🎯 How Price Alerts Work
Smart detection of exceptional Virgin Atlantic award deals
What It Does
Our alert system analyzes 330+ days of Virgin Atlantic pricing data to identify when prices fall into exceptional territory. Instead of using fixed thresholds, we calculate what constitutes a "great deal" based on the actual historical price distribution for each route.
When you add a route to monitor, we'll notify you when prices drop into the bottom 10% or 25% of historical prices — meaning you're getting a genuinely rare deal compared to typical availability.
📊 What "High Value" Actually Means
We use percentile-based thresholds calculated from real pricing data:
Example: If LHR→JFK Upper Class typically ranges from 50,000 to 200,000 pts, a bottom 10% deal would be around 60,000 pts or less.
Example: For the same LHR→JFK route, a bottom 25% deal might be around 85,000 pts or less.
💾 How It Works
- Choose Your Routes: Add Virgin Atlantic routes you're interested in monitoring from the Alerts page
- Select Your Threshold: Choose whether to be alerted at the bottom 10% (exceptional) or bottom 25% (great deal) price point
- We Analyze 330+ Days: Our system calculates percentile thresholds based on all available pricing data from the Virgin Atlantic proxy cache
- Get Notified: When prices on your watched routes fall at or below your chosen threshold, you'll see an alert on your dashboard
🔍 Real Example
✅ This triggers an Exceptional Deal alert — the price is in the bottom 10%!
At 52,000 points, you're getting Upper Class for less than half the typical price. This is a rare opportunity worth booking immediately.
📊 Where Does the Data Come From?
We pull pricing data from Seats.aero via our Virgin Atlantic proxy. This cache contains award availability across 330+ days of booking windows, giving us a comprehensive view of what prices actually look like across the year.
Because we're using real historical data rather than arbitrary thresholds, the percentile calculation tells you exactly how good a deal is relative to what's actually available — not just what "sounds good."
💡 Tips for Using Price Alerts
- Start with routes you actually want to fly: Don't add every route — focus on your priority destinations
- Consider both thresholds: If you're flexible on dates, the bottom 25% threshold will trigger more frequently
- Upper Class shows the biggest savings: Premium cabins have more price variability, so the deals can be dramatic
- Check regularly: Award prices change frequently, so deals may not last long
- Book when you see a deal: Especially for bottom 10% alerts — these are genuinely rare