Virgin Holidays

[Tillyfloss]

I have a booking for Hard Rock with flights from MAN. Originally was December 2020, I changed that and extended the dates to November/December this year.
Balance was originally due last week but was extended until early October.
I’ve had an email today which stated the flights were still going ( who knew Virgin were psychic!)
and normal cancellation t&c’s would apply.
Also gave me the option to rearrange dates with no charge but needed to contact them before October 14th.

Surprised but not surprised 😮?

[MENTALMUM]

We also received the email, due to travel on 24th November. Just playing the waiting game now, will be the 12th change if we can't go but hey ho that's just the way the cookie crumbles. However I do think Virgin know we won't be going and by offering to change they get to keep your money.

[Tillyfloss]

I thought so too, I will change before we pay the full balance, due October 4th.
I suppose we may hear something on the 1st but I don’t think it will be positive (sorry).
Looking at DLP for same dates to get our fix.
If I rearrange with Virgin it will be December 2022.

[sakiki]

My only worry about Virgin is whether they’ll still be in business by the end of 2021. There was an interesting post on one of the US Disney boards just recently about the US keeping the border closures in place between the UK/Europe and the US and that the US airlines are perfectly happy with this for the present as they’re hoping that Virgin and perhaps a few other European carriers will go under, releasing the routes and landing slots currently monopolized by Virgin and BA on direct flights between London and Orlando. I assume that Delta would be in pole position in that respect. The original poster also posited that transatlantic routes won’t reopen until November 2022 due to the midterm elections, as any COVID uptick thought to be a result of opening the borders would be used by the opposition as a stick to beat the current administration… (Yes, this is veering into conspiracy theory territory but it’s an interesting take on the situation nonetheless. The US airlines are easily surviving on domestic flights; some of those edge into the long haul category anyway.)

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by sakiki

My only worry about Virgin is whether they’ll still be in business by the end of 2021. There was an interesting post on one of the US Disney boards just recently about the US keeping the border closures in place between the UK/Europe and the US and that the US airlines are perfectly happy with this for the present as they’re hoping that Virgin and perhaps a few other European carriers will go under, releasing the routes and landing slots currently monopolized by Virgin and BA on direct flights between London and Orlando. I assume that Delta would be in pole position in that respect. The original poster also posited that transatlantic routes won’t reopen until November 2022 due to the midterm elections, as any COVID uptick thought to be a result of opening the borders would be used by the opposition as a stick to beat the current administration… (Yes, this is veering into conspiracy theory territory but it’s an interesting take on the situation nonetheless. The US airlines are easily surviving on domestic flights; some of those edge into the long haul category anyway.)

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And that has been my fear throughout. At the present time as I repeatedly plan vacations then cancel them, I will only consider the purchase of flights from BA, American Airlines, Delta and United.
Fortunately for me, these are also generally the cheapest on the routes that we seek!

[sakiki]

We’ve only paid a £375 deposit at present and the balance isn’t due until the end of July 2022, by which time things should have stabilized one way or the other. And if we have to write off that cost we’re prepared to do so (not in any way happy, you understand, but we’d rather take the chance to keep the booking open for the price we paid then than cancel now and try to book something new (and undoubtedly more expensive) at a later date.

We’ve flown BA in the past and I’m not a fan. We wouldn’t fly long haul at all if our only option was economy or premium economy and BA’s equivalent to Virgin’s Upper is as I recall both inferior and a lot more expensive…

[stanleycamel]

Originally Posted by sakiki

We’ve only paid a £375 deposit at present and the balance isn’t due until the end of July 2022, by which time things should have stabilized one way or the other. And if we have to write off that cost we’re prepared to do so (not in any way happy, you understand, but we’d rather take the chance to keep the booking open for the price we paid then than cancel now and try to book something new (and undoubtedly more expensive) at a later date.

We’ve flown BA in the past and I’m not a fan. We wouldn’t fly long haul at all if our only option was economy or premium economy and BA’s equivalent to Virgin’s Upper is as I recall both inferior and a lot more expensive…

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Ba's new Club Suites on the A350 and some 777 is far superior to Virgin's Upper Class on the A330 200 and 300 but that's my personal opinion. The old style Club World was a groundbreaker in its day but I agree it now lags behind the likes of Qatar's Q Suites which are excellent. VS will be introducing their new UC seats on the A350 when it rolls out and the leisure configuration is due at the end of the year for the MCO route but it remains to be seen if that happens.

[sakiki]

Originally Posted by stanleycamel

Ba's new Club Suites on the A350 and some 777 is far superior to Virgin's Upper Class on the A330 200 and 300 but that's my personal opinion. The old style Club World was a groundbreaker in its day but I agree it now lags behind the likes of Qatar's Q Suites which are excellent. VS will be introducing their new UC seats on the A350 when it rolls out and the leisure configuration is due at the end of the year for the MCO route but it remains to be seen if that happens.

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All perfectly fair. I haven’t experienced the most recent iterations of ‘upper’ on any airline yet (last trip was in December 2019 on a Virgin 747) so I’m open to persuasion! I shall be keeping a close eye on the reviews as they come in, to be sure…

[munmun]

Originally Posted by sakiki

We’ve only paid a £375 deposit at present and the balance isn’t due until the end of July 2022, by which time things should have stabilized one way or the other. And if we have to write off that cost we’re prepared to do so (not in any way happy, you understand, but we’d rather take the chance to keep the booking open for the price we paid then than cancel now and try to book something new (and undoubtedly more expensive) at a later date.

We’ve flown BA in the past and I’m not a fan. We wouldn’t fly long haul at all if our only option was economy or premium economy and BA’s equivalent to Virgin’s Upper is as I recall both inferior and a lot more expensive…

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I disagree that BA club is more expensive than Virgin upper, I have never found this.

[sakiki]

Originally Posted by munmun

I disagree that BA club is more expensive than Virgin upper, I have never found this.

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I can certainly accept that this may well be the case. It’s a while since I did a straight-up comparison and I’ve always managed to grab tickets from Virgin during a sale. I’ve not done any recent searches for BA partly because I like flying on the 747 and also because the various seat review sites are less than complimentary about the actual seats on the newer Airbus and Boeing aircraft…