London to Tokyo in late 2011?

Okay I'm not back from Barbados yet but thinking of travelling to Tokyo in late October with my wife (10th wedding anniversary) from London for approx 4/5 days

Had a quick look at the fares and upgradable codes are massively more expensive (in Economy) e.g. £750 v £1800!! It seems cheaper to buy a premium economy upgrade on a cheap fare than buy the expensive fare in order to then lose all your miles in order to upgrade to PE. Also by getting the cheap flight and paying for PE upgrade you are EARNING miles not spending them.

I'm guessing this is probably an oft-discussed anomaly but it does seem ludicrous.

Finally anyone have any tips on good hotels in Tokyo (or any other general travel tips) - I'm thinking of going the Virgin Holidays route since we did well by them last October when we stayed in a great hotel in NYC (Ace Hotel) and saved a packet by not booking separately...

Thanks, Paul

Are you checking the right fares... don't just use the front page of the VS site..they are the full, whistles & bells flexi fares..
Log in to FC and go to upgrades Use the toolbox to better understand the fare code differences.
NRT is well worth the trip- its expensive but highly worth it.
Hotels hundreds of options- depends on your budget..

Check out some of the Trip reports as well (NRT-LHR)

NH

northernhenry - I am checking the right fares!

X class costs between about £785 and and Y class costs around £1851 return.

For X class the premium economy upgrade is £503 per trip pp, Y class it's £915 per trip pp.

The maths are simple. If you upgrade X class two people can go London to Toyko and back for £2576 on PE. (And you earn 31,000 FC miles between you - or 61,000 if you use your virgin amex!).

But if you choose the 'flexibility' of Y class it costs £3702 per person BEFORE you've either paid for an PE upgrade (extra £1830!) or bought the upgrade assuming you have enough miles.

The point of my post was unless flexibility to change days of travel is ESSENTIAL I cannot see how it is worth paying more than double the cost of of X class fare in order to maybe use you FC miles for a 'free' upgrade.

As my example demonstrates you could get the same deal for £1200 LESS by paying for an X class PE upgrade.

Maybe Toyko is an anomaly, but I'd like to hear some examples of how being able to 'spend' your FC miles on an upgrade saves you money!

northernhenry - I am checking the right fares!

X class costs between about £785 and and Y class costs around £1851 return.
!

If you want to upgrade with miles cheaply surely you should be pricing a L in Economy or an S in PE... :w

But if you choose the 'flexibility' of Y class it costs £3702 per person BEFORE you've either paid for an PE upgrade (extra £1830!) or bought the upgrade assuming you have enough miles.

The point of my post was unless flexibility to change days of travel is ESSENTIAL I cannot see how it is worth paying more than double the cost of of X class fare in order to maybe use you FC miles for a 'free' upgrade.

IF you're willing tomfly out from Amsterdam and connect in heathrow then you can get UC for not much more than that, £1,900, could be worth a thought!

[Neil]

northernhenry - I am checking the right fares!

X class costs between about £785 and and Y class costs around £1851 return.
!

If you want to upgrade with miles cheaply surely you should be pricing a L in Economy or an S in PE... :w

NH is quite correct. You are getting a price from the VS site for a fully flexible fare, when a fare which isn't fully flexible but still allows upgrades with miles will do (in econ they are Y, B, L on UK originating tickets). There is a huge price difference between a Y and L fare code.

NH gave you a link in his first reply which will allow you to select a specific fare code on the VS site (in this case L) and get a price, or just give VS a call and ask them to price you for an L fare round trip.

NH as gave you a link to the Fare codes section on this site, it might be worth having a read through there to try and understand the difference between each fare code, and what they allow.

Neil

northernhenry - I am checking the right fares!

X class costs between about £785 and and Y class costs around £1851 return.
!

If you want to upgrade with miles cheaply surely you should be pricing a L in Economy or an S in PE... :w

Hello.... I cannot find one instance of anything other than X or Y economy for the whole of October London to Toyko. ie it's either very expensive or reasonable. Where are these other fare codes: N, O, Q, L, M and B? Are they holding them back, sold out or what?

It would be nice if VS put the code on the screen where you select the flight so you don't have to select to then hit 'fare breakdown' to establish the code.

Am I alone (I seem to be) in thinking that

a) the premium for 'flexibility' is ridiculous?! £2.5k for 2 people upgraded to PE on X, £5.5K for 2 people upgraded to PE on Y. :0

b) It's nonsensical to use your miles for a PE upgrade because it's cheaper to buy the upgrade on a lower fare code.

[Neil]

Am I alone (I seem to be) in thinking that

a) the premium for 'flexibility' is ridiculous?! £2.5k for 2 people upgraded to PE on X, £5.5K for 2 people upgraded to PE on Y. :0

b) It's nonsensical to use your miles for a PE upgrade because it's cheaper to buy the upgrade on a lower fare code.

I am not sure if you have read my reply above, but you need to either call Virgin and ask for an L fare code, or use this page on the Virgin siteYou are just looking at either the lowest or fully flexible options by using the standard flight search on the VS site.

The fully flexible fares are there for a reason and are used by many people. There are a lot cheaper ways, as already detailed in this thread by both NH and myself to use miles, and they can offer a large saving, which many of us on here have benefited from.

Thanks,
Neil

northernhenry - I am checking the right fares!

X class costs between about £785 and and Y class costs around £1851 return.
!

If you want to upgrade with miles cheaply surely you should be pricing a L in Economy or an S in PE... :w

Hello.... I cannot find one instance of anything other than X or Y economy for the whole of October London to Toyko. ie it's either very expensive or reasonable. Where are these other fare codes: N, O, Q, L, M and B? Are they holding them back, sold out or what?

It would be nice if VS put the code on the screen where you select the flight so you don't have to select to then hit 'fare breakdown' to establish the code.

Am I alone (I seem to be) in thinking that

a) the premium for 'flexibility' is ridiculous?! £2.5k for 2 people upgraded to PE on X, £5.5K for 2 people upgraded to PE on Y. :0

b) It's nonsensical to use your miles for a PE upgrade because it's cheaper to buy the upgrade on a lower fare code.

Am finding plenty of availability for L fares in october at £1023.

Are you sure that you're logged into FC and searching on this page:

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/fr ... /index.jsp

Selecting class L from the drop down box?

[code]

NH gave you a link in his first reply which will allow you to select a specific fare code on the VS site (in this case L) and get a price, or just give VS a call and ask them to price you for an L fare round trip.

NH as gave you a link to the Fare codes section on this site, it might be worth having a read through there to try and understand the difference between each fare code, and what they allow.

Neil

Okay, sorry - somehow that link escaped me before. thanks NH.

It seems a bit weird that VS 'hide' the 'in between' fare codes on the website front page, just showing very expensive and reasonable!

Will now investigate further!

IF you're willing tomfly out from Amsterdam and connect in heathrow then you can get UC for not much more than that, £1,900, could be worth a thought!

That's amazing really! Probably still beyond my budget but maybe PE from Amsterdam? How would I go about investigating the 'amsterdam' options online?

thanks

IF you're willing tomfly out from Amsterdam and connect in heathrow then you can get UC for not much more than that, £1,900, could be worth a thought!

That's amazing really! Probably still beyond my budget but maybe PE from Amsterdam? How would I go about investigating the 'amsterdam' options online?

thanks

Don't think there's as many bargains in PE like in UC, worth a look though! AMS - LHR leg books into Club Europe on BA for that price too!

http://www.opodo.co.uk or http://www.expedia.co.uk (only works for flights to outside the US Expedia for some reason though!)

Thanks, so presumably on the return flight you can just end the journey in Heathrow? You're not forced to go on to Amsterdam again?

Yep! Just make sure that when you check in for your return flight that any hold bags are tagged only to LHR so you can collect them there!

The ex-Amsterdam option in UC is definitely worth a look. I just plugged into Expedia out on 22/10, back 30/10 and UC ex AMS is only £550 more (including BA Club Europe) than cheapest VS PE fare on identical dates!

Hmm it is tempting.... Expedia call it 'business class' but obviously that must be Upper Class!? How can I tell which code the fare is booked on. It is not clear on Expedia.

Also presumably if booked through expedia I'd get the appropriate FC miles and chauffeur transfers (assuming the code allows it).

Finally, having NEVER flown UC or PE, even when the fare is 'cheap' ex-Amsterdam, do people think it's worth paying £1300 extra between the two of us to go from PE to UC? Obviously quite a long flight to Toyko, so I'm guessing 'yes' but would be interested in what others think.

Yes when Expedia refer to business class that means Upper Class on VS.

The fare is Z class and yes you earn miles in the normal way. You'll also earn miles (and tier points!) on the BA leg which if you collect BA miles/points is a bonus.

No, you won't have the CDC as VS only provide these if you're travelling on one of the more expensive fare codes, D or J.

As far as whether or not the extra outlay is worth it that's really up to you......Club Houses at LHR & NRT....flat beds....on board bar

Oh and make sure you change the AMS flight to a slightly earlier one than the ones that first come up (can chose your desired departure time) to give you a bit of a longer connection to make the most of the heathrow clubhouse if you've not been before, has to be done!

Oh and make sure you change the AMS flight to a slightly earlier one than the ones that first come up (can chose your desired departure time) to give you a bit of a longer connection to make the most of the heathrow clubhouse if you've not been before, has to be done!

Thanks, that sounds like a good tip!

[honey lamb]

Oh and make sure you change the AMS flight to a slightly earlier one than the ones that first come up (can chose your desired departure time) to give you a bit of a longer connection to make the most of the heathrow clubhouse if you've not been before, has to be done!

Thanks, that sounds like a good tip!

If you are looking at the Expedia website be careful as it includes all BA flights into London including Gatwick and London City. There are two morning flights into LHR, one at about 7:20 and the other around 10:20. The 10:20 flight leaves very little margin for error and I would recommend the 7:20 one. There are plenty of hotels around AMS for you to choose and even factoring that in, it is still a saving