Aloha Hawaii - well, perhaps...

Hello All

I have now returned from my trip to NY and added both legs onto the trip report. Both Mrs Armstrong and I had an amazing time – the flights were as to be expected, world class..! I must also say the Clubhouse was a bloody nice touch and will try my hardest to visit once again!

Yesterday I visited VH to look at another holiday – however left a little confused. I am hoping you can help me on this!

We plan to visit Hawaii next year, this is of course going to require a stopover (normally a few hours) in either Vegas, LA or San Fran. We have decided that we may as well spend 2 days in Vegas on the way out then 3 days in San Fran on the way back. To book this through the VS website would it be best to book single flights, or call up to discuss this?

Also – I now have enough miles that if I purchase PE I could get these upgraded to UC – however Ben at VH told me that the cost of a W (this is the only ticked I can do this) would be the same as an UC ticket to begin with so no point, also that the chances of upgrading would be about 100 / 1 so it’s a massive risk for little reward. Is this the truth?

I would love to book the whole thing with VH and fly VS then Delta – this would maximise my points & Tier Points (booked wisely I will go from Red to Silver too!) but including hotels yesterday I was quoted £5,000 and it seemed a little pricey – for UC it would be a whopping £10,000..! :0

Dan

Hi Dan,

Don't know about the rest,but you cant use miles to update flights booked with Virgin Holidays.(VH)

Miles can only be used when booking direct with Virgin Atlantic.(VS)

You can of course book your flights with VS (hopefully upgradable ones) and then also book your hotel through the VS page as well.

The pros and cons of this, I will leave to others with more knowledge.

David

Thanks David

Yes, if you book with VH directly you cant upgrade as they book code H (which I believe is only for VH?) so I would need a W - but I thought an S would also do?

Would you know if a W is the same price as the lowest UC ticket?

Dan

Hopefully I can help as we returned from a VH trip to Hawaii 5 weeks ago. Firstly just to mention that Hawaii is an amazing place and I'm sure on your return you'll be forever longing to go back (like us).

Our trip was in April for 10 days, 2 adults and a child 15 and came to around £8,000 with PE flights with VS as well as connection in LA on HA. When we booked we ended up ringing up which annoyingly we've found ourselves doing more and more with VH of late. Whilst you don't get the online discount often it works out better as we can get advice, ask questions and compare lots of different options which are sometimes not showing online. I think the reason its coming out so much is that you are including stopovers in Vegas/San Fran. When we rang up we planned to do something similar but was soon put off by the large increase in overall cost, so if you want any cheaper my advice is to cut out the stopover.

I know what you're thinking, all of that flying in one day? But we did it and actually while it is a long day it really wasn't that bad and when we arrived (9pm) we just checked in and went straight to bed. I understand its not for everyone though, so you'll have to weight up cost vs. tiredness

As I said we did everything through VH and so you would still get the miles for VS and DL (also HA too). I am looking to do the same thing with a VH + upgrade flight with miles and to be honest not sure. I've heard that H fares can't be upgraded by if you say that you can get a W fare then maybe you can. I would've thought that if they suggest its not worth it, its probably true.

Hope this helps
FLYERZ

Picking a couple of spurious dates to LAX, they don't seem to be far away £3365 for 2xW's and £3301 for 2xZ's

I suppose it really depends on dates, routes, availability and the flexibility you need from a ticket.

Getting W's and Z's from the website is relatively easy, its when you what anything below that, that it becomes difficult without telephoning ):

I always think part of the enjoyment of the trip is the planning and playing around with different routings, cabins, etc

David

Hi Dan

You might want to consider a http://www.thegreatescapade.com as rtw fare combo's can be cheaper than round trip.

Thanks

W is the most expensive PE fare bucket and can sometimes cost pretty much the same as the cheapest UC fare (although it comes with a lot more flexibility).

As you say though, S fares are also upgradeable so I'd go for one of those if it's available. There would also, of course, need to be G reward seats available in order to upgrade to UC and they are often very hard to come by for west coast flights - particularly coming back. If you're flexible with dates that'll help.

If I were you I'd look on the VS website for G reward availability, then give VS a call and get a quote for your transatlantic flights, then check delta.com for the Hawaii flights (you'll still earn VS miles & TPs if you book direct with them) and finally shop around for the hotels, bearing in mind many of the big chains and sites like hotels.com are available on Shopsaway so can earn you VS miles if you book via the VS website.

Then see if VH can beat it. It takes a bit of work, but if you've got the time and the patience it's fun work and can save you quite a bit of money!

Thanks Flyerz..!

Luckily I have a VH shop in the next town (located in a Tesco) so I was able to waste their time messing about with things. The stop over actually didn't boost the price that much, although the selection they went with was MGM Grand and a 4* Holiday Inn for SFO..! Also Hawaii they went for the Hilton - so I can shave a few pennies off by swapping out most of that!

When I get some better prices and info I shall update this post as perhaps others will benefit from this!

David - I also agree on the booking of cabins etc - for me that is one of the best parts as sad as that sounds..!

No problem, and it'd be good to hear about how you get on with upgrading with miles through VH...if its actually possible.

Personally I'd book separately if possible, and look to see about going from E to UC on G availability. Up-gradable E tickets in fare classes such as "M" cost less than you may think - costing exercise from my trip planning says a Y->G is ~ 1600 for 2 to US if getting good fare codes, compared to around 1100 for 2 G's. The mileage saving for us makes it very attractive, as I then have enough miles for 2 upgraded trips vs 1 G. You earn back a fair amount of the amount you lose. Now the nice fare finder gone you do need to call the ticket desk for these prices.

My understanding is an up-gradable Y would also = 6 TP's on a return.

Also DL F's can be horrendously cheap on their website booked in advance...

I'd note I'll be doing a similar trip some point in future, wife fancies a LA + Hawaii trip, so we had been pricing up on hope we could do next year ourselves, but we've settled instead on a "interesting" drive from SFO to SEA - then across to Yellowstone, back via Reno to Yosemite, onto LA, then back to SFO up coast. Thats the plan, though we may do it other way around if we get LA flights instead.

Thinking back actually I would recommend doing it separately. Whilst with most of our VH trips to the Caribbean I stick by using VH to sort it all out and include V-ROOM, check in chill out and the concierge service, my experience to hawaii was a bit disappointing in terms of the concierge bit.

Granted I may have wrongly assumed that the Virgin Holidays rep/concierge service applied to Hawaii, but nonetheless whilst I was there we had no contact with Virgin Holidays and for me a lot of the benefit of booking with VH is to have there help when I'm on holiday. VH doesn't cover Hawaii and passes it onto hotel beds I think, what this meant was we get our transfer from the airport find but there was no follow up from a rep at the hotel to book trips .etc(which has always happened in the past in the Caribbean). So cut a long story short you could realistically do everything yourself separately and it wouldn't be too difficult.

Thanks all

It would seem that VH may not be the way to go here, which really sucks..! Upgrades will not happen, but I will then have enough miles for a reward flight to Boston so that's cool!

I think ill look on a few other websites and then choose VS so I get the miles.

Real Shame to be honest...

, but we've settled instead on a "interesting" drive from SFO to SEA - then across to Yellowstone, back via Reno to Yosemite, onto LA, then back to SFO up coast. Thats the plan, though we may do it other way around if we get LA flights instead.

Slightly off the original topic, but the drive from SFO to SEA is a great experience. We did it a few years back, taking in the Charles M Scultz museum, a favourite hotel of Clark Gable, the town where they filmed Outbreak and the museum that houses the Hughes Flying Boat. Allow enough time - we took ten days for one way..

Thanks pjh - I hadn't realized needing that kind of time on that leg - we'd budgeted 5-7 days overall for it, as was going to do some 12+ hour drive days with the for the latter piece to Yellowstone - we enjoyed a similar in car day on last trip.
To be honest it the trip depends on G availability, as we won't be travelling Y. Aim will be sometime between 3 and 5 weeks in total. Thanks for the tip about the evergreen musuem though, hadn't spotted that before!

On our last 3 week tour we could have done with more time in Yosemite - that was our mistake, as we really enjoyed the surroundings up there. In part the Reno to Yosemite leg on the trip is down to the pass (forget the name) being closed last time we went due to the ice-pack (in early May!). We may skip Reno all together and just do another 12+ hour drive day from Yellowstone without the Reno/Tahoe stop to Yosemite to spend a few days in the park. The roads out of Yosemite to the south are some of the most amazing driving I've done in my life, which is why we want to repeat them. It's just amazing views at every single corner, and not at all boring on a long drive..

Thanks for the tip about the evergreen musuem though, hadn't spotted that before!

It's a great musuem. In addition to Spruce Goose there are many US aircraft you don't see here in the UK, (including a Ford with the luggage storage in the wings) and you can get up close and personal with a B17. See if this works for some pictures.

the-community/photos/2314-pjh/album?albumid=4490

We deliberately stopped a couple of nights in some places, so were purposely slow. A more active driving agenda would mean you could cover the ground.

Drop me a PM if you want to know where we enjoyed staying (and where we didn't...)

Thinking back actually I would recommend doing it separately. Whilst with most of our VH trips to the Caribbean I stick by using VH to sort it all out and include V-ROOM, check in chill out and the concierge service, my experience to hawaii was a bit disappointing in terms of the concierge bit.

Granted I may have wrongly assumed that the Virgin Holidays rep/concierge service applied to Hawaii, but nonetheless whilst I was there we had no contact with Virgin Holidays and for me a lot of the benefit of booking with VH is to have there help when I'm on holiday. VH doesn't cover Hawaii and passes it onto hotel beds I think, what this meant was we get our transfer from the airport find but there was no follow up from a rep at the hotel to book trips .etc(which has always happened in the past in the Caribbean). So cut a long story short you could realistically do everything yourself separately and it wouldn't be too difficult.

I agree with this.

We looked at Hawaii for last year with VH but it got a bit complicated and incredibly expensive so we opted for Dubai instead.

I have wondered if booking VH for anywhere else other than the Caribbean would be a bit disappointing as they do the Caribbean so well. We were disappointed when using VH for city breaks in the USA – pre Vflyer days.

I’ve always championed VH and I will continue to but sometimes you can get other gems but sorting it out yourself.

last year we used VH to book a hotel in UAE, but did flights direct with VS so that we could use miles for 2xUC

the VH hotel-only deal was excellent value, and the extras like reserved sunbeds ready for us every morning, with snacks and drinks delivered to us during the day were great, as it was a very long beach and we were far from the bar!

Could I ask Sungod which hotel in UAE you stayed at. Have tried to price up some hotels on the Virgin website all inclusive and you would need a second mortgage for some.

Still awaiting a price back from VH with some changes (taken 3 days now! Grrrrr)...

I looked at booking flights one way there and back and to do my own internal flights - but the price was crazy! Is there any reason for this..!?

Well then, it would still appear that I am awaiting a price 10 days later from VH – which to say the least is disappointing.

I have been scouting the interweb for prices, with a lot of looking at the VH website to be honest and am becoming a little – well frustrated to be honest. It would appear that VS are a lot more expensive for this trip than I had hoped. Indeed a lot more expensive than other airlines! This is really evident when booking flights separately (not as a package holiday) as the price is almost £7,000 for 2 in PE to Maui...! This is double what I can get 10 days for on Expedia – flying with VS and a hotel...! I there anything I can do differently to help this price a to be honest I would rather book with VS – but at this time I am really thinking of flying with a different carrier.

My other concern is that whilst the outbound flights are perfect – the return with VS is simply not viable, unless you are crazy! Its a 35 Hour travel time with stops at LAX and JFK..! I don’t understand how it can be this long and they offer no other flight?!

Does anyone have any advice on how I can bring this price down – or is it time to do the worst thing imaginable and leave the internet price hunting for Thomas Cook...

I hate to say it, but I'd consider an alternative airline as well. I'm a virgin fan, but....

If price not forthcoming - it may be worth checking the BA forum on Expertflyer. There have been some **cracking** BA business deals ex-europe to Hawaii recently. They also would pretty much get you BA silver in one flight.

I think the route I was reading about for flights was BRU->LHR -> LCY -> JFK -> LAX -> HNL. Same in reverse - all in business or first domestic, and I think it was under £2k pp. It's all priced on the BA forum as people using were using it as a mileage run - but it does show the deals are there. Yes you'd need a night in BRU either end and some tube/DLR transfers.

I was looking at ^ at thinking of surprising the wife with a trip to "Brussels", Germany etc, with it actually being a week in Hawaii instead.

Thanks Starquake - do you have a link to that forum, I cant find it on my Google search!

I was thinking of the BRU or AMS route - especially as even in PE its almost £1,000 less than from LHR...

I've PM'ed the link in case any admin has issue of me linking effectively the rival site