UK to San Juan. No Direct Flights

[Tatra603]

Given that VV have made San Juan one of their homeports, can anyone shed any light as to why Virgin Atlantic have not made a move to plug an obvious gap in the market ie direct flights between the UK and Puerto Rico?

 

I am eyeing up a TA next year, but I'm being put off by the massive expense and ball ache of getting from London to SJU.

 

Does anyone know why there are so few options and if Virgin have any plans?

[jon81uk]

Virgin Atlantic is a separate company to Virgin Voyages and VA is mainly owned by Delta. As it’s possible to fly into New York (or Atlanta) with Virgin or Delta and then get a flight from there to San Juan I assume Virgin/Delta don’t see a need for direct international flights to San Juan. I don’t think the market for direct UK to Puerto Rico will be big enough to make it worth offering.

 

We’ve chosen to book with JetBlue as their Mint business class looks good and was a better price than VA. Others are looking at flying with Iberia as they have a Madrid to San Juan flight so you can change in Europe not the US.

[Tatra603]

Yes, I looked at Iberia. Certainly better price than the crazy prices VA are quoting.

[jon81uk]

1 hour ago, Tatra603 said:

Yes, I looked at Iberia. Certainly better price than the crazy prices VA are quoting.

One way flights seem to be crazy with many transatlantic airlines. We’ve in the past used airmiles to book them to Miami with VA. But in this case it was then a lot of miles for the internal leg of the flight really. JetBlue are still expensive for one way compared to a return but not as bad as VA or BA wanted.

[Jamesv281117]

If you have avios with British airways I think the redemption prices are good value from Madrid to San Juan. I've booked a flight using this route before and had to pay for some avios to top it but it still worked out over half the cash price.. 

 

Sailing from San Juan next April and will be doing the same again. 

[cantgetin]

Obviously the airline does not see the business value in flights to San Juan.

For a real odd one, we could not get a direct flight from BAR to LAX for the transatlantics we did....checked Google Flights as well as others.  We had about a dozen selections for layover cities.  NOW, Iberia has a direct.

[Eric&Pam]

VA also flies to Tampa, and Orlando, where it's easy to get flights to San Juan.

The cheapest flights to SJU are usually out of Miami, so check your options out of the UK to MIA.

[cantgetin]

Also, check Southwest Airlines for flights to SJU.  They often don't show up on flight searches, have great sale prices, and all prices include up to 2 checked bags.  They have non-stops to SJU from Miami and MCO....likely others as well.

[Eric&Pam]

5 hours ago, cantgetin said:

For a real odd one, we could not get a direct flight from BAR to LAX

 

Level Airlines (somehow related to Iberia) has had direct flights for LAX and BCN for a few years. Their premium economy is better than domestic first class.

https://www.flylevel.com/

[cantgetin]

4 minutes ago, Eric&Pam said:

 

Level Airlines (somehow related to Iberia) has had direct flights for LAX and BCN for a few years. Their premium economy is better than domestic first class.

https://www.flylevel.com/

thanks....if we book another, I'll remember this.