Reward flights to St Lucia

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Why is it unbelievable?

The 29th March is the end of the winter flight season.

[NorthernLass]

Only running as in the route ends altogether or still only currently bookable up till then?

Can you book BA as an interim Plan B until more info is available?

Other option would be to connect to somewhere like MIA or ATL and get VS back from there, though I appreciate it’s a lot of extra hassle!

[Scriv09]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

Why is it unbelievable?

The 29th March is the end of the winter flight season.

Because this year they run until May 19th….

[Scriv09]

NorthernLass wrote:

Only running as in the route ends altogether or still only currently bookable up till then?

Can you book BA as an interim Plan B until more info is available?

Other option would be to connect to somewhere like MIA or ATL and get VS back from there, though I appreciate it’s a lot of extra hassle!

Word for word it was “Next years route to St Lucia is operating up until 28th March only.”

Surprising that they’ve chopped the schedule by a month and a half..

Could book BA as an interim plan, going to see what other options are, may go to a different to a different island as was using the companion voucher too..

[can2]

Correct me if I am wrong: I thought St Lucia flights were a hop from Barbados. Does that mean that they won’t fly to BGI past March 28?

[NorthernLass]

I can’t see them dropping BGI. As I said upthread, there have been negotiations historically with VS asking the government of St Lucia for cash incentives (or something like that) to bring extra tourism to the island, and at least once the government has said no, leading to the route being dropped.

@SCriv09, any inter-island routes which might help? Though if you’re not absolutely pinned on St Lucia, there are plenty of other options – let me introduce you to Grand Cayman (if you haven’t been already)!

[NorthernLass]

https://travelweekly.co.uk/articles/338693/virgin-to-drop-st-lucia-service-after-21-years

See the last few lines of this article from a few years back!

You could also look for avios availability on AA to MIA, then fly home on VS.

[can2]

Thanks @NorthernLass

[Scriv09]

NorthernLass wrote:

I can’t see them dropping BGI. As I said upthread, there have been negotiations historically with VS asking the government of St Lucia for cash incentives (or something like that) to bring extra tourism to the island, and at least once the government has said no, leading to the route being dropped.

@SCriv09, any inter-island routes which might help? Though if you’re not absolutely pinned on St Lucia, there are plenty of other options – let me introduce you to Grand Cayman (if you haven’t been already)!

Might shift my dates for St Lucia – one of the reasons is because I was going to use the Companion voucher with it, don’t think inter island routes work with this do they?

[ed_fly]

Scriv09 wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

Only running as in the route ends altogether or still only currently bookable up till then?

Can you book BA as an interim Plan B until more info is available?

Other option would be to connect to somewhere like MIA or ATL and get VS back from there, though I appreciate it’s a lot of extra hassle!

Word for word it was “Next years route to St Lucia is operating up until 28th March only.”

Surprising that they’ve chopped the schedule by a month and a half..

I’m surprised thier schedule for this year was not aligned with iata summer/winter seasons. Is this a common thing?

[Scriv09]

ed_fly wrote:

Scriv09 wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

Only running as in the route ends altogether or still only currently bookable up till then?

Can you book BA as an interim Plan B until more info is available?

Other option would be to connect to somewhere like MIA or ATL and get VS back from there, though I appreciate it’s a lot of extra hassle!

Word for word it was “Next years route to St Lucia is operating up until 28th March only.”

Surprising that they’ve chopped the schedule by a month and a half..

I’m surprised thier schedule for this year was not aligned with iata summer/winter seasons. Is this a common thing?

Got really thrown by it as checked this years schedule and planned around it.. to remove over a month and a half of the schedule just seems weird

[NorthernLass]

@Scriv09, you can fly into one island and out of another using the Virgin or BA vouchers (you’d need to make your own arrangements to get between islands), however I checked and there aren’t many routes like this from St Lucia.

@ed_fly, the last weekend in March is the end of the winter season, e.g. the NAS route has gone from 3 to 2 flights per week from March 31st.

[ed_fly]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Scriv09, you can fly into one island and out of another using the Virgin or BA vouchers (you’d need to make your own arrangements to get between islands), however I checked and there aren’t many routes like this from St Lucia.

@ed_fly, the last weekend in March is the end of the winter season, e.g. the NAS route has gone from 3 to 2 flights per week from March 31st.

exactly. But virgin’s St Lucia flights are going to 19 may 2024, and then stopping. Which is odd, isn’t it? You’d usually expect the flights to either stop on last Saturday (Sunday?) in march, or carry on for entire summer season??

[Scriv09]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Scriv09, you can fly into one island and out of another using the Virgin or BA vouchers (you’d need to make your own arrangements to get between islands), however I checked and there aren’t many routes like this from St Lucia.

@ed_fly, the last weekend in March is the end of the winter season, e.g. the NAS route has gone from 3 to 2 flights per week from March 31st.

Is there anywhere direct you can fly to from St Lucia to then grab a Virgin flight home? I’m struggling haha!

[NorthernLass]

MIA, as I just posted! Use avios on AA.

ATL on DL might be another possibility – Virgin might even do this on one ticket for you, with the voucher applied from ATL.

[Scriv09]

NorthernLass wrote:

MIA, as I just posted! Use avios on AA.

ATL on DL might be another possibility – Virgin might even do this on one ticket for you, with the voucher applied from ATL.

Discovered I can take flights from SLU (the smaller airport on St Lucia) to Barbados,St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Trinidad & Tobago… options!

[NorthernLass]

Isn’t Barbados and St Vincent the same VS flight? Is there availability left for your dates?

@Rob might be interested to know the UVF route seems to have gone again! I think HFP reported the stopping and starting last time.

[Scriv09]

NorthernLass wrote:

Isn’t Barbados and St Vincent the same VS flight? Is there availability left for your dates?

@Rob might be interested to know the UVF route seems to have gone again! I think HFP reported the stopping and starting last time.

Checked, there’s availability for me to go home from Barbados! Miami too.. oh what to do 😂

[NorthernLass]

Keep us updated! My trip is getting sillier by the minute – MAN-LHR-GCM (BA), then GCM-NAS (BA), NAS-BIM-NAS (to be booked on WesternAir), NAS-LHR (VS), then LHR-MAN (BA), crammed into 3 weeks. The things I do so that my OH can get his scuba fix 😂

[Misty]

NorthernLass wrote:

Keep us updated! My trip is getting sillier by the minute – MAN-LHR-GCM (BA), then GCM-NAS (BA), NAS-BIM-NAS (to be booked on WesternAir), NAS-LHR (VS), then LHR-MAN (BA), crammed into 3 weeks. The things I do so that my OH can get his scuba fix 😂

I’m totally impressed with this even though I don’t really understand it, anything with that many abbreviations has got to be good 🙂

When we finally get our longed for 241 voucher I was thinking about the Caribbean, I suspect I might be putting up a lot of ‘please help me’, type posts.

[Scriv09]

Misty wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

Keep us updated! My trip is getting sillier by the minute – MAN-LHR-GCM (BA), then GCM-NAS (BA), NAS-BIM-NAS (to be booked on WesternAir), NAS-LHR (VS), then LHR-MAN (BA), crammed into 3 weeks. The things I do so that my OH can get his scuba fix 😂

I’m totally impressed with this even though I don’t really understand it, anything with that many abbreviations has got to be good 🙂

When we finally get our longed for 241 voucher I was thinking about the Caribbean, I suspect I might be putting up a lot of ‘please help me’, type posts.

Good luck with it! 😂

[NorthernLass]

@Misty, happy to say all the flights are with points apart from WesternAir, there was no option for that! 2 weeks in our timeshare and 5 nights on HH points means we only have to splash the cash on 2 nights in Nassau (which is good because hotel prices are ludicrous).

It took me a couple of years to really get the hang of the high-value BA redemptions, and I’m still learning with VS!

[Scriv09]

NorthernLass wrote:

Keep us updated! My trip is getting sillier by the minute – MAN-LHR-GCM (BA), then GCM-NAS (BA), NAS-BIM-NAS (to be booked on WesternAir), NAS-LHR (VS), then LHR-MAN (BA), crammed into 3 weeks. The things I do so that my OH can get his scuba fix 😂

Too busy for me, I’m thinking three flights is enough 😂

[Scriv09]

NorthernLass wrote:

Keep us updated! My trip is getting sillier by the minute – MAN-LHR-GCM (BA), then GCM-NAS (BA), NAS-BIM-NAS (to be booked on WesternAir), NAS-LHR (VS), then LHR-MAN (BA), crammed into 3 weeks. The things I do so that my OH can get his scuba fix 😂

I was planning on calling virgin tomorrow to discuss options, and the fact they didn’t tell me over the phone when I booked the flight out I couldn’t book the return as it wouldn’t exist…

Would you expect them to allow me to use my companion voucher if I flew back from another island?

[NorthernLass]

I’m pretty sure this is within the rules. They have a lot of leeway with it anyway, so just point out that there are now no flights back from UVF so you need to find another option.