V-Flyer

Hi,
I have just missed out on the latest economy USA sale. I wondered if anyone knew if there is likely to be another sale before the end of July?

Any info would be gratefully appreciated.

Regards

Julie

At the moment, there *seems* to be a rolling sale every month! [:0] July is peak season, however, so I'd not ever bank on there being a sale for that period.

If you see a price that looks acceptable to you, BOOK IT NOW. Then never ever ever look at prices for your dates again. Prices can and will go up as well as down. As long as you paid a price that was acceptable to you at the time, there's no issue - you got a good deal.

Look at it that way and you won't go far wrong. [y]

Thank you preiffer, I will keep a look out. I would like to book by the end of July for travelling at the end of August so I do have a bit of time to play with.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and good point I will not look at the fare again once its booked! [:D]

Originally posted by juulz2001
Thank you preiffer, I will keep a look out. I would like to book by the end of July for travelling at the end of August so I do have a bit of time to play with.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and good point I will not look at the fare again once its booked! [:D]

I am on the look out as well for end of August travelling. The last sale was actually extended for a week which eventually ran out on Tuesday. I didn't buy any sale tickets hoping there is another one in June as happened last year. Also hoping it will be cheaper as well.

Originally posted by preiffer
If you see a price that looks acceptable to you, BOOK IT NOW. Then never ever ever look at prices for your dates again. Prices can and will go up as well as down. As long as you paid a price that was acceptable to you at the time, there's no issue - you got a good deal.

Thats where I went wrong last year booked it early in March for travelling end of August and economy sale started in June. Could have got the tickets £80 cheaper EACH.

It really does depend on where you are traveling to.

As a regular traveler to SFO, I have never seen good prices in July/Aug, they have always been high.

Having said that, LAX last April in the Easter Holiday was a bargin, at just around £250 each.

Depending on the location, I would be looking now to secure seats.

I'm looking to book London to Miami, flying back from Orlando to London. I usually do LAX & LAS at the end of August and have had a good rates by booking in both January sales and Spring sales. Florida routes i'm new to so i'll keep checking.

As preiffer said if I find a fare i'm happy to pay I think i'll book it. Going to be a gamble i'm sure.

Good luck sky0000547 hope you bag a bargin!

Originally posted by juulz2001
Good luck sky0000547 hope you bag a bargin!

Same to you. I am looking at flying out to IAD and returning from JFK. Going by previous prices the latest sale wasn't the cheapest. So I am just gambling on another sale in June. I am flexible anyway so doesn't have to travel at end of August but prefer to be hot that is all.

There will probably be another sale coming up any day now but I think they will be trying to shift seats between now and the end of July.
Should be some good prices though! With the surcharge increases the ticket prices will have to drop to less than £50 for a decent special offer to NYC.
Woe is me!

Originally posted by juulz2001
I'm looking to book London to Miami, flying back from Orlando to London.

Hmmmm the MCO route is a popular one, especially during the summer holiday season with flights often having full loads. I can't remember seeing MCO listed too often in past sale fare offers.

As others have said, its a gamble, you just have to decide if you are willing to take it!

Hope you manage to get everything sorted.
Neil

Originally posted by eejp1007
Should be some good prices though! With the surcharge increases the ticket prices will have to drop to less than £50 for a decent special offer to NYC.

£50 drop is what I am looking at compare to the recent sale fares. If it has dropped by that much then I am there.

Originally posted by sky0000547

Originally posted by eejp1007
Should be some good prices though! With the surcharge increases the ticket prices will have to drop to less than £50 for a decent special offer to NYC.

£50 drop is what I am looking at compare to the recent sale fares. If it has dropped by that much then I am there.

Good luck on that front. Given the fuel surcharges now, I can't see any ~£250 fares for a while. The margin is non-existent at that price point. Given BA's similiar predicament, I can't see BA being silly and doing a fare war, and unless BA do it, VS won't follow.

Taxes & Fees for a NYC flight in Y are currently £209 - so at best I'd expect a £299 fare. That only leaves a £90 fare element then.

Originally posted by RichardMannion
[Good luck on that front. Given the fuel surcharges now, I can't see any ~£250 fares for a while. The margin is non-existent at that price point. Given BA's similiar predicament, I can't see BA being silly and doing a fare war, and unless BA do it, VS won't follow.

Taxes & Fees for a NYC flight in Y are currently £209 - so at best I'd expect a £299 fare. That only leaves a £90 fare element then.

Richard, the sale fare for NYC at back end of August I was looking at was £350. I'm hoping the next sale will bring that down to £300 which is very reasonable but of ocurse with the recent surcharge increase not taken into consideration at the time. You are probably right the £250 fares are long gone and I wasn't expecting to pay so little anyway.

£209 for just taxes and fees I think is totally rediculous.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/sp ... theusa.jsp

£247 for NYC: so that's a £38 fare element. Just goes to show!

Originally posted by adjonline
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/sp ... theusa.jsp

£247 for NYC: so that's a £38 fare element. Just goes to show!

Just checked these, and it's a £30 fare element as the taxes are £216.70. Looking at the sale period, these are for departures in the next 6 weeks; I'd presume there are a few spare seats kicking round so VS have taken the strategy to get them down in price to fill the seats and have them help pay the fuel bill.

Certainly adds a dimension to the 'when should I buy my ticket' game. Maybe that's the next promo - no fare to pay, just your taxes! We need the petrol money! [:)]

Don't forget that there is only ONE FLIGHT per day LHR-MIA.[n]

Originally posted by adjonline
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/sp ... theusa.jsp

£247 for NYC: so that's a £38 fare element. Just goes to show!

I'd love to see how the bean counters work this out to be worthwhile. A back of the envelope calculation shows a total of ~$90,000 of fuel for a return trip LON-NYC-LON at an optimistic $120 per barrel.

Even with a cargo element subsidising this somewhat, the fuel required for the weight of the pax plus baggage, plus keeping them fed and watered cannot even remotely be £38!!!

Howard

Ah, but the plane has a 'net cost' to operate in terms of fuel - passengers or not. So, a LOT of the fuel surcharge is simply funding the cost of keeping it in the air - it's the few extra pounds per ticket that are actually going towards shifting the pax a$$ across the sky.

I'd say they're by far financially better off getting 300 pax paying just above the fuel surcharge to join the other 100, than they are simply flying with those 100 high-rev passengers alone.

Also, there's probably only going to be a handfull of these very low fares on each flight anyway.

For the NYC flights, you only get the £247 fares on certain flights too (looks like just the VS25/26 & VS17/18)

Regards