V-Flyer

Hi,

I have a holiday booked with Virgin to Orlando in February. I booked it a while ago so I was pretty peeved when they recently offered the free dining plan/park tickets incentive so immediately contacted virgin. They said there was nothing they could do unless I cancelled and rebooked. I was happy to do that so before cancelling my original booking we tried to create a new booking, for which I paid a deposit and had to wait a couple of days to find out if it was successful or not as the accommodation was on request. Unfortunately, it came back as a no so I've ended up having to stick with the original booking and just not get the deal. (not very happy about that it has to be said.)

BUT, the thing is, I went in to my flight booking this morning as I needed to check the flight times to find out that my flight had vanished. I contacted Virgin Atlantic who told me I didn't have a booking and that I needed to contact Virgin Holidays.

I contacted them and I was on hold for about half an hour while the woman liaised with Virgin Atlantic directly.

Finally she comes back to me and tells me that, panic over, the flight is there but it's just now under a different locator number which she proceeded to give me.

She then went on to tell me that I will get a new invoice and to please ignore the bit where it says I have been given a discount as VH has had to pay a difference in cost but that doesn't affect me. I also note that one of the legs of my journey is now a 'I' class which it wasn't before.

I suspect, fairly strongly, that my flight was cancelled and that she rebooked it this morning and that was what took so long and why I'm going to have this mysterious discount on my invoice and why my booking class has changed.

Slightly worrying as I can't help but wonder what would have happened if I hadn't checked my flight details this morning ....

You're probably right, so kudos for checking

You did ask VH to do two things at once though, it was inevitable that one of those things would be forgotten about and passed by at the wayside.

All sorted now though, hope you have a good holiday and no more IT vortices swallow any other parts of your booking

Although some consolation, if you are in I class, you should get CDCs

I'm too far away from the airport unfortunately! I did get all excited for a bit there though!

AJC wrote:I'm too far away from the airport unfortunately! I did get all excited for a bit there though!

How many of you are booked in I class? I believe you can combine the mileage allowance of multiple travellers if you are travelling in the same car.

etk wrote:

AJC wrote:I'm too far away from the airport unfortunately! I did get all excited for a bit there though!

How many of you are booked in I class? I believe you can combine the mileage allowance of multiple travellers if you are travelling in the same car.

A nice thought, but it doesn't quite work that way - the drivers have a fixed operating radius included of 75 driven miles.

If you are in a reasonable range to extend give VS a call and see what can be done. You can extend the range of the CDC for an extra cost, but of course I have no idea where you are coming from... the cost may work out to be not that reasonable if you're another 100 miles away

Indeed, the extension cost when quoted for us over years has meant over the cost of a return taxi in a Merc from a local exective limo firm. Thats over each way, not one way.

It's annoying as over years I've had enough status with VH to have the limo included free on any booking (freqent virgin or similar) - only to find it's unusable due to the 75 mile rule.

joeyc wrote:
A nice thought, but it doesn't quite work that way - the drivers have a fixed operating radius included of 75 driven miles.

That was one of the joys of flying EK last year. Their rule is 75 geographical, not driven, miles radius, and we are just shy of 75 miles from LHR as the crow flies...mind you they drop you off at the ar*e end of T3

pjh wrote:That was one of the joys of flying EK last year. Their rule is 75 geographical, not driven, miles radius, and we are just shy of 75 miles from LHR as the crow flies...mind you they drop you off at the ar*e end of T3

Ditto this on EK. I'm about 96 driven miles from MAN, but under 70 as the crow flies. Never had a problem with their PCS [company EK use] drivers - they drop you right outside the entrance to EK check-in at MAN too.

On my last trip, I changed my dropoff destination on arrival at MAN (in the Chauffeur pickup area). In the minute it took us to walk to the car and get in, the "boss bloke" had already called the change through to the office and the driver had the new postcode showing on his tablet as he got in the car. Should also add the new dropoff location was about 20miles closer - but the driver said that if you get in the car and say you want to be taken to London [from MAN] they have to take you - they just hit your credit card for the extra mileage first.

Unfortunately I'm down on the South Coast so about 150 miles from the airport and I suspect it would cost me less to get a private hire taxi than pay the extra! (I may investigate though!) Besides, the I class is only on the return leg so I'm guessing it would only be applicable on that trip anyway?

It's all very new to me as you can see!

I'm still smarting over the fact that I can't get miles for my son's ticket as he's under 12