Flight I've been watching, gone...

they changed the schedule, i'm sure.

When in September? I just checked a random date, Sept. 13, and it shows the non-stop Virgin flight departing SeaTac at 1:45 pm, arriving in London at 7:10 am ( which is an awkward time, in terms of checking in to your hotel). Then there is the non-stop flight on partner Delta, departing at 7:40 pm, arriving 1:15 pm, much better. The price is the same, $805 for the main cabin ( not Basic) for a one-way. If you are booking roundtrip or multi city the fare may be different.

I wonder if there are some schedule changes for September being dictated by Heathrow for operational reasons. Just today we got notice from British Airways that our 12 Sept. flight has been changed from 7:15 departure to 8:00 pm. Fine us as we are not connecting to another flight.

It's on the schedule every day in September. I think you had the origin airport wrong.

Lola, yes, I see that one as well. I had been hoping for the earlier arrival, as we will be taking a coach from Heathrow to Bath and would prefer to not get there late in the evening. I hope that the other flight gets returned to the schedule, as it was more ideal. If not, I'll have to go with the afternoon arrival. We will be traveling on Sept 21.

Tom, I entered SEA for SeaTac and it isn't showing for me. I've seen it every other time I have checked, and have been checking for about 2 months. Strange that you can see it and I can't!

Why won’t the 1:45 afternoon departure work? You will arrive the next morning at 7:10 and should be able to get a coach to Bath shortly thereafter.

Yes, the 7am arrival will work, but the 10am was more ideal as far as departure on this end. That may be what we do. Now I'm nervous about waiting until February. I'd have thought 7 months ahead was plenty, but I see that one of the options only has 4 seats left (Premium Econ), we will be choosing Economy Delight, which is $1121 round trip right now. That price hasn't fluctuated at all in 2 months.

How important is flying Virgin Atlantic to you? I see plenty of other options with similar times and better prices……..

Carol, I'm open to other airlines. Are you seeing non-stop flights at a lower cost for about the same Economy level? I've looked at so many different airlines, and VA seemed to have the best schedule/fares. Time to look again at the rest.
I've been checking Travelocity to see what options there are, then visiting the websites for those airlines. I'm very much open to your suggestions, this is our first time traveling overseas! Well, my husband went to Spain during his hippie days in the 70's, but I tell him that doesn't count!

If you want non-stop from Seattle to London, your choices are Virgin Atlantic, Delta, American or British Airways.

We know your outbound flight date, Sept 21, but not your return date. I picked a date about two weeks out and these are the prices that I found:
Basic Economy: The cheapest tickets available, fewer perks $673 Round Trip on American Airlines and Virgin Airlines, Delta very close in price
Main Cabin: A few more perks like luggage,etc. $823 RT

These prices are quite a bit better than what you are mentioning.

What is your return date and what are the features that are important to you when choosing a fare? Price, luggage allowance, seat selection, legroom?

Try looking on Google Flights instead of Travelocity. I think you find it makes a difference.

Carol, thank you. Our dates are Sept 21-Oct 7.

I have only seen prices that low on basic economy, and based off past threads here I wanted to do the next step up but not willing to splurge on Premium Economy. There are 4 of us, so seat selection is important, as well as those couple of extra inches of legroom. It would be nice to have available the option to check our bags, although I still swing wildly between checking in and carryon. I'll have a look at Google flight now and see if I can spot those fares you found.

Not the same situation, but one of our British Airways flight for next May got cancelled the other day. It’s going to make for a shorter layover at LHR and we all know how that can go, but I guess we’ll get to Paris eventually. We build in extra days, but I was surprised by a cancellation this far out.

Hi, we purchased our Delta tickets a few weeks ago, and a piece of it is the Seattle-to-London flight that you saw disappear. They sent us a notification, and we were able to leave earlier and will arrive in London at that early morning time. It’s not ideal for jet lag, but I’ll just consider it a few more hours of vacation! Good luck with your itinerary! : )

OP: Careful with terminology. The ticket baskets are using Delta terminology:

Basic Economy (Economy Light): Seat selection and checked bags are not included, refund or changes not available

Main Cabin (Economy Classic): Seat Selection and baggage included, can get a voucher without fees if canceled.

Comfort Plus (Economy Delight): Main cabin privileges plus extra legroom

Premium Select: A higher class of service with better seats

It sounds like you want comfort plus but not really sure, anyway "basic economy" does not equal main cabin/coach/regular economy, it's a real discount leap with no privileges.

Adding that I am seeing the VA flight on Sept 21.

Also I added the VA terms in parentheses above, there's also fully refundable coach available on both airlines and they each have a separate term for that.

Tom, yes, it's a bit ridiculous that the terminology is different when it is the exact same flight on the exact same plane, but is called something different based on if you purchase through VA or Delta.

I don't know how you are still seeing that flight, I just checked again and the only non-stop VA has are 1:45pm-7:10am or 7:40pm-1:15pm. What site are you seeing it on?

Sorry, I didn't know you were still looking for that 4:30 pm time. I think you made an error in the search previously?

At least Delta and VA have synched their fare baskets, Star Alliance has more! There's another one with bags but not seats, or vice versa. I decided recently it was too complicated and paid a bit more for Delta/Air France although the times were better.

I took this flight back in 2018, and it felt like almost every week, I was getting a schedule update from Virgin Atlantic. Never experienced that with any other airline in my life...it was a bit ridiculous. It will likely continue to change several more times before your trip.

Tom, no, there was no error in the search. It sounds like they have just eliminated that departure option from their schedule. Now we just need to decide if we want to extend our jet lag by getting in early in the morning, or if we want to deal with getting to Bath later than we had hoped. I'm leaning toward the earlier flight, we'll have jet lag anyway, what's a few more hours, right?

Virgin Atlantic is only going to have one flight a day from Seattle to London. It looks like they have changed their schedule to a 1:35 pm departure instead of the 4:30 pm one you wanted.

Lola,
Hmm, it is still showing 2 flights per day, the one arriving at around 7am and one at 1:15pm. I sure hope they don't drop one of those!

The later flight, arriving at 1:15 pm, is the evening Delta flight. You will see it on the Virgin Atlantic website because they are partners, but it is not on Virgin Atlantic. I mentioned both flights above. Why say hmmmm…. .? You now have these two choices if you want to book Virgin/Delta. But It seems the VA flight you were watching and hoping for has been taken off the schedule.

Lola,
The Hmmm didn't mean anything other than I was still seeing 2 flights on the VA website. Yes, one is operated by Delta, but the fares were based on the VA levels which are named differently, so it still seemed like a VA flight for all intents and purposes. Sorry if you thought it was somehow directed at you.