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Sorry for the basic question. I have fair knowledge of Avios but very little on Virgin.
I am looking to go MAN – MCO in school hols. Cash prices are crazy, looking at £1200pp.
Randomly however, there seems to be availability on points (if this usual – Avios is terrible at peak times) and a return is 45k + £250.
My question here other than the availability one is:
– £250 taxes / fees seems cheap – from what I’d read Virgin is usually mega high
– if we get another purchase bonus, I’d be better off buying the full amount of points (maybe even without the bonus). Is this right?
– if i get a credit card, the 15k bonus and the 241 after I spend 10k, it’s really worth it.Have I done something wrong here? Or is the mega high cash price distorting it all?
Thanks
Don’t be taken in by the VS is always high thing. It is sometimes, but that’s true of all carriers. Competition in YQ exists, at the end of the day.
You can never pay full points. You always owe TFS. If you have the points now, book and then use the next points sale to top up your balance for cheap.
Run a false booking and check the fare buckets are the same – it’ll show you just before payment. That might explain the differences.
But it may also be a good old fashioned bit of VS advantage 🙂
Thanks for the reply. What do you mean about fare buckets sorry, don’t quote get that bit.
Thanks for the reply. What do you mean about fare buckets sorry, don’t quote get that bit.
When you buy a ticket on a plane, you’re buying from inventory of seats on that plane. Not all seats in the same cabin come from the same bucket of seats – even though you might think they are identical. A bucket, essentially, helps an airline to sell a seat at a different point based on how flexible, or otherwise, the ticket is.
When comparing two offers, you need to check that the cash price isn’t for a super flexible bucket that the reward price isn’t offering, or similar. Put another way, you want to compare apples with apples.
If you can’t work it out, drop your date and flight numbers in to this thread and I can see if I can spot why the discrepancy occurs (and explain it) for you.
Thanks, I see what you are saying but I assumed Reward seats were totally different inventory anyway and mileage was a chart and not revenue based?
So take MAN-MCO (1/4 to 15/4). Cash price is £1211 in Economy Light (£1331 in Classic)
Same with miles (but actually Economy Classic so even better) is 45000 + £260.
My point being here I could buy 45000 for £675, plus my £260, so £935. This is vs £1331, so nearly £400 cheaper. Is this normal?
It can be, if cash prices are very high, and you’re wanting to go at Easter which is one of the busiest times for Orlando.
Thanks, I see what you are saying but I assumed Reward seats were totally different inventory anyway and mileage was a chart and not revenue based?
So take MAN-MCO (1/4 to 15/4). Cash price is £1211 in Economy Light (£1331 in Classic)
Same with miles (but actually Economy Classic so even better) is 45000 + £260.
My point being here I could buy 45000 for £675, plus my £260, so £935. This is vs £1331, so nearly £400 cheaper. Is this normal?
Not for most places, but Orlando is a very unique route.
Lots of factors. I suspect Virgin sells a lot of holiday packages to Orlando, and as such isn’t going to want to sell just the airplane tickets without a package attached if they could have sold a package; and prices flights accordingly (you see the same dynamic on some Jet2 flights). There will also be some inexperienced flyers, on that route in particular, who will take any price offered without considering alternatives (e.g. indirect flights or flying to Tampa) meaning that prices don’t have to compete in the normal way.
All this means that economy cash prices are unusually high – particularly on key holiday dates. You’ll also see some of the lowest differentials between economy classic and delight or premium economy on that route compared to anything else – it can reach the point where you’d basically be bonkers not to trade up. The slight mystery is why there’s so much reward availability to and from Orlando in all cabins. Maybe their computer revenue model suggests they do need to fill up some extra seats, but they still want to hold those cash prices to catch those price-insensitive bookings…?
Virgin flights have always been very expensive in the school holidays. Years before I got into the points game we took our son to Orlando to do the whole Disney thing and it was a no brainer to go via London on BA because it was more than £800 cheaper for the 3 of us.
We often travel on reward flights out on BA and back on Virgin at Easter, returning on the Thursday is usually cheapest and although it is always busy, Orlando is well prepared to absorb the numbers.
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