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Old 18 Nov 18, 10:47 AM  
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#21
Lisa29
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Originally Posted by collybird View Post
I was wondering why you hadn't thought of DVC too, it's funny the things we do in a panic when we're desperate to just get things booked up. So excited to hear what the next twist in the tale is.
You have it absolutely spot on, I was just in such a rush to get it and not miss out! x
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Old 23 Nov 18, 07:40 PM  
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Lisa29
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Flights

My next update was supposed to be version 3 of our accommodation plans but as I have just completed my flight booking process, I thought I would update on that first.

This is usually a stressful time, never knowing whether to make the decision to book or hold out for a better price, but it wasn't like that for me this time. I had almost enough Virgin miles for return reward flights for the four of us so I was holding out for these being released. We had already changed our dates to 8 days earlier in the hope the flight prices would be cheaper (which they already were on the Thomas Cook website), so I just had to wait.

Whilst I was waiting for VA to release their flights, BA had already released theirs for our dates and their fly drives were coming in at very good prices. At one stage, we could book for the 4 of us with a Ford Edge or similar for less than £2000! They were basically giving the car hire for free compared to the flight only price. Ryan and Bethany and Mum and Dad booked with BA and Michelle did a few days later, when her dates were released. About a week ago, Danielle booked the same.

Pic from google

The reward seats for the outbound journey for us were available on November 8, with availability only from Gatwick. As our car likely isn't big enough for our cases and we would need some help from my Mum and Dad, we decided that we would fly from Gatwick too. Obviously I needed to wait another two weeks for the return to be released but having never booked reward flights, I was bothered that they would sell out.

I decided to call Flying Club to see what my options were. I spoke to a lovely lady called Toria and explained my dilemma and she was very helpful. She went away and spoke to someone and came back and said that she could hold the flights for 72 hours and also make a note on the booking that when the return flight was released, I could call to book and it would be treated as a return booking, rather than two one-way flights. Phil was working so I asked her to hold the flights so that I could talk to him first.

I explained everything to Phil and he said we should book it if they were going to honour it as a return booking. It was the next night when I had a chance to call back and the price quoted was more expensive than what Toria had quoted me the day before, and what was showing online whilst I was on the phone. Dimitra went away and came back saying it was to do with the taxes - the price she was getting had the kids as adults so was more expensive. She said she would need to speak to the ticketing team and would call me back. This was about 10pm on the Friday night, I hoped it wouldn't be too long!

It wasn't too long, maybe 25 minutes, and she called back. She would take all my details then the ticketing team would process it at the correct price the next day and send the email confirmation. I was told the cost would be £518.64 and 50,000 miles. When the email confirmation came through the next day, I had only been deducted 25,000 miles, not the 50,000 miles I was expecting. (More to come on that later.)

HOW MUCH
Taxes, fees, charges and Carrier imposed surcharges per adult: GBP 168.66

Taxes, fees, charges and Carrier imposed surcharges per child: GBP 90.66


Total: miles 25,000 +
GBP 518.64


I hoped this wasn't an error as it meant that I wouldn't need to purchase approximately 14,000 miles to make mine up to the original 100,000 that I thought I needed.

So, we were booked onto the VS15, Gatwick to Orlando, 1pm with a scheduled arrival time of 5.20pm, on October 3rd 2019.

Pic from google

I went straight online to look at the booking. The 'choose your seat' option came up so I clicked on that. I didn't realise that I could now book seats for free and this swayed my decision in picking seats downstairs, rather than Dibbers Row in the bubble. (These were available but were £35 each.) I went with four seats in the middle on row 34, the furthest forward that were available.

So that was all I could do for two weeks until the return flight was released. I kept checking every day to see if they were becoming available for each day and they had been. I looked online yesterday at about 7.30am and they weren't there but then at 8am they were. I called Virgin Flying Club straight away and was on hold for a while. Finally I was on the phone to Amy and after giving my booking reference, explained what I wanted to do. She could see the notes on the system confirming that my booking could be honoured as a return flight and started looking to check availability. She confirmed the seats were there but had the same issue with the higher tax price for the girls. She put me on hold to speak to the ticketing team to see what she needed to do.

After a few minutes she came back and said she would need to charge me as if it was 4 adults, but then would arrange for a refund of the difference in taxes at the same time. The cost of this was to be £433.60. She then said that there must have been a promotion on when I booked the outbound flight as I had only been charged 25,000 miles, however, to complete the process as a return booking, she would need to cancel the first booking and re-sell it. Doing it this way would mean I would need to pay an additional £195 to purchase the 14,000 miles I would need to get it up to the full 100,000. This would make the total amount £628.60.

I asked if she could let me know how much it would be to book the return as a one way flight instead. She went away and checked, then said that as before, it would need to be sold as 4 adults with the difference in tax being refunded, and the cost would be £464.40 and 50,000 miles. Having enough miles to do it this way and at only £30.80 more than the price quoted as part of the return flight, and without having to pay the £195 to purchase additional miles, I asked her to book it this way instead. She went away and set everything up then came back on the phone for my card details.

Soon enough, my return flights were booked, yay! She gave me my reference number and that was it done!

HOW MUCH
Taxes, fees, charges and Carrier imposed surcharges per adult: GBP 116.10

Taxes, fees, charges and Carrier imposed surcharges per child: GBP 116.10


Total: miles 50,000 +
GBP 464.40


This flight was for October 17th 2019, VS16, Orlando to Gatwick, leaving at 7.50pm and arriving the next day at 9.05am.

I went online straightaway again and logged in to select our seats. Again, we decided to go with the middle seat option and booked the four in the middle on row 32.

I'm so happy that these are done and even happier that I managed to make use of the miles I had and have only paid the taxes, a total of £983.04 for the four of us!

Accommodation plans version 3 will be coming soon!
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Old 23 Nov 18, 09:24 PM  
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collybird
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Brilliant deal Lisa, I'm sure you're really pleased with those prices. It seemed quite a stressful booking experience but I've always found VA call centre very helpful.

It seems VA miles go a bit further than Avios, I have been saving my Clubcard points for what seems like forever and I still don't have enough for a decent saving on BA flights.
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Old 23 Nov 18, 11:10 PM  
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We are also currently going through the seat booking process with virgin. Already secured our outbound flights using miles, but since our returns aren’t due out until December Liam at virgin has managed to hold our booking for 2 weeks so we can save the extra taxes incurred from separate bookings. I’ve previously booked our outbound seats so hopefully when our return seats become available we can secure them? My reference isn’t working but hopefully I’ve just written it down wrong but I’ve checked the seat plan and the seats I’ve asked for are grayed out.

Kat
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Old 24 Nov 18, 09:21 PM  
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Bit of a saga to book them but fab price! We've opted for Gatwick too but BA as no points to use sadly. Not sure you'll get any tax back for return flight as think it's only If you're leaving the UK but under £1000 for all 4 of you is amazing.
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Old 21 Dec 18, 12:39 PM  
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Lisa29
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Originally Posted by collybird View Post
Brilliant deal Lisa, I'm sure you're really pleased with those prices. It seemed quite a stressful booking experience but I've always found VA call centre very helpful.

It seems VA miles go a bit further than Avios, I have been saving my Clubcard points for what seems like forever and I still don't have enough for a decent saving on BA flights.
I am so pleased with the flight prices, they are so much cheaper than what I paid in 2015. They were really helpful on the phone.

Originally Posted by Kat11 View Post
We are also currently going through the seat booking process with virgin. Already secured our outbound flights using miles, but since our returns aren’t due out until December Liam at virgin has managed to hold our booking for 2 weeks so we can save the extra taxes incurred from separate bookings. I’ve previously booked our outbound seats so hopefully when our return seats become available we can secure them? My reference isn’t working but hopefully I’ve just written it down wrong but I’ve checked the seat plan and the seats I’ve asked for are grayed out.

Kat
That's good, I wasn't offered the option to just hold them. I had written my reference down wrong to start with too!

Hope you have the return booked now.

Originally Posted by magickate View Post
Bit of a saga to book them but fab price! We've opted for Gatwick too but BA as no points to use sadly. Not sure you'll get any tax back for return flight as think it's only If you're leaving the UK but under £1000 for all 4 of you is amazing.
Thanks! I think you're probably right, I've not heard anything from them, or had any refund, so think that must be right. I'm still really happy with the price though.
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Old 30 Dec 18, 03:02 PM  
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Lisa29
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A Very Special Update!

Sorry, I have a few updates about the holiday ready to go but thought I would share something else first.

I can now introduce you to the newest member of our family, making his debut in one of my trip reports, here is our new nephew, Madison and Kaley's new cousin, and of course Danielle and Dave's son, Cole


All the cousins together

We are all in love, he came along a few days before Christmas and is so tiny and cute.

I'll be back with holiday updates soon.
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MY TRIP AND DINING REPORTS - July 2023 Ten (Not So) Little Ones Take the Adults ~~ Onsite/Offsite Dining Report - July 2023 - 4 people - £168 budget per day plus tips ~~ Another Birthday Trip, October 2019 ~~ The Land, Sea and Wedding Trip Report, October 2015 ~~. Sept / Oct 2013 Five Little Ones Take the Adults
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Old 30 Dec 18, 07:02 PM  
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What gorgeous kids! They all look so close together in age by the look of them too. You are so lucky. Congratulations.

Kat

Ps, yes I did manage to sort out return flights and they are now all sorted. 😃
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Old 2 Jan 19, 10:31 PM  
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Congratulations Auntie Lisa! So cute.

The cousins are going to have an amazing and magical time together in WDW!

M x
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Old 4 Jan 19, 01:14 PM  
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Firstly, congratulations on your new nephew … adorable!

Looking forward to following along with your planning and you will be going just before us so look forward to seeing what you think of POR. It looks fab xx
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