Barbados Advice Please

Hello
Would like to get some advice/thoughts on the following!

Gonna be booking a trip to Barbados in the next week or two. Hoping to go for 3 or 4 weeks and splitting our stay between a Villa and a Hotel (hopefully the wonderful Oceans Two). Aiming to fly out in Upper and return in Premium. There will be 3 of us (2 Adults, 1 Child) although there will be other family members flying over as well but they will be making their own arrangements.

Have approx 275,000 miles to use.

What is everyone's opinion on best use of miles?

Use 255,000 miles on a straight forward redemption

Buy a flexible ticket in Economy and upgrade from there

In addition I have never used the 2 for 1 vouchers that I assume I still have from using various Virgin Credit Cards, not even sure how that works, could someone explain? (I have been using these cards for years!)

We are hoping to go out either late November, although ideally it would be great to go over the Christmas/New Year time BUT I am assuming that availability for upgrades would be bad as well as increased hotel costs.

Any suggestions on Villa accommodation would help, if you know the Oceans Two that is the type of standard we would like (New, Modern, Clean and well organised!), have just started to look through Airbnb for options.

Lots of questions I know

I think it will depend on timing. Reward flights and upgrades are like hen's teeth on that route around Christmas! You might find there is no option other than to pay for the flghts at that time of year. Generally it is viewed on here that an upgrade from an economy ticket to UC is the way to go.

We got a really good deal in November last year on a package with VH and upgraded our flights to UC on the way out and PE on the way back for £600 pp whcih I thought was excellent, but I guess a package isn't an option for you if you are splitting time between O2 and a villa. Some friends of ours got a really good package with VH for O2.

We've just booked two full redemptions to UC for Barbados at the end of November, back early December. 100k miles and I think £940 in taxes. The M to UC was £1180 plus miles, but as we have so many we opted for the cheaper cash version. There were plenty of dates on offer just last week when we booked. Christmas may be doable, but only if you are flexible and quick. Do let us know how you get on.

have you considered premium out & upper back?
revival lounge in heathrow when you land.. nice relaxing trip back.

The flights are back to LGW! Strangely I find sleeping in PE slightly easier than in Upper so whenever possible I try to do Upper on the way out for the whole check in, lounge etc experience, the lounge at BGI (or even LAS) is not much too shout about. Always feel terrible whenever I get back though after a plane flight, even after a short flight, never seems to affect me on the way out.

I did the same as you only a few days ago.

I booked a return non flexible premium economy ticket at £851 per person having checked that there were G seats available on the outbound.

I then chatted via the chat app on the website and upgraded the outbound from K to S and upgraded with 12,500 miles each at an additional cost of £255 per person.

Whether that is good value for money / good use of the miles I don't know but it got me what I wanted cheaper than booking a mixed class return flight.

Like you, I don't find UC on the return from BGI value for money (too short a night flight - just over 7 hours).

Hi
Just to give an update. Have managed to get 3 G's in Early December on a 747 (and going to booking another 4 family members as well in Upper so nice to have half the cabin!) - returning not a lot of options so have a 747 return in Economy. Hopefully will be able to get everyone in row 76 with the little ones in 77 with 1 adult to supervise! Will do a separate post about accommodation.

Well done on the G's.

Turtle Beach gets a recommend from us.

Congrats....and a 747! Interesting since CC on our flight in UC in Oct told us they weren't using 747s on the LGW/BGI route after April. I suppose she might have meant for the summer season but I got the impression she was talking about forever. Said they were only going to be used from MAN.

I was surprised as well and I guess it could change in the many months between now and then! 747 is a bonus though - not sure which leg I would be most upset about changing to a 333!

My MMB in November is a 747.

Well done on the G's.

Turtle Beach gets a recommend from us.

I will be following the accommodation discussion with interest, as it's been 4 years since my last Barbados trip, and I'm pining a bit. May have to be on the agenda for April 2016, if I'm not railroaded by my family into yet another trip to the Verandah in Antigua (which is also great).

We've done the Verandah a few times, have to say I was a tiny bit disappointed this July, but would still go back. Turtle Beach is super, but we've gone on a TA recommend for a spa hotel in Sugar Cane this year (no kids). Purely because our son is taking iGCSE and we can't be away when we want to be due to potentially stressful phone calls betwixt him and us, so opted for a break when TB can't accommodate us........TA reviews are good and we got a cracking deal with VH (reward flights) of price match and 7% discount.

Turtle is like a grown up Verandah, smaller yes, but IMHO better, especially for older kids.

I'm off to Barbados in sept flying on a a330, also staying at turtle beach so glad it has good feedback on here!

Have started a new thread re Accomodation