Advice on refund

Hi forum,

I have a tale to tell that provided us with an experience that left us feeling a little jilted with regard to value for money from Virgin Atlantic. If any on the forum know of such situations and can advise on partial refund of airfare please let me know.

Situation - My wife and I booked Premium Economy tickets SFO to LHR. We were travelling with our infant son and so had called to book a sky cot for the journey. The day before travelling we called Virgin Atlantic to see if we had a sky cot booked, and we were assured that a sky cot was booked for both legs of the journey.

Upon arrival to SFO and the bag drop it appeared the situation had changed. There was no sky cot available and we were faced with a near 11 hour journey with the little guy having no sky cot. We did not understand why misinformation had been given to us when calling the day before and, after much discussion back and forth, it appeared the only option for letting the little one sleep on the journey in a cot was to downgrade to economy.

Question to forum users - does this entitle us in any way to partial refund given that Virgin promised the cot booked for Premium Economy yet did not provide such for that leg of the journey?

Any help most welcome.

Alex

I am pretty sure the the T&Cs for sky cots say they are not guaranteed and therefore it is unlikely that any refund will be offered. You can, and should, write in to express your disappointment at the situation and VS may offer some miles as compensation.

Hi Alex,

I've had a look the EU 261/2004 regs to see if they apply here, and I'm not entirely sure they do. However, you may have a case for a partial refund but it will depend on how you can evidence some things and whether you're prepared to fight. First and most important, other than the confirmation the day before, do you have any written communication that says you booked the sky cot? If you don't, then your case will be more difficult to prove.

If you do, then in essence (I'm no lawyer though) you booked a seat of some kind for the little one and it wasn't delivered and you were forced to downgrade a cabin in order to have that seat / cot for your son. I would say then you might have a case for a partial refund. Was any other solution offered? Could they got a sky cot in time for the flight? Was their a cot for the return leg? Did you have to pay for the cot? If you paid that would strengthen your case, if not then having checked the VS website it does say they're limited in number, first come first served, but must be booked in advance. If it's a complementary service then they have no obligation or supply it but I don't know where that would leave you, they might say the only solution available was lower cabin, but that it was an enforced downgrade, rather an optional one.

Maybe someone else here knows the answer, or someone with a legal brain may advise on where you stand.

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply from both of you. I have composed a response to send to VS. Just to check, I am sending to the following address:

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/us/en/tr ... light.html

Anywhere else where perhaps the letter may get more attention? I phoned to book the sky cot so the paper trail is not really there. My main disappointment with this issue is the misinformation provided prior to the flight. Assuring the customer one thing and then being told another is never good, and for customers paying premium prices they should expect better service in my opinion.

In addition, I was not originally informed that the best thing to do as a family with infant is not to check in at all online, because the IT system assumes you will travel with the infant in your arms the entire time. Who on earth would assume parents want to do that for an 11 hour journey? The other option is to arrive well before the flight (>3 hours), check in at the airport, and get the sky cot places.

I will write inquiring as to a partial refund and await their response. Thanks for your help.

Having been at the sharp end of changes, I have found social media to be a helpful port of call. Or CK's email.

Apologies if I have missed it, but did you actually downgrade or not?

I had a he said/she said situation with virgin once, and after some persistence, they reviewed the recording of the conversation with CS. While I was ultimately vindicated, they didn't offer anything but an apology.

As slinky has stated sky cots are a request and not guaranteed .There are a fixed number of bassinet positions in each cabin - if there are more babies in a cabin than the number of bassinets available then someone will go without.
The bassinets cannot be used when the seatbelt sign is on ( regardless of cabin) so on a bumpy flight even infants in bassinetts can spend lengthy periods of time in their parents arms .
If you wish to guarantee to avoid this you need to pay for a child fare in the cabin you wish to travel in (which is significantly more than the very low infant fare VS charge ) and use one of the child seats VS will then provide.
DL

As inconvenient as this probably was for you (and for other passengers who had to deal with the audio ramifications of additional baby crying) - I don't see how you're entitled to a refund for a service that's provided free-of-charge, for a non-paying passenger.

Having said that, Virgin *should* provide you with something, since you put a decent amount of effort into reserving the sky cot. I'd call and give them a bit of hell

Hi
The sky cot is the same as a seat request, they'll do their best to accommodate but as DL says if there are too many babies in that cabin they won't be able to meet your request.

DL please note that even if they paid a child's fare for their baby if the seatbelt a lights came on the child would have to leave their own seat and sit on the parents lap.

Zenithar, the baby is a fare paying passenger, they get charged 10% of the adult fare.

I have every sympathy with the OP, I've travelled 4 times with VS with my baby and only managed to get the sky cot twice. You just have to be one of the first to check in which does mean being at the airport 3+ hours beforehand which isn't clever.

However it isn't an involuntary downgrade as there was nothing to stop the OP travelling in their original class. If anything the space in PE would make it easier, I had an 18 month old on my lap for 9 hours in economy, wasn't that bad.