Miles + Money Vs Discount Econ - Round 2

Hi,

So, my flights are now available on the M+M deal at 451.90 on the website. Cheapest economy on the website atm is 98 more.

Should I look anywhere else for cheaper economy fares or is this unlikely?

We don't want to loose out on the M+M deal if it's the cheapest we'll get (We are not bothered about earning miles). Should we just go for the M+M fare?

Thanks,
Sarah

Not sure an additional thread was needed for this, but if you're not bothered about earning miles I would just book the cheapest you can get your hands on, which seems to be the M+M.

[Neil]

It is highly unlikely you will find a cheaper price on the net at the moment, however if you flights have just been released then it could be possible that any N class fares haven't been released yet (these aren't always released straight away) so in a few weeks they could be released and the price will drop. What fare code is it offering to book the flight in at the moment?

If the MPM option is only £98 less then I would personally buy a straight economy ticket as you will earn miles & TPs, something you won't do on the MPM fare, and IMO I would rather have the miles, but each to their own.

Neil

I am with Neil on this one. I would rather spend the extra £98 to get the miles. If you are talking £150-£200 price difference then it would be a different matter. I personally would wait (if you can) there are bound to be sale fares especially you are not going until April time.

I may be a voice in the wilderness here, but......

If you are not a very frequent flier then TP's are not much use. Therefore it comes down to spending versus accumulating miles and the 'price' associated with each.

You can 'earn' 10k miles (8k for the flight and 2k for what you do not spend), but what are you going to do with the additional 10k? You would have to do 5 trips to qualify for a return reward flight (4 with the 'permanent' sale going on), balanced against the 4 or 5 x £98 you could have saved - then add the taxes onto the reward flight and it becomes even less attractive.

Happy to be shot down on this.

[Neil]

spiceke - I don't disagree, and everyone has their own circumstance.

However, you could use the 10k for a Y to W 1 way upgrade for instance. Also if you are earning miles other ways too (VS CC/hotel stays etc) and maybe have a special holiday or flight coming up and can use miles towards a one UC flight etc then it could be worth it.

I am a self confessed mile whore and have made some HUGE savings my collecting and using them well so sometimes looking at the bigger picture could be worthwhile. Quite easily, though, if you are not planning to fly VS for a while then its an extra £98 in the bank!

Neil

I also like to horde the miles however, assuming Sarah isn't flying alone that saving will be multiplied across all the PAX. I maintain that M+M is excellent when money is tight. I did post before an example but again, last year my girlfriend (who is Chinese) had a sudden death in the family and decided to fly home the next day. She used M+M and saved just over £100. Ok so she missed out on 11.5k miles but that was a completely unexpected large expense and M+M helped make it affordable.

Thanks to everyone for their input, it is much appreciated. We (husband & I) have only flown once with Virgin before (LGW-LAS) and are not frequent flyers with anyone. We therefore felt it better to use Miles+Money and save some £ now, rather than to try and build up miles for a free flight or upgrade.

We took the plunge and booked last night. The tickets were ~ £150 each plus ~ £300 taxes, surcharges etc and 2,000 miles. Not as good as last year, but that seems to be because the taxes have rocketed. We also managed to select one of the 2-seat rows at the back of the plane both outbound and inbound, which I am sure we would have missed out on if we waited on the off-chance for a sale. [y]

Sarahhj, those 'twosomes' at the back of the aircraft are good for couples, but when travelled LGW-LAS last year we chose row 31 (as far forward as we could get) simply because immigration queues upon arrival in the US are usually awful (there is a TR on this in the index). Thankfully we were through within 20 mins but once the people from right at the back were in the hall, the line was enormous. I accept it's personal preference at the end of the day, but I would always choose to sit further forward in a 3 and not have to queue for over an hour on landing.

I think it's true in a lot of places. I flew to PVG in January in UC and again in April near the back of Y. The January immigration was about 1 hour time saving over the chaos we faced in April arriving at the tail end of the PAX - and that 346 was nowhere near full either!

When we last flew to LAS, we were sat in the exit row and were litterally the first & second people through immigration (which was completely empty when we landed). This was great as we had to go and sort out our marriage licence as we were getting married at 10am the next day!

I think we'll stick with the seats at the back this time as we will not be in a rush at the other end, and don't really want to pay the £150 extra for exit seats.