Flights booked via Virgin Holidays - fare class?

[Jack_OC]

Hi all, if you book flights (with VA in Y) via Virgin Holidays, does anyone know what fare class you get? It doesn't offer a choice between Getaway, Elevate and Freedom, nor does it say anything about what class you are purchasing.

Just to clarify, I would NEVER book anything with Virgin Holidays again under normal circumstances (given their outrageous change fees), but I have a voucher to use up. It's hard to tell exactly how much they're charging for the flights, as you have to book a flight & hotel package (well, you can book hotel only, but not flight only).

However, if the price for the hotel is similar to what it would be on other websites, it looks like the airfare is equivalent to Getaway on the outbound leg and Elevate on the way back, which as it happens are the cheapest fare categories available on the relevant flights. So maybe it just defaults to the cheapest available? If so, it's weird that it doesn't allow you to pay a bit more for Elevate.

One other question - I assume I would still get to choose Economy X seats if I book via Virgin Holidays, but that's not entirely clear either. The Virgin Holidays doesn't allow seat selection, but I'm guessing I can then log into MMB on the VA website to select seats?Grateful if anyone has any experience with this.

 

[misspotter]

I also booked a holiday recently because I had the EnergyAustralia voucher to use up! Plus there was a promotion to get free tickets to the Marvel exhibition in Brisbane so it made a nice birthday present for the hubby.

It was counted as a getaway fare. Yes it also counts towards "required sectors" if you're low on those. Also we were given the chance to get Economy X later when we properly checked in.

 

[Jack_OC]

I also booked a holiday recently because I had the EnergyAustralia voucher to use up! Plus there was a promotion to get free tickets to the Marvel exhibition in Brisbane so it made a nice birthday present for the hubby.

It was counted as a getaway fare. Yes it also counts towards "required sectors" if you're low on those. Also we were given the chance to get Economy X later when we properly checked in.

Thanks - good to know!

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Most unlikely it would be Elevate or Freedom, or even EconomyX.
Probably be Getaway with the lowest SC earn.
Personally, the only reason I had to use Virgin Australia Holidays is to book a hotel booking, I would not book flights directly there, would book it with Virgin Australia's main flight booking website.
What does the email they send say?
Have you checked your Velocity account, down at the back, on the last few pages of your bookings, it would day fare rules.
First alphabet would say class of travel.
If no email received, checked your Velocity account current bookings anyway.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Go to your Velocity account, log in.
Go to current bookings/my bookings.
Highlight the booking in question.
Flight 1.
It would say which one it is, Getawy/Elevate/etc.
Highlight the underline one, fare rules comes up, first alphabet, mine is Q, which is higher fare, and earns me a bit more VA SC.
Have also got an (Air) NZ booking, with a VA PNR, and also, the first alphabet in the fare rules, is the subclass in question.
Do a chase up of amount of status credit earnt in the Velocity website.
Realising of course, Getaway now earns a miniscule amount of SC on Aust dom travel.
Hopefully the booking is listed in your Velocity account.

 

[Jack_OC]

I haven't made the booking yet - I was hoping to answer these questions before booking. Obviously I realise it's not going to default into Economy X - my question was whether I (as a Velocity Platinum) can select an Economy X seat for free as I can with a normal booking, regardless of fare class.

As I mentioned in my original post, I suspect it's actually just allocating the cheapest fare class available for the relevant flights - which is Getaway in one direction and Elevate in the other, as that's what the price seems to correspond to. However, it is possible that they just give you Getaway regardless of what's available via VA direct. That's the main unknown - and yes, I'm aware of the poor SC earn rate with Getaway, hence this question is important to me!

 

[Jack_OC]

I just called them - the agent said it allocates the cheapest fare class available via the VA website, so in this case it would have given me Getaway out and Elevate back. However, he said they can allocate specific fare classes on the phone, and he agreed to do that without charging the normal phone booking fee.

As for seat selection, he said that once I get the itinerary, I can go onto the VA website and select seats as normal. Unfortunately, that proved not to be the case - the booking shows up, but when I click on select seats, I get that extremely annoying "This booking can only be changed by calling our Guest Contact Centre" message, which VA seems to throw up on any booking that is not booked online in the standard way. Nonetheless, I was able to phone up and get seats in row 3 assigned. And to be fair, the VA agent said the problem might just have been that the flights hadn't been ticketed yet - apparently VA Holidays take their time about that.

All in all, it was an ordeal, but at least I was able to use up that voucher!