Virgin Atlantic Upper Class: New York (JFK) – Paris (CDG) $2,200 R/T

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Fares

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I’ve been looking for a decent Virgin Atlantic Upper Class fare for some time (you may have noticed I haven’t posted a single Virgin Atlantic airfare deal before today) and, while $2,200 R/T may not be fantastic compared to some of the amazing Business Class deals we’ve seen across the Atlantic in 2015, this is definitely one of the better Virgin Atlantic Upper Class fares I’ve spotted for a while.

Pricing

Consistently around $2,200 for the entire period except for a few dates in March when it drops to $2,007.

Route

JFK-LHR-CDG-LHR-CDG

Note: The LHR-CDG-LHR sectors are served by British Airways

Rules

Travel dates: Now – 31 October 2016

Booking: Must book by 2 February 2016

Minimum Stay Requirements:

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-min-stay

In essence, if you choose your departure dates carefully, you get a great selection of trip-lengths (I didn’t search past 9-day trips)

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-trip-length

Maximum Stay Requirements:

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-max-stay

Stopovers: 1 Free stopover permitted in London. Unlimited stopovers permitted at $50 each.

Example flights/routings (click to enlarge)

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-Flights

In the above example, the layovers may be a little short so you may wish to select flights that give you more time at Heathrow. Primarily because you would have to change terminals to connect between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways (and that can be time-consuming at Heathrow) but also because, on the return leg, you may wish to spend a little time in the fantastic Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at T3.

virgin-atlantic-upper-class-clubhouse-heathrowImage courtesy of Tom Mascardo via Flickr

Availability

Availability for this fare starts out well in January…..

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-January

….and then just gets better…..

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-February

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-march

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-April

And then the availability stay like this (i.e. the fare is available every day) until the end of October 2016:

Virgin-Atlantic-Upper-Class-JFK-CDG-October

Searching Availability

I used the ITA Matrix search to find these flights (hints on using the search engine are here and here).

The search parameters to use are simple:virgin-atlantic-upper-class-paramaters

Don’t be tempted to attempt to limit your search to Virgin Atlantic flights only as ITA Matrix won’t return you any results. The British Airways flights within the itinerary will ensure that the results you’re looking for are filtered out if you restrict the search to Virgin Atlantic flights.

Booking

Because British Airways and Virgin aren’t exactly the best of friends you’re not going to find this fare on Virgin Atlantic’s website. Despite the fact Virgin doesn’t have any intra-Europe short-haul routes you won’t find them offering you connections on British Airways.

To book this flight head over to one of the consolidators like Orbitz and you should find the fare without too much trouble:

virgin-atlantic-upper-class-orbitz

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

There’s an opportunity to try out the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class product on both their A330 and A340 aircraft with this fare.

It’s hard to say which product would be presented on the A330 aircraft as, up until recently, Virgin Atlantic had the great “Upper Class Dream Suite” installed on this aircraft….

virgin-atlantic-dream-suite

…..but, following a rethink (commercial pressures) Virgin Atlantic announced back in October than they would be replacing the Dream Suite with an updated version of the product currently seen on the 787 Dreamliner (Runway Girl has the full story).

ExpertFlyer.com is still showing the A330’s as having the staggered seating of the Dream Suite as far in the future as October 2016….but I’d be very surprised if that didn’t change. I’ve no idea how quickly Virgin are refitting the A330 with the new seats (which are reportedly tighter than the Dream suites) but I’d assume that you’ll have a far greater chance of trying out this seat in January then you’ll have later in the year.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a rock-bottom bargain fare to Europe then this isn’t it (although it is one of the best fares available right now). But, if you’re looking to try out Virgin Atlantic (and you probably should) then this isn’t a bad fare at all.

For one reason or another Virgin Atlantic don’t seem to post too many good fares for departures from the US. You occasionally see some great fares for departures from Dublin but, other than that, they seem to control the price of Upper Class reasonably tightly.For that reason alone I may be tempted to take them up at this price.

Featured image courtesy of Mark Harkin via Flickr

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