Have Virgin Gone Mad

[kipper]

I contacted virgin yesterday to book flights for next july (2004) and was quoted £799 for an adult in economy!!!
how can they charge so much?
Just 4 days before i booked for xmas in 2004 leaving on 16th december and got the adult flights for £479.
how can anyone afford £799 for economy flights?
I then contacted TCD and thier flights have increased £80 from last year but are a more respectible £469.
Quess who I am going to book with?

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

That's a ridiculous amount of money to charge for an economy seat - is that with Virgin holidays or Virgin Atlantic?

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Wowser that's alot it sounds more than Premium Economy.

 

[Enright78]

Mind you, with only two scheduled airlines flying direct to Orlando they have more or less got the market sewn up and can probably charge what they like!!

Why not try looking at BA to Tampa? A short drive and perhaps cheaper?

 

[SidB]

Originally posted by Enright78
Why not try looking at BA to Tampa? A short drive and perhaps cheaper?

We've just booked our flights with BA, flying into Orlando and out from Tampa, and it was way cheaper than Virgin.

Anybody who tries to take their kids away during the school holidays knows how much prices go up. Rip off Britain again ?

 

[PoohBears#1fan]

We just flew with BA in and out of Tampa and it was fine, the drive took around an hour, the flight was great, and it came in cheaper than Virgin, for all of us (2 adults, 1 child 1 infant) an intermediate 4 door car including CDW and extra driver, full tank etc. came in around £1700, the price was dependent on us taking their hire car though as I tried to cancel it and book a better deal on the car but that put our flight prices up.

 

[PoohBears#1fan]

We just flew with BA in and out of Tampa and it was fine, the drive took around an hour, the flight was great, and it came in cheaper than Virgin, for all of us (2 adults, 1 child 1 infant) an intermediate 4 door car including CDW and extra driver, full tank etc. came in around £1700, the price was dependent on us taking their hire car though as I tried to cancel it and book a better deal on the car but that put our flight prices up.

 

[susie2]

hi kipper, have just seen on your post that you are going on 16 dec 04, we are also going on this date where are you flying from? we are flying from gatwick at 11.15. only 18 months now!!. susie

 

[kipper]

See you on the plane then also going at 11:15.
I did notice that you live "up north" could you not get a flight from manchester?

 

[Enright78]

"Anybody who tries to take their kids away during the school holidays knows how much prices go up. Rip off Britain again ?"

Don't I know it Sid! I'm on the receiving end of this. I am a lecturer and they don't let me take myself out of college ( !) so I have to pay ridiculous prices or do loads of research too! Thats why we usually have to book at LEAST a year in advance!

 

[susie2]

hi,no we always fly from gatwick we had bad experience with the planes flying from manchester a couple of years ago,so we make sure now that it is a virgin plane we fly on not air atlanta, dh would rather drive down day before and stay over night. have you been at christmas before, we havent really loking forward to seeing all the decorations,seems along way away but im sure it will go quickly hopefully. susie

 

[kipper]

At least you can use the early check in at gatwick.
yes we have been once at xmas but it was quite cold,you needed jumpers but we were told by locals that it was the coldest xmas they had had for some years.
The decorations are good.Dopnt miss the osbourne family lights and MGM studios.
The parks are extremly busy with MK full to capacity and not stopping anyone else getting in.The best time we found for visiting the parks at this time was first thing New Years days. It was empty due to everyone up so late the night before

 

[susie2]

thanks kipper for your advice, its hard to know what to pack sometimes, will just have to pack a little of everything and hope for nice weather, the early check in was great last year when we went will definately use this again thanks again suise

 

[stubb]

we have recently booked a trip to florida with thomas cook. the holiday package with them is a £1000 cheaper than vigin. Personally i would rather have £1000 to spend on holiday!The hotel is exactly the same as the one in the virgin broucher. I think like most things in life you have to shop around

 

[Tigger007]

Sounds just like the sort of prices we were quoted to fly at Easter 2004!! We eventually got flights with Flight Finders (Manchester via Washington to Orlando International) for £409 per adult. Although we'll take a few hours longer to arrive - we'll have more money to spend when we do get there!!!!

 

[BevS97]

we have had good flight prices with KLM in the past - you do have to change in Amsterdam, but since we would have to drive, or fly to Gatwick anyway, it's 6 and 2 threes for us. I'd as soon fly to Amsterdam than drive to Gatwick.

Of course, that wasn't school holiday time, once you hit the holidays then I think it's hard to get really good prices from anyone.

Bev