Problem booking Miles plus Money seats.

anyone else having trouble booking miles + cash I can see them on the website but when I try to book them they are not available I phoned virgin only to be told they have not been released yet, but as they are advertised on their website is this not false advertising? I would be gratefull for any help or comments, I am begining to think that being in the flying club is a waste of time








Topic title changed by Mod for clarity...... Nick

[Nottingham Nick]

Welcome to V-Flyer.

Can you be more specific, please?

First of all I take it you mean that you are trying to book the flights as 'Miles plus money' using Virgin Flying Club points. Airmiles are a completely different thing.

Where are you trying to fly to, and when?

Nick

Hi Waltfan and welcome to V-Flyer

Just to build on what Nick has said, even if you can see what fares may be in the future there is still a restriction on being able to book more than 336 days in advance - this is standard operating practive for all scheduled airlines.

So if you're trying to book a return and the date of your inbound is more than 336 days out they won't be available yet.

Regards

Pat

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Welcome to V-Flyer.

Can you be more specific, please?

First of all I take it you mean that you are trying to book the flights as 'Miles plus money' using Virgin Flying Club points. Airmiles are a completely different thing.

Where are you trying to fly to, and when?

Nick

Hi nick it is miles plus money useing VFC we want to fly on the 25/12/06 and return on the 12/1/07 on the VFC web page it offers flights at £317 plus miles from the 25/12/06 to 28/3/07 yet when we tried to book them we were told that they are not on the system yet, so we said but we can see them on your web page, only to be told yes but you need to keep checking the web site as they are not available yet, my question is if they are on the web site and we can see them I dont't get why we can't book them the only price we were offered was £1900 for 2 returns big differance to £634 this is why we are not happy, by the way we are from Notts as well

Also, to add one further comment assuming you are talking about Virgin Miles Plus Money fares this is a two stage process. The first stage shows you offers which gives you an indication of the potential fares available, the second stage checks the availability. Miles Plus Money are generally a good deal and go quick so they will have been there unless they are yet to be released as Pat say above. For instance I see that there is a MpM offer to MCO valid until July 2007, but you can only book until Jan 2007 at this time.

Paul

[preiffer]

Hi waltfan,

Well, your dates are within the 336 booking window, but it may be something else that affects you.

The VALIDITY period of flights for M+Money is always published in advance. That window helps them having to update the site every day . What may be happening is that the special inventory of these tickets (they're not regular tickets) has not been released yet.

A group of people at VS determine how many seats to open up to passengers as "free/upgrade", M+M (what you're trying to book) and then every other revenue fare class. They're not ALL released the second the flight is available for booking.

All I'd recommend is to keep on trying over the next 2-3 weeks. By which time, hopefully some will have been released... [:?]

[Nottingham Nick]

Glad to have some more Notts people on the site[y][y]

Adding to what the others have said above, your main problem may be item 8 of the terms and conditions:-
All flights are subject to availability and capacity control. Popular dates (i.e. weekends, school and public holidays) will fill quickly and Virgin Atlantic cannot guarantee availability on some dates.

As someone who has been tied to school holidays for a long time, I can sympathise.

As has been said, keep trying and hopefully you will get the flights you want.

Nick

I tried to book some MpM for my folks this week, returning to the UK on 9th Jan. Spoke to Call Centre and they said they had been and gone so booked some others. Then the day after I booked low and behold 3 MpM seats became available.
I find MpM very availability very unreliable. I would say keep trying for up to the next week.

Oh btw, I was told by a Call Centre rep that MpM fare are loaded at 5.30am gmt each and every day, so if you want to back those fares check early in the day.

Paul

Greetings, first post on here, having discovered this site with a link from that aviation "professionals" website.....
Having spent the last few days catching up with all the useful information here I have to say, what a great site.. and so much more friendly than the other one!

I have a question about booking miles plus money tickets... My better half, based in Shanghai is looking to redeem some of her miles coming from PVG, but when booking with miles on the website you only seem to get the options of FROM London/Manchester, and if you switch to the Chinese website then the miles plus money option disappears. Is this right or am i missing something?

[Scrooge]

I dont know the chinese website,but I do know that different VS websites offer different things,such as from the US you cannot book a M+M UC fare [n],so maybe they do not offer any M+M fares at all from PVG?

The chinese web site (and for that matter the local office in shanghai) leaves a little to be desired. Also the ability to upgrade and so on at the airport seems to be somewhat limited by the local agency staff's abaility. I found it best to ring the UK flying club number.

J

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Glad to have some more Notts people on the site[y][y]

Adding to what the others have said above, your main problem may be item 8 of the terms and conditions:-
All flights are subject to availability and capacity control. Popular dates (i.e. weekends, school and public holidays) will fill quickly and Virgin Atlantic cannot guarantee availability on some dates.

As someone who has been tied to school holidays for a long time, I can sympathise.

As has been said, keep trying and hopefully you will get the flights you want.

Nick

I guess that is what is the problem but as the seats cannot be booked until your return journey date it would seem we will never be able to book them. lets say there are 10 seats on every flight for miles + money people someone flying on the 1st of the month who are only going for 7 nights get 1st chance at booking them anyone going for 14 nights has to wait a week longer before they can even try to book them this is not a 1st to book gets them service but a 1st to come back so really they are not offering the same chance of booking these flights to everyone is this fair?

It is fair though, what about those people who are travelling for 21 days? And 28 days? and so on. It would never end. It is first come first served and that is the way it should be. It is fair. What about when they advertise sale fares? These operate the same. The fact is that the airline has rules around advanced purchase and also have a limited number of seats in any bucket available and this includes MpM.

There are MANY times when the flights I want are not available at the lowest advertsied fare. I either have to accept them, find other dates or find another carrier.

You didn't mentioned your route, but I am assuming that you are looking to go to MCO. This is pretty much the BUSIEST time of year. Your outbound date was similar to my folks and they wheren't available last week either. Those 3 flights I mentioned that became available on the 9th have now gone. You have to be quick and flexible.

Incidently are you aware you can go LHR/MIA/LHR for a total of 965.80 for 2 people? And you can go LGW/MCO/LGW 1,376.60 both considerably less than the £1900 you where offered. The outbound MpM are dead and buried so I would seriously consider this (assuming my assumption about MCO was right)

Personally I would go for MIA get the better aircraft and take the drive!

Paul

[ChuckC]

Originally posted by preiffer
A group of people at VS determine how many seats to open up to passengers as "free/upgrade", M+M (what you're trying to book) and then every other revenue fare class. They're not ALL released the second the flight is available for booking.

All I'd recommend is to keep on trying over the next 2-3 weeks. By which time, hopefully some will have been released... [:?]

Waltfan,
I second Preiffer's information and would add that sometimes it is possible that you will not receive 100% accurate information when you speak with a reservations agent. This happens with all airlines, I'm afraid. Now, the agent may say "the information is not yet posted on our system" when the reality is that, as Preiffer points out, the capacity control has simply blocked further sales of that particular fare type.

Do check back. It pays to be persistent, particularly if you think the initial reply you've received doesn't sound logical (as in this case).

Chuck-

Originally posted by p17blo
It is fair though, what about those people who are travelling for 21 days? And 28 days? and so on. It would never end. It is first come first served and that is the way it should be. It is fair. What about when they advertise sale fares? These operate the same. The fact is that the airline has rules around advanced purchase and also have a limited number of seats in any bucket available and this includes MpM.
Paul

but surely you have only expanded on what I already said by adding 21 & 28 days the only way you can have a truly 1st come 1st served is if everyone is able to book at the same time but by only being able to book from the return date this is not possible,

[Nottingham Nick]

I can see your logic, but in truth - it would never work.

Bear in mind that, generally, the cheaper the fare class, the less flexible it is, i.e. non-refundable, non-transferable.

Using your proposal - You book your outbound trip, as soon as it is available and get a great M+M deal... a real bargain.

Two weeks later, you try for the return but find that there are no cheap seats available on any day near your proposed return date, so your return works out double your outbound... what do you do?

IMHO.. the fairest and most practical way, has to be the way it is done now. This way there are no nasty surprises.

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
I can see your logic, but in truth - it would never work.

Bear in mind that, generally, the cheaper the fare class, the less flexible it is, i.e. non-refundable, non-transferable.

Using your proposal - You book your outbound trip, as soon as it is available and get a great M+M deal... a real bargain.

Two weeks later, you try for the return but find that there are no cheap seats available on any day near your proposed return date, so your return works out double your outbound... what do you do?

IMHO.. the fairest and most practical way, has to be the way it is done now. This way there are no nasty surprises.

Nick

thanks for all your replies just found British Airways for £1087 compared to VIRGINS £1376.60 will book that

[Nottingham Nick]

[i]Originally posted by waltfanthanks for all your replies just found British Airways for £1087 compared to VIRGIN'S £1376.60 will book that

Have a great trip [8D]

[preiffer]

Not a bad deal, especially since BA's terms on those tickets are as follows:

Changes ermitted at any time except on days of travel for a change fee of £ 50 or an upgrade fee of £ 50 plus any difference in fare. Routing may not be changed.

[y]

(Incidentally, shifting your departure date to Boxing Day would have greatly reduced the cost with VS, too - still not as low as the BA one though...)

Originally posted by waltfan

Originally posted by p17blo
It is fair though, what about those people who are travelling for 21 days? And 28 days? and so on. It would never end. It is first come first served and that is the way it should be. It is fair. What about when they advertise sale fares? These operate the same. The fact is that the airline has rules around advanced purchase and also have a limited number of seats in any bucket available and this includes MpM.
Paul

but surely you have only expanded on what I already said by adding 21 & 28 days the only way you can have a truly 1st come 1st served is if everyone is able to book at the same time but by only being able to book from the return date this is not possible,

But it doesn't stop there does it, and that was my point. What about those people who travel for 6 weeks, and those for 8 weeks and those for 3 months, and those (with the relevant visa) for 6 months, and so on and so on. Where do you make the cut off point?

Paul

Originally posted by p17blo

Originally posted by waltfan

Originally posted by p17blo
It is fair though, what about those people who are travelling for 21 days? And 28 days? and so on. It would never end. It is first come first served and that is the way it should be. It is fair. What about when they advertise sale fares? These operate the same. The fact is that the airline has rules around advanced purchase and also have a limited number of seats in any bucket available and this includes MpM.
Paul

but surely you have only expanded on what I already said by adding 21 & 28 days the only way you can have a truly 1st come 1st and so on served is if everyone is able to book at the same time but by only being able to book from the return date this is not possible,

But it doesn't stop there does it, and that was my point. What about those people who travel for 6 weeks, and those for 8 weeks and those for 3 months, and those (with the relevant visa) for 6 months, and so on and so on. Where do you make the cut off point?

Paul

we could go on to infinity I get your point but it still does not let everyone have the same chance of booking these flights lets face it if a shop has a sale at nine o'clock then thats the time it starts not nine o'clock if you live within half an hour of the shop 10 o'clock if you live an hour away and so on I wanted to book flights that were advertised from the 25/12/06 till the 28/3/07 not the 25/12/06 to 1/1/07 thats my point

And remember that a Miles Plus Money fare has a maximum stay on 1 month and a minimum stay of a saturday night....

Originally posted by Juliet
And remember that a Miles Plus Money fare has a maximum stay on 1 month and a minimum stay of a saturday night....

thank you this has been my point all along if the flights were advertised over a 3 month period i.e 25/12/06 to 28/3/07 and you can only book miles + and money for a maximum of a month then everyone should be able to try to book on the same day making it a truly 1st come 1st served