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Hi all
I posted a while ago on my troubles getting a ticket from Manchester to Orlando (lack of reward availability). There is, however, plenty to Orlando and/or New York on my dates.
Will Virgin price me a reward ticket with a US domenstic connection on:
– miles (obviously additional miles, but would a credit card voucher also reduce my connection or just the VS element?)
– domestic connection using cashIn either case, I’d want the connection to be protected (unlike BA) as travelling with kids, I simply can’t afford a missed connection.
Any clue if this is possible? Website not offering anything but wondering if the Delta flights just haven’t been released yet.
I have seen award flights with connections price up, but adding a leg on Delta seems to add an awful lot of points. I believe VS can apply your voucher to the sector flown on Virgin, but not to other airlines.
You wouldn’t be able to add a cash booking to an award one, however flight timings to the US often mean you need to overnight after the first leg anyway.
Your first sentence doesn’t make complete sense, do you mean another airport than Orlando?
Thanks, I meant Atlanta and/or New York sorry. Bit too early for me. And would I therefore be right that Virgin / Delta won’t through check on separate tickets (like OW don’t)?
Hi all
I posted a while ago on my troubles getting a ticket from Manchester to Orlando (lack of reward availability). There is, however, plenty to Orlando and/or New York on my dates.
Assuming you mean ATL in the last line, it’s because ATL and JFK are hubs and Orlando isn’t
Will Virgin price me a reward ticket with a US domenstic connection on:
– miles (obviously additional miles, but would a credit card voucher also reduce my connection or just the VS element?)
– domestic connection using cashYes. they will, I’m on one such ticket now. You can book flights with connection on the website with Virgin, that bit all works. You then need to call to apply the voucher, or you can just call for the whole thing once you know what’s available.
In either case, I’d want the connection to be protected (unlike BA) as travelling with kids, I simply can’t afford a missed connection.
Any clue if this is possible? Website not offering anything but wondering if the Delta flights just haven’t been released yet.
Single ticket is possible but DL availability will vary by route and date/time. Some have lots, some have none. DL/VS/Skyteam are happy to check luggage through on a mix of cash and points tickets. OW suck.
The expert is here – is it not very early where you are @davefl?! Voucher would just apply to the VS leg, no?
Would OP not have to collect luggage and do all the immigration stuff at the first arrival point?
Time may be an issue but I would turn such a trip into a 2 for 1 break and have a couple of days in NYC before heading on to MCO.
When are you travelling? I imagine MCO is the most popular VS route from MAN but there seems to be decent availability a lot of the time.
Also – connections with AA on avios look to me to be a better deal than using Virgin points. I abandoned a planned trip to the US next spring due to ridiculous DL cash and points pricing, and equally ridiculous VS US surcharges! Got better value going to the Bahamas, unbelievably.
@NorthenLass, yes it is, couldn’t sleep much after yesterday. Ended up at the destination, called the hotel and shuttle stopped running at 10pm so waited for a Lyft who cancelled 100 yards away and then waited 20 mins for another to arrive. Price difference as a DP Uber $37, Lyft $14.
Yes they would have to collect and recheck but it’s only wheeling them frem baggage claim, around the corner to the guy who puts them on the transfer belt (at both JFK ad ATL). They’re tagged with labels from VS at MAN to the destination.
Not sure about applying the voucher to reduce points as I’ve only ever used them for UC upgrades where only the VS metal gets upgraded, the domestic is cattle class.
Don’t believe AA would be better than DL, they’re all crap. Every time I’ve done one of these I’ve had multiple cancellations of routes, changes of time etc. The perfectly timed AA connection from NY a couple of years ago effectively ended me on a Jetblue flight the next day so I abandoned that booking. The one I’ve just come in on, was supposed to be a different airport, route cancelled, and the re-book ended up changing times twice, then was an hour late last night and had 4 gate changes between me leaving MAN and boarding.
@ekposh have you looked at Aer Lingus and paying cash from MAN-MCO? They have a sale almost every couple of monthsThanks all – some great info. School hols next year which is the issue. Outbound has to be 3/4 April and VS availability was gone by 6am at T-331. Returning 17/18 Apr (I think that’s tomorrow for on sale).
Cash prices are currently £1k+ in Economy. I do think these are not fully released yet (return is not 331 days yet) so Aer Lingus is still expensive / unavailable. And I think VS are selling full Y only. I’d expect these to decrease at some point but I’m loathe to pay £1k for an economy return pp…
Final question then please. If I bag the MCO-MAN tomorrow morning, I assume I can’t then add a MAN-MCO if availability shows up as I’d essentially be adding an outbound to a return?
Frankly I think I’ll stick to cash at this point (but leave it a few months) and use my VS miles another time but still exploring…
I agree AA are very tiresome in terms of changes/cancellations, however they do seem to require fewer points!
@ekposh – I’ve found it very difficult to get good value out of VS points and vouchers and only really started maximising them now we’re free from school term dates. How old are your kids? Would they enjoy a side trip to NYC? We’ve done a few holidays where we couldn’t get avios seats direct to GCM for 3 of us, so instead flew to NYC/MIA/IAD/BOS, did a great city break then connected to GCM for some beach time.Even more feasible in the US due to connectivity and very low taxes on domestic flights. We did Washington DC in December 2022 then took award flights on AA to Key West and did a road trip from there to Orlando over Xmas and New Year. We did actually fly home MCO-MAN on VS as 3 x PE seats appeared 3 days before our return!
Sadly that’s not an option. 8 and 12 but we are meeting another party at Disney so need to be there. Bad planning on my side in some respects but as I say, I’m hoping cash fares will decrease.
I have 100k Virgin points and a vouchr, so hoping should get somewhere in Y / PE with me and the other half. With the surcharges, the value is borderline but should be better than just cash with my voucher.
Also using Avios to get to Singapore so may use VS points to fly to Bali on SQ although value is questionable with some cheap Air Asia flights but I have some reasons to favour a J class hop on the SIN-DPS leg (35k for 2).
I hadn’t realized that with VS one could use the voucher with connecting US domestic flights. This is incredibly useful; neither BA nor VS flies to a key family destination, but there are easy connections from all US hubs. The last two visits (one VS, one BA) have been with overnights before the domestic connection, but booking a through ticket would be much more useful. I have been thinking about what to replace my Amex Plat with (have both free Barclays and free VS card, currently focus on Barclays BA as I have relatively few VS miles though enough Amex MR), but this flexibility could shift me over.
@CamFlyer yes, but just be aware that they book you into economy even if you’ve used the voucher for a UC upgrade. So you dont want to fly to JFK and then have JFK-SFO in cattle for example.
Also domestic availabilty can be limited on some routes so do some dummy bookings for points to see if there are any seats.
And furthermore if you’re booking more than 2 months out be aware that Delta schedules are like fairy dust. Now you see them,then a week later your nicely timed connection no longer exists and you’ll end up overnighting anyway or flying into a different airport as I’ve just done.
@CamFlyer yes, but just be aware that they book you into economy even if you’ve used the voucher for a UC upgrade. So you dont want to fly to JFK and then have JFK-SFO in cattle for example.
Not an issue for me – the routes in question are all <2 hours block time (and thus <90 minutes actual flight time).
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