Upper Class price fluctuations for LGW-MCO

Hi all,

Planning a trip to Florida in October. When I originally checked the prices, I found Upper Class fares for just £1,800 return in October. Unfortunately, as my trip was so far out, at the time I couldn't book the actual return journey I wanted as it was beyond the 11 month booking window (21 night trip - so I found the £1,800 fare by doing a return journey within the first week of Oct). Now that my return dates are available, the price has jumped up to almost £4,000 return.

I'll book that fare if I have to - but wondering what the chances are that this price will drop again? I'm not a regular on this route and would rather not shell out over £2K more per ticket than I need to!

Thanks!

[mitchja]

Have you looked at other UK airports for MCO? Remember there's also MAN daily as well as GLA seasonally?

Worth checking others if you havn't already done so.

I suspect the £1800 was VS silently price matching a BA sale. Now that the sale is over, both airlines are up around £3000.

You could either wait for a sale which is absolutely bound to happen before Oct but it's a question of how fixed you are in your dates and how many seats you want. If you want to take the whole family and your dates are totally fixed then I might be tempted to book an ex-EU connecting to BA in club. Currently you can have that for £1,580 (ish) each. https://goo.gl/flights/8xhU Note the change of airport at the end if you just want to walk away in LGW (not that anyone would do that, would they? )

Thanks, Stuart! That's a good find!

Fortunately, our dates are also fairly flexible (+/- a couple of weeks either side) as long as we can get the flights booked by April. We are Disney Vacation Club members, so we can easily adjust the dates of our stay as long as this is more than 6 months out (within 6 months, resort availability drops off!). There's only the two of us - so that should be make it easier.

I wasn't familiar with the trick of selecting a connecting flight from DUB - I can't believe how much cheaper that makes the flight - bizarre! As you say, there's nothing to stop you from walking away at LGW - but presumably for the outbound flight, we would need to fly from DUB? Or....? We live in London you see...

You absolutely MUST fly the first leg. If you miss that the rest of the ticket is cancelled.

The point of booking the return leg to go from LHR is that there's no method to through-check bags between different London terminals so you are guaranteed being able to claim bags in LGW. If you booked the final leg as LGW-DUB it's possible (probable even) that the bags will be through-checked to DUB giving you some explaining to do if you no-show for that flight and they need to offload the bags then re-unite them with you.

BA have said they will clamp down on people dropping the last leg as they aren't stupid and know people are doing this to take advantage of the much cheaper fares but, to date, there have been no reports of any action actually being taken.

The other option is to actually fly the return and collect the Tier Points and Avios. In that case, book something that connects in LGW - you've paid for it after all.

Having said all that, given your flexibility and only wanting 2 seats, I'd be tempted to just wait and see what happens with VS fares. I prefer UC over CW any day. If the price fails to drop (it should do in Jan sale I would think) then you've got the DUB option as a backup.

That's great to know. Thanks for taking the time to explain

I'll definitely take your advice - hold out for a sale and if there's no decent price drop in the next 3 months or so, I'll take the DUB trick (assuming they've not cracked down on it by then!).

Thanks again!

Just to say, that's not even a particularly cheap ex-DUB too. It was regularly £1200 during the summer months...

ex-Europe fares are not 'tricks' they are simply a function of different prices for different markets. There is noting underhand in buying them per se but there is some moral hazard in skipping the last leg and indeed airlines are taking a more than active interest in people doing this on a regular basis.

An issue that people have reported on the main 'ex-DUB' thread is that many times they cannot find any VS flights using ex-Europe starting points.

Remember that there are only 14 seats on the LGW/MAN/GLA fleet of 747's and if VS can sell those for top prices then they will.


As to the current cost remember that when airlines put seats on sale they often only load the most expensive buckets for the first couple of days before releasing the cheaper ones.

An issue that people have reported on the main 'ex-DUB' thread is that many times they cannot find any VS flights using ex-Europe starting points.

I had the same issue in this case. The ex-DUB VS fare was the same price as ex-LGW which is why I quoted BA.

Remember that there are only 14 seats on the LGW/MAN/GLA fleet of 747's and if VS can sell those for top prices then they will.

Hence my questions about how fixed the dates were and how many seats were needed.

As to the current cost remember that when airlines put seats on sale they often only load the most expensive buckets for the first couple of days before releasing the cheaper ones.

£2,800 is the standard VS price for anytime from March 17 onwards. Large chunks of Jan and Feb 17 are an eye-watering £5,600

So, I've noticed the price, if booking the Virgin flight through the Delta website, is hugely different.

Virgin has the LGW-MCO flight at £2,817, but Delta are showing it at £1,850! Is there anything I need to be aware of if booking this flight via Delta? I presume I would have to use Delta check-in, but other than that, is there any other difference?

So, I've noticed the price, if booking the Virgin flight through the Delta website, is hugely different.

Virgin has the LGW-MCO flight at £2,817, but Delta are showing it at £1,850! Is there anything I need to be aware of if booking this flight via Delta? I presume I would have to use Delta check-in, but other than that, is there any other difference?

No difference at all.

You check in with VS as the operating carrier. (In fact you;d have a job finding a DL desk as they have no flights from LGW)

So, I've noticed the price, if booking the Virgin flight through the Delta website, is hugely different.

Virgin has the LGW-MCO flight at £2,817, but Delta are showing it at £1,850! Is there anything I need to be aware of if booking this flight via Delta? I presume I would have to use Delta check-in, but other than that, is there any other difference?

No difference at all.

You check in with VS as the operating carrier. (In fact you;d have a job finding a DL desk as they have no flights from LGW)

haha nice - so Virgin want a £1,000 odd premium to use their rather buggy site

Thanks for clarifying - just wanted to be sure. You know what they say when something looks too good to be true!

I wonder if the Delta website jumped the gun on Virgin's winter sale price?

I wonder if the Delta website jumped the gun on Virgin's winter sale price?

Not sure - but as it happens, when I was looking this morning, the fare on Virgin's site suddenly dropped to £1,850 return, so I decided to snap it up!

I must say, I didn't realise the fares fluctuated so much - as in a number of times in a day. But, I'm pleased with that, as the lowest UC fare I have ever seen for LGW-MCO in October is £1,700 - happy to pay a little bit extra for piece of mind that its all sorted and I don't need to keep checking the Virgin site a few times a day

The drop could be because Virgin started their sale this morning too

And it is always worth checking the VH prices - since they seem to have their own "bucket" you can often / sometimes get a really good price that includs car hire as well... but your patience paid off, even if for only 2 days!