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I have say yes, in my case, though usually I tend to be done over when any changes take place.
I had booked MAN-ATL in UC for 45k points plus £1218 plus cc voucher for 2 of us. We needed to be in FLL but there were no MCO UC seats available at that point, so I also booked ATL-FLL on DL for 22k points plus $12ish.
With dynamic pricing, not only did the MCO seats appear, but they’re priced significantly lower than previously on my travel date.
I’ve just booked MAN-MCO in UC for 2 of us for 21k points (i.e. the PE price), plus £864, plus the cc voucher.
Total saving on the cancelled trip is 46k points plus £324.Still looks to be the coffin seat though 🤦🏻♀️
If you’re flexible, there’s still value to be had especially inbound to UK.
Just booked CPT-LHR in UC for 58k + £275.BA have less availability over the next 6 months and want 100k + £237.
I have a friend who has been collecting Virgin points casually for about 10 years on economy flights to MCO for her and her husband and a small Tesco spend. She is not at all into the points game and every so often I attempt to persuade her to hone her strategy and aim for a decent redemption, which she never does! Before the changes, she would still only have had enough points for 1 UC seat, one way. Like many people I know, she would never pay a fee to hold a credit card, so she was not going to apply for the VS card.
We had coffee the other day and I mentioned the changes to her and showed her the new saver pricing on certain dates. Her points can now get her and her husband to MCO in UC as they can travel in low season. To her credit, she’s now even set up a HHA, which I haven’t got round to yet!
If you have no kids, sorry flexibility then this is still game on. I got an upper rtn MAN to ATL for 78000 points plus £803, with a leg on the neo (at the minute) As @Northernlass stated there’s plenty of MCO availability and now I see a dump for LAX flights especially to LAX with a little less on return.
If you don’t have flexibility then cash is king with some great fares on SAS at the minute (credit luxury flight club).
Makes me glad I haven’t yet given up the credit card voucher or moved to BA.If you have no kids, sorry flexibility then this is still game on. I got an upper rtn MAN to ATL for 78000 points plus £803, with a leg on the neo (at the minute) As @Northernlass stated there’s plenty of MCO availability and now I see a dump for LAX flights especially to LAX with a little less on return.
If you don’t have flexibility then cash is king with some great fares on SAS at the minute (credit luxury flight club).
Makes me glad I haven’t yet given up the credit card voucher or moved to BA.Yeah I think there’s some value to be had still. As long as you can achieve more than 1p per point of value it’s decent. Especially considering general non Amex cashback cards pay 0.25% and Amex ones are 0.75%/1.25%
My MAN-MCO UC for 21k points + £863 + cc voucher came out at 4p per point …
As I mentioned in anther post, it still has some value even you have kid and can only travel during peak holiday season.
Just booked 3 UC tickets LAX-LHR for end of July, only cost 93k + £590 + 1 CC voucher.
@DonLee, did you not have to pay extra taxes for the upgrade? I’m seeing $468 for UC LAX-LHR at the end of July, though of course they may have increased since you booked. Did you use the cc voucher for upgrades or as a 241?
@NorthernLass, I was going to book with $468 then suddenly a lot of saver seats were released. It turned out the fee was only around $249 for saver. I used the voucher for upgrading, so the total points cost 93k (26k x 2 + full UC 41k)
A success story!
We started collecting Virgin points at the start of the year and secured 2x credit card vouchers, hoping to book a UC booking to South Africa for 2 in November 2025. After the dynamic pricing was released I all but gave up on that idea figuring that South Africa is one of the most popular destinations so will always be ludicrously expensive.
However I just managed to book LHR-JNR CPT-LHR for both of us for 40,000 points + £822 each, utilising both vouchers to updgrade. That is less than I would have paid under the old scheme!
Strangely the points calculation was not what I was expecting. The PE return price was 66,000 points and the UC was 115,000. I would have thought it would cost 66,000 points – i.e. you pay the points in the lower cabin provided that the difference between the two cabins is less than 75,000 points. However the agent said he had applied a 75,000 discount to the UC price instead. Was the agent wrong, or are the HFP articles on this topic wrong? Either way I am not complaining.
Sadly both flights are in the 787. I have never flown Virgin before so don’t know if the old seats are as bad as they are often reported, but it also seems the planes are swapped out regularly so fingers crossed.
The agent possibly applied the vouchers as 241s? But you got a better deal that way, as you say!
Lots of availability now for February on many routes at 29k points each way in UC. It seems as if availability is released on a month by month basis. This is looking pretty good now.
Lots of availability now for February on many routes at 29k points each way in UC. It seems as if availability is released on a month by month basis. This is looking pretty good now.
I noticed that – is the general consensus that there is no point booking reward flights too far out, eg October, when saver fares get released monthly??
I suppose it depends how fixed your travel dates are. I’d probably make sure I had alternatives booked, and see whether it was worth sucking up cancellation fees.
Lots of availability now for February on many routes at 29k points each way in UC. It seems as if availability is released on a month by month basis. This is looking pretty good now.
I noticed that – is the general consensus that there is no point booking reward flights too far out, eg October, when saver fares get released monthly??
Sorry for being a noob, but is that what happens? They hold back saver fares to release monthly? So for example, are there likely to be more saver fares released for August each month?
No one knows. This system is only 3 months old.
In theory there are no Saver seats, at all, within 30 days – all removed.
No one knows. This system is only 3 months old.
In theory there are no Saver seats, at all, within 30 days – all removed.
Which isn’t true as there are LHR-JFK seats at saver price on Feb 3rd and MAN-JFK on Feb 2nd So maybe it’s 28 days?
yes. hordes of saver seats in all classes from Sunday 2nd Feb, so must be 28 days.
But more interesting to know when they release them
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