Virgin Atlantic celebrates 25th birthday with one-day sale on fall fares

Celebrate Virgin Atlantic’s 25th birthday today with a one-day sale. Travelers have until midnight tonight to book a flight with fares starting at $181 one-way based on a roundtrip ticket. I love that the Virgin Atlantic website helps us bargain hunters by showing when the best time to travel is if you want to get the most value. [Update: This is midnight Eastern Time, 9 p.m. Pacific Time]

East Coast to London: The $181 fares departed out of Newark Oct. 26 – Dec. 20, 2009
Los Angeles to London: Fares start at $306 with the best rates Sept. 3 – Oct. 25, 2009
San Francisco to London: Fares are also starting at $306 Sept. 2, 2009 – Oct. 25, 2009

Tested: I found flights between Los Angeles (LAX) and London Heathrow (LHR) for $612 roundtrip or $769 including tax traveling midweek in early October (Oct. 6-12). The same length of stay in August (Aug. 3-10) was $963 roundtrip or $1,120 after taxes — and that was on the low side. Taking a look at the calendar with comparative dates, prices easily spilled over $1,000 in July and August pre-tax.

Note: There may be a $20-$30 weekend surcharge (Thursday – Sunday) depending on your point of departure.

Family travel: If you are carrying an infant up to 23 months old in your lap, the child will pay 10% of the adult fare.

Virgin Atlantic history: Find out more about the birthday bash and Virgin Atlantic over the past 25 years on its website. To celebrate, they re-created the first flight from London Gatwick to Newark on June 22, 1984, and Sir Richard Branson was joined by supermodel Kate Moss on the wing of the Boeing 747-400 Virgin Atlantic aircraft, named “Birthday Girl.”

Contact: Virgin Atlantic

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Photo: Virgin Atlantic]

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 11:19 am by Jen Leo and is filed under Airline travel, Deals, Great Britain, Last Minute, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.