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Virgin Atlantic has now launched its winter sale for departures from the UK and there are a few deals available which are worth investigating if you’re looking to fly across the Atlantic to the US or the Caribbean or if you’re looking for flights to select cities in Asia and South Africa.
Virgin Atlantic Winter Sale – Headline Terms
- Book by 31 January 2019
- Permitted travel dates vary by destination but flights through 31 December 2019 are available for most destinations (see here for details)
- Some routes have advance purchase restrictions:
- Economy:
- All US departing London and Manchester – 28 days advance purchase required (excluding Manchester to Orlando with an advance purchase of 50 days).
All flights to other destinations, there is 0 advance purchase required.
- All US departing London and Manchester – 28 days advance purchase required (excluding Manchester to Orlando with an advance purchase of 50 days).
- Premium Economy;
- All US departing London and Manchester – 28 days advance purchase required;
All flights to other destinations, there is 0 advance purchase required.
- All US departing London and Manchester – 28 days advance purchase required;
- Upper Class;
- All US departing London and Manchester – 90 days advance purchase required;
All flights to other destinations, there is 0 advance purchase required (excluding London to Johannesburg with a 7 day advance purchase).
- All US departing London and Manchester – 90 days advance purchase required;
- Economy:
- Round trips and open jaw tickets are permitted. One way trips and trips including sectors on airlines other than Virgin Atlantic including codeshares are not permitted.
- All trips must include a Sunday night (excluding Upper Class travel to Dubai which just has a minimum stay of 3 days).
- A maximum stay of 12 months is permitted
- Stopovers and open-date returns are not permitted.
- Children (under 12) and infants (under 2) who require a seat pay 75% of the full adult fare.
- Infants (under 2) who do not require a seat pay 10% of the full adult fare (exclusive of passenger taxes, fees, charges and carrier imposed surcharges).
Full T&Cs are available on the Virgin Atlantic sale page
The Fares
Upper Class (Business Class)
The headline roundtrip fares for departures from London are as follows:
USA
- Boston – from £2,098
- New York – from £2,123
- San Francisco – from £2,538
- Seattle – from £2,226
- Washington D.C. – from £1,873
Caribbean
- Antigua – from £1,919
- Barbados – from £2072
- Jamaica – from £1,935
Africa & Asia
- Delhi – from £2,108
- Hong Kong – from £3,199
- Johannesburg – from £1,799
Note: More Upper Class fares are available
Out of this set of fares the Hong Kong fare should be dismissed out of hand (it’s a terrible “deal”) but the fares to Johannesburg and the Caribbean aren’t too bad for departures from the UK.
If I wanted to fly to the West Coast I’d be tempted to fly into (and out of) Seattle rather than San Francisco and to take a short internal flight to my final destination – I suspect you could save around £200 per person by doing that.
Premium Economy
The headline roundtrip fares for departures from London are as follows:
USA
- Boston – from £724
- Las Vegas – from £770
- Los Angeles – from £795
- Miami – from £783
- New York – from £782
- Washington D.C. – from £782
Caribbean
- Barbados – from £689
- Jamaica – from £718
- Tobago – from £891
Africa & Asia
- Delhi – from £710
- Johannesburg – from £899
- Shanghai – from £754
Note: More Premium Economy fares are available
This is where the real value is to be had in this sale as Virgin Atlantic offers one of the best Premium Economy seats across the Atlantic.
With seats offering a fantastic 21″ of seat width and a good 38″ of seat pitch on almost all of its aircraft Virgin Premium Economy is a very good half-way house between Economy and Upper Class…and that’s a big reason why I like some of these fares.
Las Vegas from £770 and Los Angeles from £795 stand out as very good deals (for departures from the UK) as are the fares to Barbados (£639) and Shanghai (£754).
If I was looking for ideas for my next trip I’d definitely be considering these fares and checking the dates on which they’re available.
Economy
The headline roundtrip fares for departures from London are as follows:
USA
- Boston – from £279
- Las Vegas – from £299
- Los Angeles – from £289
- Miami – from £279
- New York – from £279
- San Francisco – from £289
Caribbean
- Barbados – from £432
- Jamaica – from £399
- Tobago – from £436
Africa & Asia
- Delhi – from £422
- Hong Kong – from £485
- Johannesburg – from £509
Note: More Economy fares are available
There are two key things to point out here:
Firstly, the lowest fares being quoted on these route are for hand baggage only fares so the prices will be higher if you need to place any luggage in the hold. Here’s what the various Economy Class fares to LA look like:
As you can see the fare which includes a checked bag costs £100 more than the advertised sale price.
This may still work for you but I suggest checking what fares other airlines are offering (airline like Norwegian for example) before jumping on these Economy Class fares.
Secondly, the prices being advertised by Virgin Atlantic on its sale page aren’t necessarily the cheapest prices the airline is offering.
The sale page shows is advertising Economy fares to Barbados “from £432” while the fares on the first set of dates I selected started at around £372.
Bottom Line
The sweet spots in this sale looks to be among the Premium Economy fares although a few of the Economy Class fares may be of use if you can travel with hand baggage only.
I’m struggling to get excited about the Upper Class fares in this sale as (a) I don’t think much of the current Virgin Atlantic Business Class cabins and (b) I’ve seen better deals from BA and considerably better deals from TAP (if you’re prepared to have a layover).
Lastly, don’t forget that Virgin Atlantic will be unveiling new Upper Class and Premium Economy products in the second half of 2019 so there’s a very good chance that some of these fares are for routes on which the new cabins will debut.
Has anyone else spotted any deals that look tempting?
[…] deals across the board here and it’s interesting to see how some of the fares match up with Virgin Atlantic’s deals that I published […]