Cheapest UC Fares

Hi Everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I was a Virgin 'virgin' until I tired the premium economy product in December LHR - JFK. I have to say we really loved it. Now for my 30th birthday which is coming up next year we are planning a trip to Tokyo, and the upper class suites are calling...

Now unfortunately I am not a business traveller with hundreds of thousands of miles to play with. Instead, I choose the exciting method of paying for flights with money from out of my own pocket.

Now, lets assume that the price of oil doesn't double between now and this time next year. What tips does everyone have for getting the best value fares?

When is the best time to buy? Earlier the better?
Have Virgin had special UC sale prices for Tokyo in the past, and when are sales most likely to occur?
Will the Virgin website always have the cheapest prices?
Are Godzilla attacks flying into Japan are frequent as you would imagine?

How about if you couldn't fly Virgin, what other value for money business class seat would you consider flying to the far east?

Justin.

Despite what their website says the Virgin Atlantic website does not always have the best deal- expedia occasionally does beat it.

That's interesting... so it could pay to shop around a little.

[Nottingham Nick]

It always pays to shop around, but most V-Flyers, whichever is their class of choice, swear by the VS sales.

These are a bit like buses, they are fairly frequent but they differ each time. The dates, destinations and classes that are available in the sale vary but - as soon as one finishes there is another not far behind. [:D]

Currently the main sale, is economy only and runs until 20th August.

No one here knows what future sales will hold, and the 'when should I book?' dilemma is one of the most oft asked questions here.

We are currently waiting on a PE sale for the back end to be announced. You can keep an eye on the special offers section of the VS website and the current offers section of your favourite travel booking site, but - if there are any good deals to be had, they will hopefully be highlighted here as soon as they are announced.

Nick

Originally posted by ilikebluesmarties
Despite what their website says the Virgin Atlantic website does not always have the best deal- expedia occasionally does beat it.

Be warned, if you want to collect the miles, you may not get all of them from Expedia. Not sure about PE or J but a friend of mine only got half the miles because she got a cheaper Y VS flight from Expedia. I expect a PE or J regular will have more of an insight.

[Darren Wheeler]

VS will price match

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by DarkAuror
.....you may not get all of them from Expedia. Not sure about PE or J but a friend of mine only got half the miles because she got a cheaper Y VS flight from Expedia....

That had nothing to do with the fact they booked it through Expedia, it was due to the fact it was an N class fare.
These are just as likely to be offered on the VS website - especially at sale time.

See here for an explanation of fare codes.

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick

Originally posted by DarkAuror
.....you may not get all of them from Expedia. Not sure about PE or J but a friend of mine only got half the miles because she got a cheaper Y VS flight from Expedia....

That had nothing to do with the fact they booked it through Expedia, it was due to the fact it was an N class fare.
These are just as likely to be offered on the VS website - especially at sale time.

See here for an explanation of fare codes.

Nick

fair enough.[:I][:I]

Aside from sales, I would say use ExpertFlyer to hunt down those pesky and elusive Z fares and book early. But not too early. From experience, Zs aren't always released as soon as a flight becomes available. If you don't see any straight away, check back a week or so later and you may be lucky.

Hope that made sense. Not sure it did...

Sort of leads to another question and I apologise for going off topic(ish)

If VS price matches the Expedia quote but the ticket is still in the same bucket,i.e. N or Z (i'm aware they're different ends of VS experience), what are the advantages for going for one price over the over?

As you'll get the same miles and it's the same price.

Even if VS price match, they'll still charge a credit card fee. Small change, but it saved me £12 on my flights. That's a couple of drinks at the airport!

On the subject of low upper class fares. There is a sale on the VS US website at the moment and this works out a lot cheaper travelling from the US than if you are travelling from the UK. Anyone know why this is and if there are any UK based sales planned?

Originally posted by dan87027
On the subject of low upper class fares. There is a sale on the VS US website at the moment and this works out a lot cheaper travelling from the US than if you are travelling from the UK. Anyone know why this is and if there are any UK based sales planned?

Comparative pricing, weak dollar, all sorts of reasons. Airlines will price flights originating in any given country based on what passengers from that country are willing to pay, so to speak.

If you fly BA, there are HUGE differences in qhat you will pay to fly to the US from different countries in Europe, for example. There's a thread on the site about flights to Sydney from Tripoli! What lots of folks do is they will buy a roundtrip UK-European country of choice, and from there fly to wherever. Portugal was actually quite popular. The last time I did a round-the-world ticket with BA, if I bought it out of Italy it was about half of what it cost in the UK or US to buy the ticket. So I flew myself to Italy, and took my round trip from there, for less than the cost of flying round the world originating in the US ...

Airlines don't seem to care too much about this sort of arbitrage. In the end I'd guess most people don't have the money or time to really take advantage of it.