Virgin Atlantic - when does a scheduled flight become a charter?

usignuolo

We checked in online the day before for our Virgin Atlantic flight to New York and printed out our boarding passes. On the day we arrived at Heathrow with 56 minutes to spare before flight departure, due to a major traffic jam caused by faulty traffic lights at a major road junction near hHeathrow causing gridlock. We were told that because we had missed the baggage drop deadline of 60 minutes by 4 minutes, our flight had been cancelled even though we had already checked in online. Our boarding passes were seized from us almost gleefully by a member of Virgin ground staff. Being Virgin Flying Club members made no difference. Basically we had to pay a so-called transfer fee equivalent to the cost again for the next available flight less airport taxes. Never again. This was a normal scheduled service. Neither flight was full. Since when did a scheduled flight become a charter flight?

Caz3121

not sure about your reference to a charter flight here but some points

Due to logistics and the fact that many aircraft are containerized now it is normal for there to be a cutoff for baggage to be accepted to enable them to be loaded onto the aircraft in time for an on-time departure.
I am assuming that they also close off the immigration checkers at a similar time

I was confused about how they would have known to cancel your flight as you had checked in online as, if you had been flying with only hand baggage, they would not have known you were not there until everyone else had boarded

It seems they have stuck stringently to their rules, however it does seem hard that they charged you a ticket again to get onto the next flight not sure if that is the norm in these circumstances but you will find some VA regulars over here that may help http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgin-flying-club-506/

Have you looked at your travel insurance to see if it covers you for help with delays to the airport and consequential losses

delwynshd

If you had hold luggage to check in then you would of been refused boarding

If you only had hand luggage they should of let you on the aircraft

Del

richardw

Looks like a claim on your travel insurance is the way forward.