Are you still loyal to Virgin?

I think VA has behaved appallingly in their response to the COVID crisis. I get that they are facing unprecedented challenges, but it is clear they are withholding cash from customers for as long as they possibly can. Their communication is terrible. I feel duped. I feel like a sucker.

Historically, I never even looked at other airlines when I booked flights to the US. I just go to Virgin's website and book my flight.

Not any more. They've lost my loyalty now. And, talking to friends, I know I'm not the only one. People are very angry.

Other companies are suffering, too, but have offered much better responses. Disney has been terrific, for example. OK, bigger company, more access to cash, but nonetheless. Universal Studios have also been good.

I'm really sad to have fallen out of love (and trust) with Virgin. I've been brand loyal to them for nearly three decades.

I have to agree with comments around goodwill being damaged. I too am a big fan of VS but at this point can’t deny that the way refunds and communication have been handles has left a lot to desire. Up to now I was also sure this was the same at other airlines. After reading that Which report I think there might be some truth in that but equally the likes of BA seem to be doing notably better with refunds returned in as little as 7-14days, for which any excuse around unprecedented volume of refunds now falls on deaf ears as far as I’m concerned.

Having said that I still feel loyal to VS for their performance on flights, but the customer service we are currently experiencing (VH in particular that doesn’t even offer a whatsapp communicarion line and has been completely uncontactable) is certainly undermining that and for some has led to them cancelling Virgin Credit Cards, transferring flying club miles and vowing to never use a virgin brand again.

Sure. I've not been affected by the refund situation too much. I fly VS mostly for the crews, Clubhouse and the fact that I've never really had a bad flight with them.

Nothing's changed as far as I'm concerned.

Like I said in another thread, people have short memories. Who's the alternative? BA? Are they that much better with their service cuts, IT meltdowns and strikes? People say they will boycott them and so on but in reality, it never really happens.

Hi

I with regards to the corona virus and refunds I haven’t really been effected, I had two trips cancelled but they weren’t with VS and in both cases they were paid for with miles which I got refunded. Maybe if I had paid VS for a trip with money and wasn’t getting a refund or waiting on a refund I would feel differently.

I don’t think I am loyal to any single airline, for me it comes down to what the choices are. If its a route where the choice is BA, VS or an airline that I haven’t flown before, then I am most likely going to pick the airline that I haven’t flown. If its a choice just between BA or VS then I will pick VS.

Alex

Who's the alternative? BA? Are they that much better with their service cuts, IT meltdowns and strikes? People say they will boycott them and so on but in reality, it never really happens.

The same BA that's currently getting a lot of bad PR for their plans to force all their cabin crew including those in Worldwide/Euro onto the new contracts and T&C's which will lead to a pay cut of up to 50% for some, including worse terms for Mixed Fleet...

https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/05/1 ... -revealed/

Last month it was SRB getting negative publicity for seeking government support, this month it's BA for their crew contract plans.

I don’t think bad PR or poor service levels due to this crisis are limited to VS or the airline / travel / tourism industry. It is much wider than that because the challenges are unprecedented and decision makers make bad decisions and mistakes - which is understandable in the circumstances.

To answer the OP's question, at the moment the answer is yes.

VS have maintained a presence at one of my local airports - MAN - which is a key objective of my loyalty and have not yet pushed me to the edge where I will look elsewhere. Not that there's much choice at the moment, mind.

I sympathise with those struggling to get refunds. I may yet have that battle to come with Virgin Holidays if we decide to cancel our Florida trip in September.

This isn't to defend VS here, but I can assure you they are not the only airline holding back from issuing refunds. I applied for a refund with easyJet after my flights were predictably cancelled, they just said they will do their best to process my refund within 28 days. Today is now day 28 and despite their request to not contact them unless it's been more than 90 days, I will be doing just that if there's no refund back on my card after today. We also had the admission from Michael O'Leary that refunds will be honoured but it will take several months.

Just peed off that that they refused to extend a voucher I received after an overbooking. But BA offer an inferior product. So will continue with VS.

Am I still loyal... yes. I have 4 flights on open tickets and thats just the stuff from the last 12 weeks.

Why? Well, i'll remain loyal whilst the following items are true:

• Clubhouses, Staff & onboard experience remains above what BA offer.
• They continue to fly to LAX, HKG, PVG, NYC.
• Retaining Gold remains relatively easy to achieve.

I understand peoples concerns with getting refunds. But this isn't unique to travel, it's just compounded because people expect travel refunds thanks to the power of EU261. I think most companies are doing their best, and I know that doesn't put food on the table for people that need it, but when the cash coming in far below cash going out, theres not a lot that can be done.

I’m happy to remain loyal. In 10 years of flying with them (admittedly sometimes only once per year but now usually 2 or 3 times), I have only had one issue onboard with a crew member and it was fairly trivial, always great service on the ground and really great service from the agents on the phone.

I’ve got one open ticket, a booking next January in the pipeline and another with VH for next year so rooting for them to get through this.

Take one look at the Dibb forum if you need anecdotal evidence that a lot of people have lost faith in VS.

Unlike we V-Flyers, who are generally VS fans who fly UC more than most, they’re by and large people who save up to take the family to Orlando in Y.

Many have had their dream holiday cancelled this year and are still waiting for their money back.

They’re the people VS needs as customers if it’s to survive, but it’s losing them rapidly.

If you can afford to give VS an interest-Free loan for several months it’s easy to defend their seeming inability to issue refunds. But many of those waiting for money back badly need it and are justifiably angry.

To be clear, my position is not that I will never use VS again, or that I'm boycotting them. It is that I will stop using them exclusively. I will look at the other options.

I'm only a Silver member and spend around £4,000 a year with VS, so I'm not a huge loss, but if there are lots of people like me, Virgin troubles are still ahead of them.

I am happy to stay loyal as well, their track record for me has been overall pretty good and the issues that I have had have been resolved well.

Especially when I consider the alternative - BA are a much worse airline in the way they treat their customers and staff. If you are a senior manager or shareholder then that is a different story.

VS would have to deteriorate a lot more to approach BA's level 8n my opinion.

We are supposed to go to St Lucia next August to attend a wedding and I am seriously considering going via Miami to avoid BA even though I have a rule to fly direct if possible..?

I will keep using them, I like the brand and the British workforce.

I travel with them 3 or 4 times a year in PE and UC with 4 members of my family and have done for over 10 years. Spend at least £30k a year with them.

Onboard crew experience is great. Since Delta came along and put some input in I think the IT has improved, 5 years ago online check-in seemed to fail all the time for me. Also I think the food has got better and is of a good standard.

I think boarding is often chaotic and that's one reason why I will be glad that the 747's have gone as boarding a smaller plane with less people just seems a lot easier. I have a bit of anxiety about that boarding process for some reason!

I hate booking, click back and the price changes - all the nonsense they do. Submit a booking and a it fails etc.

Communication over COVID and trying to get my parents back from the states was dreadful. The information on the website is still poorly written and laid out but in the first few weeks was dire. Lack of investment in systems has really hurt them. Why you can't change and reprice a ticket online is beyond me, if you can have a call centre agent do it then you can have a website do it. Then 100k+ people would not have had to call them.

I have to agree with comments around goodwill being damaged. I too am a big fan of VS but at this point can’t deny that the way refunds and communication have been handles has left a lot to desire. Up to now I was also sure this was the same at other airlines. After reading that Which report I think there might be some truth in that but equally the likes of BA seem to be doing notably better with refunds returned in as little as 7-14days, for which any excuse around unprecedented volume of refunds now falls on deaf ears as far as I’m concerned.

Having said that I still feel loyal to VS for their performance on flights, but the customer service we are currently experiencing (VH in particular that doesn’t even offer a whatsapp communicarion line and has been completely uncontactable) is certainly undermining that and for some has led to them cancelling Virgin Credit Cards, transferring flying club miles and vowing to never use a virgin brand again.

This is the WhatsApp number for virgin holidays. When you send your message, an auto response comes up and you need to immediately send your message again. I always get a response within 24 hours.

+44 20 3322 3289

[honey lamb]

At the moment I'm feeling disappointed with VS. Last October I booked a flight to South Africa for my brother's significant birthday in March. The routing was ORK-LHR-JNB-DUR and I booked it in UC via Expedia. Drawing nearer to the date it was becoming increasingly unlikely I would be able to travel. I spent the bones of a week trying to get through to Expedia to discuss my options but failed miserably. I tried to make contact with VS but the only response was via SMS when they told me I must contact my travel agent because I had booked via a third party. I had kinda expected that but though that in the current climate they might have helped. The day before I was due to travel South Africa closed its borders. Later that day BA sent m a voucher for the JNB-DUR leg of my journey; the following day Aer Lingus sent me a voucher for the Cork-LHR leg of my journey; VS cancelled my flights because I had not taken the first leg. I have had a couple of emails from Expedia trying to sort out the situation for me but the stumbling block is that VS are failing to respond. At this stage I don't know where to turn and feel I'm just going to lose the €2.5K spent on the fare.

I've heard quite a few bad stories like some above, which isn't great...To be honest when flying ex-UK I always try and fly VS because they had a superior business product to BA, but as soon as the Club Suites get fitted on the majority of BAs routes then I may well switch.

My loyalty to Virgin will remain unchanged. I didn't have any VS flights booked at time of lock down but had a trip booked with another airline/tour operator departing early April & am still waiting for refund. Having read some of the negatives regarding VS's handling of the current situation they seem fairly consistent with those of other operators.

My loyalty remains unchanged. Business will remain loyal on the whole given they'll use corporate booking agents. The once a year MCO pax who booked with V Hols will go wherever they can get the cheapest deal on the whole - and if that's VS - they'll go, that's the bottom line. VS can win pax back after all this, it'll all be in the revenue and competition - the DL AF KLM JV helps. Also, agree VS feels in line with others, its an industry wide issue and VS are having to manage multiple issues including furlough meaning reduced staffing and a decimated VHQ.

I switched to VS 14 years ago and will remain loyal. It is made easier as flying BA means a trip to London whereas VS fly from other parts of the UK especially MAN.

The shambles on refunds compared to about every other provider I use has made me a little more reluctant to book with VS in future given choice of providers. VS not yet in the never cateogory like Norweigan given a friend was stranded in US by them due to covid, and didn't rearrange US exit for him, forcing him to leave on BA to avoid a issue with a overstay on visa. This is a friend who is trying to get a residence visa for marriage and we all know US customs isn't always joined up so was best to leave to allow him to get married later this year once visa granted.

Myself Previously AU on Virgin for 3 years, now Silver on BA, and would have hit gold if it wasn't for the virus. - > so yes, I've flown a lot of VS miles...

But a comparision for my bookings this April (not on VS) ( 3 week US driving tour with internal legs) -> BA refund in full, no quibbles 7 days. United airlines (US domestic that DL had nothing close on timings) via AMEX travel, hassle, insurance claim, finally full refund after a dispute put in -> 20 days TOTAL, now done. However amex did credit account during the claim & dispute so I wasn't out of pocket. Disney, no hassle, in fact refunded more than I needed. (as they are refunding part of our annual pass as an extension uselss when US not admitting UK peoeple) Ticketmaster refund for all shows during April and finally Hertz, where both pre-bookings were refunded, again in full in 7d days. Hilton refunded everything too in 1 day for the hotels during the trip!

Now, if I'd had a flight with VS or VH in this circumstance ,and was still waiting for just one of above given the cirumstances, yes, I'd be highly annoyed as I imagine many MCO travellers are. It HAS put us off booking for this year more than covid. Will we consider booking VS again - yes if cheaper for comparible product as we do like the crew/product usually. MCO however we havn't flown VS for 2 trips now, as we could get J on BA for W price on VS. I would now definitely book on a credit card for S75 protection. Would I book with VH -> nope -> what this situation has taught me is to avoid booking with agents, book direct, independant travel for future.

Do this mean no future VS trips for us, well .... we do have enough miles for a pair of J redemptions... I suspect we will use these for a future trip maybe next year to allow a redemption/see what we were missing trip. We to travel to MCO a lot and given VS/BA are the main airlines, I do expect us to consider VS again - beyond that we'll see (we are looking to start hunting for elusive G redemptions to MCO next month for next April) . We're now taken to doing a late notice booking for this christmas (we go away annually) -> and where that will be will depend on this covid situation as we wil need medical insurance for wife, and at moment thats lacking given this virus. . The issue with the reduced network on VS, I genuinely can't see it being VS this year for Christmas break ( we don't fancy MCO crowds at xmas, LAS is too cold, and the carribean is too expensive) . Perfect destination for me/wife is Thailand (again) if the covid situation improves. That means BA, KLM or Qatar (or maybe another middle eastern airline) ... given I'd prefer not to connect in HK given current situation this month.

But I agree with other replies, effectively the refund shambles is making a mockery of VS to many MCO regulars, which is not going to play well at filling planes in longer term. One friend who was due to meet us in April and flew VS (unlike us on BA) has said never again already for VS as he's in same situation as us with everything EXCEPT the flights redunded today and is going through a S75 claim as VS still havent' refunded 30 days after our flight was due to leave.

Is there a good contact # for hurrying a refund along?
I have $1400+ in ticket refunds due for over 2 months now, and not a penny, nor a word, has come back since I cancelled.
Going to shut down the Amex credit card I booked on soon, and want to get the refund before that.

Thanks

[mitchja]

There are no known shortcuts to getting refunds from VS unfortunately.