Virgin Holidays is now offering extra benefits – can I add them to my trip?

Have a question? Ask our expert Simon Calder

The company’s Heathrow-Dubai route is being cancelled at the end of March (Getty)

Q I have a booking with Virgin Holidays to Dubai in March. Since I made my booking they’re offering lots of extras for free. Can I ask them to add the extras to my booking?

Kimberley C

A March is an off-peak time for UK-UAE travel, as there are no school holidays until the very end of the month. I imagine you booked the trip some time ago and therefore did not benefit from any special deals.

It is usual that, about five or six weeks before departure, airlines and holiday companies will look at bookings and may decide they need to be boosted. So they will cut prices or, as in this case, offer extras such as room upgrades, free breakfasts or attraction tickets.

In the case of Virgin Atlantic’s Heathrow-Dubai route, there is an additional need to fill the planes in March: the airline’s only link to the Gulf ends at the end of that month. Virgin’s once-a-day smaller Airbus A330 cannot compete with Emirates’ six A380 “superjumbo” flights or British Airways’ two big Boeings.

On any route that is being axed, demand dwindles until the time of cancellation. There will be gradually fewer outbound departures booked through March because there will be no Virgin Atlantic service back in April. The air fares being offered are well below those charged by competitors. In addition, evidently the holiday company arm of the Virgin Group wants to stimulate more business by throwing in extras.

You can certainly ask Virgin Holidays to provide you with the extras, but I fear you will not have much success. Special offers are not generally available retrospectively to people who have already committed and paid, in the fond but often sadly mistaken belief that they will get the best deal. Similarly, do ask the company if you can cancel without penalty and rebook, but I am afraid I imagine the answer will still be “no”. I hope I am wrong.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder