Virgin Holidays, am I missing something?

[scarletlancer]

Hi all

I have been pricing up a two week stay at SSR for 4 adults, 1 child and 1 infant in a 2 bed villa for next August with 14 day ultimate passes during free dining. Using a combination of Complete Orlando and BA I have come up with a ball park figure of around £8k. Just out of curiosity I thought I would get a quick quote from the Virgin Holidays website for a package equating to the same thing. I was expecting it to be a little more expensive but I almost fell off my chair when it returned a quote of over £12k! I can only imagine that Virgin would fly us to Orlando on a plane made of gold and powered by Unicorns tears in order to justify a difference of £4K, is this a mistake or am I missing something here?

 

[Kath2003]

You're paying a travel agency for the "security" of using them.

I'd take the £4K and run.

 

[crabbie1]

Thats ridiculous. I will never book again as a package unless a brilliant deal comes up.Have you tried pricing up seperatly through disney US/UK and VA?
When are your dates?Do you need a 2 bedroom or just choice?

 

[scarletlancer]

Thats ridiculous. I will never book again as a package unless a brilliant deal comes up.Have you tried pricing up seperatly through disney US/UK and VA?
When are your dates?Do you need a 2 bedroom or just choice?

Hi Crabbie

Yes I have done a quick pricing both through Disney and Complete Orlando, the latter comes out about £300 cheaper. We will need a 2 bed villa so my wife's sisters can have their own space while we have the master bedroom with our daughter and baby son. I haven't been able to price VA flights yet as the dates we want aren't available yet (BA seem to be a bit in front and have just got Aug 1 - 15 on their site). We used to book through VH but we have saved so much doing it all separately the past two times we have been that I won't be going down that road again in a hurry.

 

[Sapper383]

it doesn't help because Virgin don't have the SSR and OKW 42% discount...

 

[2Tiggies]

I'd take the £4K and run.

Yeah, I know it's just 2 of us, but 4k would pay for our October trip all over again - with change (yes including direct VA flights).

Some people have found amazing deals with VH and it is a case of being on the right link at the right time, however they have always, but always come in WAAAAAY more expensive than anywhere else for me.

 

[scarletlancer]

Yeah, I know it's just 2 of us, but 4k would pay for our October trip all over again - with change (yes including direct VA flights).

Some people have found amazing deals with VH and it is a case of being on the right link at the right time, however they have always, but always come in WAAAAAY more expensive than anywhere else for me.

Unfortunately for us, since both my wife and myself teach in a uni we are stuck with school holidays so 'amazing deals' are not something we are ever likely to find

 

[crabbie1]

Biggles and his crew have a lot to answer forWas looking for my friend today as she wants to go 22 may for 3 weeks and yesterday the flights with VA were £1980 today they are £1500 for 4 of them(2 Ad 2ch).I have told her to snap it up so she was going to speak to her hubby tonight.
Have you tried the US site though I dont think they have free DDP but they will add FOC later if it comes out in your dates. Just knock VH on the head.

 

[2Tiggies]

Free dining is out on the US site for next year, on selected dates up to and including 29 September 2011.

VA is having a sale at the moment. They always send these emails for the Flying Club, but the links never work. I have it sussed to a tee now. In about 24 hours there will be a follow up email apologising for the broken link and providing the VA web address to type in. Of course by then the sale fares are gone, unless you used the initiative to type it in yourself when you discovered the darn link didn't work.

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

My travel agent tried Virgin for us next year as I wanted a package too. They couldn't come close to walt disney uk. I mean not withing thousands. So long as you have your ATOL protection you would be no better of anyway.

 

[Sapper383]

I think you just need to keep checking prices....we booked with Virgin for September 2011, 14 night AKL....I was looking for prices for a couple of months and when virgin bought the price down, I phoned other TA to see if they could beat it.....nobody could....originally I was going to book OKW with disney and then book flights seperately, but realy wanted AKL, but disneys price was too expensive.
.....keep an eye on the prices, I was looking every day

 

[Sazuburns]

We've just come back and we also found that Virgin was way more expensive - I think it added more than £5k to our trip.

Our travel agent booked SSR direct with Disney and our flights were Continental but we flew London Heathrow-Newark and then Newark-Orlando because that also knocked £2k off the total cost.

 

[2Tiggies]

We've just come back and we also found that Virgin was way more expensive - I think it added more than £5k to our trip.

Our travel agent booked SSR direct with Disney and our flights were Continental but we flew London Heathrow-Newark and then Newark-Orlando because that also knocked £2k off the total cost.

Indirect can save you a lot of money. I found my book with my quotes for this trip and VH for exactly the same holiday, flights, resort, tickets .... etc came in at over 25% more than Disney UK - and I was not looking at one of the 42% off resorts so that doesn't even come into play.

 

[ben1993]

I can only imagine that Virgin would fly us to Orlando on a plane made of gold and powered by Unicorns tears in order to justify a difference of £4K, is this a mistake or am I missing something here?

Lmao! But wow, 12k, thats an obscene price imo.

 

[starrysky]

Each of our last three trips we have done it DIY.

First was off site and flgihts with flyglobespan, last year was BA and Disney and this year Aer Lingus and Disney.

I could not trust BA not to be having strikes and the flight prices were way too high and you are not allowed to pre book extra leg room seats.

I have always felt that booking direct with both disney and the airline rather than a third party just feels more secure. I.e travel companies going bust etc. Always pay by credit card as well. I just feel that if you book direct you know that it is paid to them and that you are confirmed unlike bookig through a third party and finding they have gone belly up and nothing has been paid to the hotel/airline.

We have saved a lot of money doing this but the main bit of advice with booking flights is if you are happy to pay the cheapest price you find then do it because you can wait and then bang its gone.

 

[Eliza32]

Last 2 trips we have had the opposite experience. Used to book accom direct, then flights and car seperate. BMI used to do great flights through Washington, but no more.
In 2007, we went with Travel City Direct, couldn't get within £500 of the cost by booking seperately. RIP TCD
This time (we go on 9th Sept) again with TCD, but now owned by Virgin. Again I tried to price seperately, but still £400 cheaper for package, so booked it. No problems except when free dining was announced, Virgin couldn't/wouldn't add it (although I have seen posts on here that Thomas Cook have done for their customers!!) So overall, at the time, I couldn't get our package cheaper.
We're flying direct from Manchester, staying at Pop, have the 14 day ticket and a compact car with platinum package. Cost £2,468 which I think is quite good.........no doublt someone out there will be along shortly to tell me different!!!!

 

[2Tiggies]

We're flying direct from Manchester, staying at Pop, have the 14 day ticket and a compact car with platinum package. Cost £2,468 which I think is quite good.........no doublt someone out there will be along shortly to tell me different!!!!

It looks pretty good to me. I don't know how many of you there are but last Easter for a value resort for myself and my 7 year old we paid a little more than that for 16 nights, but no car hire (I did not calculate the QSDP into the price for comparison purposes, as you don't appear to have added it). So yes, I think you got yourself a good deal.

 

[Eliza32]

It's just the 2 of us 2Tiggies.......we don't 'do' children, still big kids ourselves!! (Me 47, DH 43!!)