Virgin Atlantic offering £1,000 Upper Class flights from Manchester to Boston

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• SlimpyJones says:

  26 Jan26 January 03:44

  Just to add to this, if you use the booking engine to search for I class fares, it only adds a few hundred pounds more to the price. I class fares qualify for the car transfer at both ends and net you double tier points (200 each way) than the low Z class fares (100 each way).

  This is an extremely cheap way to bag VS Silver with one RT, or 40% of the way to Gold.

• James A says:

  26 Jan26 January 07:19

  This fare has been around about a week, along with £641 + PE to many east coast destinations. Singapore PE is £633 to Houston from MAN also (total bargain if you have some KrisFlyer miles to upgrade with).

  • ankomonkey says:

    26 Jan26 January 09:16

    I needed a flight to Mexico City and ITA Matrix threw up a really cheap Singapore Airlines option from MAN via Houston.

• anon says:

  26 Jan26 January 07:39

  Shame Little Red is no longer in service to get us London folk up to Manchester! We should consider adding the price of the train fare to Manchester onto that £1000 ticket too! What’s the cheapest train prive from London these days? Virgin Trains?

  • Genghis says:

    26 Jan26 January 08:07

    I paid just below £40 return (standard) a few months ago and that was not in any particular sale. That was to Piccadilly though.

  • Pol says:

    26 Jan26 January 08:17

    Booking in advance, but the other way, we paid £23.40 in first class from Crewe (you can get a direct train from Crewe to Manchester Airport-30mins)

  • Matthew says:

    26 Jan26 January 09:42

    You’d pay extra for airport parking anyhow…

  • david cliff says:

    26 Jan26 January 11:46

    I travel 2/3 times a year from Manchester Airport to Gatwick via Euston, and off-peak fares are usually £26.50 each way. If you travel on a Sat/Sun you can upgrade onboard the train itself to First for £15 extra.

  • Anon says:

    26 Jan26 January 22:27

    Can I just say that I am the original anon (that likes the Maldives), not sure who this another anon is… 🙂

• Anna says:

  26 Jan26 January 08:13

  Heathrow to Manchester of course is 9,000 avios plus £35, and you don’t have the hassle of getting fro station to airport.

  • Genghis says:

    26 Jan26 January 08:19

    Assuming you live close to LHR. I’d prefer to let the train take the strain for cost, time and comfort

  • John says:

    26 Jan26 January 08:36

    Err, at MAN, BA is at T3 and VS is at T2, and the train station is in between them

    • Anna says:

      26 Jan26 January 09:58

      But you’ll still have to change trains at some point with all your luggage.

• Neil says:

  26 Jan26 January 08:24

  Damn, if I hadn’t already booked my summer holiday to the US (well, Canada but driving down) I’d be all over this!

• PGW says:

  26 Jan26 January 08:50

  I used to fly this route regularly with AA before they pulled it. It’s a good fare without doubt but the return journey is very short (not much more that 5 hours usually) so UC might be an unnecessary indulgence.

• Fraser says:

  26 Jan26 January 08:55

  Tempting. Slightly OT but has anyone done a reception with VS miles on Delta in First? They seem to offer EDI-JFK-BOS but with First rather than Business for an UC redemption.

  Also, how bad is the new Virgin website? Almost impossible to find redemptions, especially as you have to search each class individually and specify the return date (eg exact trip length). The old grid showing E/PE/UC dates for both legs was so much better. It’s as if they’re trying to make it as hard as possible to redeem your miles.

  • Simmo says:

    26 Jan26 January 09:55

    You can search for 5 weeks at a time? – in the advanced search options.

    • ThinkSquare says:

      26 Jan26 January 13:49

      You can search 5 weeks at a time for the outward date, but Fraser is correct that you have to specify the exact trip length. If there’s no availability on the return leg, it won’t show you the outward.

      I still found it much easier than BA though.

• Smid says:

  26 Jan26 January 09:00

  Cheap ways to get to Manchester from London? Well, the trick is to split the Virgin train component from the Airport component.

  If that far in advance (but not too far, 8-12 weeks), you can get singles each way for £22 standard, £43 first (drink and food included), if two of you buy a two together railcard and you can save more in First and be valid for a year:

  Standard: 4 x 22 = 88, railcard = 88 *2/3 + 30 = ~£88
  First: 4 x 43 = 172, railcard = 172*2/3 + 30 = 114 + 30 = 144

  Return from Manchester Picadilly to the airport = a tenner per person.

  Trip Euston to Manchester Picadilly = about 2 hours 15 minutes. I know people reduce the trip from Heathrow to like 45 minutes, but after you add a 2 hour checkin, flight and baggage pickup its about an hour longer even if you start at Heathrow (vs start at Euston).

  • John says:

    26 Jan26 January 09:15

    VTWC + connections advances EUS-MIA (MIA = Manchester Airport station) starts from £23 in standard and £46 in first, though there are very few tickets in the lowest bucket if any; generally the lowest will be £27 and £57.

    No point paying £22 and another £10 to the airport…

    The food offering on VTWC 1st is not great especially on weekends, especially when compared to VTEC. There is no lounge at MAN for the moment though. Still I’m not convinced that £20 is worth it, just bring your own food, or you can be like the recent FT poster who paid £100 to upgrade to CE because he was afraid of the BOB service being too slow

    • Ro says:

      26 Jan26 January 13:12

      Couldn’t agree more about the food not being worth an extra £20. especially on weekends it’s terrible, sometimes I’ve ended up with some fruit and biscuits only.
      be much better off hitting the multitude of improved food outlets at Euston beforehand and spending less

    • Smid says:

      26 Jan26 January 15:17

      Depends if its weekend, you’ll get a couple of drinks on a weekday. VTWC does have the nicer seats, and of course not the hell of standard class train travel which is delivered.

      What happened to the VTWC First class lounge in Manchester? It was there a few years ago.

      As for the price difference vs direct to the airport, as a long time VTWC traveller, I can tell you that you’ll usually get loads of advances £43 to Manchester, but once you add on a non VTWC ticket into it, that advance will jump loads. Books first class in the airport leg, not sure if there is a FC in that leg. So £43 FC to Man and fiver to airport is pretty consistent.

  • Pol says:

    26 Jan26 January 10:08

    You’re better off going Euston-Wilmslow, same train as the Piccadilly one but only 1:50 travel time. Direct train from Wilmslow to Manchester Airport 7mins (15 mins from Piccadillyto MAN).

    • Smid says:

      26 Jan26 January 15:24

      Nice tip, thanks, never thought of that.

  • Mike says:

    26 Jan26 January 17:40

    Stockport and bus is my favourite cheap way to the airport by train.

    The bus that comes over the peak district then runs fast from Stockport (near, not at the station) to the airport.

    The bus is on plusbus but it’s cheaper just to pay cash.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.