I made a booking using Virgin flight store via a travel agent which was straight forward. Upside was I could do a car and flight booking on a deposit basis instead of paying the full amount upfront.
Downside was it cost me an extra £100 per person over virgins website but I didn't want to lay out £8k 9 months before I went.
Thank you for this - delaying payment in full is one reason I am looking at this option as I don't have £9k sitting in my bank account at this moment in time.