VS being creamed by BA on NYC prices

[Decker]

Just priced up a weekend return to NYC for early December. BA WT+ around £550, VS PE around £950.... hmmm tough call.... oh wait - no it isn't.

I think we'll see a BA and VS sale announced very soon. Ba prices went live today, VS will follow.

It's out!
Give it time to be loaded and calm down!!!!

Ed

Looks like it.

Although I've not looked in depth I found similar results for a late Jan trip I'm contemplating. I don't like WT+, and if actually flying premium economy would much prefer VS.

But not at a near £400 differential on a relatively short flight, and certainly not when it only takes 25,000 BA miles to upgrade to CW (almost ANY WT+ fare being eligible for miles upgrade) rather than VS W or S fares + 40,000 FC miles to get a G.

R3dV

s'funny... when BA and VS are the same price they are accused of fixing prices... and when there's a difference in price it's not good either...!

Around here, it's not good when VS>>>BA

and certainly not when it only takes 25,000 BA miles to upgrade to CW (almost ANY WT+ fare being eligible for miles upgrade) rather than VS W or S fares + 40,000 FC miles to get a G.

R3dV

Upgrade and MFU availability on BA at the moment is pants.

and certainly not when it only takes 25,000 BA miles to upgrade to CW (almost ANY WT+ fare being eligible for miles upgrade) rather than VS W or S fares + 40,000 FC miles to get a G.

R3dV

Upgrade and MFU availability on BA at the moment is pants.

I will second that upgrade availability is rubbish especially to places like nyc jan thru march, quite annoying.

cheers

alex

I'm not a BA apologist, and I have read threads over on FT bemoaning MFU availability. But I've been finding plenty, either outright CW awards or MFU WT+ to CW throughout Jan, Feb and March 2011 to New York. For example, at the moment the only Feb dates going out that aren't available to me are 16 & 17 and 23 & 24th. Coming back it's just the 16 and 17 that don't have availability. I've priced to go out on 22 Feb coming back on the 27th (to indulge in my Bon Jovi guilty pleasure at Madison Square Gardens). The WT+ fare for BA for the daught and me is £1,182.60 total (same as the VS K fare), plus the MFU at 50,000 miles. I've a choice of 5 flights going out but just the one coming back.

As always YMMV and there does seem to be a quirk with the BA site where some people see more availability than others - usually related to status but I'm only a lowly blue.

Regards
R3dV

Regards
R3dV

How many BA miles does it cost to upgrade WT+ to CW? this would be for a US trip.

25000 return

Regards
R3dV

Thanks, so as there are 2 of us travelling we could do a one way upgrade to CW for 25k, and fly WT+ on the other leg.

either outright CW awards or MFU WT+ to CW

They come out of the same reward bucket.

Managed 2 trips to NYC this year on miles,had to fly out of EWR on both to get any availability at all and we are ultra flexible.Last year there were masses of flights to JFK any day you wanted pick your flight.The only way status can make a difference is if you are on the Gold guest list, which allows one reward booking a year out of paid buckets.Or you can pay double miles to get a reward out of a paid bucket.

Virgin prices are so high due to low availability on the flights!

Am I eyes deceiving me, or are there now additional MCo flights added in the sale - I'm sure there was nothing beyond the end of January, but not March is there!

[mitchja]

MAN>MCO sales fares also seem lower than fares from LGW too.

Yep, I noticed that too. I'm now wondering if I can risk waiting to see if more will be added....

I've just looked at MAN-MCO (Upper Class) in May 2011 - the fares seem to range from £1501 sale fare some days right up to the £4k+ full fare on others. If you are flexible with your dates £1501 is a pretty good fare.

I'm amazed at £1500 for MAN - MCO. We go every year at the end of May for 10 days and usually pay about £4.5k - £5k for two adults and one child. I've been looking at the prices for the past few weeks and it reached a peak this weekend of £12k. Got an email from Virgin this morning announing the sale so I though I'd check it out - Man - MCO 21st May - 31st May £15,864.37. I have never seen prices that high from Man - MCO.

BA Club World from MAN - LGW - MCO £5100. I've not booked it because I didn't fancy the three hour layover in LGW on the way home.

...so I though I'd check it out - Man - MCO 21st May - 31st May £15,864.37. I have never seen prices that high from Man - MCO.

Isn't that 1/2 term dates? Always bumps the prices up plus its a small UC cabin and also not in the current sale dates.

It is half terms, but that's when we always go. Usually the return leg brings the price down because most schools are only off for a week. We've neve paid more than £5k for the same 10 nights in May.

You're right though it must be due to there being 4 UC flights per week instead of the previous 14 flights. I spoke to UC cutomer service and they made it clear that there will no miles plus or companion seats in UC from MAN to MCO whilst thay have so few UC seats. LGW is about £6k.`

[mitchja]

Flights on Mondays and Thursday's *seem* to offer the lowest fares both from MAN and LGW to MCO during the sale period.

The sale fares prices are fluctuating on a daily basis though, especially from MAN for some reason ?|