The Big 50 trip May ‘22!- Pre-trip report

[sha9]

Originally Posted by loola30

Ooh we must have overlapped! Well done. Not ideal, I know, but fingers crossed something will come up for 24th

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Thanks!

The other option was the Tuesday before which would mean a 13 night trip which I really don’t want. I still have one free change which I assume means I could still cancel and use the miles for miles plus money flights for the original dates if necessary. I’ve also set up an alert on Seat Spy for economy reward seats for the Friday which would be an option.

I’m just a bit twitched about the additional annual leave. I haven’t asked for the time off at all however I’m a team lead with no counterpart so it’s not a major issue. My line manager pays zero attention to when I’m on holiday. I could sneak in an extra week and I doubt she’d even realise . I’m very honest though and my holidays are on the team spreadsheet so I can’t pull a fast one!

[sha9]

Well, after all that it looks like the economy seats have come back down to where they were when Mum & Dad booked. We discussed it and agreed that returning on the 28th, 4 days later than we wanted to just wasn’t going to work so the best thing to do was call VA and get a refund so we could book the economy delight seats using points plus money.
While I’m hanging on the phone my mobile goes and it’s VA in response to my complaint. Spoke to a lovely girl who could do absolutely nothing for me. It seems no one has the power to move us from the 28th to the 24th. I assume not even God. So she passes me to customer services to see if they can help and in the meantime I check flights again only to see that PE isn’t even coming up as an option. So there’s no way we’re getting reward seats on the 24th. They guy in customer services still can really help me in any meaningful way and confirmed PE is full on the 24th so we’ve went for the refund. As much as I hate doing it we’ve used all the points to get money off the flights bringing them down to less than we paid in taxes and fees for PE. The customer service guy says he doesn’t think points plus money is good value - well it is if you have no other choice!

The main thing is that we’re booked and sitting behind Mum & Dad. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled because I think we could potentially upgrade to PE on the outbound which would be better than nothing.

[sha9]

Finally something else to report! With the VA sale, or maybe not, PE had come down quite a bit. The upgrade price on our booking was around £600 pp both ways but that didn’t fit with the current price which would have made the difference £161 pp! The guy on the phone gave me the first number and I pointed out the current PE price - he then says there’s two ways to upgrade and requoted the £161. So we’re now back in PE! Unfortunately those were the last two seats at that price so Mum & Dad have been able to change but I’m hoping more seats are released at that price. I’m trying hard not to think about how much these flights have cost overall and just concentrating on the fact they’re booked!

[collybird]

So glad you have finally secured the seats you wanted! Happy your patience has paid off.

[LizzyBear]

Following I'm too scared to rebook just yet but hoping things become clearer very soon and that your holiday goes ahead with minimal restrictions, I think the second half of next year will be far better than this one!

[sha9]

Originally Posted by LizzyBear

Following I'm too scared to rebook just yet but hoping things become clearer very soon and that your holiday goes ahead with minimal restrictions, I think the second half of next year will be far better than this one!

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I’m hoping so! I feel better having something booked even if it all turns out to have to be moved.

[Robyn89]

Really enjoyed reading along so far, although really sorry you’ve been chewed about with Virgin so much.

We were planning to stay at the Boardwalk in a one bed villa with our DVC points, but thanks to Disney extending some of our points that were due to expire (because we can’t get there) we’ve been able to upgrade to a 2 bed villa; albeit at Old Key West as there wasn’t any availability at the Boardwalk!

Loving starting to plan again. I’ve missed it terribly.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Robyn89

Really enjoyed reading along so far, although really sorry you’ve been chewed about with Virgin so much.

We were planning to stay at the Boardwalk in a one bed villa with our DVC points, but thanks to Disney extending some of our points that were due to expire (because we can’t get there) we’ve been able to upgrade to a 2 bed villa; albeit at Old Key West as there wasn’t any availability at the Boardwalk!

Loving starting to plan again. I’ve missed it terribly.

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I love the 2 beds at OKW! So much room! I would love to stay at the Boardwalk again too but at this stage I’d just be happy to be going .

[sha9]

Some more news - PE prices went down again so Mum & Dad have secured an upgrade from Economy Delight for £112 both ways in total! Mum texted me to say Dad was like a dog with two tails . At the same time we’ve managed to move from the row of 3 to a row of 2 at the window and we’re behind Mum & Dad both ways.

Finger crossed we actually get to sit in them!

[Taffy1959]

Originally Posted by sha9

Some more news - PE prices went down again so Mum & Dad have secured an upgrade from Economy Delight for £112 both ways in total! Mum texted me to say Dad was like a dog with two tails . At the same time we’ve managed to move from the row of 3 to a row of 2 at the window and we’re behind Mum & Dad both ways.

Finger crossed we actually get to sit in them!

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Glad you’ve finally got something sorted and fingers crossed everything can go ahead