virgin premuim econ

[Claire L]

Alison,
Don't forget all those extras for being in PE, dedicated check-in desk, use of the Virgin Clubhouse lounge at Gatwick (and complimentary food/drinks, yum), second on plane after First class, more legroom, more cabin crew per passenger, second off plane after First class, and luggage comes off first with First class. Now what more can DH wish for!! Well ok maybe First class
Claire

 

[DisneyAli]

sorry guys was not ignoring you when i started new thread, we had some VERY bad thunderstorms last night and i hadnt received notifications of new posts. thanks.

 

[Beejayjay]

Can anyone tell me if this rate for the upgrade to PE is only available once you have a seat booked or can it be done at the time of booking your economy flight on Virgin ?

I've called them twice today and both the reservations clerk I spoke to claimed to know nothing about this offer. I'm even a Virgin flying Club member and couldnt find any info on the deal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated folks !

 

[DisneyAli]

if this helps. when i phoned virgin on friday, apparently they had a special offer on seat upgrades for certain dates in september but the offer finished last wednesday.

the conversation went along the lines of:-

so how much would it cost me to upgrade to PE to which she replied £495.00 each. to which i said this is more than i could afford. she then went off the line, twice to check my booking and finally came back and said she could do it slightly cheaper on the dates we were flying. £105.00 off per person. so as i had this offer on the table in front of me i thought it was better than nothing .

We are flying for £375.00 per person on checking my billing to my card today, which makes an actual saving of £120.00 per person.

AT NO TIME DURING MY DISCUSSION WITH VIRGIN DID SHE MENTION THAT THIS WAS A GENERAL SPECIAL OFFER.

So i dont know if they have any discretionary (sp?) powers when talking to customers and making them an offer.

We actually booked our holiday for this november for 3 weeks in MAY 2001. Even then we received quite a good discount, and also when we upgraded our hotel a while back they also gave us the discount on the upgrade price.

Hope this is of some help, if it makes any sense..........

 

[chris16]

Sorry to add to this long thread again

Despite a couple of contacts (polite ones!) with customer service still no joy on getting any money back, I dont mind missing the specials deals, just bad luck for me missing them, but it does rile me that some people have got money back but not others - that does seem unfair.

Anyway for benefit of others the megadeals deal which ended is back on the virgin atlantic website. Virgin atlantic quoted me tonight figures for my flight on 30.11.2002 of about £400 less than I paid for 2 adults & 2 kids for PE to Orlando
Hope this helps someone, has to be booked by 13.08.2002

Chris

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Chris, I am sure that it wont help you feel much better, but I think that Cleobury was an exceptional case. The reason why companies don't tend to give retrospective price cuts is beacuse the word gets around and everyone demands it.

It is the way the world is. If you fly on a plane and ask everyone in your cabin how much their seats cost, then you would find that some people paid more than you and others paid less. It depends on the flexibility of the ticket you booked, when you booked and who you booked with. There will be people sitting in PE who paid over £1100 a seat (the normal discounted price) and also people who paid over £2000 a seat (for a fully flexible tickets).

Cleobury was exceptionally lucky.

Boo

 

[LynetteB]

Just come back - flew PE with Virgin (booked flight only not all inclusive holiday). PE was extremely busy on the way home so they upgraded us to Upper Class!! We only paid £602 + tax for our tickets and feel extremely lucky! By the way, we will never fly economy again!!!!!

 

[Boo Boo Too]

LynetteB

Providing you don't get hooked on Upper Class you should be okay ;-)

Virgin makes another loyal PE customer... (Virgin is definitely doing okay out of this board ;-))

Boo

 

[jean88]

Hi
i've just this minute come off the phone with virgin after booking premium economy seat's the offer is still on at £125 with 10% off for frequent virgin's
Jean

 

[Beejayjay]

Jean,

I'd appreciate any more info you could give me on this. I'm looking to fly over to Orlando in late September, but haven't booked my flights yet. I'm a member of the Virgin Flying Club and I've called Virgin a couple of times but so far they've said the offer ended or knew nothing about it. I know they are still doing reduced price PE flights to other US locations but I've goten nowhere trying to get PE seats into Orlando.

Did you have economy seats already booked and you just upgraded or was it a complete new booking ? Has the offer got a specific name /code ?

I'd love to fly PE having done it a few times before so it'd be great if anyone could give me more info on this. Thanks !

 

[jean88]

Hi Beejayjay
we're flying in October and had already booked our flight's and booked our seat's, so i phoned the number in the brochure to upgrade and there was no problem. Maybe it's busier in september.
Jean

 

[Beejayjay]

Thanks for your reply Jean

From what you and others have said here, I get the distinct impression that the £ 250 PE upgrade is only available if you've already booked your seats in economy. I might just go ahead and book in economy and see if I can swing the reduced price upgrade soon. The prices quoted to me for PE seats booked now are a bit too much for me to afford as I'm paying for my mum to travel with me as a gift, and 2 PE seats at £ 900 on top of all the other expenses is pushing things...

Also, can I ask how much you paid originally for your Economy seats ? I think there might also be only certain ticket types on which the upgrade can be made and they may be a little more expensive than the cheapest tickets available on their website.

Thanks.

 

[jean88]

Hi
I should have made myself clearer, i booked the holiday with virgin not just the flight's
jean

 

[Beejayjay]

Ah, I see Jean - thanks anyway !!

Where are you staying when you go ? I'm trying to decide between an old faithful hotel or trying something new. If we go economy, I may well go for somewhere like the Swan or Dolphin, if I decide to go PE, the rather cheaper, but perfectly nice old faithful will be getting my booking.

Decisions, decisions huh ?

 

[NMC2002]

Hi BeeJay,

Ive just checked the virgin holidays website and the discount PE fare is still available for late September. If you go to Virginholidays.co.uk, select florida then flydrive. They include 7 day car hire with it but you dont have to take it, decline the insurance when that option comes up as well. It worked out just over £1500 when i put in for 2 adults on the 20th September.

Hope this helps

Neil

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Well, after much deliberation - and the fact that today's the day to pay for our October trip - I phoned Virgin direct as I'd booked holiday direct. Before I phoned, I checked online for the same time, same hotels etc as our hols and there it was - £125 adults, £83.75 for children. When I called, I said I had seen online about the £125 fare and that we'd paid £500 - how could we now get this. Very nice lady spoke to her supervisor, but to no avail. They said it was a special offer for online bookings only.

SO GET ONLINE NOW IF YOU'VE NOT YET BOOKED!!

I did try and swing it (frequent virgins, loyal customers, really not happy that we'll have paid way over the odds of what most people on the flight would have etc.) but not interested. She did recommend I write to Customer Services, so I will. Ah well, always worth a try

I've just worked out that if I had "cancelled" this trip, then immediately rebooked it, with the new offer we'd have saved over £160 - that includes losing the deposit. . think of all that shopping I could do with the extra dosh

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Didn't it used to be that you used to get a cheaper fare the longer away you booked and THEN they would only reduce it again if you were a late booker - it hardly seems fair.

Annie - well done for trying I'd definately still write to customer services, well I'd get Paul to as I'm not very good at that sort of letter Good Luck

 

[jean88]

I didn't book online and i got the offer.
Jean

 

[chris16]

Hello Mrs dazzle

I wrote to customer service again stressing loyal frequent virgin, etc, upgrades booked about a week before the offers started, seemed unfair, I have booked 7 holidays last 4 years etc, I even wrote to them before about good service received a month ago
All to no avail
They said that prices all fixed in advance and deny any special offers, saying any special offers are only available thru flights directly booked with virgin atlantic and not virgin holidays (even though the offers are available on line)
I'm off in a few days and have decided to let it go, just unlucky I upgraded a week early, virgin have my upgrade, no reason now to offer me money back
C'est la vie
Hopefully the price i paid will be still be worth it on Saturday - never been PE before and good luck with your letter

Chris