Refund Status

Update from VS trade and Virgin’s CEO in an interview last week with Bloomberg TV advised there was a £200m backlog of refunds to process.

We are delighted to let you know that as from Monday 14 September 2020 we will be re-activating refunds through your GDS. With increased processing capability and greater certainty, we can now support automated refunds and clear the backlog of Virgin Atlantic (932) refunds faster.

From Monday 7 September 2020, our team began the process to reject previous BSP refund applications by age.

As we reject each application a message will be added to BSP advising “Please resubmit through GDS from 14th September 20”. From this date you can process through the GDS, for specific entries or formats, please refer to you GDS Helpdesk.

“Despite the incredible efforts of our teams, we know we have not lived up to the high standards we set ourselves, but we will do everything in our power to earn back your trust. We want to thank you again for all your support through some very difficult months. We’re looking forward to continuing and building our partnership with you throughout the autumn and beyond.

Our Global Refund and Schedule Change policies have reverted to advise information regarding GDS refunds.”

GDS and BSP??

[mitchja]

It's the system travel agents use to book airline tickets.

GDS = global distribution system. More info here
BSP = a central payment company travel agents use to pay airlines / receive refunds. More info here

When you book a flight using a travel agent, that company doesn't actually send your money to the airline directly. They send the money to a central BSP who consolidate all the payments from separate travel agents and then pay the airline in one go.

VS refunds for travel agent bookings are currently taking considerably longer than direct booking refunds so VS are now allowing refunds through their GDS system again which they stopped earlier this year. This in theory now means anyone who has booked via a travel agent (Expedia, Opodo etc) *should* get their refund a little quicker now.

[mitchja]

My VS refund has now landed back on my VS M/card this evening (9 days after VS refunds emailed me).

I will speak to them tomorrow to now get that transferred to my bank account.

That took me 11 weeks and 5 days in total from originally requesting the refund.

I presume Flying Club will now also pull back the miles I originally earned from this VS flight transaction?

I requested my second VS cancelled flight refund last week. Let’s see how long that one takes. I have a feeling that may be more hard work though as that was booked via lastminute.com.

Fingers crossed for you James.

I sent a WhatsApp message on Tuesday to get a refund for an open ticket. Message hasn’t been read yet!

[mitchja]

Refund now landed in my bank account this morning

12 weeks from start to finish and this was a booking made directly with VS. The whole process involved raising a section 75 claim with Virgin Money and also raising an aviation ADR complaint (which the CAA will direct you to when raising a complaint with them after waiting at least 8 weeks) after requesting the refund with VS.

VS responded to the ADR complaint last week informing them they had now processed the refund.

I also made sure I documented everything at every step of the process.

You don't see the 'read' ticks on WhatsApp business accounts so don't worry if they don't turn blue.

[buns]

My VS refund has now landed back on my VS M/card this evening (9 days after VS refunds emailed me).

James

Glad to hear you have at least that flight payment finally resolved

buns

Virgins CEO has now confirmed that those with outstanding refund requests should receive it by the end of October, with additional commitments on newly requested refunds;

“Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up to Money programme this morning, Virgin Atlantic boss Shai Weiss also confirmed that people who request a refund by the end of September can expect it within 60 days and that those who request one in October can expect it within 30 days.

He added that in November it expects to go back to offering refunds within seven to 14 days.“

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... -of-octob/

Can confirm these timelines. My WhatsApp for a refund of an open reward ticket raised last Tuesday was answered yesterday. Miles back in my account straight away and refund of taxes and fees should be with me within 60 days. I’ll confirm when it happens.

Just a bit of a query here.

Weve been told that virgin holidays are refunding out booking for November as we're no longer going to disney.

We used miles to pay a £1000 paid off the total. Now I'd have thought that would be coming back as miles? But all the invoices show money and not miles.

Will it come back as miles or money? Not bothered either way tbh, but would just be good to know.

[mitchja]

My recent VS refund was a miles+money flight. The refund confirmation email PDF attachment stated the full amount, however, only the amount I actually spent ended up going back to my credit card.

I did have to chase VS to get the 90K miles refunded though.

Between getting the confirmation refund email from VS and receving the actual refund on my credit card was ~10 days for me.

Virgin Money where super quick though as transferring that refund from my credit card to my bank account took less than 24 hours after I phoned them.

I’ve just had my email this morning about refund confirmation. I used both my Barclays Bank account and a credit card when paying. The email states it will take 1-14 days to hit my accounts. Anyone had refunds hit their accounts in under 10 days?

It’s nice it’s finally sorted though. My next task at the weekend is sorting next years flights on my package holiday from man-las. Route now cancelled so hoping to god they put me on the direct lhr-las instead as it operates same dates as my booked trip.

Scrap the above lol. Email yesterday, and the debit card refund hit my account today. The remaining amount on my credit card will no doubt take a few days longer as it usually does with visa credit.

Requested 10 August, 2020
Email confirmation of refund 22 September, 2020

So they are getting quicker

Could someone share the rough wording for the confirmation email please? I had requested a refund since June and recieved an email a few months ago saying it was being proceesed - keen to know whether this is the confirmation email meaning payment will be soon; or whether its a holding email. Bit frustrating to hear people that requested a refund potentially after me may be recieving payment sooner.

[mitchja]

The email comes from [email protected] and includes a PDF attachment showing the refund calculation.

The email text is as follows:

Dear Customer,

Please find confirmation attached that your refund has been processed, and payment should be made within the coming days. We know you’ve been waiting longer than you expected to receive this, and we sincerely apologise that your refund was not returned to you sooner.

With the significant cancellations to our flying programme, we continue to be inundated with an ever growing and unprecedented volume of refund requests. Managing the huge volume we’ve received remains challenging, and we know we’ve been unable to provide the clarity you needed on timelines. This fell short of the highest standards we hold ourselves to, and we want to reassure you that working through these has remained a priority for us.

Everything is in hand so you don’t need to do anything. The refund will be returned to the original forms of payment, even if you used a number of different ways to pay. Please do bear in mind that, depending on the payment method, it could take anywhere between 1 and 14 working days for the money to show in your account.

We are so grateful for all of your patience, and we hope to welcome you onboard when you choose to travel again.

Kind Regards,

Refunds Department
PO BOX 1243
The Base
Fleming Way
CRAWLEY
RH10 0HW

Thanks, appreciate that. Unfortunately seems like I still have more time to wait!

The email I recieved starts 'We’re getting in touch to let you know that we’ve received your refund request and it will be processed by our teams as you requested'

I got an e-mail today from VS saying my refund for the seats have been processed, so I’ll keep an eye out on my card over the coming days. I ended up communicating with them via text message to get this refund and this was back in mid-August.

Nothing yet from Virgin Holidays for the trip I’m supposed to be on right now despite putting in a request some weeks ago.

I need to contact VS for a miles refund on a now unworkable flight. It sounds like the best way to contact them is via text or WhatsApp? I’m in the USA if that matters.

[mitchja]

WhatsApp is probably your best way to contact VS at the minute (+44 344 8747 747)

VS, like every other company at the minute are actively discouraging all customers from calling them.

I had to call Virgin Money yesterday and it took longer to get past the barrage of 'please only call us if it's absolutely urgent' and 'you will have to wait a long time to speak to an agent' cycle of pre-recorded messages. Once I got past those I was actually through to an agent in under 20 seconds!

Hi!
In the case of miles plus money, you have to request return of miles separately, which will be returned as miles.
Just use the general enquiry reply-box on the Flying Club website.
Whether you will actually get a chance to USE these miles in the future is, however, a moot point...
---
Weve been told that virgin holidays are refunding out booking for November as we're no longer going to disney.

We used miles to pay a £1000 paid off the total. Now I'd have thought that would be coming back as miles? But all the invoices show money and not miles.

Will it come back as miles or money? Not bothered either way tbh, but would just be good to know.[/quote]

I got an e-mail today from VS saying my refund for the seats have been processed, so I’ll keep an eye out on my card over the coming days. I ended up communicating with them via text message to get this refund and this was back in mid-August.

Nothing yet from Virgin Holidays for the trip I’m supposed to be on right now despite putting in a request some weeks ago.

Still waiting for the VS seat refund (which, to be fair, they did say up to 14 working days and we're only almost halfway through that period), however yesterday I finally got an update from Virgin Holidays saying my refund is being processed and will be returned within 14 days.

Note that VH just said days without specifying whether it's calendar days or working days. I am going to assume the former and will keep an eye out.

I've decided I'm holding back from booking anything anywhere until the situation improves. Not music to the ears of the travel industry, but there's so much uncertainty I cannot book ahead in confidence at this time.

We used miles to pay a £1000 paid off the total. Now I'd have thought that would be coming back as miles? But all the invoices show money and not miles.

Will it come back as miles or money? Not bothered either way tbh, but would just be good to know.

I had a VH booking that was paid for with miles plus money (credit card) that was cancelled in April. My invoices also stated everything in money terms. Finally had everything refunded. The part I paid in miles came back as miles. And the credit card payment was refunded to the same card automatically. In my case, the miles part was actually refunded in about 2 months or so, which was much faster than the credit card payments at about 4 and a half months.

Requested my refund on the 2nd of July, received the full refund, minus the points i had used, on the 10th of October. The bubble refund came around 40 days previous to this.

Requested my refund via WhatsApp this morning. Email received this afternoon, confirming refund in progress.
Miles already back in my account (miles+money ticket).