Are these Virgin prices likely to go down...

[DebIreland]

... or is it wishful thinking on my part?

I'm looking at prices for Virgin flights for October 25th (or 2 days either side of that) and returning Nov 10th (or 1 day either side) and the prices are: 433 stg adult fare, 355 child fare (or thereabouts).

If we were to wait until November 1st to fly out the fares would be a lot cheaper but unfortunately, as my boys will be off school week beg. Mon 30th Oct, I want to maximise that week - I'll already be pushing it with time off school if we go at the end of October.

My question is, what are the chances of the prices going down in a few weeks/months for late October?

Should I face reality and accept that if we want to fly with Virgin we're gonna pay over 2000 stg (nearly 3000 euro) for our family (2 adults, one 12 year old, one 9 year old and a 2 year old)?

If the prices don't go down we can fly Shannon to New York with Aer Lingus and take another flight from NY to Orlando, this would be much cheaper but I'm not loving the thought of getting off a long haul flight in NY and waiting for another one....... *groan*.

Thanks for any help!!

 

[kristieuk]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that both BA and Virgin have had a sale on through January. We have about 40 people coming to our wedding in Florida at the beginning of November, and many of them have taken advantage of the cheaper fares.

During the w/c 30 October, the fares to Orlando return from Gatwick were £288 with Virgin, and the sale proces were to end on 31st Jan. But we did find that from one day to the next, the fare prices were changing - mostly going up. I know that airlines have price bands so that if all the seats are sold in one price band, the price goes up to the next band, so this may well have been the reason.

We've had people pay from £288 - £450 for the same flight on the same day, but booked a couple of weeks apart.

I know this is probably no help at all to helping you decide, and I'm sorry that I don't have more positive assistance! All I would say is that if you are set on your dates, I wouldn't wait to see if the prices come down - as you say, that first week is half term, and they will probably sell out completely.

Good luck

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Difficult to say, but if you have dates in mind I would book with your preferred airline now if you wait too long they may be sold out.

To be honest I would swap places with you, with my wife being a teacher and my son at school we are restricted to August now and are paying £849 adult price, cannot remember what Joshua's is....so we go for 3 weeks to make the most of it.

 

[DebIreland]

Thanks so much Kristie and Johnny! I'll think it over some more and decide one way or the other soon.
Deb

 

[Netty]

I would book now if i were you, also keep alook out on the virgin hols site, as last night they were offering 10% discount off instead of the usual 5%.
like Johnny we are restricted to going in August for 3 weeks, i would love to go november/december!

 

[Cinderella]

I think it depends on how many seats are available - i got good advice at www.v-flyer.com. If there were alot of availability then seats usually seem to come down three months before but if flights are well booked up, they go up a lot nearer the time. Did you try searching a few days before half term? I came up with good prices going out on the 19th October.

Mind you, your prices don't sound too bad. I couldn't get economy a few days before May half term for a low price and ended up having to pay 3k for premium for 2 adults and 2 children. A lot of the economy prices i was getting was like 2700 for the four of us.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Its not that bad to fly into somewhere like newark/JFK or Chicago.
You get to stretch you legs, get something to eat and drink and relax, the flight down is only about two hours.

 

[DebIreland]

I appreciate all the feedback, thanks. I've found very good fare with Delta flying from Shannon (about a 2 hour drive from me) to Orlando via New York so that's great. Going with Aer Lingus we were going to book both legs of the journey separately which is more hassle and also we flew with Aer Lingus to NY last year and the outgoing trip was awful! But with Delta I can book it all together and check our bags at Shannon - for the five of us it comes to 2400 euro, which is much more affordable for us. I doubt we'll have the backseat TVs but my boys have portable DVD players which should last a couple of hours. We're allowed to use them I think?! Thanks again everyone.

 

[Splash Mountain]

I wouldnt think they would go down as around that time there is demand for that flight, good luck though!

 

[kristieuk]

I appreciate all the feedback, thanks. I've found very good fare with Delta flying from Shannon (about a 2 hour drive from me) to Orlando via New York so that's great. Going with Aer Lingus we were going to book both legs of the journey separately which is more hassle and also we flew with Aer Lingus to NY last year and the outgoing trip was awful! But with Delta I can book it all together and check our bags at Shannon - for the five of us it comes to 2400 euro, which is much more affordable for us. I doubt we'll have the backseat TVs but my boys have portable DVD players which should last a couple of hours. We're allowed to use them I think?! Thanks again everyone.

You may well have seatback tv's - most transatlantic Delta flights we have flown on have had them, although coming back from Cincinatti in November we didn't. Where are you flying via? Do you know the type of aircraft on that route?

 

[DebIreland]

Kristie,
I just checked and for the Shannon-NY (and rtn) leg of the journey it says "Delta 112" so I'm not really sure what that means! The NY-Orlando leg of the trip is with Delta Song (2008) and we did that flight last year and it was wonderful!! Beautiful plane with seatback TVs all round and amazing staff but of course that's an internal flight, I really know nothing about Delta transatlantic. Any info much appreciated!!!!

 

[Claire L]

I have a feeling that I read on another site that Delta transatlantic flights do not have seat back tv's and are often single aisle jets such as the 757.

Off to see if I can find out more.

Claire

 

[Claire L]

BTW Delta 112 is the flight code.

Claire

 

[Cinderella]

Claire - i looked into Delta and the 757's don't have the seatback tv's. But if the boys can use the dvd players that is a good price - and at least they'll get to choose what they are watching. I almost booked a delta flight - but we don't already have the dvd players, so it wouldn't have saved me much!

 

[Amyrlin]

If it helps at all I had a e-mail from Atgo today and they have some personal DVD players under £50 in their clearance section.

 

[patdavies]

If it helps at all I had a e-mail from Atgo today and they have some personal DVD players under £50 in their clearance section.

Just bear in mind that a couple of hours or so into the flight, the battery will go flat.

It will very unlikely for there to be 12v powerpoints in economy and anyway these need an 'empower' adaptor, not a car cigar lighter plug.

 

[DebIreland]

I have a feeling that I read on another site that Delta transatlantic flights do not have seat back tv's and are often single aisle jets such as the 757.
Off to see if I can find out more.
Claire

Thanks for the info Claire If it's a single aisle, that might be good! I'm just thinking, as there are 5 of us, with 3 + aisle + 2 the 6th seat *might* not be filled. Of course it might but if it wasn't we'd have that for baby to lie out (when the seat belt sign is off) or put her multitude of soft toys and paraphanalia! Also, both boys could then have a window seat. Here's hoping!

i looked into Delta and the 757's don't have the seatback tv's. But if the boys can use the dvd players that is a good price - and at least they'll get to choose what they are watching.

Thanks and too true!

If it helps at all I had a e-mail from Atgo today and they have some personal DVD players under £50 in their clearance section.

Good to know although, as I say we have 2. The first one was expensive and the second one came free at Christmas with a mobile phone DH bought me and it's better quality than the dear one!!

Just bear in mind that a couple of hours or so into the flight, the battery will go flat.

Yep! They could share one perhaps (a bit awkward but they did it before in the car) and then move to the 2nd one when that goes. I might even see if someone I know has the same model as one of ours and borrow their fully charged battery. Oh the things I worry about.

 

[DebIreland]

I'm just laughing at myself here analysing and trying to sort out the whole inflight entertainment situation - I mean I just had a novel idea - we could actually have a conversation instead
[sorry, giddy mood ]

 

[kristieuk]

Deb,

I just had look on the Delta website, and they have flight 112 as being a '764' aircraft. This is actually a Boeing 767-400 (they just shorten the number), so I looked on seat guru - http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Delta_Airlines/Delta_Airlines_Boeing_767-400.php

....and there are no seatback tv's (if you click on the video icon near the top of the page, it tells you). You can also see the layout of the aircraft.

The Delta flights we have taken through Atlanta in the last year have been on 777 aircraft, and these had seatback tv's. When we came through Cincinnati, I have no idea what plane it was - it was a last minute detour, and I didn't take much notice, but we didn't have seatback tv's that time.

I know what you mean about the obsessing about the journey - I look forward to the release of the in-flight films all year, obsess about what I will watch, then never bother with any of them because I can't concentrate on them for some reason!