Virgin flight prices

[tinkandonaldfans]

So we priced up a holiday through Virgin for 2 weeks in August 2023 and staying at Pop came to over £8k for the three of us. This price is literally the most we would have spent going to Disney ever!

We also checked on Disney’s site and same dates, same hotel and tickets came to £3,800. This price doesn’t have flights as it’s too far out but Virgin is essentially charging nearly £4.5k for two adults and a 5 year old!
We haven’t booked flights separately for a while so not sure if £1400 each is the new norm? We used to book flights generally £350-£700 each so to me it seems a lot??? Is it?
We only want to fly to MCO and we only want to go direct and we don’t want to use BA ( too many strikes, cancellations etc)

 

[Plague]

Yeah. Things are interesting.
My advice is to book the Disney resort and tickets now with DisneyUK on the £50/head deposit.
Once flights open in Sept/Oct ish start pricing them up. Direct will probably cost more, so if cost is an issue be more flexible - go via Dublin (Aer Lingus) or the like.

If it turns out (and who really knows where things are going the next few months) it's just too expensive ... sit on it. Those Disney bookings don't need the balance paying until about June next year and even then you can cancel and get a refund (less the £50 deposits) up to about a week (8 days IIRC) before arrival. In that time all sorts of flight options might appear with 'sales' and new routings (JetBlue?).
£150 on a (possibly) £8k holiday booking is 2/3 of 5/8 of FA - as we used to say . Worry about the transport separately.

 

[MarkleB]

Return BA tickets and a 14 day stay in Pop Century in August 2023 for 4 would cost £1000 more right now than it cost me to book the same thing last November for August 2022. I don't remember what the Virgin price was for August 2022 in November, but I remember nearly choking.

I then rebooked that trip in January for the same dates and saved £1200. I was prepared to kiss my £350 deposit goodbye, but that was returned as a voucher.

(I didn't end up going. We're rebooked for Christmas after Passport Office chaos. But BA were amazing. I also don't know if any of their Gatwick or long-haul international flights have been interrupted in the for-what-it's-worth category, but I appreciate and support not wanting to spend money with a given company.)

 

[ceccyboo]

That's the price I have paid for 5 of us with Tui for next August at Pop with 2 rooms. We have always previously flown with Virgin but can't justify the price anymore.

 

[jf256]

Would you be willing to consider getting a virgin credit card. You get a bonus offer of points to start off with and you can get a companion ticket for economy or premium. We used this and paid £1000 for 2 in premium plus the fee of £160

The flights would have been around 3k if we did it a different way.

If you dont want to do it this way and know you will be doing a trip with virgin in 2024 it would be worth getting it anyway. With the bonus and the fact you are spending a lot with virgin holidays you might have 2 vouchers and enough points by then to reduce your costs dramatically.

 

[jf256]

Would you be willing to consider getting a virgin credit card. You get a bonus offer of points to start off with and you can get a companion ticket for economy or premium. We used this and paid £1000 for 2 in premium plus the fee of £160

The flights would have been around 3k if we did it a different way.

If you dont want to do it this way and know you will be doing a trip with virgin in 2024 it would be worth getting it anyway. With the bonus and the fact you are spending a lot with virgin holidays you might have 2 vouchers and enough points by then to reduce your costs dramatically.

One thing you do have to book on the phone to use the upgrade voucher and you are subject to availability of reward flights but these are much easier to get as they changed the system. You can also use your miles for virgin holidays so worth considering.