Reply With QuoteYep, they are doing some good deals at the moment, I tend to fly them a couple of time a year to SA. I would love to take advantage of this but SA are not letting anyone in at the moment and there is no indication when this might change. :-(
You may not want to book flights but if you do, or have flights booked . . . .
They are having a black Friday sale and its about the best deal I've ever seen.
I have flights booked to Vegas in June in Upper - 145,000 airmiles, just cancelled them for £30 and rebooked for 72,500.
Upper for £1,000 and its normally £3,000 plus.
Air miles can easily be cancelled so if its not safe to fly, then a £30 fee is cheap.
I was on the phone for 1 !/2 hours so be prepared to wait if you have existing bookings, otherwise do it online.
Yep, they are doing some good deals at the moment, I tend to fly them a couple of time a year to SA. I would love to take advantage of this but SA are not letting anyone in at the moment and there is no indication when this might change. :-(
I used to fly with them a couple of times a year to Florida but since they moved from Gatwick to LHR and they still owe me £200 in refunds I'll use another carrier from Gatwick.
Cheers,
Neil.
As a tall person, I was disappointed with their configurations in the new dreamliner they seem to use for US flights. Have tried both upper class where you get to sit and peer at someone else's feet in herringbone and premium economy, where the box for the infotainment system under the seat in front stops you putting your feet fully under the seat to stretch out. Such a shame, as Virgin is one of my favoured airlines, that's the first thing I look at now in case a given route is using the A350 instead.
Thanks, I might book the family to go to Florida over Easter as it's looking like there will be a vaccine in place by then. £1500 for 3 people + an under 2 seems reasonable.
BA did similar recently; I managed to book a couple of business class seats to Malaysia next year for half the number of miles. Speculative at the time but the vaccine news has made it look a bit more likely 🤞
These are definitely decent offers and worth taking advantage of, especially as they tend to be cancellable up to 24 hours before the flight...
After the fight I had to get my money back off them for flights they cancelled back in March I don't think I'll be using them again😡
Ditto.Originally Posted by Toddy
I was their biggest cheerleader, but after the refund debacle - never again.
Cheers,
Neil.
Ditto
BA have a massive job to do to ever recover any goodwill. I also don’t think this will be easy given how badly they treated staff.
BA will not be getting my business for a while, the way they have treated their staff was shocking.
The service is not there either, they have been cutting corners for years. I flew BA club return to and from jo’burg the week before the March lockdown and the service was awful - nothing to do with COVID as the flight was full and there were no restrictions at the time. The service and product in Virgin Premium is better than BA Club.
ever so slightly off topic but the last time I went to the US I went with Virgin Premium Economy out and Business back and preferred Premium Economy. It makes no difference to me as work pay but I think next time I'll go PE both ways. OK, the crockery and cutlery aren't as nice (and I'll miss the lounge beforehand) but I've come to the conclusion that I sleep better in a good chair than in a bad bed.
Virgin were crap with me as well taking nearly 120 days to refund my flights. I’m not a fan of Branson either, but the heads up wasn’t really about that, it was to make people aware of how cheap the deals were. If you’re going to travel you’ve got to go with someone and from what I’ve read most of them have been poor to deal with. I guess now though it’s use them or lose them.
I have tried booking some reward flights, and whilst the number of points required is reduced they seem to have introduced a new 'carrier imposed international surcharge', which on 4 UC tickets to Orlando comes in at £1700. When you include the taxes and other charges of £900, its only a saving of about £1,000 on just buying the tickets.
I’m a bit torn about booking up for next year. Had flights to Orlando this May cancelled with Virgin, and waited 4months for refund, but to be fair I didn’t have to jump through any hoops to get it, just took ages.
Now am keen to book for next year, flights for May 2021 are similar price with virgin and tui. Virgin are far more flexible around cancelling/amending up until day before departure, whereas Tui are not offering any flexibility once your dates stray past the end of April.
But the way I see it Tui are far less likely to go to the wall by then than Virgin. Struggling to decide who to go with!
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If it was me it would be Virgin paid on credit card.
That’s what I’m leaning towards. Don’t like the idea of no flexibility - who knows, we more than likely won’t be out of the woods completely by then
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I pay for everything on a credit card nowadays just in case.
One of my mates had his Virgin flight in economy cancelled back in June and got a voucher for a future flight. Rebooked on the same trip as me a couple of weeks ago on a like for like basis. His original cost was £870.
After rebooking my upper for half price air miles yesterday, I told him that upper was £1,000 so to call and see if they would do anything - they let him cancel his voucher booking and rebook in upper class for the £130 difference! Ironically last week he was thinking of upgrading to premium economy for £420.
Obviously it’s all a bit of a gamble at the moment as who knows when things will start to return to normal but 7 months away is worth the risk.
I’m amazed they let him do that to be honest. But I guess we’re in very different times now!
So was he. Most of us at work had existing bookings (4 of us were originally going for my 50th) and they were flexible with everyone. I guess they need to be flexible for some time to come.
Well that’s good to hear. They will certainly need all the goodwill they can generate in the coming months and years...
Thanks for the PSA by the way. Flights to New York booked for next September at a nice bargain price.
There a decent 'no fee' reschedule policy (although I expect if we had to use it any new flights would be more expensive even if we don't have a fee). I've paid by CC and amazingly my annual travel insurance still had pandemic cover (although anything booked after Jan 31st next year is going to lose that cover). So while the future is even harder to predict than usual right now, I'm hopeful that we'll either get away for a good break or will be covered one way or another.
If you are planning on doing Disney you best check what’s happing in the parks. Restricted numbers and you have to pre book entry to a specific park and you can only have so many entries per ticket booked. Basically if nothing changes you can’t just turn up at a park and expect to go in even if you have tickets and you can’t book everyday in advance if you have a 14 day ticket. If you’re not doing Disney the pan I think the other parks are a little easier.
We were supposed to go last September but going to wait until 2022 I think now and see how close things get back to how they were. Cheap flight do make it hard to resist though!
If I ignore the fact the original rules around refunds then I was fine with Virgin. The initial flights got moved to credit and then when I requested the refund end of Aug it came through in Oct with no hassles. Which was within the then stated period. As to flights next year I'd like a bargain but I think we are looking to 2022 for Florida now as that is when the main Disneyworld 50th anniversary will be across.
South Africa is back open. You need a PCR test I believe and currently quarantine on return but you can travel there. Borders opened up mid October from memory.
Been looking ourselves as meant to go in early October.
Really? I thought the borders were closed to all but nationals (I am not a national and will be transit passenger)
Cheers.
From 11 Nov
https://www.gov.za/covid-19/individu...virus-covid-19
Cheers for that - cheered me up a bit!
I had flights booked with Easyjet to Spain. Cheeky buggers cancelled the outbound flight only, offering me a refund or credit note. The inbound flight was left as is, with no option to refund.
It took me over an hour to get through on the phone, but when I did, the guy on the end sighed audibly and refunded my money there and then. It was back in my account in a matter of hours.
Had my eye on it for ages. We’re itching to get back to SA as had a trip booked for Apr that was cancelled and again in Nov 🤨
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