Virgin Atlantic - £30 for a name change!!!

paxo2k

I'm gobsmacked that I've just been charged £30 for a change of name from Dan to Daniel on the booking that I made through Expedia flying with Virgin.

Surely this charge has to be justified somehow and I can't see how £30 is justifiable, yes maybe an administrator needs to enter the detail which I'm thinking would be a maximum of 5 minutes? Then a superviser to check, again an absolute maximum of 5 mins? But there is no reprinting or postage charges due to it being an e-ticket. So I can't see how they could justify more than £15 at the very most!

Has this happened to anyone else or does anyone know where I can complain about the amount of the charge? As I'm not disputing a charge needs to be made but surely it's excessive, Expedia said that they would have waived it but it's the airline that is charging.

As a footnote I know that it's completely my fault for not entering the name correctly but in defense I thought booking through Expedia was one element of the process, and then entering my full details for Virgin would be a different element.

Oh well, might make me think different about flying with them next time.

richardw

This is how they make money to stay in business.

wizk1

Actually, if you write to Virgin and complain. Basically expressing your disgust and anger at this extortion, then they may refund it. It worked when I called MORE TH>N insurance to change my address. They slapped a £15 charge on me for the privilege. So I wrote the them, and managed to have it refunded (as a gesture of good will). It's worth a try.

Reggie_Rebel

Who's making the charge, Expedia or Virgin?

Was it necessary?, I'd have thought not

discoinferno_99

It is an Expedia charge, so if you wish to complain then they are your folks to vent at.

Virgin has a standard policy of not changing names on any tickets, so you would have been out of luck had you booked it directly. More info here.

Voyager2002

It was not a name change, but a correction of a typographical error.

Moonchild

Yes, Voyager is correct. Virgin do not allow name changes, and therefore would not allow anyone else, including Expedia to make name changes. This was a correction of a blatent error.

Paxo2k, you also underplay the amount of work necessary by not understanding the whole process here, and just guessing at what actually has to be done.

In total it would take about 1 hour of Virgin employees time if they did everything smoothly. I therefore £30 is reasonable, and can say that it could have been far worse, and would have been with other airlines.

Woby_Tide

Voyager2002 wrote: »

It was not a name change, but a correction of a typographical error.

Dan to Daniel is a name change
Dsn to Dan is a typographical error

sturll

To be fair if you put the name as Dan i think you'd have to be an absolute muppet not to question whether it was Dan or Daniel on his passport :cool:

stoneman

Agree with sturll. I book my tickets as Andy when flying, but my passport says Andrew, never had a problem

paxo2k

Firstly it's Virgin making the charge, but I have to make the change by ringing the Expedia call centre who will then speak to Virgin about getting it changed, Expedia said that they'd waive the charge if it was coming from them.

Secondly Moonchild are you able to explain the process? As I'd like to know exactly what they do, surely the systems aren't so inflexible that it takes a lot of processing time. And whether they have to justify themselves or not I don't know, but if it was a financial services company they would have to justify such charges if required.

The only reason I'm so worried about changing it is because I'm flying to America, where I know they're pretty paranoid about things and I don't wish to spend the first 6 hours of my holiday explaining why it says Dan on the ticket and Daniel on my passport.