Hi All
Apologies for the long winded post. I'm hoping someone can clarify what should happen in my situation...
I have a reward booking for 2 pax LGW-BGI in June. The outbound leg is in UC and the return (was!) in PE. Looks like both flights are now going to be on the ex Air Berlin A330-200. Outbound is fine, but return has been downgraded to Economy as there is now no PE cabin.
I was emailed back in December by Virgin and told that in accordance with EU261/2004 I'd get a refund of 75% of the cost of the downgraded flight. The cost of the return leg was 35000miles plus £229.40.
I have received a refund of 15000 miles and no cash. When I queried it by phone I was told it's correct, since that's the difference in mileage cost between PE and Economy, and no cash was due since the taxes etc are the same across the two ticket types for the return leg (wrong in my opinion - I believe PE has a higher carrier surcharge). I was told if I had an issue with it I should email the generic customer relations email address.
I did email, explaining that I believed I should be getting 75% of what I paid back. I also grumbled at not being able to utilise the UC ticket as well as I'd hoped since we'd have a lower luggage allowance on our return flight, etc etc.
I got a response telling me that 'When it comes to the mileage ticket it works slightly differently as you are only paying taxes not a ticket price as this is covered by the miles taken' ... 'we have given you back the difference between the two which is 7,500 each. So basically, you paid for an economy ticket' and 'In regards to the taxes. You will receive the tax difference between Premium and Economy'.
I believe that as a minimum, I should be getting 26250 miles back plus the difference between taxes/charges etc in cash.
What's everyone else's opinion on this? Am I being daft/unreasonable? Are Virgin trying it on? Does anyone have experience of this situation?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Apologies for the long winded post. I'm hoping someone can clarify what should happen in my situation...
I have a reward booking for 2 pax LGW-BGI in June. The outbound leg is in UC and the return (was!) in PE. Looks like both flights are now going to be on the ex Air Berlin A330-200. Outbound is fine, but return has been downgraded to Economy as there is now no PE cabin.
I was emailed back in December by Virgin and told that in accordance with EU261/2004 I'd get a refund of 75% of the cost of the downgraded flight. The cost of the return leg was 35000miles plus £229.40.
I have received a refund of 15000 miles and no cash. When I queried it by phone I was told it's correct, since that's the difference in mileage cost between PE and Economy, and no cash was due since the taxes etc are the same across the two ticket types for the return leg (wrong in my opinion - I believe PE has a higher carrier surcharge). I was told if I had an issue with it I should email the generic customer relations email address.
I did email, explaining that I believed I should be getting 75% of what I paid back. I also grumbled at not being able to utilise the UC ticket as well as I'd hoped since we'd have a lower luggage allowance on our return flight, etc etc.
I got a response telling me that 'When it comes to the mileage ticket it works slightly differently as you are only paying taxes not a ticket price as this is covered by the miles taken' ... 'we have given you back the difference between the two which is 7,500 each. So basically, you paid for an economy ticket' and 'In regards to the taxes. You will receive the tax difference between Premium and Economy'.
I believe that as a minimum, I should be getting 26250 miles back plus the difference between taxes/charges etc in cash.
What's everyone else's opinion on this? Am I being daft/unreasonable? Are Virgin trying it on? Does anyone have experience of this situation?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.