Is it a sale? Is it a sale???

[Darren Wheeler]

Originally posted by bardgal
Once upon a time..... airlines would refund the difference in the fares if they went down after you booked. Is that no longer the rule?

Would appear not. Can't see any incentive to either, if the fare goes down, more profit. If it goes up, they don't come asking for more money.

Originally posted by Howard Long
It seems that VS are following BA in this sale - there are no North American destinations currently on sale in CW as far as I can see other than Bermuda and the Carribean.

While it remains to be seen whether North American destinations will appear, I would be surprised if we don't see a sale to these destinations at some point in CW/UC.

Howard

VS and BA J class sale to N.America now on

Im in a dilemma and dont know what to do. [?]

Im on 61k miles, red, 14 points. Next summer Im going to Vegas to get married but we'll be flying to LA. Going UC out and PE back.

This fare has dropped £500+ to £1297 Ive noticed today. My only problem is that I was planning on using my miles to book my flight and pay for the missus'. Im flying to Shanghai UC in 3 weeks on business and with those miles plus a 10k referral bonus I'll have enough to cover the 87,500 miles required.

Now, do I book the missus' flight now while its cheap then go for mine in a months time? The risk her ebeing that the same flight wont be available as a reward flight (its been available for some time)

Or do I wait til I have the miles in hand and book flights at the same time, but run the risk of the flights going back up to their original prices?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

thanks
Darren

Originally posted by DLH08
Im in a dilemma and dont know what to do. [?]

Im on 61k miles, red, 14 points. Next summer Im going to Vegas to get married but we'll be flying to LA. Going UC out and PE back.

This fare has dropped £500+ to £1297 Ive noticed today. My only problem is that I was planning on using my miles to book my flight and pay for the missus'. Im flying to Shanghai UC in 3 weeks on business and with those miles plus a 10k referral bonus I'll have enough to cover the 87,500 miles required.

Now, do I book the missus' flight now while its cheap then go for mine in a months time? The risk her ebeing that the same flight wont be available as a reward flight (its been available for some time)

Or do I wait til I have the miles in hand and book flights at the same time, but run the risk of the flights going back up to their original prices?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

thanks
Darren

Not sure I understand your dilema exactly, amybe a new thread would be best for more responses.

However I think you are going to LAX in UC and back in PE sometime next year.

As yet you have not booked anything, but the price you had been seeing is now £500 cheaper than it was.

But you are not sure about booking now, as one of the travellers was to be going on mileage redemptions and you dont have enough miles to book the redemtion at the same time as the paid for fare.

Have you considered booking the paid for fare now, and booking a second ticket that is upgradeable with miles, which you have enough to do right now.

Or perhaps book two economy fares that can both be upgraded with miles, with your 60,000 miles, upgrade both the outbounds to UC.

And then at a late date *try* to upgrade the inbounds, possibly again to upper.

Or book an upgradeable economy now, upgrade to UC with your 60,000 miles and book the return in PE on a discounted fare (K class).

Originally posted by DLH08
Im in a dilemma and dont know what to do. [?]
Im flying to Shanghai UC in 3 weeks on business and with those miles plus a 10k referral bonus I'll have enough to cover the 87,500 miles required.

I think I remember in the dim and distant past someone being subbed the miles in advance of their confirmed journey by FC. I might be going bonkers but I think it was for a similar situation to your own.

thanks people for your replies and advice.

I think a phone call to FC has to be made now.

Many thanks

D

[Neil]

Originally posted by McMaddog

Originally posted by DLH08
Im in a dilemma and dont know what to do. [?]
Im flying to Shanghai UC in 3 weeks on business and with those miles plus a 10k referral bonus I'll have enough to cover the 87,500 miles required.

I think I remember in the dim and distant past someone being subbed the miles in advance of their confirmed journey by FC. I might be going bonkers but I think it was for a similar situation to your own.

Pretty certain they won't allow that. I had to have many conversations and a couple of rejections before FC allowed me to go over drawn on miles by just 2miles, so can't see them allowing a few thousand, especially as one of the reasons for introducing the 'buy miles' option was to stop members having this problem.

To the new question, I would say that it is a very tough choice that only you can really decide what to do. Prices might go up, they might come down, the reward seats might go, they might not. there are so many variable that it is impossible to predict, you really just have to make a choice either way, and stick with it, you might win, you might lose but you aren't in a position to do exactly what you need at this very moment.

Neil
(could a mod split this thread to give the new question its own thread as it is a little bit lost in here?)

Originally posted by Neil
Pretty certain they won't allow that. I had to have many conversations and a couple of rejections before FC allowed me to go over drawn on miles by just 2miles, so can't see them allowing a few thousand, especially as one of the reasons for introducing the 'buy miles' option was to stop members having this problem.

I think it was done on the premise that a confirmed flight was booked that would bring the account back into credit and if the earning flight was cancelled subsequently the reward flight was after this and so FC would cancel that. But, this really is only mutterings in my brain and I can't back it up with any evidence!

[Neil]

Originally posted by McMaddog
I think it was done on the premise that a confirmed flight was booked that would bring the account back into credit and if the earning flight was cancelled subsequently the reward flight was after this and so FC would cancel that. But, this really is only mutterings in my brain and I can't back it up with any evidence!

Still don't think they would allow it as we also had 2 mile earning flights booked that would take place before the revenue flight. I may be wrong but this is just the personal experience I have had.

I have just spent a very productive 20 minutes on the phone to FC. I was passed onto a lady who deals with UC bookings. She was a star, a massive help and took the time to sort out the best way to travel LHR to LAX using as little money and as many miles as possible.

The end result is that I have booked 2 economy fares that are upgradeable using miles. The cost was £665 per person for the tickets, I then used 30k miles per ticket to upgrade the outbound flight from Economy to UC.

Once my Shanghai trip miles have entered my account I can then ring up and upgrade the return leg from Economy to PE. Hopefully another work trip I have in December will be on Virgin and that should give me enough miles to upgrade the return leg from PE to UC.

So for a cost of £1331 ive got 2 x UC to LAX and at least 2 x PE on the way back once my miles have been added. She confirmed that even though I have a confirmed booking in 3 weeks they cannot use the miles now, miles can only be used once credited to your account.

Needless to say Im feeling rather smug right now, have scored massive brownie points with the future missus and all down to our client flying us business class on work trips.

Thanks to those who have taken the time to respond to my initial query, have a good weekend.

D

[Neil]

Glad you managed to get yourself sorted. Using miles to upgrade an Economy fare is often a very good (price wise) way of flying in the premium cabins. Also you will still earn miles and TP's (only economy based ones) something you wouldn't have got if you had just booked a UC miles rewards.

Neil

For the first time in years, I can get G fares, miles only to ANU.

Not only a few of them, there are loads of them! I wonder why that is, anyway I'm not complaining! [:D]