Disappointed with Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class Reservations

Hello again,

Let me first say that I have finally booked 2 VS UC seats from Man-Mco but I am traumatised at how I was treated by the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Reservations team.

Having asked for opinions on the virtues of BA Club v. VS UC, I finally opted for VS and found a decent fare on VS by bringing my dates forward a week (still £250 each more than BA though but hopefully worth it).
I checked them online and then rang up to ask them to hold them for 2 days so that I could book the hotel etc. This was fine and the price quoted was the same as I had seen online.
On ringing back to book, they said that the Z+R fares I had held were in fact Z+D fares at over £500 more than I had been quoted.
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As I was absolutely sure that the originally quoted and held fares were considerably less, I asked to speak to a supervisor who told me there was nothing she could do and that, having investigated, the R fares had not ever been there as I was saying. Effectively she was saying that I was lying and trying to pull a fast one.

I was gutted that the fares had not been held for me and that even though they physically had the seats, they said it was impossible to sell me the seats at those fares. I can't understand this as the physical seats were still available. I was fuming at the injustice of it - it wasn't like I had just been silly to have missed those fares. v( v( v(
I then talked myself into how much better it would be with BA and just as I went online to book, I looked at the VS site one more time, and there they were!!! The Z+R fares at the first price I had been quoted. :0

I have booked them but I feel disgusted at the way I was treated, it was awful really. I can't bear even to look at the emailed e-tickets. It has totally taken the edge off it but I will get over it when we go hopefully.

I know it's not a done deal until you've paid, but does anyone think I could have done more to get them to sell me the fares they were meant to have held? The sales lady who was nice (not the supervisor) said they NEVER give in over things like this.

Hello!

I recently had an experience (which I posted about on here) where I was given incorrect information by the UC line.

Whilst it's not exactly the same scenario, I definitely encourage you to push up the chain as I had to. If you can remember the time and date of your call, use this information (I used my BT online billing to identify the exact call time) - call and ask to speak to a manager, and provide the details of the information you were given (fact 2 tickets at X price would be held for you for 2 days). They pulled my call listened to it and heard that they were in the wrong and whilst not initialy forthcoming, after much pushing eventualy agreed to honour the original information and acknowledge their mistake.

All companies make mistakes, but the customer shouldn't be the one who pays for them. They should put it right then look at their "training needs"!

Let us know how you get on!

Luke

Sounds pretty shoddy.

Can I ask why you didn't book BA having found the VS price rise?

That's the best way to kick any company where it hurts, give them no money!

Can I ask why you didn't book BA having found the VS price rise?

I agree with this comment, if the price rise was so significant then why didn't you book with BA and then spend the cash which you've saved on something else.

I might be wrong on this but I have always been of the opinion when asking the Resevations Team to 'hold seats' then they do not guarantee the price of the fare will not alter. It happened to us a couple of years back, I'd saved two seats on a flight going to Boston and when I rang back to pay for the seats I was told the fare had reduced because of a new sale promotion. Effectively I had to cancel the 'on hold' seats and start a new booking.
I believe a price is only guaranteed once a payment has been made, not if a fare is just 'on hold'.

Hi all,
Yes sorry I didn't make it very clear.
I didn't book at the inflated price - I told them to take them off hold as I wasn't prepared to pay it, knowing that it should have been a lot cheaper. But just before I booked the BA flight I saw the original VS fares were there after all and booked them instead. So I now have the right fares but even so, it has left me feeling deflated.

My preference was VS at the price differential of £250 each (based on a direct flight from Manchester,not going via Gatwick,exclusive cabin at the front of a 747, Disney check-in etc) but definitely not worth an extra £500 each!

And when I asked to speak to a manager, they said they didn't have one!!!

I might be wrong on this but I have always been of the opinion when asking the Resevations Team to 'hold seats' then they do not guarantee the price of the fare will not alter

If they had said that it was the seats that were held and not the fare basis, then that would have been fair enough, but actually I don't think that is the case. They just said they had never existed in the first place, implying that I was lying, which was the humiliating bit! I was in tears after the phonecall.