Virgin Holiday Discount - Advice needed!!!

nathantibbs

Right so basically. I am trying to book my honeymoon holiday for next year October 2016. (To orlando from manchester)

I have looked around and found a hotel, flight and car hire. 3 weeks. Total price £3150.00 (online price)

I then phoned up virgin and spoke to a person, well a few in the end. But they managed to reduce it by 200 pounds by slightly amending dates and adding there own complimentry discount of 100 pounds. £2950.00. They sent me this as an official quote.

Before I booked I was looking on the web and seen that if you join the Virgin Antlantic Red Flying Membership - you can recieve up to 7 percent discount. Joining this membership is free and basically tallies up your miles to get further discounts... I go on holiday once a decade so the mileage part of the deal isnt really any good for me, however 7 percent of booking a holiday is great.

So I joined.

I then phoned them up and asked, they said yes you would be entitled to discount however I must wait 28 days...

I am now on day 21... Whilst still looking I came across another deal, it says if you have a Virgin Antlantic Credit Card. You can recieve a 10 percent discount when booking a holiday!

So I have signed up to the Fee Free credit Card. (I intend to put the deposit down using this credit card. Pay the 300 pound off imediatly and close the account)

Im pretty much presuming that I am no way getting 17 percent discount off my origanlly quoted price. Id imagine id get to choose which one. So id obviously go for the highest discount.

Just wondering if anyone knows how all this works or am I just wasting my time.

Im planning on using Virgin as my fiance isnt to good with holidays and she trusts Virgin so changing providers isnt an option.

Any advise etc
Thanks

nathantibbs

First ever post by the way, so I apologise in advance

InsideInsurance

Have you costed up the holiday booking it separately? I'd be surprised that the likes of Virgin would be competitive for going to the USA. Even if you dont want to book separately the fact you know how much it'd cost can help in your negotiations with them.

Similarly have you spoken to any travel agents that sell Virgin Holidays? Its been years since I last looked at them but I know the agent back then said they could give a much bigger discount off of Virgin than Kuoni

bouncydog1

We always used to book Virgin fly drive and organise our own hotels as we never knew where we would be apart from the first night. Last trip (which was a few years ago) we had 4 nights in Orlando, then went to the West Coast for a few nights, then drove down to the bottom of the West Coast (can't remember the name but we had a two room suite right on the beach for $90 per night). On across to the East Coast and the keys and then back to Orlando. The accommodation was all booked as we went by stopping off and asking for the best rate - no iphones back in the day! It all worked out much cheaper than pre-booking a package. Oh and you need to get a Halifax Clarity card as well as this is perfect FX and no fees - don't apply yet though because of your Virgin app.

Nick_C

You would probably have a more comfortable flight with Thomson's!

photome

I doubt you will get any further discount than already agreed.

the discounts will be off the full price.

have you priced it up independently if price is a factor.

Car hire with Virgin isnt worth anything as you will have insurances to pay, it is usually cheaper to hire a car indepentendly with all insurances included.

If you want to go with Virgin because it is "easier" then book at a price you are happy with and ring them up now to see if you will get any further discount of the price quoted bearing in mind holiday prices go up and down all the time

FBaby

the discounts will be off the full price.

That has certainly been my experience with them. I wanted to book a cruise so checked what the price would have been booking directly with the cruise company. I was entitled to a 5% discount with Virgin so called them, and first, their best offer was £250 more than going directly with the company. When I said no thank you, they said that they could match the cruise company price. I said that was only of interest if they also included the 5% discount. The sale lady was a bit cagey about it, said she couldn't see that particular offer and asked me to email it to her. I did and I heard nothing back. Chased, still nothing. At this point, my tone was a bit more demanding and I got a very snotty comment back saying that she had not responded because we had agreed on the phone that she had already reduced the price as a gesture of goodwill (ha ha) and therefore the 5% didn't apply. When I responded that if that was the case, why would I have emailed her the evidence, she again totally ignored me.

Couldn't be bothered to take it up, but made certain to never ever again use any Virgin products!

Hope your experience is better than mine!

northwest1965

I would have a look at the flight only prices with Virgin Atlantic. Then I would price up the car with Alamo Brits. The price quoted is the final price you pay.

Perhaps give some more details and we can help with prices quoted.

Nick_C

photome wrote: »

Car hire with Virgin isnt worth anything as you will have insurances to pay, it is usually cheaper to hire a car indepentendly with all insurances included.

I think that's true of any package tour operator. My brother, who used to work for Thomson's, used to get packages to Florida which included "free" car hire. He never used the "free" hire car, as it was cheaper to hire a car independently than to pay all the excesses that were needed with the "free" car.

I've used Hertz and Avis on recent trips, and although they have never tried to give a hard sell on excesses I always arrange care hire excess insurance independently (through carhireexcess.com).

And I've had problems with both Hertz and Avis at Orlando airport. I think the staff there deliberately try to rip off British holidaymakers, knowing they are arriving tired after the long flight. In the last 2 years, Hertz let my reserved pre paid SUV to someone else because my flight was late, and then tried to charge me for an upgrade. Avis double charged me locally for a pre paid rental, and ignored my emails when I got back to the UK. Mastercard did a chargeback for me.

Westin

Like most Operators the prices are 'fluid' these days and potentially change frequently as revenue managers try to maximise opportunities, bookings and revenue. Do you know that the price you were quoted 21 days ago and which you are waiting to book, if it will still be available at that price?

It would be a shame if you have waited for your 10% discount from the credit card only for the overall price to have gone up 11%.

Often those extra discounts that the call centre agent throws in are 'sales enablers' which are limited and used to hopefully close a sale on that day.

One extra that they may throw in and might be worth asking them for before you finally purchase would be the v-room at MAN. That's a value of around £40 for you both.

Westin

The Flying Club discount may also not be off the cheapest price you have been quoted to date. The discount might only be applied to the full brochure price.

Below taken from the VAA Flying Club site:

The discount will be given to Flying Club members on all brochure priced and 'VHot Deals' holidays, plus up to 2 miles for every £1 spent on the total value of your booking (refer to award breakdown by membership tier above). Discount and miles earning qualifying spend does not apply/include to any applicable fuel surcharges, taxes, Air Passenger Duty or personal travel insurance elements of the booking.

Offers are for new bookings only made over the dedicated promotions phone line or through a Virgin Holidays Retail Store (not valid online). All Virgin Holidays booked over the promotions phone line or in store are subject to a non-refundable booking fee. The discount and earned miles apply to package holidays only (the booking must include a flight from the UK and accommodation booked through Virgin Holidays Ltd.). Fly-drive (flight and car hire only) bookings are not eligible for the discount or mileage offers.