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Hi all,
I’m trying to work out my best options for a trip i’m planning November this year when I get married. So my lofty goal is to get 2 return Upper class tickets for LHR – MCO 7th November to 28th NovemberI have 300k virgin points and ideally trying to avoid the a330-300 and it’s coffin UC seats at least on the return leg.
In raw points it’s quoting me as 1 million miles for 2 returns 7th November to 28th November so that’s out as a sensible option; regretting not doing that SAS challenge now!
2 premium tickets on the same flights are coming out at 280k at the moment in points so are an option.
Can you use cash to upgrade reward tickets? If so any ideas on the usual upgrade cost from premium to upper class?
Or would I be better buying 2 premium tickets for cash and then using miles to upgrade to upper class? If so any ideas on the points required to upgrade?
Open to any better ideas or suggestions
Not sure where you’re getting 1 million from, it’s only 520,000 £2,09 on those dates for two.
You could get creative by going out PE and coming back UC.
Or a left field suggestion – Fly back from Tampa as there are saver seats in UC on the 28th. If you are renting a car while you’re in Orlando just rent to drop back at TPA. If you’re not a cheap one way rental for the day would work as well.
it comes up as:
Total to pay
1,080,000
Virgin Points
£2,094.44
Money to payFor the A350 tagged flights. Which would my preference on return flight at the very least for the nicer seat and cabin. Thanks for the suggestion about Tampa, will look into that. I’m not opposed to going over to st Pete or Clearwater beach for a few days before returning to the UK so that might be an option.
If you’re prepared to do a bit of driving then you could do this
9/11 LHR – TPA Premium A330 – 900 Neo 15:20 – 20:30
26/11 MIA – LHR Upper A330 – 900 Neo 17:20 – 07:00215k Points + £1490
The drive from Tampa is easy enough as is the drive to Miami it’s just a bit further but easy enough
328K Points + £2094 gets you Upper & Upper
If you’re flexible with dates
LHR- TPA – LHR 12-30 / 11 in Upper is 259k + £2094
or LHR – TPA – LHR 09-27/11 in Upper is 318 £2094
Premium out and upper back is 247k + £1490
or if you’re willing to change at ATL then it’s 205k + £1490
Basically you’ve got a lot of options and that’s without looking at a flight into JFK and a couple of nights there first, plenty of cheap flights into JFK to add into the mix as well.
I can’t recommend the TPA option if pricing allows and works for you.
I did this with my family last school holidays and got to Orlando in about the same time as flying into MCO. I always feel MCO immigration kicks you in the backside.
An Uber from TPA -> Orlando (Disney Springs) was also just over $100
I can’t recommend the TPA option if pricing allows and works for you.
I did this with my family last school holidays and got to Orlando in about the same time as flying into MCO. I always feel MCO immigration kicks you in the backside.
An Uber from TPA -> Orlando (Disney Springs) was also just over $100
Did you have any issues with getting an Uber to do such a drive?
MIA might also be an option as there is the Brightline that runs from MCO to MIA.
I can’t recommend the TPA option if pricing allows and works for you.
I did this with my family last school holidays and got to Orlando in about the same time as flying into MCO. I always feel MCO immigration kicks you in the backside.
An Uber from TPA -> Orlando (Disney Springs) was also just over $100
Did you have any issues with getting an Uber to do such a drive?
MIA might also be an option as there is the Brightline that runs from MCO to MIA.
I would seriously look at hiring a car. Driving in the US is nice and straightforward. Much better than a train but Uber should be fine
It looks like TPA or MIA is the way to go. I wonder if it’s a bug or a feature of the new dynamic pricing but I think the leisure config a350 will always spit out high miles prices because it has a smaller UC cabin of only 16 seats, compared to the standard 44 seats on the non leisure a350s. As literally every other airport i’ve looked at served by the a350 non leisure config or the a330 neos produces reasonable prices for UC reward flights.
Your priorities are wrong in the HFP universe. You should be planning the honeymoon around the saver seats 😂
Agreed – should be the second question (after kids?) how far will you go to save points? Both well before getting down on one knee 🙂
Through all of the above, do not forget to compare to cash prices!
For your dates:
MCO Premium round trip £1300pp
Versus 117k and £575 with points
Points value of 0.62p per pointMCO Premium out, Upper return £1800pp
Versus 184k and £800 with points
Points value of 0.54p per pointMCO Upper round trip £2700pp
Versus 260k and £1000 with points
Points value of 0.65p per pointAll of the above are relatively poor value redemptions.
0.5p per point is the base value of virgin red offers.
Transfers to Hilton work out at similar values too.TPA or other airport upper round trip £2400pp
If possible at rates above of 160k and £1000Last line should read:
TPA or other airport upper round trip £2400pp
If possible at rates above of 160k and £1000 (as indicated in previous posts) – then this is more like 0.88p per point and a better redemption.For the others, I would consider paying cash and earning miles on the flights rather than burning miles on them. £1800 for premium out and upper return, to your preferred airport, on your exact dates – is not a terrible price. And you’ll earn more miles of course.
Your priorities are wrong in the HFP universe. You should be planning the honeymoon around the saver seats 😂
Haha in my defense the wedding/honeymoon was planned before the virgin switch to dynamic pricing. So figured with 300k points had more then enough as under the old system it would have been 190k didn’t expect it to be this bad points wise for november.
How naive i was!
I can’t recommend the TPA option if pricing allows and works for you.
I did this with my family last school holidays and got to Orlando in about the same time as flying into MCO. I always feel MCO immigration kicks you in the backside.
An Uber from TPA -> Orlando (Disney Springs) was also just over $100
Did you have any issues with getting an Uber to do such a drive?
MIA might also be an option as there is the Brightline that runs from MCO to MIA.
No issues at all, you can do a dummy booking on uber by putting in the origin and destination around the time you want it. At the time we needed it we had a wait time of less than 5mins.
Driving is also very easy but we did not need a car as we had transfers for the parks etc.
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