PE for £551! I look forward to trying PE for the 1st time [:D]