Some Flybe flights now bookable (cheaper) via Virgin Atlantic

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• ThinkSquare says:

  16 Jan16 January 08:44

  Yesterday I noticed MAN-AMS is also available via VS, and at a lower price than BE. Maybe they are only selling the Heathrow and Manchester routes at the moment?

• TripRep says:

  16 Jan16 January 08:48

  Slowly becoming encouraging…

  It could still yet be possible to tag on FlyBE redemption flights onto my existing winter Virgin redemption all under the same PNR.

  FlyBEs winter timetable tends to get released in May so fingers crossed it will be activated by then.

  • TripRep says:

    16 Jan16 January 08:50

    btw VS YQ/CIS is now £200/sector to/from east coast US.

    • memesweeper says:

      16 Jan16 January 12:42

      I’m not seeing that (return LHR IAD shows me)…

      £ 100 YQ in economy
      £ 200 YQ in premium
      £ 400 YQ in J direct

      … plus a lot of other (mandatory) taxes, fees and charges

      • TripRep says:

        16 Jan16 January 13:28

        Per Sector = one way

        Hence £200 × 2 = £400 rtn

• Aston100 says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:12

  Just curious.
  When buying seats and the cheapest bucket runs out, this should not immediately impact the availability in the next bucket right?
  Bit confused why a FlyBe flight on day of summer seat release had 1 seat available in cheapest bucket and 3 in the next, and yet when booking the 1 cheapest bucket seat, immediately the next bucket up reduced by 1 as well. I booked 1 seat in each after watching the prices for several weeks without anyone else apparently buying any seats on that flight (as confirmed when going to seat selection to find entire plane empty/selectable).

  Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but this doesn’t seem to be how I thought these fare buckets worked.

  • Jim says:

    16 Jan16 January 09:17

    Think of it as “how many seats would the airline be willing to sell at that price”

    • Shoestring says:

      16 Jan16 January 11:23

      yep the algorithms at work are anything but simple, they’ll be including all sorts of things such as days left until flight, popularity of route, what happened LY/ yesterday etc, spread of seats sold already vs what’s left & how close to breakeven/ required profitability the flight is looking etc etc

      • Aston100 says:

        16 Jan16 January 11:46

        Yes but, before I booked anything, there was 1 seat in the cheapest bucket, and 3 in the next one.
        I booked the 1 seat from the cheapest bucket, and went to seat selection to find entire plane empty and selectable. OK fine. However, a couple of minutes later, when I went to book the other seat, the next bucket had 2 seats left now. So one from the cheapest bucket went (to me) and at same time one also went from the next bucket (to nobody apparently). I booked my second seat, and went to seat selection and confirmed that the only other seat currently taken was the one I booked a couple of minutes ago. I selected my second seat. Out of curiosity, I went to book again to see what impact my 2 seat bookings have had, and I find there are (instead of 1 or 2 seats left) now 3 seats available and the price is quite a lot more. Suggesting this is yet another fare bucket.
        Literally I have the only 2 seats currently booked on that flight, and yet there seems oddities with the fare buckets.

        Is this normal?
        Not overly bothered since I paid an acceptable price, but just leaves me a bit confused as to what just happened.

        • Shoestring says:

          16 Jan16 January 11:54

          is your premise correct, ie that entire plane seat selection available = nobody else bought a seat on the plane yet? ie do you have to pay for seat selection? I wouldn’t on a short flight & nor would lots of people

  • Charlieface says:

    16 Jan16 January 12:30

    Well, seeing the whole plane empty just means no-one wanted to pay for seat selection. Generally the amount of tickets available is the minimum of how many the airline want to sell at that price right now, and how many seats actually still left on the plane, taking into account overbooking. Often airlines have larger groups of buckets which also have a fixed amount and each bucket still draws only from that group.

    • Aston100 says:

      16 Jan16 January 12:39

      You and Shoestring are quite right in regards to seat selection.
      I completely forgot to take into consideration that many (most?) passengers on such a short flight would be hand baggage only.
      I’m taking suitcases, hence the ‘get more’ option was better for me, and included seat selection.
      So it is entirely possible that other passengers may have booked the HBO fare.
      Still somewhat confused about the number of seats disappearing from seemingly irrelevant buckets as soon as I booked each of my individual seats.

      In the scheme of things it matters not, but doesn’t do anything to reduce my dislike of FlyBe and their dubious practices (incorrect hand luggage sizers now and again etc).

• C says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:45

  Flying to CPT from T3 on in 3 weeks (Thursday night, the late flight, 2 people) – am I likely to need to book the lounge at this time (around 7-7.30pm arrival)? Haven’t been from T3 for a long time. We have dragon pass and lounge club and not really fussy whether aspire/no 1. Don’t really want to pay the £5 to reserve No 1 – husband says he would rather have a wagamama if we have to pay extra!!

  • Doug M says:

    16 Jan16 January 11:14

    A place in the terminal may well be fine, Waga or otherwise, and that would be my choice I think.
    But why then pay whatever premium you are for the lounges if you’re so indifferent about entry. But equally given you have, and that there are two of you travelling to Cape Town, what’s £10.

  • Shoestring says:

    16 Jan16 January 11:18

    I’d say (guess) 25% chance you’ll get into one of the lounges by just turning up @7pm

    you both really prefer not paying the £10 total (which you’ll more than pay at Wagamama etc) & seriously risking not getting the unlimited drinks, decent food selection, comfy seats, great wifi & peace & calm at No1?

    Wouldn’t you want a few drinks to get ready for sleeping on the night flight to CPT?

    • Roy says:

      16 Jan16 January 21:23

      Decent food selection in No1 T3?

      Maybe I was unlucky, but the one time I used No 1 T3 I was rather disappointed with the food selection – certainly compared to Plaza Premium T2 and T5, which are my usual lounges/terminals.

      “Decent food” is, of course, rather subjective, so YMMV.

      • Shoestring says:

        16 Jan16 January 21:43

        Unfortunately the other choice Club Aspire is all pasta! + salads. (OK for breakfast, though.)

        No1 T3 food is limited, as you say – but well cooked/ presented (individual small plate you order from the menu) – and small cold buffet spread/ soup. (Breakfast OK here too – but more continental than Club Aspire.)

        So both not brilliant on food, both quite acceptable so then you have to consider the other bits, main problem being you can’t reserve a place at Club Aspire anyway (so that rules it out for me at least) – and No1 is much more light and airy/ windows.

        • Roy says:

          16 Jan16 January 21:56

          Ah yes, I’d forgotten about the one free cooked-to-order item. I don’t actually recall now whether I availed myself of that. I mainly just recall being rather disappointed by the buffet.

          I’m not really disagreeing with you that it’s probably the best option (without status), and I would probably book it again,, if I happen to fly out of T3 again before the Centurion Lounge opens….

        • Roy says:

          16 Jan16 January 22:02

          Sorry, I mean I’ll carry on going to No 1 even after the Centurion opens. Because Rob is adamant that the Centurion Lounge will add nothing to T3.

        • Shoestring says:

          16 Jan16 January 22:10

          Centurion – 2 guests per cardholder as well

          Is it self pour at the C-bar?

• Ben says:

  16 Jan16 January 10:23

  I asked about this a couple of weeks back, as I was booking work travel through my CTA and the Flybe flights had the option of booking on a Virgin flight no. I was wondering about whether I should look to use Flying Club as my primary FFP, as I can collect on EDI-LHR/LCY and EDI-AMS (KLM).

  But the answer given at the time was about joining Flybe’s program, which didn’t seem right.

  • Shoestring says:

    16 Jan16 January 11:20

    Flybe’s FFP is rubbish compared to Virgin’s (and it sounds as if you’ll be able to redeem Virgin Miles on Flybe in future anyway)

    • Lady London says:

      16 Jan16 January 18:48

      Got a feeling Alaskan’s program can be used for all these airlines. Might work out better than crediting to any of the 3. Defo not flybe’s program though.

      • Lyn says:

        16 Jan16 January 21:20

        Unfortunately Alaska dropped KLM and Air France as partners a year or two ago.

• Walenby says:

  16 Jan16 January 11:31

  Have you had the clubcard points yet?

  • Shoestring says:

    16 Jan16 January 11:39

    3+2 months (=5) before that gets paid

    • Walenby says:

      16 Jan16 January 11:42

      Ah ok – I might have missed that in the conditions then. Thanks

      • Shoestring says:

        16 Jan16 January 11:46

        sorry Walenby crossed wires there – no idea when you get the Tesco Clubcard points, minimum 35 days it says in T&Cs, then they need to process it

• Charlieface says:

  16 Jan16 January 12:20

  OT: @Shoestring what do you think I should do when E.ON has started pestering me again by text for a smart meter? Just ignore?
  Remember their T&C only say that you agree to be contacted, not that you’ll have one put in.

  • Shoestring says:

    16 Jan16 January 12:31

    probably best to find a way to communicate ‘no thanks’, which gives you 2-3 months before the next pestering call/ text

  • Aston100 says:

    16 Jan16 January 12:32

    What is wrong with having one of those installed?
    Genuine question as my energy supplier was keen to get me to have one. They were so keen that I got suspicious and said no.
    Wondering if I made the right choice.

    • Peter K says:

      16 Jan16 January 12:39

      The companies have pressure on them to get them installed by government.

      The downside for a consumer that I can see is that in future energy companies and potentially charge more at super peak times as they know exactly when everyone uses energy.

      I have one but it’s a dumb meter again now due to energy company change (2nd gen meter as well).

    • EwanG says:

      16 Jan16 January 13:20

      Some suppliers (SSE the one I noticed) are incentivising customers to get a smart meter installed.
      As an E.On customer I will not take their smart meter because they are untruthful in their communications, saying it is mandatory as part of the tariff I’m on. They are wrong on this of course!
      On the other hand ScottishPower are no better – a smart meter *is* mandatory for the tariff chosen, but no availability for 2 months, a form error and now availability when not convenient!

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        17 Jan17 January 10:36

        We had a SM fitted, pay on DD monthly. Year later we discovered that bills were all estimated and meter had not been sending readings. Don’t touch them after that episode and send manual readings monthly now to ensure no nasty surprises.

    • Charlieface says:

      16 Jan16 January 19:07

      For a start I’m renting and the landlord won’t appreciate it, even if I’m technically in my rights.
      But they have a number of issues, namely:
      cases of misreading
      not working in poor reception areas
      not working after you switch (even a SMETS2 sometimes)
      not wanting the energy company to have data on my every move
      not wanting them to be able to switch me off on a whim (yes, they officially have to go through a lot of hoops to do that and I’m not likely to miss payments, but mistakes can and do happen)

      • TGLoyalty says:

        16 Jan16 January 20:01

        What’s your landlords issue going to be it literally replaces the meters you already have in exactly the same spots.
        Misreading? you Still have a meter which shows your reading it’s not difficult to Confirm what the number actually says.
        Again if it’s got poor reception you’ll be asked to submit the reading from your meter.
        Knowing your every move could be a genuine concern but I’d worry more about the phone in my pocket than my ‘smart’ meter.

• sigma421 says:

  16 Jan16 January 13:12

  Just tried to book one of these. Booking fails at payment each time saying ‘the fare has just sold out’

  • sigma421 says:

    16 Jan16 January 14:07

    Have investigated a bit more. On mobile, it fails totally, on desktop, the price jumps by £110 after I try to book.

    • Lady London says:

      16 Jan16 January 18:51

      Sounds like the fare level you booked is indeed genuinely sold out but the mobile app has worse error handling than the website/desktop.

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