V-Flyer

DragonLady wrote:

Vegascrazy wrote:I’ve been very impressed by Amex dispute resolution.

Likewise here for three separate airlines ( Air Asia, Vueling and BA) .

DL

May I ask how this is done for Air Asia? I paid for flights with them on my Virgin Atlantic Credit Card and had flights cancelled. They then stated on their site that I could get credit but no refund until a few weeks ago when their CEO sent an email out to all customers suggesting refunds would be considered case by case. I then pursued this but have been told that as I had put in a request for credit my refund request wouldn't be approved. I think this is ridiculous as the refund option wasn't advertised/communicated until weeks after I was contacted about applying for credit.

Long story short though it would be helpful to know the process of requesting this.

FLYERZ

mallin wrote:Have just successfully got my Virgin car hire money refunded via section 75 with Amex, as it was nearly 45 days since Virgin said the refund was on its way. Just received the letter from Amex saying if Virgin dispute they will take it back as Gumshoe said.

Have now also booked for Vegas next Easter with BA, lets hope we can go on that one. Linda

I’ve also got a section 75 claim with Amex, for BA flights, car hire and hotel. I’m curious - did they ask for supporting evidence Linda? We were asked for flight evidence, so have uploaded BA’s cancellation email, but of course BA didn’t actually cancel the car hire, but they couldn’t provide it as flights were cancelled. Saw today that Amex is asking for documents for car hire, so uploaded the BA confirmation and also flight cancellation email again. I’m hoping that will be enough.

Your booking for next Easter - can I ask what you’ve done about travel insurance for that? I know some insurance companies seem to be refusing claims due to the virus if booked after March this year....

Feels like forever since we’ve been away!

FLYERZ wrote:May I ask how this is done for Air Asia? I paid for flights with them on my Virgin Atlantic Credit Card and had flights cancelled. They then stated on their site that I could get credit but no refund until a few weeks ago when their CEO sent an email out to all customers suggesting refunds would be considered case by case. I then pursued this but have been told that as I had put in a request for credit my refund request wouldn't be approved. I think this is ridiculous as the refund option wasn't advertised/communicated until weeks after I was contacted about applying for credit.

Long story short though it would be helpful to know the process of requesting this.

FLYERZ

In this case I’m not convinced you’d end up winning a Section 75 claim, as by issuing a credit voucher at your request Air Asia would say they’ve fulfilled their obligations to you. That they subsequently changed the rules is, I think, irrelevant although I’d be happy to be proved wrong.

By all means try though - you need to contact Virgin Money.

gumshoe wrote:

Hamster wrote:Sounds like ... they have persuaded AMEX to not file any S75 claims against them.

How do you draw that conclusion?

As in Air France, not Virgin. Probably should've been clearer!

FLYERZ wrote:

DragonLady wrote:

Vegascrazy wrote:I’ve been very impressed by Amex dispute resolution.

Likewise here for three separate airlines ( Air Asia, Vueling and BA) .

DL

May I ask how this is done for Air Asia? I paid for flights with them on my Virgin Atlantic Credit Card and had flights cancelled. They then stated on their site that I could get credit but no refund until a few weeks ago when their CEO sent an email out to all customers suggesting refunds would be considered case by case. I then pursued this but have been told that as I had put in a request for credit my refund request wouldn't be approved. I think this is ridiculous as the refund option wasn't advertised/communicated until weeks after I was contacted about applying for credit.

Long story short though it would be helpful to know the process of requesting this.

FLYERZ

With Amex you simply click on “dispute this charge” on your online statement. You’re then asked a couple of multiple choice questions, the key one being the reason for disputing, and I selected “I have not received the goods or service”. Then you submit it and at the top under disputes it’ll show under “open”. For my claims the pattern was was Amex appeared to auto approve it if the claim was under £200, which all my Air Asia flights were. One of my claims didn’t even show as open, just went straight to closed the second I submitted it with the approval confirmed.

Rob posted an article the other day on what I’ve just explained. I have one claim ongoing with MBNA (VISA card) and that’s a different story as there’s no online claim facility and it’ll be at least a month before they even look at if they told me. Not sure if any other cards other than Amex have an online facility to claim.

Hi Clare,

Just did a disputed claim on the transaction, they did it automatically and did not ask for any additional information although could have provided if they had wanted, as Virgin car hire sent an e-mail with the refund on it but never credited.

With our BA flights all the miles and Companion voucher were back in the account same day, the money did take exactly 14 days to refund.

With our travel insurance it runs out in July with our present company, so was looking at going with a packaged bank account, as no one is offering against Coronavirus now. The only thing is its good value as we can get AA and mobile phone cover for far less than we are paying on separate accounts but hubby has pre existing conditions not covered.

mallin wrote:Hi Clare,

Just did a disputed claim on the transaction, they did it automatically and did not ask for any additional information although could have provided if they had wanted, as Virgin car hire sent an e-mail with the refund on it but never credited.

With our BA flights all the miles and Companion voucher were back in the account same day, the money did take exactly 14 days to refund.

With our travel insurance it runs out in July with our present company, so was looking at going with a packaged bank account, as no one is offering against Coronavirus now. The only thing is its good value as we can get AA and mobile phone cover for far less than we are paying on separate accounts but hubby has pre existing conditions not covered.

Maybe Amex are just upping their requirements for evidence then. Did you have to contact BA about your miles? I thought I’d wait until our dispute transactions have been completed before doing that, but really don’t know if that’s necessary. Although, since they cancelled flights, I supposed they it would be difficult for them not to re in state miles.

Insurance - ours is with a packaged bank account. Not had a problem with it, but we did get an email to say that coronavirus claims aren’t now being covered, for anything booked after 19th March. That’s with NatWest, don’t know if other banks will be doing something similar.

catsilversword wrote:
Insurance - ours is with a packaged bank account. Not had a problem with it, but we did get an email to say that coronavirus claims aren’t now being covered, for anything booked after 19th March. That’s with NatWest, don’t know if other banks will be doing something similar.

I have a Nationwide packaged bank account (Flex Plus) which includes annual worldwide trade insurance and they are doing a similar thing. In their case anything booked on or before March 18th will be covered but anything booked after that date will not be covered.

The Nationwide travel insurance policy does also include end supplier failure cover as well.

Where do we stand with our credit card cover if we accept the voucher from Virgin and then they subsequently go under?

smithy37 wrote:Where do we stand with our credit card cover if we accept the voucher from Virgin and then they subsequently go under?

As far as I'm aware, it's would be the same as any other flight as we have still handed over the money and not got anything in return so section 75 should still apply.

I've currently got 4 VS fights booked, all paid for using my VS MasterCard. 2 booked direct with VS (one of these is now an open ticket), one via Expedia and another via Lastminute.

Section 75 only covers payments made directly to the provider of the goods or service. If there’s a ‘middle man’ involved - eg a travel agent - you may not be covered.

Depends who actually processed your payment - check your CC statement. If it was VS you’re fine. If it was Expedia or lastminute.com you can’t claim and will have to rely on them to refund you.

gumshoe wrote:If it was Expedia or lastminute.com you can’t claim and will have to rely on them to refund you.

...that’s not strictly true as you can still claim against any supplier using section 75, however, you will have to fight harder where a travel agent is involved as you can use the argument that the indirect relationship with the supplier still constitutes an arrangement to pay.

I also have airline failure cover included in my travel insurance as well.

Depends what it shows as on your credit card bill. If it's the airline you can go via them if it's a travel agent then go via them

But your credit card supplier will have expected you to contact the retailer first. Charge backs are not your first line of attack

Thanks for the advice guys.

I booked direct with Virgin Atlantic using my VA credit card.
I’ve 5 upper class return tickets so as you can Imagine it’s a sizeable chunk of cash.
Ideally I’d want to re-book with them for next year & change the destination so a voucher or open ticket fits the bill. I just don’t want to lose my credit card protection in doing this.

I have annual travel insurance which was present at the time of booking but it runs out before the scheduled trip and I’m pretty sure they will exclude any claims related to coronavirus should I renew.

If Virgin did go into say a pre pack administration and come out the other side, would they honour existing bookings? Not a good image for the new look Virgin if they charged twice for the same flight, albeit it's technically a new company, I don't think many would ever book with them again.

smithy37 wrote:Thanks for the advice guys.


I have annual travel insurance which was present at the time of booking but it runs out before the scheduled trip and I’m pretty sure they will exclude any claims related to coronavirus should I renew.

I don’t think you’ll get an option to renew a travel insurance policy until this is all over as it seems most providers have suspended offering new policies

BBC reporting airlines have been given the heads up that the UK will require all air passengers arriving will need to go into a self 14 day quarantine ;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-525 ... P8QrwXkHCM

Updated travel information from VS trade;

For all tickets booked before March 19th 2020, VS website updated to extend change fee waiver window to September 30th as well now.

The way things are also going, VS may also have to further extend Flying Club status again as well.

mitchja wrote:The way things are also going, VS may also have to further extend Flying Club status again as well.

I have been wondering this too. Wouldn't surprise me if we see a further six months added to Silver & Golds.

SlimpyJones wrote:

mitchja wrote:The way things are also going, VS may also have to further extend Flying Club status again as well.

I have been wondering this too. Wouldn't surprise me if we see a further six months added to Silver & Golds.

Given how quick they were to jump on this when the situation first kicked off, I am not at all worried about status. The messaging through the past few weeks, extension of the ticket flexibility, Shai Weiss email etc all point to an overall "Don't worry, we're with you on this journey" approach. VS know the power of customer loyalty and they will absolutely need it to ensure their survival.

BA took a long time to even approach the subject of loyalty and a lot of my BA flying colleagues have been left... disappointed... to say the least.

I've said it a million times before, and i'll say it again, I choose VS because of the staff and overall "can do" attitude. Something you just don't get with other airlines. Plenty of other reasons too, but that I definitely number on.

I think we will be well looked after.

Reuter’s reporting VS won’t start flying until August at the earliest if the UK brings in the mandatory quarantine;

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-healt ... KKBN22R254

Also looks like more private finance than that in the process of being raised by SRB from Galactic is needed in order to release UK government support.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky ... l-11988788

According to one of the national rags Greybull are now involved.

Greybull of Comet and Monarch fame...

EDIT: They also shut down M Local and had questionable activities with British Steel.

Sealink wrote:According to one of the national rags Greybull are now involved.

Greybull of Comet and Monarch fame...

EDIT: They also shut down M Local and had questionable activities with British Steel.

The fact Greybull are linked is worrying enough. If they do get involved and invest, I fear the worst. As you say, their track record is not great and I’m surprised they’re looking to get involved in aviation again after how much they presumably lost with Monarch.