Covid 19 Thoughts on the likely actions in the weeks to come

Well they will soon have another £1500 to hand out as i am being forced to pay the holiday balance on a June Florida trip which according to V is 'unaffected' obviously educated in the Trump school of optimism. If i dont i lose my deposit. I can live with this but falling in behind me are those with summer holidays booked also 'unaffected' that face paying a huge amount of holiday balance that they can ill afford as their jobs have ceased or are on hold and they maybe havent quite realised the issue of lost deposits. Yes we all weep for the travel industry but it is a volatile business with hurricanes, fuel fluctuations, volcanic dust, no fly zones, etc etc so keep a rainy year fund. The better they treat their customers now the quicker they will will return to the brand and not book elsewhere on principle. Shame no one will accept a bet on me stretched out on a Florida beach in mid June. (former Frequent Virgin/flying club member)

Updated flight schedule;

Thanks for these flyingfox, do you have an update by any chance, flightradar is showing vs133/4 operating on the 4th of april with a 789? This would be handy to me if indeed accurate.

[mitchja]

Airlines are simply doing that as they're trying to keep hold of as much money as possible given they must have little cash coming in at the present time with very few flights operating and many people understandably putting off purchases until the situation returns to normal. Without cash, you don't have a business.

Indeed. But no-one is above the law and the EC has made it crystal clear that, while airlines don’t have to pay compensation for cancellations caused by Covid-19, they do still have to refund passengers who don’t want to rebook or be re-routed.

And that does not mean forcing them to accept a future flight credit, if that’s not what they want.

This is where people are getting confused though isn't it. There are currently 2 basic scenarios happening now:

1) The airline cancels your flight

2) You decide to rebook a future flight with no change fee.

I may be completely wrong here but only scenario 1 entitles you to a full refund doesn't it?

Scenario 2 doesn't entitle you to a refund does it?

Updated flight schedules;

Updated flight schedule;

Updated flight schedule;

Updated flight schedule;

I'm not sure what to expect when I phone next week. We are booked on VS1 on 2 April returning VS2 on 2 April.

Flights not (yet?) showing as cancelled on my account page, instead they are showing various flights via ATL then onward with Delta to EWR. No thank you, I want to go straight to EWR.

VS have said they are pulling EWR permanently which is a big blow - we use that twice a year to visit family in New Jersey and if that's where you're going, the alternative of JFK is not the place to start from, it can and often does take 3 hours plus to get across Manhattan and through the Lincoln tunnel.

In view of this, I certainly don't want credit vouchers for another flight, they won't have the one we want. I don't want the Dark Side either but that's a problem for another day.

So next Tuesday, at T-48, am I going to find that they will say we can go, just via ATL so no cancellation arises?

Do we get the £190K miles back?

Sorry, should proof read, returning on 27 April, not the same day!

Looking at the flight schedules for 2nd April - there is no flight to Newark it would seem: https://www.virginatlantic.com/flight-s ... 2020-04-02
Not sure why your booking would not show this but it's worth double checking. I would make preparations to be going via ATL or reaccomodated to JFK, whichever is the least worst for you...!

just announced Virgin asking for a bailout do i pay holiday balance due on 29th March?

just announced Virgin asking for a bailout do i pay holiday balance due on 29th March?

I'm inclined to say yes. If the airline goes belly up VH are ATOL protected which means you'd get your money back. Or if your holiday is cancelled anyway, you'd get your money back.

Just had a brilliant result from a cheerful VS agent.

I had LHR-JNB-LHR booked . Out 22 April, back on Star Wars Day (May 4th...sorry!).
All on G rewards using miles, plus "taxes".

I've been hanging on and hanging on to cancel or wait until VS cancelled until 72 hours before flight day but, impatience got the better of me.

So after a massive 2 minute (yes 2 minutes) wait on the phone, I explained that South Africa was on lockdown and want to cancel.
No problem.
Within minutes miles back in my account and refund request processed.

Informed it could take up to 90 days for my refund which did not incur the usual £30 change/cancel fee. "No fee due travel restrictions at destination" was the reason.

Now I wait to see if the bailout funding request is genuine or even needed and, if VS are still around for me to re-use my miles...or convert them to, maybe, Hilton points.

Hope this gives some hope to other V-Flyers who are concerned.

Stay safe everyone.

Paul.

I'm not sure what to expect when I phone next week. We are booked on VS1 on 2 April returning VS2 on 2 April.

Flights not (yet?) showing as cancelled on my account page, instead they are showing various flights via ATL then onward with Delta to EWR. No thank you, I want to go straight to EWR.

VS have said they are pulling EWR permanently which is a big blow - we use that twice a year to visit family in New Jersey and if that's where you're going, the alternative of JFK is not the place to start from, it can and often does take 3 hours plus to get across Manhattan and through the Lincoln tunnel.

In view of this, I certainly don't want credit vouchers for another flight, they won't have the one we want. I don't want the Dark Side either but that's a problem for another day.

So next Tuesday, at T-48, am I going to find that they will say we can go, just via ATL so no cancellation arises?

Do we get the £190K miles back?

If the airline cancels the flight you were booked on, you have the right to a full refund of everything you paid - money, miles or a combination of both.

You do NOT have to accept a reroute, rebooking on another date, future flight credit or anything else they may offer if you don’t want to.

That is enshrined in EU law which has not changed.

Having said all that, VS has always allowed reward bookings to be cancelled for a full refund anyway, minus a cancellation fee - although cooperman’s post above suggests they may be waiving that anyway. So if you paid with miles you shouldn’t have any problem whatsoever.

Airlines are simply doing that as they're trying to keep hold of as much money as possible given they must have little cash coming in at the present time with very few flights operating and many people understandably putting off purchases until the situation returns to normal. Without cash, you don't have a business.

Indeed. But no-one is above the law and the EC has made it crystal clear that, while airlines don’t have to pay compensation for cancellations caused by Covid-19, they do still have to refund passengers who don’t want to rebook or be re-routed.

And that does not mean forcing them to accept a future flight credit, if that’s not what they want.

This is where people are getting confused though isn't it. There are currently 2 basic scenarios happening now:

1) The airline cancels your flight

2) You decide to rebook a future flight with no change fee.

I may be completely wrong here but only scenario 1 entitles you to a full refund doesn't it?

Scenario 2 doesn't entitle you to a refund does it?

Correct.

If the flight still operates but you decide not to travel (either because you don’t want to or because you can’t due to closed borders etc), no refund is due. You should still qualify for a future flight credit, but that’s a goodwill gesture not a legal right.

Thanks for the info. Cooperman maybe some of your gold dust will rub off on others if you read the Virgin FB page people hanging on phone for hours with no response most due to fly in next few days.

Following the earlier post, I called VS too. It was answered with no delay. I called at 9pm GMT. Told other family members on other bookings to call too. We we were all dealt with with no wait.

I asked the agent and he said they haven’t been busy since Weds.

Hello.
What happens please when ones flight is cancelled (VS103 on Sat 4th April 2020 to Atlanta ) but ones booking shows contact Delta when I login on VS website.
Does this mean VS expect me to fly later that day with their partner airline?
I would hope I would get a refund for the cancelled flight but not sure in this scenario.

Thanks

Hello.
What happens please when ones flight is cancelled (VS103 on Sat 4th April 2020 to Atlanta ) but ones booking shows contact Delta when I login on VS website.
Does this mean VS expect me to fly later that day with their partner airline?
I would hope I would get a refund for the cancelled flight but not sure in this scenario.
Thanks

Do I assume this kind of post (which they are many similar) relates to folk returning home to the US ? coz surely with most commercial airlines nearing shutdown and the US borders still closed to foreign travellers ... at this time normal travel is out of the question.

Sadly I cannot see anything relating to holiday travelling returning to normal this summer at all, even though a certain person thinks the USA will be operating as usual by Easter, ummmmm

Hello.
What happens please when ones flight is cancelled (VS103 on Sat 4th April 2020 to Atlanta ) but ones booking shows contact Delta when I login on VS website.
Does this mean VS expect me to fly later that day with their partner airline?
I would hope I would get a refund for the cancelled flight but not sure in this scenario.

Thanks

If VS cancels your flight you are entitled to a full refund if you want one. No ifs, no buts.

If you booked with DL you may have to go through them but that doesn’t affect your right to a refund as all flights leaving the UK are bound by the regulation EC261/2004, regardless of who you booked with.

Hi everyone, been a member for years reading all the great articles. This however my first post!
My son is booked to travel on the 18th April to MCO. I think it's looking unlikely now that this will go ahead. He's been waiting for Virgin to cancel the flight. It's very interesting reading other peoples posts about phoning them and getting refunds before they have cancelled the flight.
However, he received an email from them today, not stating that the flight had been cancelled, rather of an aircraft change to a Delta MD80!
Does anyone think that this flight will go ahead?

Best regards

There could lo be confusion on telephone response times between Virgin Atlantic and Virgin HOLIDAYS. Seems it is the holiday arm that is keeping customers on hold for 4 hours then cutting them off. Bit disingenuous to have staff 'not busy' on the flight side and unable to cope on the package side especially when it is the flight element that is urgent.

[mitchja]

There could lo be confusion on telephone response times between Virgin Atlantic and Virgin HOLIDAYS. Seems it is the holiday arm that is keeping customers on hold for 4 hours then cutting them off. Bit disingenuous to have staff 'not busy' on the flight side and unable to cope on the package side especially when it is the flight element that is urgent.

VS and Virgin Holidays are 2 separate companies both using their own individual systems/platform and separate staff so it’s unlikely VS staff will be able to deal with V Hols requests or vice versa.

The VS call centre is in Swansea and I believe the V Hols call centre is still in Crawley.

Lol...the sky is really falling...went to pay holiday balance due 29th via 'My Booking' page...shows 'trip' details, deposit paid etc, go through payment process, and bingo.........tiny message saying 'no booking could be found'.......on the booking page!!!! (no debit from cc either) Virgin get a grip

A summary of my call last night.

My flight on Apr 13th is still running (LHR-MIA) so they were unwilling to refund - for now.

However, as I booked PE and used miles to UC, when it does eventually cancel (maybe) they’ve said I can just move it to whenever I want - even next day. No difference in fare classes AND there doesn’t need to be UC reward avail.