V-Flyer

Hi,

I'm planning on booking seats for our trip to Orlando next May on release of return flights (is this a good plan?), can anyone tell me when this will be? (7th to 20th May 2016).

I have also heard that Virgin block some seats out for Virgin Holidays customers, is this true as I'm hoping to book certain seats on upper deck

As you may be able to tell, I am a very sad OCD woman who's ability to wait is non existent (in my defence, although we have been long haul many times, this will be our Virgin Virgin flight )

Thanks, as always for any advice.

Hi,
I wouldn't personally book the day of release, mainly because Virgin tend to only release some of the higher fate codes straight away.

You are going at a reletively quiet period, or certainly not a high demand period like Easter/Christmas etc so flights won't sell out very quickly.

If it were me I would give it a week or so and then maybe look to book of you would really like to get things confirmed. Of course, waiting for a sale could potentially save you a lot.

Virgin do save some seats in PE for VH customers and they tend to be on the upper deck. This does not happen in UC or economy.

Do remember that it's only UC and PE that get to select seats free of charge, in economy it is chargeable unless you wait until OLCI.

Neil

I am in the book now camp.
I know I might not get the best price, but if I get a price I'm happy with that will do.
I book early because I want to use miles to upgrade and want to bag the seats ASAP
For release date just do a dummy booking on line.
Click on the return date calendar and it will show dates not released as blocked.
So for today Orlando return is up to Friday 18th March on money or 19th on miles
Or in round numbers 11 months. So Thursday 18th June looks like your date.
Dick D

That's great, thanks guys.

I realise I will have to pay to reserve seats in Econ and willing to pay for what I want (£35 for exit seats if I'm not mistaken) and I'm hoping for a good price for Prem Econ on return (what is a good price for this )

With regards to booking Asap, if I can find something less than £900 each for the above, I will be happy.

Another question if I may, I notice that there is only one flight out but two back, am looking at the later one inbound, is this likely to be quieter than the earlier? (Bearing in mind it looks like it will be cheaper)

Thanks for your help

I'd say your target price for Economy out & PE back should be about £700 (plus any extra fees for booking seats, exit rows etc). The inbound PE leg should be about £410 going on current cheapest fares so if it's significantly more than that when the flights are released I'd be tempted to wait as it may well come down.

Wow, if I could get them for that, I would be well chuffed, will have to wait and see

Consider using VH - you can often get a "car hire" included package for less than VA seat only, as VH always have their own "bucket" - even more than 330 days out. And you can book economy out and PE back so you don't need to worry about upgrade availability.

An online price quote only takes a few minutes....

Hi deep_south,
I have been looking at VH daily for the last few weeks but their prices are laughable at the moment (£850ish each just for Econ without car ins and almost double for Prem ).

Just to really give you a laugh, my son in law works for Virgin Media so gets 10% off, he rang them for a quote, it was a MASSIVE £14 cheaper than online, that's total not each

To echo what deep_south said, we booked this year as a package via VH which means you only have to pay a deposit and not all up front. Set the car to the smallest with minimal insurance. We then booked separate car hire to the spec we wanted. Virgin Holidays refused to price match their own prices for an upgrade to a larger car. This worked out cheaper than booking direct with Virgin Atlantic.

As for seat choice, no nothing is reserved any more, VH don't get first choice. You'll get your flight reference number from VH and have to do it yourself. If flying economy the best seats regarded as being upstairs in the bubble. For PE most prefer downstairs as you get off first.