Have VS gone really expensive?

I used to fly VS at least once a month however haven't taken a single VS flight since January. Why? VS prices seem to be increasingly expensive against other carriers.

I'm flying far more BA than I ever did - typically 2 LH a month. Even though VS UC is a far superior product to BA CW IMHO I'm not able to justify a 30%-50% premium to travel with them. Going East I'm nearly always flying QR who have a fantastic product and great prices (especially ex-EU)and normally 1/3 the price of VS.

Are VS really able to fill UC whilst charging a big premium over other business class offerings? If so then well done Virgin!

Without access to historical data this is impossible to say. It'll depend on time of year, which route, how much competition there is, the loads on the particular flight (e.g. have all the cheaper fares been sold?), etc. I've seen VS as cheaper, on par, and more expensive than other carriers. I've certainly not noticed a trend of them being more expensive than everyone else. That would just simply be bad business.

Ultimately VS and every other airline will charge what the market will bear.

Yes.

I keep track of all my flights and the cost of VS tickets. Here is the price of a typical flexible PE to New York (one ticket type I regularly purchase) plucked from my list over the years:

2006 £1,624.67
2007 £1,701.87
2008 £1,756.34
2009 £1,852.30
2010 £1,973.03
2011 £2,185.97
2012 £2,247,15
2013 £1,947,88 - seems low
2015 £2,372.89
2016 £2,489.05 - so up >50% in 10 years

And this with fuel prices at record lows too!

Don't forget that some of the factors with the fares have changed markedy

For example APD in 2006 was £40 now it's £ 146 - increase of 365%

LHR landing charges and passenger service fees have certainly increased as well.

And whilst the oil price has gone down it's the price of Jet fuel that matters and that may not be as variable as the oil price as there are huge fixed costs in refining and transport it that stay the same no matter the price of oil.

maybe their pricing model is in $ & the poor £ is having an effect?

I can see that VS along with most other airlines have gone up in price however VS seems to generally be priced way above competitors like BA

For example LHR-SFO is my main route. If you look at VS on Google Flights it's on average ~£3850 for the whole of September in UC (just click on the start date to get a nice calendar)

https://www.google.co.uk/flights/#searc ... ;sc=b;a=VS

Now here's the same for BA:

https://www.google.co.uk/flights/#searc ... ;sc=b;a=BA

There are lots of dates for £2733, way cheaper than VS on the whole. If you change the destination to NYC for example BA has lots of dates around £1700 to £1900 but VS are typically £2340 to £2900. Similarly for HKG VS is considerably more expensive for most dates. Ex-EU is the same with HKG from DUB is <£1500 on BA and ~ £1950 on VS

I'd love to keep flying VS more however I can't justify from a business or personal perspective paying 30% to 50% more - even though it is a superior product. A 10% to 15% premium maybe...

If Flyertalk is anything to go by then BA is being dumped LH in favour of just about anyone else and with the reduced 787 capacity maybe Virgin can demand the extra on the same routes.
They don't seem to have too much trouble selling Upper out right now.

Looking at next year for a family of 5 to Orlando during the school holidays I'm £4500 (MAN) and £5500 (GLA). Last year I was £2800 direct ex-Manchester. BA are offering £3200 GLA-LGW-MCO.

I'm afraid Virgin are prohibitively expensive next year, and the rival direct carriers (Thomas Cook, Thomson) are no better. Cheapest fares seem to be with the American carriers United/AA/Delta.

If Flyertalk is anything to go by then BA is being dumped LH in favour of just about anyone else and with the reduced 787 capacity maybe Virgin can demand the extra on the same routes.
They don't seem to have too much trouble selling Upper out right now.

Both Virgin an BA have similar Passenger Load Factors (BA slightly behind but growing each year, Virgin dropped a little on the past 2 years),

Short answer - YES; since the last sale ended, prices have been 'noddy high'; I always book VS if it can be justified but current return flights to PVG (over the past 6 weeks for September travel) have been between £4 and £6k - annoyingly VS price follow BA; I can't imagine anyone buying at such non economic prices; LH and Emirates were also high but around £ - £3,5; eventually I settled for outbound Beijing; inbound Hong Hong Kong on Emirates for £2100; a real shame when £2750 or so would have secured my business with VS