I'm booked on the Spirit of India tour next February and thought I might upgrade my flight with it being a night flight going out, I'm not the best sleeper when travelling and I think it may improve my chance of getting some sleep.

According to the Virgin Atlantic website, the price difference between Economy and Premium Economy is just under £180 return, but JY quote in the brochure a price of 'from £489', there is obviously a huge difference in price here, and I was wondering how JY can justify this price difference (obviously I understand JY need to make some money out of it too), and would I be able to ring Virgin myself to upgrade my flight, as this will save me a lot of money.

Regards

Caroline

I have spoken to my colleague in our aviation team to get some information on this and he has advised that main reason for the price difference is that we purchase our allocation of flights a long time before departure to ensure that we get the best prices available. The price shown on the Virgin website is the cost of the upgrade on top of a standard economy fare on a particular day. When we quote an upgrade fare, we have to base the price differential on the price from which we have secured the seats at (which is lower than a standard fare) and the price of upgrade on the day it is requested. When a customer requests an upgrade price, this is done using the live information and can fluctuate both up and down subject to availability and any offers that the airline may be running that we can take.

Unfortunately, all of our seats are on a group allocation so you would be unable to arrange an upgrade directly with Virgin.

Kindest regards,

Julia

I hope you don't mind me butting into this question, but I was very interested in your reply.    In view of the price difference on the upgrade and in view of the fact that we cannot contact the airline directly to upgrade, is it possible to book the tour with you and then organise our own flights.   JY offer terrific holiday locations and itineraries, but I have to say this is completely negated by the Appalling flexibility on flights, I.e. Selection of seats, upgrades etc.    I know this is not the place to raise this, but perhaps you could advise me the name of the person I could contact re this as it really puts me off booking with you.

Many thanks.

Isobel

It would be good if JY could offer the option of  individual bookings, so customers could take advantage advantage  of on line check in and early selection of seats. I have racked up a large number of avios points, but apparently can't  use them to upgrade flights on JY holidays.

Hi Sarah,

As you know we can't really upgrade a customers using Avios points.

Our Aviation Team has advised me that the only way of doing this it is if you asked Avios to book the holiday through our contact centre on your behalf, to be able to receive the discount or the upgrade. 

Kind regards,

Elisa

Hi Julia

I hope you don't mind me butting into this question, but I was very interested in your reply.    In view of the price difference on the upgrade and in view of the fact that we cannot contact the airline directly to upgrade, is it possible to book the tour with you and then organise our own flights.   JY offer terrific holiday locations and itineraries, but I have to say this is completely negated by the Appalling flexibility on flights, I.e. Selection of seats, upgrades etc.    I know this is not the place to raise this, but perhaps you could advise me the name of the person I could contact re this as it really puts me off booking with you.

Many thanks.

Isobel

Hi Isobel,

I am afraid it is against our company policy to offer the option of booking your own flights due to ATOL insurance covering land and air.

I have still passed your comments to our Aviation Team though.

Kind regards,

Elisa

Hi Julia

I hope you don't mind me butting into this question, but I was very interested in your reply.    In view of the price difference on the upgrade and in view of the fact that we cannot contact the airline directly to upgrade, is it possible to book the tour with you and then organise our own flights.   JY offer terrific holiday locations and itineraries, but I have to say this is completely negated by the Appalling flexibility on flights, I.e. Selection of seats, upgrades etc.    I know this is not the place to raise this, but perhaps you could advise me the name of the person I could contact re this as it really puts me off booking with you.

Many thanks.

Isobel

Hi Isobel,

I am afraid it is against our company policy to offer the option of booking your own flights due to ATOL insurance covering land and air.

I have still passed your comments to our Aviation Team though.

Kind regards,

Elisa

Hello Elisa

I have the same problem with seat choice flexibility and use of frequent flyer benefits (I have  large stocks of BA Avios points and KLM air miles which I cannot use for upgrades here) - and also with choice of airlines, particularly for long-haul flights, which prevents me from booking some JY (and TS) holidays which look otherwise quite attractive, so I find this thread to be very interesting.

I quite see that there is an issue with ATOL insurance - but some well-known companies in the UK do offer "land only options" - and other companies with a UK base but with an international clientele only ever offer tours without international flights, so there must be some way round this - I suppose one way would be for the company to purchase  seat(s) on the  flight(s) and airline(s) selected by the customer (and often recommended by the tour company) once the holiday departure date has been confirmed, and include these in the overall package? I know that some companies will do this.

There also seems no reason why JY/TS cannot sell its tours with an included flight booking as now - but with the option of purchasing seats on the designated flight but outside the "group allocation" - this would obviously involve an increase in price from the group discounted price to the actual seat price, but I for one would be prepared to pay for the increased flexibility of having an individual PRN for each flight with online check-in and seat selection - and this could then perhaps also open the way to an upgrade using air miles.

I don't think this would leave you with unsold seats within the group allocation, as these are presumably on a 'sale or return' basis - otherwise you would make a loss for every unsold place on a tour which was not completely sold out? There are obvious risks to the customer involved with this approach, but it would then be for him or her to make a decision on this.

I am aware that  a holiday company can - and will - send an associated  request for a particular type of seat to the airline with each flight booking - but, as I am sure you are aware, this is often ignored (as was my request on a recent JY holiday).

Jim

This would mean that I would be more likely to do some of the tours, if this was an option.

Can this option be brought back please?

Katy

Hi Julia

I hope you don't mind me butting into this question, but I was very interested in your reply.    In view of the price difference on the upgrade and in view of the fact that we cannot contact the airline directly to upgrade, is it possible to book the tour with you and then organise our own flights.   JY offer terrific holiday locations and itineraries, but I have to say this is completely negated by the Appalling flexibility on flights, I.e. Selection of seats, upgrades etc.    I know this is not the place to raise this, but perhaps you could advise me the name of the person I could contact re this as it really puts me off booking with you.

Many thanks.

Isobel

Hi Isobel,

I am afraid it is against our company policy to offer the option of booking your own flights due to ATOL insurance covering land and air.

I have still passed your comments to our Aviation Team though.

Kind regards,

Elisa

Thank you Elisa

I still think £300 mark-up is excessive, even after taking the discount JY get for booking in bulk, the cut JY get, then the cut the aviation team get too. I agree with other posters, I think we should be allowed to upgrade ourselves, as surely the ATOL certificate covers the same destination/flight dates whether it's in Economy or otherwise, so we would still have our ATOL cover anyway (the class of ticket is not shown anywhere on the certificate).

I usually book connecting flights myself as I can save £50+ each time, and as they're not covered as part of my JY package anyway, I'd rather save the money to use towards overnight hotel stays before/after my holiday, which I again book myself ?.

I contacted JY yesterday morning for a quote to upgrade, as yet I'm still awaiting a call back. No doubt the ticket prices will have gone up in the meantime ?.

Regards

Caroline

Hi,

I'm booked on the Spirit of India tour next February and thought I might upgrade my flight with it being a night flight going out, I'm not the best sleeper when travelling and I think it may improve my chance of getting some sleep.

According to the Virgin Atlantic website, the price difference between Economy and Premium Economy is just under £180 return, but JY quote in the brochure a price of 'from £489', there is obviously a huge difference in price here, and I was wondering how JY can justify this price difference (obviously I understand JY need to make some money out of it too), and would I be able to ring Virgin myself to upgrade my flight, as this will save me a lot of money.

Regards

Caroline

Hi Caroline

I've recently upgraded my flight with another company to the USA.  Total upgrade cost was £845 return in Premium Economy with Virgin.  A bit steep, but better than the JY prices I was quoted for Alaska earlier on in the year - the price of the holiday itself!  It's all to do with the greedy airlines, and I'm sure JY have to take their cut too.

Regards

Sylvia

Please could you let me know when my post from last week will be posted on the forum, and when, if at all, I'm likely to get a call from anyone regarding the flight upgrade I requested over a week ago.

I'm starting to think JY do not bother with customer service, I know if I left a customer waiting for over a week without calling back, or even giving an approximate date I would call back, I would be looking for another job.

Regards

Caroline

First of all please accept my apologies for the delay in coming back to you all.

I wanted to make sure I had the right information and therefore spoke with quite few members of our Aviation Team, including their General Manager.

Our holidays involve a mixture of flights that we have either contracted in advance on special group rates or purchased at the time of the customer’s booking. This all depends on the destination, availability and the airlines involved. Therefore on some tours the flights do offer the flexibility of an individual booking reference, which can then be upgraded directly.

The cost of a flight upgrade from the airline can change considerably from day to day and is driven by general demand for the route and the amount of seats that an airline will release to Tour Operators which can be restricted. The rates we obtain depend on the date of request and seat availability at that point in time and will be different to what the customer may see direct with the airline. This is the same for standard seats which is why we generally prefer to contract the flight well in advance of the tour so we can secure seats and get as many of the group on the same flight as possible. Having the same arrangements for all of the group helps to protect the seats at very busy departure times and to make all the other logistics fit together as smoothly as possible.

With regards to the mark up on flight upgrades, yes as a company we do have a small percentage but, as Julia already explained, the main reason for the price difference is that we purchase our allocation of flights a long time before departure to ensure that we get the best prices available. The price shown on the Virgin website is the cost of the upgrade on top of a standard economy fare on a particular day. When we quote an upgrade fare, we have to base the price differential on the price from which we have secured the seats at (which is lower than a standard fare) and the price of upgrade on the day it is requested. When a customer requests an upgrade price, this is done using the live information and can fluctuate both up and down subject to availability and any offers that the airline may be running that we can take.

Hope this is clear and answers all your questions.

If not please do let me know and I'll be happy to help.

Kind regards,

Elisa

I also post on this thread a week ago, and this hasn't appeared yet either. Have also always had problems re JY and upgrades and have various issues.

Regards

Katy

Jaya

Thanks for your replies.

Although JY may get flight tickets cheaper with buying in bulk, this does not interest me as I have still paid full-price for a holiday which includes Economy tickets, so don't see why I should be penalised for this. I appreciate JY have to make some profit on the upgrade price, but the price difference on the day (which was also the same day JY contacted me so they would have been the same) of over £400 could not be justified in my opinion. If I'd been quoted £350 or thereabouts, I would have been happy to pay this, knowing JY would make some profit also, but not £542 as this is too excessive compared to the price difference showing on the Virgin Atlantic website of £85.50.

I was very interested to read the post from Sue2 stating 2 customers upgraded their flights at check-in and would like to ask JY if I would be allowed to do this either when checking in online, or at the airport myself, thus bypassing JY altogether?

Regards

Caroline

Katy