naap

If anyone's looking to go to London my friend who works at Virgin Atlantic Airways gave me the employee discount. The great thing for us all is that its booked online so anyone can use it. Check it out: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us...loyeedeals.jsp

cabritpop

Oh really, wow, cheers

Beyatch

Englishmum

All of the Virgin Atlantic staff working at Newark airport in NJ (and presumably all the other US destinations which Virgin flies to) are being made redundant from September 15th.

Their jobs will be replaced by an outside contractor ("Gateway") who will take over all checking-in, dealing with lost baggage etc. The guy I spoke with at Virgin was 'invited' to re-apply for the same job with Gateway, but of course declined as the pay and terms and conditions are nowhere near as good as he is currently getting. He says the cost-cutting measures have come about since Singapore Airlines took a 49% stake in Virgin.

I find the original post to be a bit odd.....this person has never posted before (or since?) so I'm not sure if I 'smell' a rat or not....perhaps from a disgruntled Virgin employee in the US?

Just remembered something: when my husband was checking in for his BA flight from Newark last week, the airline noticed that 5 passengers had been booked onto Club Class seats despite only paying the Economy fare. They got bumped out of their seats as they didn't/couldn't pay the considerable difference in the fare and were downgraded to Economy. Just wondering if Virgin checks on status at the airport on the 'employee' discount tickets?

Bob

I thought they had to provide employee number to actually get discounts...but having said that, discounts have gone to poo since my sister worked there, because flights to the east coast back then were £60 for proper economy seats unlike the shite standby of BA...and back then, flights to Oz/Asia were about £100...hmmm....

cindyabs

Travel agents used to be able to fly Upper Class in low season for USD 699 return, it's now almost triple that.

Duncan Roberts

Same post has been made elsewhere with the same user name. Not that that proves anything, but it was a little strange.

dbj1000

I smell a rat, but perhaps not the same rat that y'all do

I think this is "viral marketing" by Virgin Atlantic. I think the company is spamming certain message boards to drum up new trade.

If you check out the link given, the first condition is:

"Above fares are available to Virgin Atlantic Airways employees, their friends and relatives"

...so you don't have to be an employee, or even a family member, just "a friend".

Surely legally that can't be enforced? i.e. based on that post from a total stranger on a message board I read, I suddenly feel that "naap" is a good friend of mine.

If you haven't come across the insidious new(ish) trend of professional "viral marketing", check out BzzAgent, which recruits people to market products to their friends, colleagues and acquaintances, without telling people that they're being marketed to.

Next time a colleague tells you about a great movie they just saw, or a friend raves about the last novel they read or some new deodorant, they could well have been paid to get inside your "circle of trust" and market to you face-to-face. It's a poisonous idea, and companies just love it!

dbj1000

On second thoughts, the offers on that site are such complete shit, they could only be aimed at Virgin-employed serfs!

The earliest you can book a flight out of Washington to London is November, and I've yet to find a single date that is actually available.

Woohoo! What joy it must be to work for a generous company like Virgin. What a jolly nice chap that Richard Branson is, what?

Rompers

Anyone flying accross the Atlantic tonight will be bloody glad they booked with Virgin rather than BA!

veryfunny

THANKS

Sarah

A ticket from New York to London is advertised at $173 on the site but then when you go through all the booking what dates you want it comes out to $256 before tax and $454 after tax. So not actually that much of a saving, especially after initially getting excited about a $173 airfare. If I was a virgin employee I'd be a bit miffed.

TRPardoe

I just priced a flight MIA-LHR and back in September. The price was about $570.

This is in contrast to the flight on Delta that I have actually booked (on Travelocity) for my son to come over to Fort Myers in September which cost me $698.

The flight round trip RSW-MIA is between $100 and $180 which means I might break even and he would have an extra 2 flights.

I guess the Virgin deal isn't so good after all.

Bob

Unless it's changes since my sister worked there, they had to list there friends that could use the deal, along with family members, and the list extended to up to 10 friends, 2 tickets a year, family didn't have a limit.

Bob

better than BA discounts, least Virgin you can bring your mates over, and get proper seats, BA there stand-bys, and limits to immediate family only.

Philgr

The $173 is one-way - it does say that in the small print - but it is a bit misleading.

I don't know if the NY price is a good deal - the SFO-LHR prices are pretty good - if you can find availability