Advice please- NO REFUND on virgin flights

ryanfisher6

my partner and i booked flights with virgin atlantic to new york for the end of june 2019. we booked them before we surprisingly got pregnant (a lovely surprise). the baby is due 13th june and so we cannot fly to new york. We've contacted virgin with our circumstances and their policy is:
"I'm sorry to hear you cannot travel with us. I can see you have booked an Economy Light ticket. Economy Light is a restricted fare which doesn’t permit date changes or when cancelled is non refundable even for a fee."
we have two couples who were willing to take the flights from us and we woupld pay for the name change, however virgin wont allow us to do this.
Virgin advise to reclaim the money through any travel insurance policies we have.
This doesnt seem right, doesnt seem ethical....can anyone give me some advise? Has anyone had a similar experience with virgin and did you come to a solution?
any advice is very grateful.

stevenhp1987

You bought non-refundable tickets. That means they're non-refundable.

You'll have to claim on your travel insurance if it covers pregnancy (doubtful).

It might be a hard pill to swallow, but there's nothing you can do. You either go, or you don't!

You can cancel the tickets for the tax back, but expect an administration fee to swallow most of that up.

Caz3121

When you selected your flights you were shown a variety of different fare types and had the ability to view what was with each one. You chose a type that allows no changes or refunds even for a fee and you got a cheaper price because of that restriction (the less restrictions, the higher the price)
Those fare rules still apply (your personal circumstances don't change that) so nothing back from the airline so travel insurance is indeed where you need to turn.
Virgin do not allow name changes on flight bookings - in line with the majority of full service airlines

waamo

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

It might be a hard pill to swallow

That may be the cause of this predicament. Sadly economy tickets are non-refundable. It's legal and is a disadvantage of cheap tickets.

I doubt any insurance will cover it either.

stripeyfox

ryanfisher6 wrote: »

my partner and i booked flights with virgin atlantic to new york for the end of june 2019. we booked them before we surprisingly got pregnant (a lovely surprise). the baby is due 13th june and so we cannot fly to new york. We've contacted virgin with our circumstances and their policy is:
"I'm sorry to hear you cannot travel with us. I can see you have booked an Economy Light ticket. Economy Light is a restricted fare which doesn’t permit date changes or when cancelled is non refundable even for a fee."
we have two couples who were willing to take the flights from us and we woupld pay for the name change, however virgin wont allow us to do this.
Virgin advise to reclaim the money through any travel insurance policies we have.
This doesnt seem right, doesnt seem ethical....can anyone give me some advise? Has anyone had a similar experience with virgin and did you come to a solution?
any advice is very grateful.

non refundable means just that. Usually these are the cheapest tickets. Most airlines etc will allow the flexibility of being able to change/cancel but there is a premium to pay for this. You brought the tickets that don't have that flexibility.

So your starting position has to be that you have no rights at all. It might, just might, be possible if you can find a sympathetic ear to change them to a later date maybe, but you'll need to be very lucky (and possibly very polite and charming) to the right person. I don't think there is any obligation for them to do anything so you'll need to play it very very well.

I had tickets booked for a flight to Oslo with BA a few years ago. In the end, something else came up. I rang BA and they cancelled it. I didn't get my fare back but you do get (some of) your airline/airport taxes back.

EDIT: Did you take out travel cancellation insurance at the time? Most travel insurance policies exclude pregnancy but not all.

Westin

stripeyfox wrote: »

non refundable means just that. Usually these are the cheapest tickets. Most airlines etc will allow the flexibility of being able to change/cancel but there is a premium to pay for this. You brought the tickets that don't have that flexibility.

So your starting position has to be that you have no rights at all. It might, just might, be possible if you can find a sympathetic ear to change them to a later date maybe, but you'll need to be very lucky (and possibly very polite and charming) to the right person. I don't think there is any obligation for them to do anything so you'll need to play it very very well.

Very wise words from stripeyfox. I think this is the best and only approach. Keep in mind Virgin did not create your predicament (congratulations by the way) and you, not they, are the interested party in trying to find a solution in changing dates or names on a non-refundable, inflexible or at least limited flexible, cheaper fare ticket.

ryanfisher6

Thank you everyone. I've tried to find a sympathetic ear to no avail. I'm trying to redeem the money through the travel insurance i have with my bank account. although judging by comments above i dont hold any hope. ITs the fact that Virgin have taken over £700.00 from us giving back no refund and those seats will be sold on again, thats just not right....

Westin

ryanfisher6 wrote: »

Thank you everyone. I've tried to find a sympathetic ear to no avail. I'm trying to redeem the money through the travel insurance i have with my bank account. although judging by comments above i dont hold any hope. ITs the fact that Virgin have taken over £700.00 from us giving back no refund and those seats will be sold on again, thats just not right....

Possibly, possibly not. You don't know that.

Airlines offer multiple fare categories, the cheapest fares with little or no option to alter or cancel for a refund. When airlines price and offer these cheaper fares they can do so knowing that a small number of people will quite possibly not travel as booked and the fare forfeited. This offsets the cheaper base fare.

It's a gamble you take when buying the cheaper restrictive tickets.

richardw

ryanfisher6 wrote: »

....ITs the fact that Virgin have taken over £700.00 from us giving back no refund and those seats will be sold on again, thats just not right....

£350 each is way below actual cost. Claim on your travel insurance and look forward to the baby arrival.

Caz3121

ryanfisher6 wrote: »

ITs the fact that Virgin have taken over £700.00 from us giving back no refund and those seats will be sold on again, thats just not right....

that is what happens when you purchase restricted tickets.
from their perspective, when you chose your flights you were presented prices for refundable tickets and tickets that could be changed for a fee but you selected the fare that could not be refunded or changed.
may be too late but, given there is nothing to come back from the airline, the best thing to do would be to keep the booking and hope for a slim chance of a schedule change (June is summer schedule which may still be subject to changes)
If there is a schedule change then you get a refund
If there is not a schedule change, you get nothing back but they won't resell your seats (although most airlines overbook flights anyway)

heatherw_01

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