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#937957 by spacedog
01 Sep 2017, 11:25
My sister and her fiance are planning on joining us in California in July next year for Comic Con. I already got UC mileage returns for my OH and myself (hooray!) However, my sister and her partner will be paying for their flights.

Right now, Y class tickets from MAN to SFO are approximately £1,100 PP, and PE is about £1,500 PP.

Questions:
1) I am embarrassed to say that as I have used miles successfully for the last four years, I have no idea if this is standard pricing for July tickets to the west coast, or if these prices are higher because we're so far out from the dates and ticket prices are slightly inflated. Does anyone know if these prices are standard?

2) My sister and her other half each have 25,000 miles in their accounts due to me making them get a double miles sign up bonus from a trip to Tokyo a couple of years ago (RIP VS NRT ;-( ) I also have PE upgrade vouchers from my VS AMEX. Would miles + money or a one way use of the PE vouchers work out better? Economy one way seems to be 25,000 miles PP. They are considering getting married in Vegas so could fly out of either LAS or SFO in the return. They want to keep costs down but i think would love to try PE (of course!)

Thanks for any suggestions :-D
#937959 by mdhayes
01 Sep 2017, 11:37
I think those prices sound expensive, have you checked the BA sale? I know BA aren't the best but if there's a huge difference then i'd take the saving. I just used my PE upgrade voucher and it was really easy to use and found availability no problem, however, if the voucher is indoor account and the miles in theirs I don't think that will work? Unless I'm mistaken.
#937963 by LucyLu
01 Sep 2017, 13:38
I'm not sure your can use the PE vouchers one way now, I thought that had been stopped???

I just got returns from LHR to SFO in two weeks time for £760 economy in the sale, so that does sound a bit expensive.
#937964 by DaveVal
01 Sep 2017, 14:13
UC fare from Dublin on VS via MAN to SFO is approx. $1900 (approx.£1500) for outbound mid July returning end of month.

I searched Expedia.com as I was in US when looking. Couldn't find VS option on UK site however.
#938115 by spacedog
06 Sep 2017, 00:13
Thanks, everyone! I really hope I can use the PE vouchers on them so will call VS and see what can be done. I am thinking of doing a miles booster so I would have 50,000 miles in my account (am a bit depleted after our own miles booking but should have 38,000 miles after our flights this week to Singapore) and could get them returns in PE, but this will obviously be dependent on whether or not we can also use their miles for a leg each. I'll report back with my findings :)
#938643 by spacedog
25 Sep 2017, 10:30
A quick update! I booked two PE tickets with miles and my PE upgrade vouchers for them. We used 50,000 miles from my account, and 25,000 each from their accounts. The taxes were paid for on Saturday and the tickets were issued that same day. However, the miles haven't been taken from any of our accounts yet, so we will keep an eye on that!

My sister and her OH are extremely happy because even with buying extra miles (which they reimbursed me for) it only cost them £960 in total. I notice economy fares are now a lot cheaper (just under the £700 mark per person), but even so they got a great deal. They are very excited to fly PE for the first time.
#938644 by spacedog
25 Sep 2017, 10:34
As a quick aside, I remember how exasperated they were when I forced them to sign up for FC via my referral and opt in for the bonus on the NRT route (there was much eye rolling). No one ever appreciates your hard work until they benefit from it!! Haha.
#938654 by Eggtastico
25 Sep 2017, 14:15
is that pricing correct?
We paying £950 total in taxes for a reward economy & PE upgrade to SFO.
no buying extra miles or boosters, etc.

Dont forget, you pay the Taxes on PE & not E.
#938702 by Eggtastico
27 Sep 2017, 13:37
spacedog wrote:Yes, the taxes for PE were £400 PP and they paid an extra £160 for me to buy the necessary miles :)

not sure why my taxes are £75 more per person!
#938711 by spacedog
27 Sep 2017, 17:59
I don't know, either. I just did a dummy booking for early July and it's still coming up as £399.59 PP for PE taxes.
#938796 by spacedog
30 Sep 2017, 10:25
Eggtastico wrote:ahh, Its because I was looking from LHR & not MAN


That makes sense!

I ended up calling VS yesterday because the miles still hadn't gone from our accounts. Spoke to a very nice lady who initially seemed confused, but then said she could see what had happened, thanked me for bringing it to her attention and said she would "tidy up the mess on the booking." :-O An hour or so later, all the miles were deducted, so I can rest easy!
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