Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Virgin Atlantic ONLY

Blade74

I bolted for the cheap price !! I was brought up with buy cheap buy twice drummed in to me ! To be fair byo issued e ticket 5 mins after payment . Then I read reviews and rang virgin to make sure I was on the plane . I will prob be panicking until I touch down in New York . Lesson learnt . Thanks for rubbing it in Alan . Lol

Blade74

Offered delta to Atlanta then virgin from Atlanta to Manchester was option . But that would be a full day off travelling oppose to stumping up for another night in New York and getting rearranged direct flight home 24 hours later . Any where else other than New York I would say oh well not a massive problem but our hotel fully booked . I have emailed hotel for there help no reply as yet .

Blade74

Yes I have checked every other flight even from Newark etc to return to Manchester where my car will be . I even asked them to put me on Thomas cook wich is the only direct flight on my return date to Manchester

Alan_Bowen

I really wasn't trying to rub it in, but it can be a warning to others. the problem with Virgin is that they don't belong to any of the airline alliances so they will only transfer to Delta who basically own them. The simplest route would be to take a Virgin flight to Heathrow and then fly up on BA to Manchester. There are a number of Virgin flights to Heathrow every evening, so there should be no reason to send you to Atlanta. Another call to Manila I fear but perhaps a quick call to Virgin here first to confirm they would allow that transfer would be a good idea

Blade74

That's a superb idea !! I am going to go straight online and check for suitable connection . A couple of hours in London no problem . Compared to £200 for a hotel in New York . I thought I'd exhausted every route home forgetting airports south of Sheffield !!! Thankyou

jpsartre

BA and Virgin do interline but I doubt Virgin will book you on a BA connection. You might want more than a couple of hours if you're booking a BA connection on a separate ticket. If you miss your flight you will need to make your own way home.

asheilio

Hi, two of us booked flights with Delta Airlines (D) to the Dominican Republic from London. On the return flight we had a connecting flight at JFK New York. This flight was operated by Virgin Atlantic (VA). Our flight was scheduled to depart at 09:30, we presented ourselves at the VA check in desk at 08:15. They claimed they had no ticket for us on this flight, even though we were able to show our booking reservation. They told us to check in at the D desk. We then spoke to the D staff and they were able to find our ticket on their system, but because the flight was being operated by VA they could not print our tickets. Long story short, we missed the flight and D booked us on the next available D flight which was the next day. We were told to book a hotel ourselves and come back the next day. No mention of comp or rights. The VA staff had already packed up and gone home.

I have sent a compensation claim letter to VA, the first response was to say that my problem was with D, but I refuted that by saying that VA were the operating carrier and therefore they are responsible. I have now received the following reply.

"I can see that you were booked on the Virgin Atlantic flight VS10 on 09 March, however, our flight was not disrupted on this day and I can’t locate a record of you being denied boarding.

When one of our flights (Virgin Atlantic) is delayed/cancelled or if a passenger is denied boarding (due to oversales) we take care of alternative arrangements by rebooking the flight and offering any applicable compensation. From your boarding passes, I can see that Delta rebooked you on the DL402 flight departing at 08:30pm the next day; this would generally indicate that you may have missed the Virgin flight due a late connection.

Regrettably, it is difficult for me to establish exactly what happen as there are no issues reported on the VS10. "

How do you suggest I reply?

thanks,
A

Marcus-H_2

asheilio wrote: »

Hi, two of us booked flights with Delta Airlines (D) to the Dominican Republic from London. On the return flight we had a connecting flight at JFK New York. This flight was operated by Virgin Atlantic (VA). Our flight was scheduled to depart at 09:30, we presented ourselves at the VA check in desk at 08:15. They claimed they had no ticket for us on this flight, even though we were able to show our booking reservation. They told us to check in at the D desk. We then spoke to the D staff and they were able to find our ticket on their system, but because the flight was being operated by VA they could not print our tickets. Long story short, we missed the flight and D booked us on the next available D flight which was the next day. We were told to book a hotel ourselves and come back the next day. No mention of comp or rights. The VA staff had already packed up and gone home.

I have sent a compensation claim letter to VA, the first response was to say that my problem was with D, but I refuted that by saying that VA were the operating carrier and therefore they are responsible. I have now received the following reply.

"I can see that you were booked on the Virgin Atlantic flight VS10 on 09 March, however, our flight was not disrupted on this day and I can’t locate a record of you being denied boarding.

When one of our flights (Virgin Atlantic) is delayed/cancelled or if a passenger is denied boarding (due to oversales) we take care of alternative arrangements by rebooking the flight and offering any applicable compensation. From your boarding passes, I can see that Delta rebooked you on the DL402 flight departing at 08:30pm the next day; this would generally indicate that you may have missed the Virgin flight due a late connection.

Regrettably, it is difficult for me to establish exactly what happen as there are no issues reported on the VS10. "

How do you suggest I reply?

thanks,
A

With the threat of legal action. Can you prove you presented yourselves for boarding?

asheilio

Thanks for replying,

Hmm, we were thinking about this, not very definitively. We were not aware of our rights and such until after the situation so we were more worried about getting home than to be mindful of taking peoples names etc.

We presented ourselves to the 'CHECK-IN' desk with our booking reference and a printed Itinerary that we were given at the start of our first flight. We were never given a boarding pass. We did however get the ticket number scribbled down onto the itinerary mentioned previously.(A delta member of staff scribbled it down there as he was trying to explain to Virgin that the ticket exists on the Delta System)

The connecting flight that we arrived on did not arrive late, should Virgin not be in a position to verify that?

What constitutes as proof that I was there when I said I was?

richardw

Virgin are telling you to get lost and are creating a fog around the issue.
If Virgin and Delta can't get their computer systems to perform, that's not your problem.