Hi all. Please indulge me a further question. This is still regarding the current fare sale ex DUB but I thought it needed a new thread, mods feel free to merge if necessary.

So currently Virgin are offering very cheap fares to the states, starting from Dublin. Even though they don't actually fly there. These are impossible to book via the virgin website, but I have seen elsewhere it's possible to book by phone to the call centre, or via another travel agent. The flights can be found on the good old ITA Matrix.

So the questions are:

1) if this is booked via the virgin call centre, can you still get the DUB <> LHR segments on BA to credit as BA Avios, as there is no alliance between BA and VS? Or do you have to use a third-party travel agent to be able to do this?

2) even though it's two different airlines, does baggage get checked straight through from one flight to the next, or do you have to collect and re-check?

a) On the way out, since I have to get to DUB first to start the itinerary, what I would actually ideally do is pop into T3 first thing, check the bag in for the Transatlantic sector, then pop over to T5 for the Dub out and back (on a same plane back-to-back), assuming that BA would handle the issuing of their boarding cards and VS theirs! It could get confusing if VS have to issue the BA cards, but I would suspect that VS don't even have a check-in desk in DUB so this is probably BA's domain anyway? (Of course I would want to get the BA boarding card for DUB-LHR from LHR before the positioning flight!!)

b) on the way back it would be more convenient if checking in with VS in the states, the bag could be checked all the way through to DUB. It would save going landside, waiting to collect it at T3 and then lugging it to T5 to check in again !

Thanks for any advice on the above

Cheers
TT