Page 1 of 1

On board duty free availability

PostPosted: 25 Dec 2023, 04:42
by clairemac75
Hello all, and happy Christmas :)

I'm flying in a couple of days and had wanted to pre order some items from duty free for on board delivery, but they have been showing as out of stock for the past few weeks.

Does anyone know if this means they are likely to be unavailable on board also, or is it generally unrelated?

Re: On board duty free availability

PostPosted: 25 Dec 2023, 12:00
by mitchja
I would *guess* all the stock comes from the same source so it's properly going to be out of stock on-board as well unfortunately. Always worth asking though.

Re: On board duty free availability

PostPosted: 25 Dec 2023, 13:15
by clairemac75
Thanks Mitchja

Re: On board duty free availability

PostPosted: 11 Sep 2025, 19:13
by Nick_L
Apparently, Virgin Atlantic started a re-tendering process in March 2025 for a Duty Free supplier...that's a long time to look at the quotes and haggle?
They clearly hadn't awarded a contract when I flew with them a few weeks back (no Duty Free).
I can't get too excited about onboard Duty Free...you can buy perfume online for less (best to ignore the cheapest to avoid fakes), I don't need the majority of gadgets and toys on offer, if you're a social pariah the tobacco choice is limited so they might not have your brand, but picking up a bottle of spirits on the plane does save you lugging it around the concourse at the departure airport, so that can be helpful (if you just want a regular bottle rather than anything fancy).
However, I'm surprised that it wasn't lucrative for Virgin (the reason for no longer doing it?), as you have a captive audience that has been trained to 'spend at silly prices' by the airport shops?