PE Tickets so Expensive. Why?

Might need to do a relatively last minute trip (NYC > LHR), from Jan 6 - 13. All of the PE tickets are insanely expensive ($2000 each way), while Economy is around $980 roundtrip. What gives? I'm used to paying about 20 - 50% more than Economy.

I'm pretty flexible (willing to leave from JFK or EWR), and would prefer avoiding Economy...

I just can't imagine there's that much demand that week, that the lower bucket fares are already gone - or that they can sell those tickets at that price.

[Neil]

The cheaper PE fares all have advance purchase rules, some 28 days, some 14 and with you wanting to travel so soon you are now inside those restrictions which is why you are only getting the more expensive fare codes.

Will those restrictions ease up at all between now and then? Or would my best bet be to buy Economy, and try to upgrade at the airport?

I have a ton of miles.

Also - are there similar fare rules for Economy? Is the price going to jump up soon? If so, when?

[Neil]

They won't ease up, they are advance purchase restrictions, so you have to have bought the ticket at least 14/21/28 days before the flight etc.

There are fares codes in all classes of travel that have the same type of restrictions, so yes, it will be the same for economy.

I'd buy economy and try and upgrade at the airport. If there's space there's a good chance they'll say yes. If not it's only 6 hours.

I assume the people at Virgin who work behind the scenes and set the revenue fares have carefully calculated what fare they can charge and the liklihood of selling it at that price. The more profit thay make the better.

It may be that customers who book in the final days days pre-departure have less flexibility and more urgency, so they will, at the end of the day, pay for the fare, at whatever the price, within reason.

If you have lots of FC miles I assume you are a loyal Virgin Atlantic customer, but in this case have you looked at competitors fares? They may be more reasonable and for 6 hours maybe you could tolerate flying UA/ BA/ AA/ ...?

If you're slightly flexible on dates (6th to 14th, for example) you could always test out La Compagnie for just under $1500 - ok it's not quite VS Upper or BA CW but definitely reviewed as better than PE and so got to be better than E.

Thanks for all the info.

I ended up booking Economy ($950 roundtrip). There are between 150 - 200 available seats from what I can see, so I should get ample room for the cost.