Virgin Atlantic Holidays running special Boxing Day discounts today

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• Derek says:

  26 Dec26 December 08:32

  I worked at Thomas Cook in their flagship contact centre near Falkirk between 1999 and 2006 and in that time, buying habits for this period (called Peaks) changed dramatically. Online was only just starting to gather pace towards the end of that period and Thomas Cook TV (sort of considered as a visual Teletex for holidays) didn’t appear until around 2003.

  1999/2000 Peaks period lasted from Boxing Day until March with the main momentum starting to gather pace by mid- January and calm down the end of Feb.

  But as the years progressed, this peak booking period got shorter to the point by 2005 it was 3 weeks in January. For context, across the whole year that one centre would take around £100m of bookings. But by 2005 they broke their 1 day record and it was the last Sunday in January peaks.. £1m.

  Whilst we still see holiday ads appear from now to look forward to summer 2024, it’s a shadow of its former self and not the big booking period it once was. That’s now ‘Late Peaks’ when people hold out for a bargain around May/June.

  It was a fun time and still mourn the loss of a wonderful company to work for

  • Sam says:

    26 Dec26 December 10:00

    Peaks have very much reverted towards the traditional – boxing day until end of Feb will account for around 30% of annual revenue with the absolute peak being last couple of days of Jan. What’s good to see is for the first time since Jan 2020 a lot of (none IAG) airlines have re-introduced ‘proper’ sales – which will hopefully be helping the HfP team busy!

• L Allen says:

  26 Dec26 December 08:56

  Is that really enough of a saving to promot people to bring forward expenditure?

  • L Allen says:

    26 Dec26 December 08:58

    *prompt! (Darn fat fingers on a mobile, where was automuckitup to fix it when I needed it?)

  • Andrew. says:

    26 Dec26 December 11:32

    It might be enough to capture the attention of families when they have the time to sit, and peruse holidays after the boxing day walks.

    • Rob says:

      26 Dec26 December 11:52

      If it’s £25 extra off today vs nothing tomorrow, it will persuade a few to pull the trigger, and some of those may have ended up not booking at all with Virgin.

• Nick says:

  26 Dec26 December 10:02

  The busiest booking day(s) of the year are the end of the sale. Busiest holiday search is Boxing Day… then people mull it over and book later.

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  26 Dec26 December 10:20

  Boxing day advertising traditions

  Holiday adverts
  The DFS suite sale
  Christmas Clubs!

  • tony says:

    26 Dec26 December 13:14

    But both TUI and the Christmas clubs (for 2024) were advertising in early December.

    Even more horrific is the OnTheBeach ad has been re-imagined for 2024. How that paints a picture that would inspire anyone is beyond me – and to put that in perspective, I drive a Nissan!

• Novice says:

  26 Dec26 December 10:26

  They don’t really have many destinations unless you want to head to US or Caribbean.

  It would have been better if they did something where any skyteam airline could be used.

• Andrew. says:

  26 Dec26 December 10:58

  Virgin Money and Barclaycard customers will probably enjoy a 1% or 2% rebate on a Virgin Holiday too.

  (Offers targeted)

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