Virgin Miles flights - help please

[1968hammer]

Good evening all.

Have got on hold a potential booking with Virgin Atlantic. One way using our miles plus £628.64 (reflecting taxes etc) in effect 4 economy seats for just that £628.64 in early August. I have until tomorrow evening to confirm. By the way this will use up all our remaining miles.

So the questions.

1) We are therefore exposed to the return flight costs whatever it is, which again we cannot book until 336 days out. Are we opening ourselves up to the risk of the perceived savings being wiped out by the cost of the return leg?

2) silly question time - we don't have to book our return leg with Virgin ? so can do a market wide search again ?

3) our youngest will be 14 when we fly, yet when I questioned the tax element of the fees being charged was told reward flights work differently and we would still have to pay £628.64, not as I had expected, around 3/4 of this sum being £471.48 reflecting 3 travellers over the age threshold. Does this seem to be correct ?

will leave questions at 3. thank you in advance as always.

regards

[Sew109]

You may be bette off just buying return flights in the first place, single tickets are always a lot more expensive than half a return fare check it out. I paid £1400 return for three tickets indirect this year school holidays changed and I could not change my current tickets the cheapest one way back was about £1600 and this was at a lower period than the tickets I had

It my be worth looking at getting two returns on your miles and paying for the other two

[joandwayne]

You could buy more miles to secure a reward seat on your return journey.

[Mary A]

Combi flight?

[1968hammer]

'spending miles' flights. using both DW and my accrued points, pooled together to buy 4 one way tickets. hope that helps clarify.

[RachaelC]

Originally Posted by 1968hammer

'spending miles' flights. using both DW and my accrued points, pooled together to buy 4 one way tickets. hope that helps clarify.

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Return only flights can be very expensive as they're just a one-way.

Have Virgin offered you the option of their special rates on the one way flight that you need?

If so then you might want to weigh up booking 2 x return journeys with the miles vs 4 x one ways to see which works out cheaper.

[1968hammer]

thank you for the feedback. you have prompted me to investigate one way from US and the flights are indeed very expensive. i will ring Virgin again tomorrow and clarify all my options.

thank you once again

[Guest]

For Virgin/BA and many other airlines, the cost of a "return" is simply the cost of two "singles". For most airlines the practice of charging more for a single has disappeared. You can check this out by checking the fares online. Charter airlines may still charge you much more.

Personally I'd go for the flights - you can book a return with whomever you want and via whatever route. So lots of choice and price competition!

[RachaelC]

Originally Posted by misterh

For Virgin/BA and many other airlines, the cost of a "return" is simply the cost of two "singles". For most airlines the practice of charging more for a single has disappeared. You can check this out by checking the fares online. Charter airlines may still charge you much more.

Personally I'd go for the flights - you can book a return with whomever you want and via whatever route. So lots of choice and price competition!

See more...

This isn't the case. While it looks like you're paying for 2 one way tickets in the booking process it's actually still more expensive to book a "true" one way.

Example being a random flight from LGW to MCO on the 27th May is £412 when booking as part of a return, but a massive £1089 when it's just a one way fare. This is due to the fare rules where a one way flight is booked in a higher, more flexible booking class whereas the cheaper ones don't allow one way travel.

It's different on short haul routes where there is a lot of competition from the low cost carriers and their "true" one way pricing.

[rtfl66]

Thomas Cook and Norwegian both offer good value one way fares