Las Vegas Wedding: Leg to stand on?

HJS86

Hi all

Wonder if you can help.

My partner and I are getting married in September in Las Vegas )
and friends and family are making every effort to come with us but obviously its expensive.

We're departing on Aug 29th and returning Sep 11th, staying at the Stratosphere Hotel with Virgin.

We booked this in August for a cost of £1011 per person.
The day before we booked it, the price was at £958, so I called Virgin who told me that the price would continue to go up as availability reduced. Therefore we booked for 8 people that day to keep the cost as low as possbile.

Yesterday, another two of our family had managed to get the money together and went online, same as we did to book it.
They are staying at the same hotel, in the same size/standard room and are on the same flight, but their bill was only £856 per person!
Thats over £300 my partner and I alone could have saved!

My question is, if I call virgin to complain, is there a legal leg to stand on? Are they legally allowed be charging over £150 difference per person for the exact same holiday?
Surely the earlier its booked the more discounted it should be?

Would really appreciate anyone's view on this. Will be calling them tomorrow either way to see what they say.

Thanks in advance )

Hayley x

fluffygrue

Legally, they can charge whatever they want.. and prices will fluctuate according to demand/etc. Prices will go up as well as down.

The only leg.. or possibly little toe.. you have to stand on is that the Virgin advisor told you that prices would continue to rise. If it were me, I'd call up, and get a little stroppy that I were offered inaccurate advice, and possibly hope for some sort of upgrade or apology.. but I suspect that won't get you anywhere, sadly.

nw_man

HJS86 wrote: »

Hi all

Wonder if you can help.

My partner and I are getting married in September in Las Vegas )
and friends and family are making every effort to come with us but obviously its expensive.

We're departing on Aug 29th and returning Sep 11th, staying at the Stratosphere Hotel with Virgin.

We booked this in August for a cost of £1011 per person.
The day before we booked it, the price was at £958, so I called Virgin who told me that the price would continue to go up as availability reduced. Therefore we booked for 8 people that day to keep the cost as low as possbile.

Yesterday, another two of our family had managed to get the money together and went online, same as we did to book it.
They are staying at the same hotel, in the same size/standard room and are on the same flight, but their bill was only £856 per person!
Thats over £300 my partner and I alone could have saved!

My question is, if I call virgin to complain, is there a legal leg to stand on? Are they legally allowed be charging over £150 difference per person for the exact same holiday?
Surely the earlier its booked the more discounted it should be?

Would really appreciate anyone's view on this. Will be calling them tomorrow either way to see what they say.

Thanks in advance )

Hayley x

Sorry to hear of your plight..... I am not able to help with regards to your question but please, please, please..... if other family members want to attend your wedding, get them to book their flights online ( kayak or opodo etc ) then go to the Stratospheres website and book directly with them for the room.

Will save them a packet I bet.

Kenny_Powers_3

If the flight had gone up £300 would you be on the phone to Virgin to pay the extra?

The fact is flights prices fluctuate and whilst its true maybe 99% of the time that the prices will rise on occasion they do indeed drop.

nw_man

I have done a really, really quick search, dont know what airports you require but Delta have flights from Manchester to Vegas return on your dates for £514.30.

The Strats website ( with no discounts or offers yet available ) have a deluxe guestroom at $698.73 inc tax and resort fees ( working on £1 = $1.60 that makes £436.71 ).

So per person that comes to £514.30 plus £218.36 = £732.66 :T

OK, now before anyone goes and jumps on me from a great height.... the Delta flights ARE NOT DIRECT, Virgin most likely are direct. Plus I may have looked at the wrong airport.

This is however a money saving forum and for people on a budget ( Like me ! ) non direct flights are a real money saver.

Finally, may I politely point the original poster in the direction of the sticky at the top of this forum : http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1790615

Kenny_Powers_3

nw_man wrote: »

I have done a really, really quick search, dont know what airports you require but Delta have flights from Manchester to Vegas return on your dates for £514.30.

The Strats website ( with no discounts or offers yet available ) have a deluxe guestroom at $698.73 inc tax and resort fees ( working on £1 = $1.60 that makes £436.71 ).

So per person that comes to £514.30 plus £218.36 = £732.66 :T

OK, now before anyone goes and jumps on me from a great height.... the Delta flights ARE NOT DIRECT, Virgin most likely are direct. Plus I may have looked at the wrong airport.

This is however a money saving forum and for people on a budget ( Like me ! ) non direct flights are a real money saver.

Finally, may I politely point the original poster in the direction of the sticky at the top of this forum : http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1790615

US airports (except for the odd few) are designed to be transited through and as such are notoriously simple to use as a gateway to pretty much anywhere in the US.

ferf1223

nw_man wrote: »

I have done a really, really quick search, dont know what airports you require but Delta have flights from Manchester to Vegas return on your dates for £514.30.

The Strats website ( with no discounts or offers yet available ) have a deluxe guestroom at $698.73 inc tax and resort fees ( working on £1 = $1.60 that makes £436.71 ).

So per person that comes to £514.30 plus £218.36 = £732.66 :T

And booking the hotel direct will likely be cheaper closer to the actual dates when the deals are out so the savings will likely be greater...shame that the Vegas thread was not consulted before the OP with Virgin Holidays. It's been ages but I used to price up our flight+hotel vs. VH's package for the same thing, just to amuse myself because many times it was shocking how much more expensive it was with VH...most times you can get a much better standard of hotel booking direct, or save some significant money.

But to the OP - sorry that you paid more than you had to...but I doubt you'll get anywhere making a complaint - you can try of course...but I agree with the others it's unlikely that it will do any good.

ferf1223

Kenny_Powers wrote: »

I agree with you. But i would bet many people book with VH simply because they can pay a deposit and then pay off the balance weekly or whatever.

A perfect example - I am flying to LA in Feb with VS and have hired a car for 3 weeks (3 pax) £1100. Exactly the same thing with VH £1700.
Now im fortunate enough to be able to pay that sort of cash up front, but ill bet plenty of people would still use VH and pay the extra if it meant they could pay it off.

For some i guess its their only option.

Can't you pay in installments on expedia and the like now? Never done it, but have read of others doing so...buying the flights through Expedia would still be loads cheaper than VH...and by booking direct with the hotel, in general you only pay the first night up front - giving you all that time in between to save for the balance.

But I do see your point, and it's one I hadn't considered so appreciate the input.

nw_man

It is a good point about having to pay up front.... my credit card bill just came and our Washington DC / New Orleans flights for January are on there .... guess who forgot :eek:

:rotfl:Good job I am a saver :rotfl:

ferf1223

Kenny_Powers wrote: »

Its a shame because it means that those with less money available end up paying more.

I really do see your point..but paying significantly more in order to pay in installments seems like complete madness to me (perhaps to you too)...save up, book direct, pay a lot less...I can't really understand paying dramatically more in order to pay in installments -though I suppose some people's circumstances are such that if they don't actually make a payment to a company the money is at risk of being spent elsewhere.

I suppose this is one of those situations where I realise that am thankful that we always have a holiday savings balance available to pay for flights when we want to book them.

trets77

Kenny_Powers wrote: »

I agree with you. But i would bet many people book with VH simply because they can pay a deposit and then pay off the balance weekly or whatever.

A perfect example - I am flying to LA in Feb with VS and have hired a car for 3 weeks (3 pax) £1100. Exactly the same thing with VH £1700.
Now im fortunate enough to be able to pay that sort of cash up front, but ill bet plenty of people would still use VH and pay the extra if it meant they could pay it off.

For some i guess its their only option.

i see the logic , but sticking your flights on a credit card ( always useful for the protection it offers) then only paying one night as deposit , should be achievable if you are making significant savings .

plus the Stratosphere is a false economy in some ways IMO , as you will be paying to travel down to the strip all the time .

again gentle push for the OP to here