The cheapest way to upgrade.

It's a long way off but any feedback would be appreciated.

In July 2008 myself and a friend (I said it was a long way off!) will be visiting California. I am planning on booking UC both ways. Back in Dec I had a quick look at the UC sale fares, to see if it would be cheaper than booking through VH. I think the VAA fare was about £2600 return and the cost of upgrading one way through VH is around £960.00 but it’s hard to work out what would be cheaper as I haven’t taken into account the cost of accommodation i.e booking through VH or independently.

All I am really trying to do at this stage is get a rough idea based on your past experience as to what works out cheaper. I suppose the only real way of finding out would be to wait until the next round of UC sales fares are released (does this always happen in Dec?). If I wait until Dec then and establish that it is cheaper to book through VH how likely it is that they would have seats left? (I would imagine that VH are not allocated many on this route?)

Current "awareness" seems to point to VH having 4 UC seats on each VS aircraft once the flights get loaded onto their system. However - this can and often does change the nearer the date gets to departure. As a for instance - I booked to fly to ANU with VH and could not get an UC upgrade through VH, was told that they had "used their allocation". Waited and kept my eye on the VH manage your booking page and "ping" one day UC availability appeared.

I guess the difficulty you have is how long you wait until you make the booking - risking the wait for VS UC fares in Dec may deprive you of a VH deal???

And I think you hit the nail fimrly on the head - if you factor in the hotels then this usually makes the VH deal a good one.

If you had fixed dates then my personal opinion would be to book as soon as you can with VH. You can always change the hotels and any other tour stuff nearer the time but at least you will have a pretty good deal on the airfare!!

Good luck!

[y]

I think you are right - VH seems like the best option to me plus I can book early then pay it off month by month with my Vigin Black Amex:) I can do without the hassle

Thanks

[HighFlyer]

There realistically are not going to be any sale fares in July - its Summer, peak season, and airines will fill seats, especially to popular destiations such as CA! I would honestly think that VH would be the cheaper option for you.

Thanks,
Sarah

Don't forget the Flying Club discount as well!

Some UC sale prices started today - but only to early April.

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by radar
Some UC sale prices started today - but only to early April.

They were just Easter reductions, I think someone may have got a little ambitious with the Easter prices and strangely enough demand was low, hence the sale.

Thanks,
Richard

Originally posted by RichardMannion

Originally posted by radar
Some UC sale prices started today - but only to early April.

They were just Easter reductions, I think someone may have got a little ambitious with the Easter prices and strangely enough demand was low, hence the sale.

Thanks,
Richard

Interesting though that it is a sale that I could have used as it (for once) falls in a school holiday. Shows it can happen.

Paul

If it's any help we went PE to LAX last August and it worked out cheaper to do a fly drive with VH than book flights with VS and car hire independently. The other advantage was we only paid a £300 deposit and didn't have to pay the balance until 8 weeks before we went.

You can also book VH more than a year in advance whereas with VS it's the usual 11 months.

Hope this helps

Miopyk[8D]