V-Flyer

I'm planning on going to Orlando from Manchester in the last week on May 2012 for two weeks. I am going to be buying one reward flight ticket and one with miles plus money. Ive had a little look today just to check out prices of the current flights and to see how much tax I would be charged on a reward flight and I noticed that there are barely any reward flights in February and only about 3 at the start of March but loads in December and January.

I just wondered what the chances are that it's going to be the same scenario end May/start June? Or have they just not released many reward fares for those flights yet? It doesn't have to be strictly 14 nights but it does have to be around that time. Has anybody had any experience with this before? I plan on booking the flights as soon as they're released. Any info would be great! Thanks!

Reward seats to MCO are not impossibble to obtain but are very small in number due to the popularity of the route.

You will need to be flexible and look to adjust your stay length so 12/13/15/16 rather than the usual 14 as well as looking to travel on the less popular dates - midweek rather than weekend.

Flights are opened up for booking 11 months (330 days) in advance but there is no hard rule about when VS release reward seats.

It will come down to regular checking and striking when they appear.

Thanks a lot! I have flown with virgin plenty of times before but I haven't ever planned to use my miles until now, so was interested to see what my chances of getting the flights were!

MFras23 wrote:Thanks a lot! I have flown with virgin plenty of times before but I haven't ever planned to use my miles until now, so was interested to see what my chances of getting the flights were!

You'll see this dotted around here, that VS used to release reward seats at 330+ days, but now they seem to be much more random.

May is before the summer rush, I should think you will find what you want but do keep checking.

Are you booking in economy? Because reward and MPM fares are subject to high fees and taxes, sometimes it's a good idea to look for a cheap economy seat and use your miles to upgrade?

Agree with what Tonty and Slinky have said. especially the bits about economy reward seats being poor value for your miles.
This is unless you hit lucky with the reward seat sales AND have a credit card PE upgrade or two to add on.

If you are not looking to redeem in economy, then you may find it cost effective to go into another gateway. MIA is the obvious one, but last time we went to Florida we got VS to BOS and then JetBlue down the coast for a lot less than VS wanted for a direct flight into MIA. It just depends on fares and availability when you want to fly.

Previous costs and experiences here can only be a guide - the maxim on each occasion is to shop around and weigh up the alternatives, as they pertain your situation.

Also, welcome to V-Flyer.

Nick

Thanks so much for all of your information it has been a lot of help! I guess I will just wait and see what is available and keep an eye out on reward flight so see if there are any trends in timing of release as I am doing a holiday on a budget and any saving would be helpful!