How does anyone ever find good prices for VA?

[hornetgirl]

The duration of the trip isn't relevant - and its those specific dates for a reason
I'm more curious about why anyone ever flies Virgin, at least from Gatwick, as I always seem to get similar results. I'll have a look at Travelbag etc though, thank you for the suggestion.

[2point]

If you wanted 'good' prices you probably needed to be looking at 330 days out rather than 130 something.

We booked Sat 7th Dec with Virgin for £275 each the day they we released. It is possible to catch a late bargain but more likely around release time.

[cornishfrogboy]

Many that buy Virgin are ‘brand driven’.
Many that by Virgin have accumulated reward points.

Virgin Atlantic are 49% owned by Delta, 31% by Air France and just 20% by Virgin Holdings. This can be important as it means that Delta, Air France and possibly KLM can sell seats on Virgin Atlantic branded airliners. My last 4 flights to the Srates have been with Virgin Atlantic.. but every trip has been purchased at a much better price from the Delta website.

Now, how to deal with it... search on Google,Kayak, Zoopla and Skyscanner using appropriate filters and finding desirable flights. Now search for those same flights on Delta, Air France and possibly KLM. You may find much better deals.

Alternatively, you may be lured to other, equally good airlines that are offering better deals.

[Softy]

Sometimes virgin are cheaper, sometimes BA are. I would say it’s about 50/50 whenever I search for flights. I always use skyscanner.

[Kraken]

Try looking at Air France. They are in a codeshare with Virgin & often they have fares loaded that are lower then Virgin's. As long as you put in LGW-MCO it will be a Virgin plane you're on, but with an AF codeshare flight number - the giveaway is to look at the small print, it will say "Operated by Virgin Atlantic".

Just before the VS-AF codeshare was announced a load of fares got loaded into the system that should not have been. You could pick up Upper Class returns UK-MCO for £500 less than Virgin were charging. We booked!

[lizzie145]

I think it is because you are going for a short time around the UK BH and coming back with the hoards in time for school

[Eden]

£1500 for 5 of us through Netflights
If we could have gone a few days later there were prices towards £1200, this was 11 months out

[Procrastinator]

I would say the bargains are had by being flexible, looking from when they are released and booking the minute you spot them.

I think what happens quite often is someone loves the idea of a bargain or cheap flight, but then as they start to expand on what they are looking for it ends up being very narrow - will only fly to mco, will only fly on exact dates, wont go indirect. Which is all fine, but it means they are really only looking at a half dozen flight options. And with a small set of options it is hard to find the bargain.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

I view flights like car hire. Book early! If in school holidays and you haven't booked at the 10 month mark then expect to pay big bucks.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by Wooden Top

I'm not sure why this keeps getting mentioned. I know you are very knowledgeable about Florida but I couldn't disagree more about this. I have never booked that far out and my wife is a teacher so we are always stuck with school holidays. I have always managed to grab bargain flights which they definitely are not on initial release. Prices are completely random but personally I have found the best prices 6-9 months prior.

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And that's fine. I must say though that I didn't say initial release as that's a nuts price which I won't touch.
It is a lottery, do we book early, do we hold on for a sale, do we wait for a late deal? The trouble though is the faster that plane fills up the less chance of a bargain.