Virgin Holidays, (again!)

Just a quickie...

Booked a car and some accommodation with V Hols at the weekend. Believe it or not they were the cheapest!

Had to do it via the phone - their website is still useless. I had a survey emailed to me yesterday so I gave them some feedback:

Is this too harsh?

Your reps are generally good - XXXX was in this case, but it can be hit and miss. You need to be able to get all holiday elements onto one booking - not two. You need to sort the website - I am happy to do this online but can't risk it when I know there are more hotels available via the call centre. This costs me money and is more expensive for you. Your number should be free, until the website is sorted. I spent £1500 this time, plus approx £4000 in 2009 - should I really have to pay for the phone call as well???


Of course, I've had to try to call the service centre to try to add some room requests that I forgot to mention when booking on the phone;

Eventually getting through the various menu options results in a recorded message along the lines....

"Sorry, we're really busy speaking to other customers right now - you can check details on the website or call back later. Thanks. Bye"

. Sorry. Didn't realise you were speaking to other customers - I'm really sorry for trying to disturb you - you're obviously busy...

Serves me right I suppose...

We arw going to Thailand with them next week. We booked and paid for Business class flights with Etihad, but when the tickets arrived on New Year's Eve, they'd booked us into Economy!

It took forever to sort out, with only two seats left on our flight, causing no end of stress. It was sorted eventually and after writing and complaining, we have accepted an offer they made, but it shouldn't have happened and shouldn't the tickets be checked against the booking before being dispatched?

[honey lamb]

We arw going to Thailand with them next week. We booked and paid for Business class flights with Etihad, but when the tickets arrived on New Year's Eve, they'd booked us into Economy!

It took forever to sort out, with only two seats left on our flight, causing no end of stress. It was sorted eventually and after writing and complaining, we have accepted an offer they made, but it shouldn't have happened and shouldn't the tickets be checked against the booking before being dispatched?

That would put me off big-time from using VH

Last year I used VH to book a hotel in Chicacgo (well just see what they had on offer)

They had nothing in Chicago but thought that suitable 'nearby' hotels might.

Nearby to VH meant New York and Boston! Now I love both of those cities but I was wanting to go to Chicago !

Just booked accomm only for my BGI trip in Oct - cheapest I could find.

Having a quick look around their site shows highly competitive prices right now...

Booked a holiday to New York via Manchester with Delta with VH.

Happened to check on Delta website and saw flights were no longer on timetable. Rang up VH - "oh yes sir, you will be going via Atlanta now - we have a note to ring you". I asked the agent to check for Manchester flights but was told that nobody flies NY direct from Manchester. During the conversation, I was on the VH website being offered direct flights from Manchester! Asked for a refund - some reluctance (not a significant change) but in the end they agreed.

Then booked the same hotel, dates and flight direct from Manchester with VH but through the flying club number, for £200 less. Flying with AA and have booked both way extra space seats direct with AA.

That would put me off big-time from using VH

It certainly has - which is a shame because the last twice we've used them, they came out cheaper than doing it ourselves - and by quite a margin.

Only booked a holiday with them once - that must be about 10 years ago now, and when the confirmation arrived, it was wrong. It took ages to get that sorted too - doesn't seem any lessons have been learned, sadly.

We have a similar sad story to tell with VH too.

Many years back, we booked a fly-drive into Orlando. When the tickets(real paper ones in those days) eventually arrived just days before departure, firstly the car was stated as a Miami airport pickup. The tickets did have Orlando on them but we'd booked PE and tickets were issued as economy !
Our last horrible experience was in 20008. I had been granted five nights at the Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge on a special promotion via my work, but then had arranged two extra nights there via VH. The Disney staff explained my 'room-only' deal with VH meant I was allocated a room overlooking the car park 'coz that is what VH reserve (if folk do not pay for an upgraded room). I was told that those rooms are rarely used and usually only allocated to VH customers v( Luckly we kept our original rooms. VH never, never again.

Have been saving my virgin miles for my wife's 50th birthday in November.
Thought it would be nice to go to Barbados for 10 days.After looking around at the deals on offer Virgin holidays were £500 dearer than BA holidays.
I rang Virgin and explained the situation and the thought of BA being that much more expensive did not go Down well, but they did indeed match the price.
I have used the saving to upgrade to PE both ways.
I hope our experience will be better than some tales posted, I will let you know