V-Flyer

Just had an email from checkmytrip.com that my flight on VS23 LHR-LAX in May which was due to depart at 12:35 is now departing at 15:45. Interestingly this is the same time as the DL flight is supposed to operate so I wonder if they have done a time swap with DL? Both VS and DL booking systems show old times at the moment but MMB shows the new times.

Time to check those reservations folks!

Another example of airlines screwing with customers schedules, but if it was the other way around there'd be £££ to pay...

Bother - our April flight has changed too

So that means I've wasted a bit of money on a hotel the night before but more Clubhouse time I suppose!

ScoobySu

Ditto, have a non-refundable hotel room which is pretty useless for a 15:45 departure! While I could just spend the afternoon in the Clubhouse I don't fancy arriving past 19:00 as I have a 2 hour drive on arrival so am going to try to change to the VS007.

Advice from anyone please.

I have yet to receive an email regarding this but having read this post I went straight into 'manage my booking'. Our flight from LHR to LAX on 16th April has been changed, now scheduled for 15.35. Three hours later

This means we now do not land at LAX until 19.15. Our originally landing was 16.05 and we have already booked and paid for US Airways internal flights onwards to Phoenix. This flight leaves LAX at 19.40 - no way can we make this flight to Phoenix. There is another one at 20.40 but that would be too stressful as well.
We had allowed ourselves 3hr 30min for our transfers.

As ScoobySu says there has already been a change in the returning schedule but as it was only just over the hour we accepted this.

How do I stand by refusing to accept this major flight rescheduling.

I shall be contacting the FC but I would be so interested in your opinions - perhaps someone has actually had to refuse their changes.
It will cost us literally hundreds of pounds because of already booked internal flights, hotels and a paid for a tour to the Grand Canyon

We had a day change on our Vancouver flight 2 years ago, they offered a full refund, or day change. We had to go for a day change and consequently had to change all our booked hotels, car and trips out. It did cost a few hundred pounds more but as we had booked the holiday separately were not covered for any fall back on insurance.

Another couple had booked with VH and they covered the cost of changing their bookings to accommodate with no extra charge. Some you win some you don't. Linda

This has affected me for September too!

When I got the email at first when I saw the time I was horrified and thought I had been re-booked on the DL flight!!

Thankfully not. I'm in two minds if its a positive or not, since its my first UC experience, it will mean I can sample both breakfast and lunch in the CH and have a night in my own bed after the day trip to Dublin. All so far so good! However, on the flip side, it means arrival into LAX at 19:15 which means I'm probably not going to be in my hotel till gone 21:00, which compared to 18:00 is a bit more intense given I have an early start the next day!!

Well let's see what they can offer eh?

We normally prefer the later flight into LAX as it means you can go straight to bed. WE never have any problems getting up the next day and have often been on the road by 8 the next morning. We also always pick the car up at about 7 from the depots its nice and quiet then. Most of the traffic is also heading into LA and you are heading out.

Hev60 wrote:Advice from anyone please.

I would call and ask to be rebooked on the VS7 which departs at 11:15. Alternatively you could ask to be rerouted on the DL flight which looks to have swapped slots with the VS flight and now departs at lunchtime. Requesting a change to either of these flights is not an unreasonable request. I'm going to call in the morning once the changes have filtered through properly. VS res system is still allowing bookings on VS23 at the original time

I'd also ask about the VS7. We're on that one and there was also a schedule change... of an additional five minutes onto the journey time. I'm not quite sure why that warranted an update and a new e-ticket, but there you go.

Hi folks, thanks so much for your advice. I'm going to phone VS tomorrow to see what they can offer. Certainly want an earlier flight if that's possible. Will keep you updated.

Basically UC helpline told me to sod off, nothing they can do, nothing they want to do, no help whatsoever!! Bit disappointing really.

Just checked my booking for July.....flight change as per above, totally messed up our first evening in LAX prior to our trip to Hawaii. Guess we'll just make it work! #thirdworldproblems

Could I ask Hev60, is it a reward flight or booked one?

If it's a revenue ticket could you not go on the BA direct to Phoenix, if it's a reward one you will be at the mercy of Virgin. I hope you succeed in changing your flight times, keep calm although you are seething inside. Been there. As I mentioned in an earlier post, came out in a cold sweat, had to re-arrange cars, hotel bookings, and trips booked further down the line cost us quite a few hundred pounds more.

Good luck Linda

I managed to change my revenue booking today from VS23 to VS7. Called Virgin and they didn't want to know as the original booking class was no longer available. This was after being on hold for over 30 mins (and that was the gold line!) I then got my travel agent on the case and she managed to work some magic and get me rebooked in the previously unavailable class, although Virgin initially said no to her as well.

Only job then was to get my exit seats back which I couldn't do online as the seat map didn't show, so another 30 mins on hold later and all is well with new flights and seat map now showing. All that is left now is to endure the 787 in Y with those narrow seats

Not got an email yet but thanks to this thread I logged on and saw the change.

A note asked me to call 0344 209 8333 but this led to a dead line so I called the UC helpline instead. I was on 2 G bookings so no availability on VS7 on my date, however they have now put me on a later flight out of Manchester so dont have to get up at stupid o'clock anymore - means less time in the lounge, but 7+ hours was pushing it I felt

I got an email this morning about this. I was a bit stunned really - I realise timetables can and do change, but usually it seems to be tweaking - I don't call 3 hours plus a tweak!!! Separate email advised that the flight home has changed, but that's only by about 15 minutes.

I don't have any internal flights booked, so in theory the later time isn't a disaster for me (though I feel the pain of those who do have ongoing flights, could so easily have been us) - but going to be a hell of a long day.

Also - what happens to pre-booked seats? If two flights have been merged, does that mean we will have to re-choose or isn't than an option??? Is it even possible (hope not!) that they will try to bump us down????

catsilversword wrote:Also - what happens to pre-booked seats? If two flights have been merged, does that mean we will have to re-choose or isn't than an option??? Is it even possible (hope not!) that they will try to bump us down????

I don't think they've merged the flights and certainly when I log into MMB I still have the same seats requested as before. Strangely though still no email to tell me of the time change ....

ScoobySu

I can see this happening to quite a few flights during the year because of this merger and by the sounds of it there will be very little help from the VS telephone staff (assuming you can get through to them). What ever happened to "the customer is king"? More like "the customer can take it or leave it nowadays"

Looking at the new schedule it appears that DL and VS have simply swapped times as DL now have a 12:35 flight and the VS flight departs at the old DL time of 15:45.

So, could be worse folks, you could have been rebooked at exactly the same time but on DL metal

Plane Sailing wrote:Looking at the new schedule it appears that DL and VS have simply swapped times as DL now have a 12:35 flight and the VS flight departs at the old DL time of 15:45.

So, could be worse folks, you could have been rebooked at exactly the same time but on DL metal

Just had a look at that Delta flight and it shows as a codeshare with VS....and you're right, it is still showing 12.35 departure!

SNOMO wrote:I can see this happening to quite a few flights during the year because of this merger and by the sounds of it there will be very little help from the VS telephone staff (assuming you can get through to them). What ever happened to "the customer is king"? More like "the customer can take it or leave it nowadays"

Absolutely correct. When I finally got to speak to a person after waiting 25minutes on the UC phone line I was eventually told I had three options:

* Accept the change as there is no alternative
* downgrade yourselves to economy
* cancel and we'll refund your taxes & miles

Finally "thank you for calling Virgin Atlantic - is there anything I can help you with? "
No .....that's good, now get off my line!! You have a nice day

Morning all,

I received the itinerary change notification yesterday, and spoke with 3 agents before getting a solution I was happy with.

The first 2 agents were extremely unhelpful, and wanted to charge the fare difference to change to VS007 as the change was less than 5 hours. I wasn’t prepared to do this, and wanted the option of a refund, which they would not offer as it was a miles plus money fare.

Both of these agents quoted the Conditions of Carriage which I then reviewed:

“9.1.3 If, after purchase of your Ticket, we make what we consider to be a significant change to the scheduled flight time which is not convenient to you, and we are unable to book you on an alternative flight of ours which is convenient to you, you will be entitled to an involuntary refund in accordance with Article 10.2 if, in our opinion, you have acted reasonably.”

Nowhere in the Conditions of Carriage does it define what ‘significant’ is.

I called again yesterday evening and got through to a different agent, who offered me the option to change days. An option I was not presented with earlier in the day.

Moving a day earlier would result in significant income loss, given that my partner and I are both contractors. I explained this, and after 57 minutes on the phone I was told that they had moved my flight to VS007 as a goodwill gesture.

This is the result I was after, or at the very least, the option to cancel and receive a refund. So why did it take 3 phone calls and over 90 minutes on the phone to get to this? The differences in information given between agents was frustrating, but hopefully this information will help anyone else in a similar situation.

Persistence is essential!

(fyi - the fare type changed from ‘K’ to ‘W’, so they deserve credit for that)

Well done tpa_cowboy congratulations on finally getting your requested change.

I was reading your post with interest and I'll admit a degree of excitement until I read your last line "fyi - the fare type changed from K to W". As I understand that means there must have been space in that fare code on VS7 for you to move into. It's an issue with the upgraded fare codes which they won't budge on

Well done for persisting and getting the result you wanted

There is a post on VS FB page today from someone who has had an email today re another time change for the LAX flight....