Ticket Class D (U/C)

I know we northerners keeping harping on about this, but I have booked U/C whoops sorry Club Orlando MAN to MCO for 13/05 ret 30/05. It is ticket as D and therefore I believe that I should get 5 Tier Points and Double mileage. I know I wont because it will appear us upper deck on the statement showing 4 tier points and PE mileage. If you check the V/T site the fhight is sold as U/C and the fare rules show it as code DFAP U/C apex. I even confirmed with a V/T telesales that the ticket would attract U/C rewards

I admit the price is lower than the LHR LGW fares but we only get ecomony food etc.

I personally can accept the older aircraft and the lower level of service but I must admit it niggles when I am trying to Achieve Gold and it means I will have to take 5 return flights to achieve 40 points.

What are other fc members views.

[Nottingham Nick]

Paul,

As a fellow (almost) northerner, I have every sympathy with you, but I think the key here is the price of the ticket. Correct me if I am wrong, but I was always under the impression that Club Orlando tickets were a fair bit cheaper than proper UC fares from the soft, southern airports:)

If this is so, then I suppose their earning capability will also be lower.

Nick

[Pete]

Yes, using the Active Lookup above , enter Virgin and select Tier Points from the drop down. Club Orlando / Club Barbados are 4 points each way rather than 5.

Pix

[mitchja]

I'm perfectly happy as a Silver FC member - if I fly enough to reach gold then it's an added bonus

Regards

[mitchja]

On all flights the PE meal service is the same as in economy - you do get it first in PE though, as with the duty free service. Basically you are paying for an upgraded seat.

Club Orlando is basically a PE Plus service. You still get the PE meal/cabin service but with a bigger wider seat (not the J2000 seat though).

Regards

quote:Correct me if I am wrong, but I was always under the impression that Club Orlando tickets were a fair bit cheaper than proper UC fares from the soft, southern airports

Not that much cheaper. I'm booked MANMCO in August and the cheapest fare I could get Club Orlando was £1395 from an independent(and that was about £80 cheaper than booking with Virgin direct). I've since discovered that I could fly LGWMCO with full upper class for £1524 - same dates. I agree with Paul - older planes/seats, economy food/service and no clubhouse - for a saving of £50 (virgin direct prices) over u/c from LGW I think they should be giving u/c points/miles on the manchester route.

[Pete]

Difficult to do a direct comparison when looking at discounted fares, since the discounts vary route-by-route and season-to-season. To figure out what value Virgin put on the seat, you ought to look at the full fare for Upper Class & Club Orlando.

Full fare on UC LGW-MCO appears to be about £4250 (inc tax). Interestingly, I couldn't select a Club Orlando seat direct on virginatlantic.com, and the best it would offer me is a flexible PE seat at £1660 inc tax. Anyone know what a full fare Club Orlando seat costs?

Pix

Whilst I see your point pix I think it's fair to compare the cheapest fares available - I mean - I wonder how many people actually pay full fare U/C on the MCO route

[Pete]

Er, not what I was trying to get at. I'm still trying to get a handle on what Virgin values the seat at when it is undiscounted. The discounts on the LGW-MCO route are actually likely to be deeper, since they offer a lot of flights, and the premium cabins on those routes aren't as popular as the the back of the bus.

I'm not on any particular side of the fence on this one, but I'd like to know the full picture (and looking at two discounted fares isn't giving me all the info).

Pix

I accept we generally are slightly cheaper although the fare is only £200 shy a full business with Delta, United and AA if you shop around. I wouldnt object to paying same as LGW for a full U/C service. The point I'm making is that we arent even offered it and so the best or closest we can get is Club Orlando. Couldnt VS offer say a full U/C service in just the upstairs with the U/C meals etc

Paul

Actually, when we flew in 1999 MAN-MCO we got the UC tier points, plus the use of the lounge at MCO

Date Activity description Mileage Tier points
11 Dec 1999 Virgin Atlantic, MCO-MAN Upper Class 8,548 10

That was Club Orlando, unless it has changed since then??

[Pete]

Ah, now that's probably a better question: why don't Virgin offer a full Upper Class service from MAN?

My guess is it's economics. They don't have a big enough business there (at the moment, anyway) to afford to put in all of the Upper Class extras, and the routes being very much in the B&S domain, they don't get enough bookings to justify it (probably why they have this odd 'Club Orlando' branding).

Pix

[mitchja]

How did it operate before Club Orlando was invented (by VH)[?] Were the aircraft flying with empty Upper Class cabins [?]

Mitchja

That the point. What did they do before. Club Orlando is always full when I fly (as is PE which is often overbooked). If the fare is now only a couple of Hundred short then I believ that they could get still fill U/C say at £1500 to £1600 and the only additional cost would be the upgrading of the meals. I flew Delta business elite recently to Atlanta from MAN and that was full to capacity. I believe that the demand is there. The problem is Club Orlando is not really known about unless you enquire through VH or VT. A lot of business poeple in the North West dont reealise that there is an UPper class cabin on this flight. Even the VS web site dosent advertise it


Paul