British Airways & Virgin Atlanic worldwide sales

dmg24

mustbemoreorganised wrote: »

Our dates aren't fixed as such but it's turning into a biggish trip with the scottish half of the family joining us and we've got to decide on a date so people can get the time of work, start looking for flights and we can sort out some accommodation, 11th March is the favourite date to go. Any later we go into April and Easter, any earlier I am not confident of the weather.

The only cheaper flights I can find are early Feb, so too early for you.

Have you looked at any of the charter airlines, possibly going from one of the regional airports? Alternatively, it is sometimes worth pricing up flights as a flydrive, even if you don't want the car.

mustbemoreorganised

dmg24 wrote: »

The only cheaper flights I can find are early Feb, so too early for you.

Have you looked at any of the charter airlines, possibly going from one of the regional airports? Alternatively, it is sometimes worth pricing up flights as a flydrive, even if you don't want the car.

Thomsonfly goes from Manchester but it's a one day a week service and it's either sunday or monday and I selfishly would like to fly on thur so you get home on friday and have the weekend before back to work. We have decided to wait for the next sale and just hope the prices haven't gone up but I will look at flydrives in the meantime.

HGLTsuperstar

Here comes a "how long is a piece of string type question" (sorry!)
Dates are fixed, flying to Delhi 8th Jan, returning 20th Jan. When to book? SInce started monitoring flight prices Virgin have dropped 30p, but booked flights to NYC with them in March (going in December) and did the silly thing the other day of seeing how much they now are and they've dropped over 100 quid, so lesson learnt.
But when do we call it quits and book so as to not miss out on a seat? Is there a website that shows how many seats are left for a given flight?
BTW, don't mention BA - we are def flying Virgin (long story!)
Thanks in advance

malkie76

BA have a superior product throughout their airplanes. What happened to put you off BA - was it something specific to BA, or something which could have happened to any airline?

Anyways, to address your question, use http://www.seatcounter.com to find out seat numbers left in each fare bucket on your chosen dates. Their software will show you all carriers (use google if you need help with the different fare bucket codes).

Also consider a subscription to http://www.expertflyer.com as it could save you hundreds and hence pay for itself many times over.

poet123

We are looking to fly to Orlando in August 2010 to hook up with a cruise, our dates are flexible (give or take 3 days) and we want to fly from Manchester. Who is our best bet and what price can we expect to pay. Flown with Virgin a few times before but not been back to the US for a few years so a bit rusty on flight costs.

As an aside, that seat counter site looks great, I know there is an equivlalent for cruise cabins (it is mentioned in hushed tones on cruise websites, but they are not allowed to post the site address on a pain of PPR!! and there are no pm facilities on the site) Does anyon know of this site or how to find it? google does not seem to deliver on this one. I would be really grateful if anyone had the info.

HGLTsuperstar

malkie76 wrote: »

BA have a superior product throughout their airplanes. What happened to put you off BA - was it something specific to BA, or something which could have happened to any airline?

BA specific ++++
But thanks for the weblink

Lady_S

Last year with VA it was cheaper to book in December to fly to NYC than i was to book in the September sale. We got caught out last year and spent an extra £120 per person on the flights. Hope that helps the poster above x

Donnie

Just back from a Caribbean trip flying with Virgin Atlantic in Economy. Flying out was surprisingly good. Decent seat pitch, passable food, good service, friendly personnel and a sizeable seatback TV.

Flying back was a little more ordinary.

It's definitely worth having some knowledge of your seating arrangements. Some seats have more legroom than others.

Nobjocki

Donnie wrote: »

Just back from a Caribbean trip flying with Virgin Atlantic in Economy. Flying out was surprisingly good. Decent seat pitch, passable food, good service, friendly personnel and a sizeable seatback TV.

Flying back was a little more ordinary.

It's definitely worth having some knowledge of your seating arrangements. Some seats have more legroom than others.

I much prefer Virgin over BA.
I couldn't get over how perfunctory and at times downright rude the BA cabin crew were on a recent flight back from the States.
The food was dreadful and on the couple of occasion during the red-eye when I wandered back to look for another drink the reception I got - interrupting their gossiping - was frosty to say the least.
I try to support BA as often as I can and I'm a frequent flyer with them but unless there's a huge discrepancy in fares I find myself booking with their opposition more and more these days.

HGLTsuperstar

I'll second that.