Seattle OR Disney

So it's the husbands 40th next November. I've asked him what he'd like to do for it, and hes mentioned either going back to Seattle or to Disney in Florida.

At the moment I've got just over 180000 virgin miles, so what's the chances of getting an upper class reward to either Orlando or Seattle?

Husband is quite restricted with work so wed have to fly out on a saturday or sunday, and have to have landed back in the uk by the following sunday.

We live reasonably close to Manchester airport but are willing to fly from london.

It would be for November next year. Any advice much appreciated.

I've not done it personally and I certainly can't speak for SEA, but Upper reward seats to/from MCO have been reported on here to be sparse due to the cabin being small (14 on the 747, though it could change if A350's are operating the route by then) and as you're quite restricted as to when you can go it may harm your chances of grabbing two seats on the dates you want, though at the same time it's low season. If you want to go to Orlando on a reward ticket, you may want to look at indirect options such as via ATL.

Another option could be to book a seat in Economy or PE using cash and upgrade using your miles, though I accept using cash defeats the object of using some of your miles.

When I've searched for West Coast rewards in Upper, Seattle has always had the best availability. Bear in mind though that you will need 135,000 miles each for an Upper return off peak compared with 95,000 miles for Orlando.

I would book it on where you want to go rather than how you’re getting to get there.

A week in Seattle is quite long. Unless you were heading off on an Alaskan cruise, but that’s doubtful considering the length of the trip and that it would be horrendously cold. If you were set on West, I’d say 3 nights is plenty and head off elsewhere for another 4.

Personal preference, but I’d head to Orlando. Or at least NYC/ATL/MIA and somehow make my way south. Seattle is fun and the Boeing factory is worth a visit alone, but not in November and not for 7 nights.

We have a friend in Seattle, so we'd be meeting up with him and his partner while there.

Why not go to Disneyland?

We've managed MCO rewards several times (3 now) - so it's definitely a possible. They don't always open them day one, and obviously travel mid-week to maximise timings. We just book the holiday around the dates we can get from the nice people at VS CS. I've rarely booked online, usually get them to look on the computer for a suitable break.

Last few times we paid for a upgradeable Y fare and upgraded to UC in one move - which did use less miles, but did cost a little more (but we also earnt miles on the Y portion of the flight)..

Oh and I didn't pick up it was November. Yes, MCO everytime that time of year, SEA and west coast above LAX is cold that time of year.

So he's decided he definately wants to go Disney. Are we best booking flights and hotel seperately? Or booking the whole thing through Virgin Holidays? There's no sign of any reward flights coming out, though I am keeping an eye on it.

I always book separate. But, we often book a villa and prefer to chose one. We often split stay as well.

A few questions...

1. What Disney? Presumably Orlando?
2. There’s a few UC rewards to Miami, what are your dates?
3. How’s your mileage looking now?

1. Disney Orlando

2. 7th to 14th November

3. 180000 miles

So he's decided he definately wants to go Disney. Are we best booking flights and hotel seperately? Or booking the whole thing through Virgin Holidays? There's no sign of any reward flights coming out, though I am keeping an eye on it.

It's worth doing a price comparison to see which method offers the best value. I know some people have claimed booking a package through Virgin Holidays can be more expensive, but having price checked my upcoming VH trip to Florida later this year compared to booking separately, it looks like we made the right call booking through VH as it's working out better value for me, plus I booked it a few weeks before Thomas Cook collapsed so consider myself fortunate in that respect. It really depends where you're going.

Another reason to consider VH (be it booking a package or just the hotel element) is that you don't have to pay the resort fee that some places will charge if you booked direct. The last time we used VH for a hotel we stayed at a resort where the fee was waived compared to when we stayed there a couple of years prior as we had booked direct.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that if you book a flight + hotel combo through VH and if you have Flying Club membership for more than 1 month, you will either get a 7% discount if you're Red or Silver or 10% if you're Gold.

Consider doing the LHR->ATL->MCO routing for Disney - it really isn't much extra hassle, and the ATL route often has way more availability on a miles reward (and flights from ATL to MCO are near hourly in case of problem). Also check daily on VS availability - we've had redemptions in both PE and UC DIRECT to MCO in November several times since 2012, so I know it's possible, just be flexible on dates - given VS availability starts at 11 months, I'd actually be checking this from now until end of January as it's a "bit" early for miles seats on the direct route to be released potentially now - I've usually seen avialability at 10.5-10 months.

Personally last time we booked VH was 2014, ever year since it's been considerably cheaper to book independently - but bear in mind I like a few on this forum have Disney timeshares, so resort fees/hotel rates are kinda of irrlevant given that - so the resort fee element doesn't come into it.. However last year my friends came with us, and routed LHR -> DUB -> JFK -> MCO - and for peak summer that routing was £600 less per person than the direct option (445pp in Y total cost). Villas should also be considered instead of hotels - last year we booked a Villa for WAY less than the hotel options would have cost via homeaway.

Something else to consider for Disney - if staying offsite (or even onsite now), its around $20-25 to park daily - which is near what a Uber in costs... but also if "one" in party buys a annual pass you may offset the entire extra parking cost when offsite (annual pass = more than uk pass, but annual pass doesn't pay parking, so one in party with that = potential huge savings on longer stays).