February 2012

Let me start by saying that I'm aware that Virgin can choose to sell their flights how they see best but wonder if anyone can offer any words of wisdom to save some money....

We're getting married in Florida during February 2012 - turns out to be the middle of the UK half term! We're planning on taking 22 people with us.

Planning ahead we contacted the VS groups department and they gave us a quote of £519pp for economy flights. We were told that they could not hold or book the seats until the day they were released to the general public but were given the date and told to call back then.

We did call back on the first day to be told that "although we've done everything right to get the best price" VS had already presold half the plane to VHols and the best price was now £733pp! (I'm aware that the £519pp has become more like £590 due to fuel surcharge increases) The groups department said that this presale would not have shown up until the flights went on sale! I've also been watching the website since the date they went on sale and the lowest fare class offered for sale has been an M.

Does anyone have any suggestions on whether VS are likely to release (or have in the experience released) X or N class fares at a later date.

just a thought ,have you tried Vhols or an agent ? thye may have better fares.

hope all goes well, we got married in Fla -its a great venue

[Neil]

I assume the flights have only just gone on sale in the last few days? Quite often VS do not release the cheapest fare buckets straight away, it is sometimes a few days/weeks in my experiences.

Of course, you have the added difficulty of it being half term. This will of course impact the loads, and therefore VS might decide they don't need to release any of the cheaper fares. This is certainly something that has happened when we have booked for the Easter holidays.

Are you flexible with either outbound or return dates? MAN or LGW? Anything you can do with MPM for some of the seats to bring the average cost for the group down?

Good luck
Neil

Potentially more of a faff; but how about flying into JFK and then on via an internal carrier? I think Jet Blue have linked with VA recently to smooth out the transfer process. Is it easier flying from Heathrow?
Just an idea - LGW - MCO at half term is never going to be easy with such a big party.

Have you tried looking at the VS site yourself? It maybe that the groups dept. are trying to book all 22 of you into the same fare class.

It might be cheaper to book it under 3 different references yourself as there are only so many seats available in the lowest class on each flight or even split the group to travel on different flights on the same day as that could save even more money.

Jilly