V-Flyer

This is a variation on the ancient BA/VS problematic.

I need to book a short hop across to the East Coast. Work pays for the economy ticket; anything else is up to me. Economy prices are identical or very similar, so choice of airline doesn't matter from that perspective.

Currently VS only has G availability on the VS17 and 18 on my dates -- neither of which is at all convenient.

BA has CW MFU availability on a convenient flight outbound -- nothing inbound, but a cash upgrade to WTP is cheap.

So: dilemma. Book VS and hope that other seats open up on different flights and then pay £90 each time to change?

Or just go for BA and be done with it.

What would you do? Is the BA CW bird in the hand worth two potential VS rewards in the bush?!?

Grateful for all thoughts...

Consider:

If you travel with B.A:
No CH, No Tier Points and FC Miles on the upgradeable fare

Just my 2 cents worth, only you can decide.

Paul

As you say, to go from Y to J on BA you have to pay to get WT+ first, no you can't do it miles from Y to J. What are your dates, we could do a load check for you?

Go with BA much better service and they won't let you down like Virgin

Could you at least get a PE upgrade "banked" while waiting for the G's to be released, just in case...?

Thanks for the replies everyone.

slinky & preiffer -- between you, you have hit the nail on the head.

The root of the problem is that buying an L fare on VS is currently more or less the same cost as a PE return on either airline. However, a PE return on BA is upgradeable to CW and there is availability on a convenient flight. Nothing convenient is available on VS.

As you say, I could just buy a PE return on VS and hope -- but even if Gs became available it would cost an extra £350 to get to an upgradeable PE fare -- and that's assuming they become available whilst S fares are still for sale [been caught out by that before].



Funny, we were discussing the merits of the two FF programmes only last week... It's situations like this in which FC doesn't quite work to one's advantage.

Dates are: outbound 1/9, inbound 6/9. Can alter them a tiny bit but that doesn't seem to help.