Virgin holiday disaster

consultant31

I'm hoping someone may be able to give me an address to send a complaint to.

A friend and I have just come back from a holiday in New York and Washington and everything that could go wrong, has!

Every single flight time and number was wrong on the itinerary. They gave us information about our return flights home which turned out to be wrong as all flights have been cancelled from Heathrow to Leeds/Bradford.

They have offered us £75 each as a 'goodwill' payment when in fact this is only refunding the portion of the holiday that they couldn't ultimately provide.

We have been given the run-around for the last few weeks and aren't getting anywhere with the (laughably named) customer services department.

Anyone got an address for a complaint to Richard Branson's office?

Tozer

Richard Branson won't give a stuff - he employs people to deal with this.

Are you complaining about Virgin Holidays or Virgin Atlantic?

Virgin don't fly from Heathrow to Leeds-Bradford so I assume your gripe is with them as a tour operator. Why were the flights cancelled?

You say that they did not provide a portion of the holiday but do not elaborate.

isplumm

Hi,

I think you need to add a bit more detail before we can help.

Mark

consultant31

Tozer wrote: »

Richard Branson won't give a stuff - he employs people to deal with this.

Are you complaining about Virgin Holidays or Virgin Atlantic?

Virgin don't fly from Heathrow to Leeds-Bradford so I assume your gripe is with them as a tour operator. Why were the flights cancelled?

You say that they did not provide a portion of the holiday but do not elaborate.

The problem is with Virgin Holidays. The portion of the holiday they didn't provide was the flight home from Heathrow to Leeds/Bradford.

All flights between L/B and Heathrow were apparently cancelled on March 28th, but we were charged for this portion of the holiday and were assured right up to the day of departure, that we would have a flight back to L/B.......which was incorrect.

On top of al this was the itinerary which gave the wrong flight details from start to finish on all 6 amendments recieved before we were to travel.

I don't expect Richard Branson to care, but somebody should and the customer care department don't even follow the ABTA code of conduct on replying to complaints!

OlliesDad

Did you miss any of the flights due to times being wrong? How far out were they? Was the flights from LHR to LBA cancelled on the day or beforehand?

CHR15

How does March 28 help us understand what the problem is??

If the flight was cancelled and you had to get another flight, it's no wonder the flight numbers were wrong.

I hope you explain your complaint better in the letter to Virgin than you have here.

gregg1

Tozer wrote: »

Richard Branson won't give a stuff - he employs people to deal with this.

Are you complaining about Virgin Holidays or Virgin Atlantic?

Virgin don't fly from Heathrow to Leeds-Bradford so I assume your gripe is with them as a tour operator. Why were the flights cancelled?

You say that they did not provide a portion of the holiday but do not elaborate.

Agree but I found the address of his PA's office when we experienced a very poor Virgin holiday a few years back. I sent a letter and got a speedy response with a reasonable cash offer which I accepted so it sometimes does help to got as near the top as possible.

Unfortunately OP, I can't find the address I wrote to but it was his management office in London - you should be able to google it. Good luck

suzi_69

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare - holidays going wrong are the worst! I know, its happened to me several times recently, but happily for me, just got back on Friday from a fab Virgin Holiday to Vegas! Couldn't fault a thing! Sorry, didn't mean to rub it in! I have googled for Sir Richards email address for you & according to this website http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html his address is [EMAIL="richard.branson@fly.virgin.com"]richard.branson@fly.virgin.com[/EMAIL]

Hope you get some luck with compensation. My sister contacted Sir Richards office when we had problems in 2002 with a Virgin Holiday & the family were all flying out for my wedding in St Lucia - to cut a long story short, Virgin quoted a price to the Travel Agents then, after we'd booked it, decided they'd not added on applicable room supplements which ran to several hundred pounds per person - eventually Virgin & the travel agents paid 50% of the supplement & we had to pay 50% - a PA in Sir Richards office sorted it out for us.

HTH

Suzi ;0)

DCFC79

OP it might be easier if you bullet point what went wrong

SpammyTheSpammer

It is all over the web and there must be 10K emails a day addressed to Sir !!!!!!, offering him a larger organ (pointless as he cannot even play the piano) or cures for ED (English Diction?).

You need to send the complaint by registered delivery -its only 60p extra and you can use it in evidence if you get as far as claiming via the courts.

consultant31

CHR15 wrote: »

How does March 28 help us understand what the problem is??

If the flight was cancelled and you had to get another flight, it's no wonder the flight numbers were wrong.

I hope you explain your complaint better in the letter to Virgin than you have here.

I'm not stupid, just angry. Trust me, I know how to write a letter giving all the salient points, I just didn't want anyone to have to wade through 2 pages on here when at the end of the day, no-one but us is really interested.

I was just trying to find out if there was an address other than the regular complaints dept as I already know they don't deal with things satisfactorily.

However, for those who've asked politely:

1: We flew out of L/B on 25th March having been assured we would have a flight back to L/B on 5th April. All flights between Heathrow and L/B were cancelled on 28th March but Virgin apparently didn't know that!

2: Our holiday was Boston (3 days), New York (4 days) and Washington DC (3 days). All the flight times were wrong (some by as much as an hour). The itinerary and the tickets were printed on the same day, with different info on the itinerary to that on the tickets.

3: They have offered what they call a 'goodwill' payment of £75 each (there were two of us travelling). I fail to see where the goodwill comes in when we paid for a return flight from Heathrow to L/B which they ultimately couldn't provide.......therefore the payment is a refund, nothing at all to do with goodwill. Had they taken it, it would surely have amounted to taking money under false pretences.

If I'm not making myself understood this time, please feel free to ignore me. The letter will be sent tomorrow, recorded, to be signed for (I understand this is trackable) so we will see what happens now.

One thing for sure, we will never have another Virgin holiday!

Glad it worked out for you suzi69, send some vibes my way please

Thanks gregg1, will try Google again and see what I can find. The trouble is, RB is involved with so many companies it's hard to get to the core of it all.