V-Flyer

Having recently queried the chances of getting flights either in the sale or as reward seats for LGW-BGI for next August, I looked at the website this morning to check normal prices & the UC prices are coming up at £917 outbound & £777 inbound, which is vastly reduced compared to normal prices. There are a few dates on offer in August next year (& maybe for other dates but I didn't check) for this route & also for a few other routes from LGW (UVF, ANU & CUN). No idea if any other fares are cheaper or any from LHR or MAN but thought this might be useful for someone.

It looks like an UC sale has just started

With Virgin, how can you tell nowadays?

My god, they've actually advertised some US UC destinations this time...

Still, sounds like they're still silent as to the rest...

If anything has changed in recent years, its that VS don't advertise a large amount of their sales...

UC coming in cheaper than PE on LGW CUN on a couple of dates I've just tested.

NYC123 wrote:UC coming in cheaper than PE on LGW CUN on a couple of dates I've just tested.

Yeah, but is that bad PE or good UC?

Last time I went it was 1400, might consider it again it again at that price (and check ex-dub for a few schekels more, frankly would have to be over 300 with flight cost and convenience).

Then again, BA Gold card after christmas might make me look to the dark side... Hmmmn, GF vs LGW CH. Oh wait, its the LGW GF... Shut, and a PP lounge instead. Frankly, if VS sorted its onboard, it would be a no brainer. Had to virtually beg for a smidgeon on wine from a cabin crew last Cancun trip on the way back...

Seems to be around 1500 Gatwick to Cancun on VS sale, some dates around July/August next year.

1289 to Montego Bay.

1700 to BGI.

Only some of those are cheaper, so not across the board.

ex-DUB adds to the price, rather than discounts it.

Crikey, £1,289 to Jamaica. Sorely, sorely tempted by that. Nice find Smid.

Smid wrote:Seems to be around 1500 Gatwick to Cancun on VS sale, some dates around July/August next year.

1289 to Montego Bay.

1700 to BGI.

Only some of those are cheaper, so not across the board.

ex-DUB adds to the price, rather than discounts it.

Those Jamaican prices are insane. But August travel is out of the question for me. I go there every February. I would book right now for February 2017 at those prices. So heartbreaking.

Hey guys, what's the chance of this offer coming up again next Spring?

Funny that I got no emails from Virgin advertising this great sale. I've heard of silent sale, but so silent that not even regular loyal customers don't hear?

I've called it a silent sale, but not really sure if that's the term. They often happen because BA has a sale and they match BA's sale, so its worth looking out for a BA sale and checking VS prices.

Even when VS did them before, they'd have lots of exclusion dates, which would usually be the school holidays. But you'd know. Now, its a matter of guesswork. I just stick things into the ita matrix every so often and see what prices come up.

I've previously missed a chance to go back to Montego Bay for a lower price than this, when I'd already booked Cancun around the same time for a fair bit more....

If it makes a difference, the sale fares seem to start mid april onwards.

As for them not advertising, not seen Virgin advertise any of its decent prices for about a year and a bit now, and even at that, that was like once.

Corker fares are the regular 1K Upper fares around christmas... Sale often starts November 28th. BA does it. VS matched last year. Only covers christmas and new year.

Smid wrote:As for them not advertising, not seen Virgin advertise any of its decent prices for about a year and a bit now, and even at that, that was like once.

Corker fares are the regular 1K Upper fares around christmas... Sale often starts November 28th. BA does it. VS matched last year. Only covers christmas and new year.

Thanks for the heads up. I am going to check their websites regularly.

Wowsers that's cheap. We go to Jamaica every year in October so know the prices quite well. That UC price is crazy good !!

Been browsing for something interesting for 3 of us to do in January and then thought I could probably sneak off for a couple of weeks now-ish so I wondered if there are any 'silent sale' prices for November and stumbled across some nice UC prices to GND throughout November :

£1790 direct with Virgin
£1431 ex Dublin Aer Lingus and Virgin
and the prices / availability are being transferred to VH if booking complete holidays

Obviously (!) the prices are much higher if you only go to/from UVF instead of carrying on to GND but that seems to have been the case for a while now - I'm sure there is a logical reason but it escapes me.

I suspect there must be many more decent deals lurking?

ex-DUB ones have been there for most of the year, with availability disappearing slowly as the dates come closer...

So nothing special about saving 350 quid on an ex-DUB flight. Though the base flight price only being around 1700 is a bit more unusual.

When considering the pricing of an ex-DUB, I'd perhaps put a price on convenience as well as flights. For instance, you might expect to spend 200 quid to get there and back, In which case such a saving is not massive. I, for instance, have spent 130 quid per person getting from Brum to Dublin and back on a ryanair "business plus" fare (can't hand baggage only, I need to take my luggage)... Saving a hundred quid would not be worth it for me, but I'm saving about a grand on my AA to Vegas at Christmas anyway. The example shown there though isn't that wonderful...

Exactly, direct from VS these have been above 2400 for November departures the last couple of months (even during the alleged sale) and as I would normally take a hotel for all / most of the trip the fact the reduced flight prices reach VH packages too is what's of most interest to me..... as Smid suggests would only do ex Dub on this for a much bigger saving (as the Carib hotels are very pricey when not booked as a flight & hotel package).