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#960271 by calmdave
27 Mar 2021, 22:24
Prices for MAN-MCO in UC ridiculously high at present. Well over £5000 per person. Rewards are also now up to min 140,000 per person some were 150,00 and I even saw one at 185,000 per person.

The new Aer Lingus flight offers a Business Class seat for £3100 per person. Lie flat bed, 22" seat width, Lounge access, 'luxury dining' .

I assume VA prices and points will change. I hope so otherwise Virgin is going to lose a customer whenever we can finally fly. The only thing bad I see with the Aer Lingus flight is that it seems a longer flight time - assume this is all down to the type of aircraft they are using.
#960272 by mitchja
27 Mar 2021, 23:18
VS prices may not get any lower if they have already sold their lower fare inventory. It’s down to supply and demand unfortunately.

What dates are you looking at?

One alternative is have you looked at flying via ATL or JFK from MAN to get to MCO? Both those airports are very easy to connect through. JFK also had the advantage of having a proper Clubhouse unlike flying direct from MCO.

Another option is to book a miles+money fare. All revenue VS fares allow you do do this on all routes. You would then still earn the miles and tier points but bring the fare cost down by putting miles towards the cost.
#960273 by ColOrd
28 Mar 2021, 00:55
I'm not sure what is going on with VS and prices, surely they aren't expecting to fill seats with prices that high especially when you look at the fares that Aer Lingus have introduced.

I would say like Mitchja what dates are you looking for? If you're seeing reward fares for that sort of amount they will involve some kind of connection as direct MANMCO Peak season return will only be 115k. You start adding legs on either via AMS or ATL etc etc and its those connecting legs bumping it up.

Just done a quick search on ExpertFlyer for Saturdays in the School holidays, and basically there's not a lot left, on the 14th of August there are only two tickets left in Upper, and I suspect they are overbookings as opposed to actual real availability.

VS 75 MAN 10:30a → MCO 2:30p 14 August
J2 C2 D0 I0 Z0 W9 S9 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q0 X0 N0 O0 V9 T9

VS 75 MAN 10:30a → MCO 2:30p 7 August
J3 C3 D0 I0 Z0 W9 S9 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q0 X0 N0 O0 V8 T9

VS 75 MAN 10:30a → MCO 2:30p 31st July
J4 C4 D0 I0 Z0 W9 S9 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q9 X0 N0 O0 V5 T9

Things may move around quite soon, VS have just cut some frequencies over the Summer, I am not sure if MCO was included in that, I don't think it was as they were selling like hot cakes, but there's aircraft going spare now for the peak Summer season, and right now the VS75 is showing as a 332. I am almost certain that will end up as 787 or a minimum of a 330-300 both of which have about 11/12 more UC seats in them than the 332. So I would say "watch this space" based on my hunch but again it depends on dates.
#960274 by 747G-VXLG
28 Mar 2021, 01:09
ColOrd wrote:I'm not sure what is going on with VS and prices, surely they aren't expecting to fill seats with prices that high especially when you look at the fares that Aer Lingus have introduced.

I would say like Mitchja what dates are you looking for? If you're seeing reward fares for that sort of amount they will involve some kind of connection as direct MANMCO Peak season return will only be 115k. You start adding legs on either via AMS or ATL etc etc and its those connecting legs bumping it up.

Just done a quick search on ExpertFlyer for Saturdays in the School holidays, and basically there's not a lot left, on the 14th of August there are only two tickets left in Upper, and I suspect they are overbookings as opposed to actual real availability.

VS 75 MAN 10:30a → MCO 2:30p 14 August
J2 C2 D0 I0 Z0 W9 S9 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q0 X0 N0 O0 V9 T9

VS 75 MAN 10:30a → MCO 2:30p 7 August
J3 C3 D0 I0 Z0 W9 S9 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q0 X0 N0 O0 V8 T9

VS 75 MAN 10:30a → MCO 2:30p 31st July
J4 C4 D0 I0 Z0 W9 S9 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q9 X0 N0 O0 V5 T9

Things may move around quite soon, VS have just cut some frequencies over the Summer, I am not sure if MCO was included in that, I don't think it was as they were selling like hot cakes, but there's aircraft going spare now for the peak Summer season, and right now the VS75 is showing as a 332. I am almost certain that will end up as 787 or a minimum of a 330-300 both of which have about 11/12 more UC seats in them than the 332. So I would say "watch this space" based on my hunch but again it depends on dates.


I believe that the VS75 will end up as an A350 (highest capacity aircraft) and if/when the flights are confirmed, the prices will go down.
#960277 by tontybear
28 Mar 2021, 13:05
For MAN I chose a couple of random dates in August and was offered 150k via ATL and 160k via JFK. For Sept I was offered 130k via ATL and 140k via JFK

From LHR I'm been offered 150k via ATl, 160k via JFK (some dates it's 182.5k) and 175k via BOS. In Sept I'm seeing 140k via JFK and 152.5k via BOS.

From both airports on the random dates I looked at there were no rewards on the direct flights from each airport.

I've not checked cash prices but again via JFK/BOS/ATL are usually offered as could KLM/DL via AMS (which is the easier connection) or Air France via Paris and you'd still earn VS miles and TPs

I've not checked the EI pricing but those flights have only just been released so they may not have released the cheaper fares yet (when flights first go on sale airlines generally only release the higher priced fare buckets and the cheaper ones a few days later).

One advantage with EI is that you can also do MAN-DUB-MCO on the outbound and pre clear US Immigration & Customs in DUB and then fly MCO-MAN non stop on the return.

Standard advice on redemptions is to try and be flexible for the best deals so that could mean an indirect routing or leaving on a Thursday or a Sunday instead of a Friday or Saturday
#960281 by ColOrd
28 Mar 2021, 16:12
tontybear wrote:One advantage with EI is that you can also do MAN-DUB-MCO on the outbound and pre clear US Immigration & Customs in DUB and then fly MCO-MAN non stop on the return.


This won’t exist on the new services as they are direct from Manchester so will need to clear US Immigration and CBP as normal on arrival.
#960286 by tontybear
28 Mar 2021, 20:23
ColOrd wrote:
tontybear wrote:One advantage with EI is that you can also do MAN-DUB-MCO on the outbound and pre clear US Immigration & Customs in DUB and then fly MCO-MAN non stop on the return.


This won’t exist on the new services as they are direct from Manchester so will need to clear US Immigration and CBP as normal on arrival.


I did specifically say MAN-DUB-MCO
#960387 by Sealink
10 Nov 2022, 20:12
calmdave wrote:Prices for MAN-MCO in UC ridiculously high at present. Well over £5000 per person. Rewards are also now up to min 140,000 per person some were 150,00 and I even saw one at 185,000 per person.

The new Aer Lingus flight offers a Business Class seat for £3100 per person. Lie flat bed, 22" seat width, Lounge access, 'luxury dining' .

I assume VA prices and points will change. I hope so otherwise Virgin is going to lose a customer whenever we can finally fly. The only thing bad I see with the Aer Lingus flight is that it seems a longer flight time - assume this is all down to the type of aircraft they are using.


EI business class is excellent
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