is there anypoint collecting virgin miles for a family stuck with school hols

[stupet11]

We paid £425pp for our PE flights booked separate (LGW-MCO and MIA to LHR) in August.

I don't think that's a lot more than a return PE taxes? We could have got similar priced flights with other airlines, but not in PE, and we had the miles to use...

We booked LGW-MCO as soon as became available - they went very quickly - i.e. within the hour.

NYC / MIA were available had loads of availability whenever I looked.

[Bertiebear]

Originally Posted by inkiboo

Yes, a lot more expensive. You effectively pay the taxes twice.

Linking the two miles bookings is easy, you just need to phone Virgin when you make the second booking and they will reissue the original ticket.

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That’s sounds simple didn’t realise they could do that. Thank you!

[tspill]

We asked ourselves the same question a few years ago. But we kept at it.
This year we bagged two G class UC tickets return for this summer. Happy days.
So they are rare, but can become available at time.

[kennycapes]

Originally Posted by stupet11

We paid £425pp for our PE flights booked separate (LGW-MCO and MIA to LHR) in August.

I don't think that's a lot more than a return PE taxes? We could have got similar priced flights with other airlines, but not in PE, and we had the miles to use...

We booked LGW-MCO as soon as became available - they went very quickly - i.e. within the hour.

NYC / MIA were available had loads of availability whenever I looked.

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hi stupet11, not sure what you mean by this, did you use miles and then have to pay £425, was that for the kids or was that tax and booking fees?

[kennycapes]

I'm going to add an additional question here too.

So if i used my miles to get to MCO via a certain route,

do i then just make a one way ticket booking to get back which may be via a different route.

do example

LHR - ATL via miles and then book a flight from ATL to MCO.

way home

MCO - LGW or even MIA to LHR.

What sort of prices are one way tickets on the way back or do you add this return journey to your existing outbound journey and just pay the additional cost.

Does that make sense. I'm just trying to work out how i might book these different options and routes under one booking.

[stupet11]

Originally Posted by kennycapes

hi stupet11, not sure what you mean by this, did you use miles and then have to pay £425, was that for the kids or was that tax and booking fees?

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used miles. £425 was taxes. Kids would have been over 12, so I think adult tax paid.

[inkiboo]

Originally Posted by kennycapes

I'm going to add an additional question here too.

So if i used my miles to get to MCO via a certain route,

do i then just make a one way ticket booking to get back which may be via a different route.

do example

LHR - ATL via miles and then book a flight from ATL to MCO.

way home

MCO - LGW or even MIA to LHR.

What sort of prices are one way tickets on the way back or do you add this return journey to your existing outbound journey and just pay the additional cost.

Does that make sense. I'm just trying to work out how i might book these different options and routes under one booking.

See more...

Virgin offer some miles flights with connections (ie LHR-ATL-MCO) but generally there is a high cost in miles for doing that (ie you get less value for using them on Delta internal flights).

Most efficient way is to just book the one way trip yourself. Only issue is then you have separate bookings, so if the LHR-ATL flight was late, you would have no protection for the ATL-MCO flight. In reality, that won't make much difference as they will probably move you for free to the next flight.

[Softy]

Originally Posted by THOscar

Total nonsense that you have to call or go online exactly 11 months out.

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This was the way to do it up until a year or so ago when they released the reward seats at the same time as the cash seats. Now they release the reward seats randomly.

[inkiboo]

Originally Posted by THOscar

Total nonsense that you have to call or go online exactly 11 months out.

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It’s not nonsense. They do release some at that time so if you want to get them before others, the 11 month rule works well.

[ManCity]

You ask 'is there any point collecting virgin miles for a family stuck with school hols'. The answer is an emphatic YES!

Are you aware of the 'Miles plus money' option? You get a discount of £18 for every 3,000 miles used, so 99,000 miles is worth a discount of £594. That is a LOT of point! 'Miles plus money' is available on all flights - there doesn't have to be a reward flight available, plus you still earn new miles on the flight - contributing to a further discount on future flights. The only restrictions are you can't book on a mobile and it must be a VA-operated flight.

'Reward' flights are not free - you still have to pay the taxes and fees - and they can account for over half the fare. Hence your miles are simply getting you a discount on the usual price. For a peak season return economy flight to MCO you need 45,000 miles, equivalent to a 'Miles plus money' discount of £270. If a 'reward' flight is available, you can compare the 'reward' price with the normal 'money' price - the difference is the value of your miles. If that is more than £270 (as it might be), a 'reward' flight is better value, but you don't earn any more miles.

The options of booking the separate legs of indirect flights in other posts involve a lot of faffing around. Is all the extra effort and hassle really worth the difference in value between a 'reward' flight and just doing 'miles plus money'? Personally, I wouldn't think so. In any case, you can't book before the flights are released in Sept - you can't decide on the best option until you see what they offer then.