Virgin flying club & flydrive Q's

[Sarah84]

Can anyone tell me if when booking a flydrive with VH and hotel(s) with it can i use my frequent flying club membership to get 10% off the hotels aswell as they flydrive or not? and also if i book a flydrive for say 3 weeks and do not extend the basic car hire so just keep that at one week can i collect the car at any time for a week within those 3 weeks or does it have to be the first week?

Basically I'm thinking off doing 3 weeks on the west coast next year flying into San Fransisco by booking a flydrive with virgin holidays then flying onto Vegas then flying onto LA then i'd like to collect the hire car once in LA and drive back upto San Fran for my return flights home

[Jakey rowling]

Can anyone tell me if when booking a flydrive with VH and hotel(s) with it can i use my frequent flying club membership to get 10% off the hotels aswell as they flydrive or not? and also if i book a flydrive for say 3 weeks and do not extend the basic car hire so just keep that at one week can i collect the car at any time for a week within those 3 weeks or does it have to be the first week?

Basically I'm thinking off doing 3 weeks on the west coast next year flying into San Fransisco by booking a flydrive with virgin holidays then flying onto Vegas then flying onto LA then i'd like to collect the hire car once in LA and drive back upto San Fran for my return flights home

You can get the 10% FF discount off everything but not any other discount, i.e internet discount of 5%, so a net gain of 5%.

I'd also consider the overall car deal, including insurance etc and compare it to http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/.

It's common practise to book the fly drive with Virgin and not pick up the car and rent elsewhere as it often works out cheaper.
Just don't tell Virgin holidays, many people do it :thumb:

Compare the overall costs of car rental.

[Sarah84]

Thanks for the reply :)

[Sarah84]

Does anyone know for certain if the free weeks car hire can be taken at anytime within the 'flydrive', want to pick it up on my 4th day into the holiday (when im leaving S.F)

[danny]

why not just fly home from LA .thats exactally what we did when we did LA,vegas and san fran? saves wasting your last day driving almost 400 miles back to san fran

[premiertravel]

No you cannot pick the car up anytime with vh as the voucher would state the first airport you fly into. Also it is not free you still have to pay for the insurances etc.

We have just done a package for someone flying into Las Vagas driving to Los Angeles then all the way up the coast (staying total 5 resorts) san fran then flying out of san fran with virgin flights high season with quality hotel just over £3300 for 3 adults 2 weeks.

Ther eis no one way drop of for california/nevada

Kim

[Sarah84]

why not just fly home from LA .thats exactally what we did when we did LA,vegas and san fran? saves wasting your last day driving almost 400 miles back to san fran

Have now decided to do that, going to fly into San Fran and out of LA

[Sarah84]

No you cannot pick the car up anytime with vh as the voucher would state the first airport you fly into. Also it is not free you still have to pay for the insurances etc.

We have just done a package for someone flying into Las Vagas driving to Los Angeles then all the way up the coast (staying total 5 resorts) san fran then flying out of san fran with virgin flights high season with quality hotel just over £3300 for 3 adults 2 weeks.

Ther eis no one way drop of for california/nevada

Kim

Thanks for your reply. I knew the car didnt include insurance cost which only worked out £112, but as i cant collect it 4 days into the holiday as i hoped (day leaving San Fran) then I beginning to think it would just be cheaper to book flights and then car hire for the time i want it in LA seperate instead as a flydrive which was comming to £1300 for 2 adults

[danny]

Have now decided to do that, going to fly into San Fran and out of LA much easier doin git that way ,saves all the hassle of a long drive to get home,plus the flights from san fran and LA both goto heathrow so no worries there.just hire a car while your in LA only place youll really need one to be honest

[LizzyBear]

I'd definitely recommend DIYing for this sort of itinerary, Virgin's west coast flydrive prices can be a bit steep and they aren't particularly flexible. usrentacar has some good offers (no surcharge for one way rentals though there is the young driver surcharge for under 25s) and expedia is a good place to start for comparing different flight companies, there are loads :)

[kmt]

suprised you can't pick the car up when you want anymore. We did boston and a tour of new england and booked a flydrive only with VH. we collected the car 5 days after we arrived and dropped it off at a different place with no penalties

[parisdisneyfan]

Have you worked out the benefit of just booking virgin atlantic tickets and doing car totally separate. We have just done that, ended up paying £1200 for 3 adults and 1 child, using some miles + money and then £161 for Avis full size car. Worked out far better than 10% off flydrive prices.

[Sarah84]

Have you worked out the benefit of just booking virgin atlantic tickets and doing car totally separate. We have just done that, ended up paying £1200 for 3 adults and 1 child, using some miles + money and then £161 for Avis full size car. Worked out far better than 10% off flydrive prices.

After researching car hire & flight prices a bit more looks like this will be what we are doing. As flydrive with VH comes to about £1300 (including the 10% discount i'd get) for 2 adults with fully inclusive insurance, so fingerscrossed i can find flights for about £350-£400 each flying out the first week in september then looked at car hire and looking at around £120 with platinum insurance so quite a big price differance. Shame over a year to go :(