Virgin charging more to make my own way from the airport?

[alansmed]

Odd one but when I'm running through a booking with virgin holidays, they are going to charge me an extra £25 to make my own way from the airport(magical express) rather than rent a car with them.
Sounds very strange but what if I just kept the car on the booking but just didn't collect it?
Has anyone else ever had this on their booking?

[DiszeeBelle]

I've done a few dummy bookings and got this every time. Why on earth should it cost us more to make our own way. However the last dummy one I did actually took the price off.

[alansmed]

Just doesn't make sense. We are 3 adults and a toddler, when I do a booking for 2 adults instead of 3, the price reduces slightly to make our own way. But add an extra adult on and they are charing me extra to refuse a car. I know its only £25 but that can go towards some Mickey Pretzels instead

[Jan]

Just leave the car on the booking but don’t collect it. We have done that several times.

[alansmed]

That's great Jan thanks, was hoping that would be the case.
Just didn't want to not collect the car and then get chased for some daft non-collection fee or something similar.

[toonarmani]

Is it more expensive as without the car it no longer falls into being a "package", which tends to have a discount applied to the booking?

[alansmed]

Originally Posted by toonarmani

Is it more expensive as without the car it no longer falls into being a "package", which tends to have a discount applied to the booking?

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I don't think so because if I amend the booking to 2 adults instead of 3, the price slightly reduces when I remove the car as oppose to increasing.
Something about adding a 3rd adult onto my booking makes them want to charge me to make our own way from the airport. Bizarre.

[baboons]

From the Blind Guess drawer

The price with a car includes their commission from the car hire company. By removing the car, you're cutting the total payment they receive. It's probably affecting the margin at a higher level, perhaps the per person margin needs to be adjusted up when the third person is added.

As toonarmani says above, you do often see "save money by booking a package" banners, this is cleary the reverse.

[Peko]

When you remove the car, does it become a flight only booking or is it still a package with something else (eg accommodation, tickets)?

[Jon&Emz]

This has happened for years, I remember it also happening on Travel City Direct.

As has been said; go for whatever cheaper, be it a car or transfer, and just don't collect / turn up for it.