VS Hotel Pricing and CC Charges

Last week I wanted to book 3 UC tickets to BGI for my me, my wife and 2.5 year old in the UC sale. Initially I went to book the flights and hotel through the VS site but backed off when I saw the CC charges (£67.00) and the hotel costs. I had priced the hotel through VS, Expedia, BA and a number of other sites and all were within about £100 of each other. Except VS/VS Holidays. They wanted approx £1500 more than the others! v( v( v(

I eventually booked the lot through Expedia, getting the hotel at a good price and avoiding the VS surcharges.

I fail to understand how Expedia can charge me the same as VS for the flights but not charge a surcharge. It begs the question why anyone would book a flight direct on VS website. ?| ?|

[Nottingham Nick]

Are you talking about booking the hotels through Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays? (They are two separate entities)

If you are talking about VH, then I am not surprised. I have never used VH, preferring the savings of DIY. However - the recent ash cloud problems showed the value of booking a package. I suppose the extra you pay is a sort of premium for the extra protection you get.

Clearly, there are a lot of people who use VH, so they must be doing something right.

Nick

I am always flabergasted at how outrageously overpriced VH is and often wonder how they make a profit out of that business and who books holidays through them

I have never found any hotel or holiday that isn't at least 20-30% more expensive than other websites

Clearly, there are a lot of people who use VH, so they must be doing something right.

I sometimes use VH to get a cheap flight + accomm to New York on a midweek deal. If I fly as a business traveller out Monday back Thus/Fri the VS site will sting me for £1,200/£1,300 .... plus the hotel. But because I appear to be having a short holiday to shop in NYC, the whole deal inc hotel is £600/£700.

[Although I can't get a deal like that at this time of year.]

[Darren Wheeler]

As Nick points out, you are paying extra for the protection a package holiday brings. ATOL protection isn't free.

When you select "Hotel Booking" from the VS website it says something like "Powered by Virgin Holidays".

I did a comparison between booking a flight + hotel on the VS site compared to an identical package on the VH site. The supplements on VH to fly UC were £2400 each, £800 more than the cost of the flight only on VS. The hotel was also coming in at way above any other site.

ba.com allowed me to construct an ATOL protected flight and hotel package for exactly the same price as buying the individual elements from them.

On expedia.com I was able to book a flight (VS UC) and hotel package for about £150 cheaper than ba.com and several thousands less than VS/VH. As it was booked as a "package" I have ATOL protection.

To add to the above heere are the prices direct from the relevant websites:-

1 Bedroom Suite for £10 nights:

VS - £3679
BA - £2641
Expedia - £2533

The flights for the 3 of us booked through Expedia were £4345 giving a total of £6878.

The EXACT same holiday booked through VH is £11799!!!!!

As it was booked as a "package" I have ATOL protection.

I do stand to be corrected but my understanding is that you do NOT have ATOL protection if you buy an Expedia 'package' of a flight and hotel. They may be packaged but they are not a package (hope that makes sense). This is often raised in some of the financial 'help' pages in the Sunday papers.

I recall seeing this in the expedia T&C and in the confirmatory emails from expedia after booking such 'packages' saying they wern't a 'package' under the ATOL regulations.

[Decker]

While you're standing Tonty...

Holidays created by you on Expedia.co.uk which include air travel are protected by the Civil Aviation Authority under ATOL number 5788. For all tour operator holidays booked through Expedia.co.uk you will be protected by the relevant tour operator's ATOL.

8D

Its all a bit odd really.

I booked a flight on VS and it was well priced.

I then wanted a hire car for 14 days (a cabrio) and the cheapest was £1300 (I checked literally every single website I could find ). Just for a laugh, I used Virgin holidays and the price was £499 including credit card fee y)

Was very surprised!

[Darren Wheeler]

You also have to consider that Virgin Holidays get an allocation of hotel rooms and just like airline seats, as sell them, the price goes up.

i find that if you book very early with VH (2 years in advance) you get a price that is very close if not the same to other tour operators. as Darren says above the later you book the more expensive it gets.

Chris

While you're standing Tonty...

Holidays created by you on Expedia.co.uk which include air travel are protected by the Civil Aviation Authority under ATOL number 5788. For all tour operator holidays booked through Expedia.co.uk you will be protected by the relevant tour operator's ATOL.

8D

Thats good to know but always best to check what is and isn't included!

BTW I don't do a lot of standing (unless at a bar). I'm more of a sitting down sort of bear!

These ATOL packaging rules are still not hammered out.

There is talk that even if you buy a "package" if you can buy the components separately for the same price then it can be argued that it is not a package. If you were to select your flights for one price and then the hotel for another price and you can buy one, t'other or both for same prices then you get no protection.

It is all a bit strange and we are waiting for more clarification on this from CAA.
Decent players like Expedia are spelling it out that you are covered and will thus be paying an ATOL fee to the CAA for your trip, others are not so good.