Virgin and Little Red flight cancellation

veryintrigued

Looking for advice please

We've just received an email which advises us that our Virgin flights from Heathrow to Tokyo next year are cancelled (as they are no longer running this service).

We also have Virgin Red connecting flights from Manchester to Heathrow, which although they arent mentioned in the email, will be of no use and looking at the BBC website appears to have had the plug pulled on VR anyway.

Any advice what our rights are (before we call) - we're still keen to travel and on the same dates in March to Japan.

Thanks in advance

richardw

Article 8 of EU regulation EC 261/2004 gives you an absolute right to re-routing if your flights are cancelled. So find the best alternative and ask to be re-routed. They'll probably just want to refund you the money though.

veryintrigued

Thanks Richard - we've also booked a hotel for the night before we fly. Assume that Virgin dont normally cover for this too?

Will have a look at alternative flights right now to see if we can get something as good.

jonesMUFCforever

Have you actually paid for the hotel or can you cancel for free?

bagand96

Are your Little Red flights under the same booking as your Tokyo flights or did you book them separately?

Your right to rerouting will be the original route. So if your domestic flights are included on your Tokyo booking reference you'll be able to look at Manchester - Tokyo reroutings.

If you booked the little red flights separately then you're rerouting rights will be London-Tokyo. You mention you travel in March, little red flights between MAN and LHR don't end until March 28th so if you did book them separately, that booking may still stand. Unless you could speak to Virgin Customer Services who may take both bookings into account even if booked separately.

The hotel isn't virgin's problem, unless they refund you as good will.

littlereddevil

They've also cancelled the Aberdeen to London route

veryintrigued

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Have you actually paid for the hotel or can you cancel for free?

Yes already paid - and no not cancellable

veryintrigued

bagand96 wrote: »

Are your Little Red flights under the same booking as your Tokyo flights or did you book them separately?

Your right to rerouting will be the original route. So if your domestic flights are included on your Tokyo booking reference you'll be able to look at Manchester - Tokyo reroutings.

If you booked the little red flights separately then you're rerouting rights will be London-Tokyo. You mention you travel in March, little red flights between MAN and LHR don't end until March 28th so if you did book them separately, that booking may still stand. Unless you could speak to Virgin Customer Services who may take both bookings into account even if booked separately.

The hotel isn't virgin's problem, unless they refund you as good will.

Yes all under the same booking.

After the initial posting we received another email to say the Manc - LTH was cancelled too.

Looks as though it'll be a phone call today - we've seen two flights that are very similar - such that we could use the hotel.

Do the airlines who cancelled the booking normally rebook for you or do you book new flights and hope they will reimburse?

Cheers again

richardw

It is their responsibility to re-route you. They may say they don't fly there any more so we'll just refund you. EU reg EC 261/2004 doesn't say re-routing is only on the airline that you booked with.

"Article 8
Right to reimbursement or re-routing
1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered the choice between:
(a) - reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, together with, when relevant,
- a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;
(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity...."

I'd just e mail them saying how you want to be re-routed and that you know it's there obligation under EU 261/2004.

Doshwaster

I see Branson, as usual, is blaming BA for this business failure: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29504715

veryintrigued

richardw wrote: »

It is their responsibility to re-route you. They may say they don't fly there any more so we'll just refund you. EU reg EC 261/2004 doesn't say re-routing is only on the airline that you booked with.

"Article 8
Right to reimbursement or re-routing
1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered the choice between:
(a) - reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, together with, when relevant,
- a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;
(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity...."

I'd just e mail them saying how you want to be re-routed and that you know it's there obligation under EU 261/2004.

OH tried the phone call approach in the first instance and the options they've given are to fly with BA or Japan Airlines only (i.e. not the airlines we had spotted last night).

One of the four options given is a worse time and into/out of a different Tokyo airport (which makes things trickier for us for what we have organised).

The second option has no connecting Manc - LTH flight and they wont pay for public transport between them.

The third flight option is in and out of different Tokyo airports - again making things that we had planned trickier for us.

The fourth option is a full refund.

Think the next step is for me to call and force the issue a little more. Surely the fact they are worse flight times or into different airports (albeit the same city) or have no connection from Manchester means Virgin are breaking these rules?