Virgin v British Airways points booking

[Mick S]

as I’m Manchester area and have a virgin voucher to use I’ve been pricing up a flight for later in the year to the US, solo traveller.
I’ve never done a virgin flight, ever, so very unfamiliar with the pricing.

BA (albeit with the hassle of Manchester to London first) is round about 170,000 plus £450 for CW.

Virgin, using the voucher as an upgrade here seems to be 32500 for Premium (voucher will take me to Upper) plus upper taxes of £600. So 75000 plus £1200 of fees. Am I correctly doing the maths here? This seems to be a lot fees here, compared to the £450 with BA.

I know its not exactly apples for apples, but this doesn’t look favourable for Virgin?

[Froggee]

Virgin fees are higher but points are lower. Virgin typically corresponds to roughly the middle point of BA’s pricing range in terms of cash + points.

However your numbers look messed up. I don’t think Virgin have a route where they charge £1,200 fees return and you mention 32,500 and then jump to 75,000.

Where exactly are you looking to go to and when!?

But taking your numbers at face value and pricing both Avios and Virgin points at a penny (with your numbers) gets:

BA £1,700 + £450 = £2,150
Virgin £750 + £1,200 = £1,950

[Mick S]

looking for Manchester to Atlanta around October/November.

actually doing a dummy booking on the Virgin site just now – with a return flight the taxes seem to be £977.
However, the points required is now 156,000 (albeit, this is without the upgrade voucher being applied). don’t know why the points have gone through the roof.

[Rob]

It’s not 156,000 points. Are you sure you’re not trying to reduce the cost of a cash fare with points? Or selecting a connecting flight?

[Mick S]

It’s all on the same screen – so I’m not selecting anything different. As an example,

29th October – Manchester to Atlanta
4th November – Atlanta to Manchester
125,000 + £845

29th October – Manchester to Atlanta
5th November – Atlanta to Manchester
156,500 + £978

29th October – Manchester to Atlanta
6th November – Atlanta to Manchester
105,500 + £978

[Froggee]

Okay…

There is a bunch of stuff going on. The price has shot up in “Upper” because you are probably flying out with Virgin direct but back via JFK so are paying to add on ATL-JFK with Delta and then doing JFK-MAN with Virgin.

In terms pricing, with Virgin you have:

Peak – 65,000 in premium, 115,000 in upper (25 October – 5 November i.e. half term)
Off peak – 45,000 in premium, 95,000 in upper (the rest of October and November)

So, as an example if you search for out on 24 oct, back on 14 November, you will see pricing of:

Premium (P)
45,000 + £517.62
Round trip

Upper Class (G)
95,000 + £977.62
Round trip

So using the voucher it would be 45,000 points + £977.62 (you pay the upper class taxes) which isn’t too bad.

Whether you can get dates that work for you on off peak flights is kinda trial and error.

[Mick S]

ah, that makes sense – and you’re spot on, the return was via JFK when I looked at the details.

SeatSpy seems to be all over the place for peak and off-peak for Virgin, especially the return leg.

[Froggee]

Just search for single legs with Virgin for dates that suit you. Pricing is higher on fees for single legs but the availability is the same. It doesn’t take too long. Then two singles that suit = your return where the fees will drop a bit. And if you find something that suits, book it! It should only be £30 to cancel if you change your mind.

[Mick S]

Thanks for your help here Froggee.