I feel Like i just robbed Virgin

As part of VS's crackdown, what would their "punishment" be for missing the last sector, say MAN-DUB?

A couple of V-Flyers have reported being told they can't short check their luggage without paying a hefty fee.

Doesn't seem to be happening universally, but VS are within their rights to do it.

You've finally made me look at these DUB fares. I'm not doing too well though... How do I go about ORD on Oct 3rd returning from MCO on Oct 17th all in upper?

This stuff is all to do with competing with, in effect, a sale price on the route. October is weirdly one of the months the sale doesn't cover, sadly, so might be out of luck.

For such fares flexibility is usually the big help...

What is the "crackdown" then ? If it relies on Virgin's IT department you are safe as houses I would imagine.

Possible loss of miles / TPs for that trip.

Possible closure of your FC account if you miss the last leg on a regular basis.

Possible re-pricing of your trip - again probably only for those doing it on a regular basis.

Long may it continue - though I fear with recent reports of BA & VS actively finding ways to crack down on it, and the seemingly inevitable forthcoming IAG takeover of Aer Lingus, its days may be numbered. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Crack down on what? Only perhaps the last leg being dropped, but the fares in themselves?

There's always ex-eu flights, depends on who and where. Dublin is currently excellent due to attempts to compete with direct flights to the US from there, and being very easy to get from from the uk. However, there's often ones from Amsterdam, Brussels (can get by eurostar to both of those, but brussels far more practical at 1:55, shit, I'd be in france before you'd typically made it heathrow), Oslo, Copenhagen. Recently there's been Etihad to Oz for 1600 quid business class, from Athens. Frankfurt to Bangkok was about 800 quid a few weeks ago. I don't think that's going away anytime soon.

Best ones are when a superb sale gets combined with it. They had 1K directs to west coast usa last christmas. They ex-dub'ed that one and I heard that you could get to Vegas in BA Club for 600 odd quid from Dublin. Personally, I'd go direct at that price, but whatever floats your boat.

We've already got a main thread for this. Time to perhaps wiki it and merge some?

Looking at DUB-LHR-JFK / LAS-MAN-DUB this morning for April next year, i can get fares even in Y which are 30-40% cheaper than just the LHR-JFK / LAS-MAN legs. The MAN-DUB sector even has an overnight in MAN so no reason for the luggage to be checked all the way through.

Think this has sorted my next holiday

The J fares are ridiculous (sub £1k) but they'll still blow my budget for the whole trip so reckon i'll do Y out & W back, impressive at £630.

What is the "crackdown" then ? If it relies on Virgin's IT department you are safe as houses I would imagine.

Possible loss of miles / TPs for that trip.

Possible closure of your FC account if you miss the last leg on a regular basis.

Possible re-pricing of your trip - again probably only for those doing it on a regular basis.

Sorry, my fault, I should have phrased it better because I agree that is all possible - but what is it that they have actually done as part of this crackdown? Has anyone experienced any punitive action as a result of not taking the last leg ?

See here: http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?f=4& ... =viewtopic

VS have, apparently, started (selectively) charging a fee for short checking bags.

Not sure why only now the panic has kicked in but we'll be arriving into DUB and then have 90 mins to kill before heading to LHR. If our LCY - DUB flight is cancelled or delayed, where do we stand and what sort of cost would it be to switch to a later flight or early morning flight out of DUB? I'm assuming and hoping the whole thing doesn't get reticketted.

Not sure why only now the panic has kicked in but we'll be arriving into DUB and then have 90 mins to kill before heading to LHR. If our LCY - DUB flight is cancelled or delayed, where do we stand and what sort of cost would it be to switch to a later flight or early morning flight out of DUB? I'm assuming and hoping the whole thing doesn't get reticketted.

Essentially if you miss the flight from DUB to LHR then they are perfectly within their rights to cancel the entire ticket.

If they simply repriced it could get very, very expensive.


I don't think that 90 minutes is enough time - especially if you have luggage to collect and re-check. Even a short delay will eat into any 'spare' time in the connection.

Who is the flight from LCY to DUB with as that could make a difference.

So if it was BA and your flight to LHR is also BA they may be more sympathetic avid lenient

Not sure why only now the panic has kicked in but we'll be arriving into DUB and then have 90 mins to kill before heading to LHR. If our LCY - DUB flight is cancelled or delayed, where do we stand and what sort of cost would it be to switch to a later flight or early morning flight out of DUB? I'm assuming and hoping the whole thing doesn't get reticketted.

I thought you were staying the night in DUB?

The flight from LCY to DUB was £60 and I'll book an airport hotel for £80. So, in total £1,250 per passenger. The VS price was around £2600.

Maybe you changed your mind? Flights from LCY are often running late (see FT!) and 90 minutes is a tight transfer time. It would concern me and I would not risk it myself.

My understanding is if the flights are not all on the same ticket there is no obligation for carriers to book you on to later flights should you miss connections. Have you got insurance?

I am not sure when you are flying but if you can address this by extending connection times, I would consider that option. But then I like a stress-free trip so I avoid transfers and certainly tight ones- I would rather wait and have time to absorb any delays should they arise.

I don't think that 90 minutes is enough time - especially if you have luggage to collect and re-check. Even a short delay will eat into any 'spare' time in the connection.

So if it was BA and your flight to LHR is also BA they may be more sympathetic avid lenient

I'll be hand luggage only.

Oct 2nd. LCY 18:00 -> DUB 19:15 BA4468
Oct 2nd. DUB 20:45 -> LHR 21:55 BA0839

I thought you were staying the night in DUB?

No, the night in LHR.

I am not sure when you are flying but if you can address this by extending connection times, I would consider that option. But then I like a stress-free trip so I avoid transfers and certainly tight ones- I would rather wait and have time to absorb any delays should they arise.

I booked this option as I can easily get away with leaving work at 16:30 without using another holiday day or half day. It's not the end of the world if I have to rebook the flight into DUB, just more of an inconvenience.

Thanks for your replies both. My knowledge of this is limited and would have hoped they could just rebook leg 1 instead of the whole thing.

BA have been known to 'rescue' lost tickets even though they are not connected by the same PNR when there is severe disruption - even allowing people to start at LHR rather than DUB.

But it is not something ever, ever, ever to rely on and they are certainly not obligated to do anything.

Okay! Think I might book the 16:55 Aer Lingus from LGW. That should get in by 18:30 and I have a RyanAir back up which leaves an hour later...

It is certainly possible to do a quick turnaround in Dublin, but are you willing to risk it? I mean, they'd not likely check you in (so I'd do online checkin) if over 45 minutes late...

Luggage in Dub was fine for me, quite quick. It isn't big in arrivals, and even transfer between terminals is like 2 minutes. Bit of a walk to the planes.

Personally given your criteria, I would have LCY-DUB and went back to LCY. If your incoming is late, its the same plane, so your outgoing would be late.

FT has a thread about immediate turnarounds which includes Dublin...

We are looking at returning to Las Vegas next May. I'm interested in these Dublin deals (anything to save money).

Can you tell me, which is the best way to do it, we would be starting our journey in Newcastle, usually fly to either heathrow or gatwick -not now as no flights Newcastle to Gatwick .

Do you book just the Dublin to Las Vegas leg and find your own way to Dublin - in our case would be ryanair or aer lingus, or do you put Newcastle as our journey start into the say skyscanner and book both legs together?

Was in the same predicament a few weeks ago ( have a search for my EDI - DUB TR) and basically came down to 3 options

1 fly out from EDI in morning with around 4 hours to spare then connect to LHR then end up in JFK at around midnight,mover night in JFK then fly down to MCO 1st thing in morning

2 fly out to DUB in afternoon, overnight in DUB then connect to LGW and then onto MCO same day arriving around 5pm

3 fly out to DUB afternoon, connect to LGW, overnight in LGW then connect to MCO as usual

Connections are not great from EDI to DUB and are very spread out so you either had 5 hours to hang about or had a really tight connection if you wanted to do the same day thing.

The ideal option would have been 3 but couldn't get a layover in LGW to work. ( I seemed to have a lot of trouble getting BA connections and had to use Aer Lingus ones with Expedia )

I'm a bit of a scardy cat with missing flights and like to have plenty of time so plumped for option 2 being that if something went wrong with the EDI - DUB flight, I had the afternoon and night to figure out a solution, if something went wrong with the DUB - LGW, that was expedia / virgins issue to get me to MCO

I didn't pick option 1 because I didn't fancy arriving in JFK at midnight and the finding the Hilton at the airport but that might be an option the next time.

The return journey ( MCO - JFK - LHR - DUB - EDI ) starts tomorrow so we see what that's like, although I'm tempted to have a back up LHR - EDI in place just in case

Only my thoughts on the EX DUB process but hope you'll find them useful

David

Do you book just the Dublin to Las Vegas leg and find your own way to Dublin - in our case would be ryanair or aer lingus, or do you put Newcastle as our journey start into the say skyscanner and book both legs together?

Yes you book the DUB-LAS as one ticket, and then get to and from DUB on another.

Basically you just need to have two skyscanner sessions open to work out timings for how long you'll spend in DUB.

Thank you for that, think I may need to start looking.....Only came back from USA on Sunday and already looking for next trip!

I'll get round to doing a flight report for LHR to JFK and then Dulles to LHR sometime this week. - Wasnt impressed with VA at all this time especially return flight to UK from Washington Dulles....

[honey lamb]

I'll be hand luggage only.

Oct 2nd. LCY 18:00 -> DUB 19:15 BA4468
Oct 2nd. DUB 20:45 -> LHR 21:55 BA0839

If you have only hand luggage you should be OK unless the LCY flight is seriously delayed. Both flights leave from T1 and all you need do is exit from Arrivals into the main terminal and then take the escalator to the left up to the Departures floor and go through security which is at the back of the area.

After that, it will depend on which gate your flight departs from. If it's from 101 onwards it is to your right post-security and a long walk and at one stage was used exclusively by Ryanair; if it's 201-220 then it is to the right and not too far from security (and I suspect it might be this area as in the past this area was used by the smaller aircraft such as those used in LCY); from 301 onwards is more or less across the corridor from security (depending which security area you use); gates 401 onwards is to your left and a longish walk (but not as long as the walk to the 100 gates.)

Hi all, Yep I am still over the moon about the price i paid. I just checked as there are still tickets to be had for £1050 Upper class return with connections to and from Dub.
Like some of the posters here I want to make sure Ill be at the airport for the day of my vegas flight so i can enjoy the clubhouse etc. The flights i went with are as follows.

Since I am in Scotland Ill be Doing a Cheap Ryanair Flight from Glasgow to Dub. Then the rest of my flights are all on the same booking number / Tickets. Ill Fly Dub to London Heathrow on the last flight ( think it was around 8.30 ish) then ill get a bus to take me to lgw as i dont land till 9:30 ish. I have decided to Stay at Gatwick Airport at BLOCK Hotel right inside the Airport, This gives me max time at the clubhouse :):):)

Really looking forward to my Trip. While i have flew upper class before I have not flew upper class on the night flight so will be intrested to see how that is.