Virgin Holidays - What's My Rights?

neilanthonyfitness

Westin said:

tc76 said:

Due to the cov-19 , I was looking to move my holiday with virgin to next year, they told it's free transfers and admin I just have to reprice the holiday. I got a quote of 7225 00 for the same holiday for next year.. but when I went to book it as I already had a booking and was moving they are now charging me 8400, basically they have my money already so no discount or loyalty please beware of virgin I have travelled with them for years but never again once I get this sorted out . Just making everyone aware they are profiting from the customers unfortunate predictament 

So what was the explanation when you asked them about the difference between the quote (£7225) and what they wanted to charge (£8400)?

I found this same issue.

Looking to rebook my trip from May to August, and noticed that the cost online has gone up £700 per person in 24 hours.

They are obviously desperate to recoup some of the margin they've lost through the Covid crisis and are charging people over the moon for holidays, knowing that even if they have to give a refund, it'll take 10 weeks to be received back by the customer, by which time the prices will either be even higher or availability will have vanished

neilanthonyfitness

bradders1983 said:

All travel companies are prioritising customers based on original date of departure. How else do you propose they do it in a fair manner?

no problem at all with that, but knowing that they've put up prices £700 per person in 24 hours, you can understand the concern that they're trying to recoup money from their current customers unfairly

Ganga

neilanthonyfitness said:

So, I'm due to go on a 14 day holiday to Disneyworld with Virgin Holidays, all paid for, on the 22nd May. 

Virgin have basically stopped any communication with any customer unless they are travelling within the next 72 hours. This means that 98% of their customer base are not able to speak to them through any format relating to their current trip. 

I'm just looking to rebook my holiday from May to the end of August, and I've been keeping an eye on prices over the past few days, thinking about what I currently have booked with them and not wanting to pay any extra. I've managed to find a deal on their website for the end of August which is like-for-like, and then lo-and-behold 24 hours later, that price has gone up £700 per person! Bear in mind there is no way to communicate with Virgin to amend my booking, so we are at the hands of Virgin and their inexcusable price hikes.

Surely they can't get away with shutting off all communication with their customers, and then massively increasing the cost of their holidays. Ridiculous, and they have lost a long term customer through all this.

I think the reason you cannot get thru to them is most of their office/call centre staff are not working due to the ongoing virus ,all the travel agents where we live are closed as are all the shops that do not sell food or medicine.
I think that all you can do is wait till the 72 hour deadline approaches and contact them if they do not contact you, I know this is how most of them are doing I as we were in the same boat as you but with BA ,they e-mailed us and cancelled our holiday and refunded the money.

As for the prices going up all my friends and facebook friends are desperate to go on holiday as are we ( only when it is safe ) so demand is pushing up prices, as for not giving them business in the future you might have to bite the bullet as I do not think all the current players in the travel industry will survive the downturn and as they say beggars cannot be choosers. 

neilanthonyfitness

Ganga said:

neilanthonyfitness said:

So, I'm due to go on a 14 day holiday to Disneyworld with Virgin Holidays, all paid for, on the 22nd May. 

Virgin have basically stopped any communication with any customer unless they are travelling within the next 72 hours. This means that 98% of their customer base are not able to speak to them through any format relating to their current trip. 

I'm just looking to rebook my holiday from May to the end of August, and I've been keeping an eye on prices over the past few days, thinking about what I currently have booked with them and not wanting to pay any extra. I've managed to find a deal on their website for the end of August which is like-for-like, and then lo-and-behold 24 hours later, that price has gone up £700 per person! Bear in mind there is no way to communicate with Virgin to amend my booking, so we are at the hands of Virgin and their inexcusable price hikes.

Surely they can't get away with shutting off all communication with their customers, and then massively increasing the cost of their holidays. Ridiculous, and they have lost a long term customer through all this.

I think the reason you cannot get thru to them is most of their office/call centre staff are not working due to the ongoing virus ,all the travel agents where we live are closed as are all the shops that do not sell food or medicine.
I think that all you can do is wait till the 72 hour deadline approaches and contact them if they do not contact you, I know this is how most of them are doing I as we were in the same boat as you but with BA ,they e-mailed us and cancelled our holiday and refunded the money.

As for the prices going up all my friends and facebook friends are desperate to go on holiday as are we ( only when it is safe ) so demand is pushing up prices, as for not giving them business in the future you might have to bite the bullet as I do not think all the current players in the travel industry will survive the downturn and as they say beggars cannot be choosers. 

I work for a Travel Management Company, and at no point did we shut off customers who weren't travelling within a 72 hour period. Yes, we prioritised people travelling within the next 48 hours, but if people still wanted to speak to us over the telephone about their trip - no matter when they were travelling - we would deal with this.

soolin

neilanthonyfitness said:

So, I'm due to go on a 14 day holiday to Disneyworld with Virgin Holidays, all paid for, on the 22nd May. 

Virgin have basically stopped any communication with any customer unless they are travelling within the next 72 hours. This means that 98% of their customer base are not able to speak to them through any format relating to their current trip. 

I'm just looking to rebook my holiday from May to the end of August, and I've been keeping an eye on prices over the past few days, thinking about what I currently have booked with them and not wanting to pay any extra. I've managed to find a deal on their website for the end of August which is like-for-like, and then lo-and-behold 24 hours later, that price has gone up £700 per person! Bear in mind there is no way to communicate with Virgin to amend my booking, so we are at the hands of Virgin and their inexcusable price hikes.

Surely they can't get away with shutting off all communication with their customers, and then massively increasing the cost of their holidays. Ridiculous, and they have lost a long term customer through all this.

That’s why I will hold out against anything other than a cash refund for my holidays (or back to my card in my case). 

If companies try and push prices up knowing that people will be desperate to spend their vouchers then it makes me less inclined to give up my right to a refund. The holiday I lost in March tried to get me to rebook for November and the prices were going up as I watched . I don’t expect to get my refunds quickly, but I have been assured that it will be forthcoming, if not I’ll use the MSE guide here to reclaiming and if that fails I’ll go to my insurance. 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback/

Thrugelmir

Where to? Currency exchange will have a major impact on pricing 12 months forward. 

mattyprice4004

neilanthonyfitness said:

Westin said:

tc76 said:

Due to the cov-19 , I was looking to move my holiday with virgin to next year, they told it's free transfers and admin I just have to reprice the holiday. I got a quote of 7225 00 for the same holiday for next year.. but when I went to book it as I already had a booking and was moving they are now charging me 8400, basically they have my money already so no discount or loyalty please beware of virgin I have travelled with them for years but never again once I get this sorted out . Just making everyone aware they are profiting from the customers unfortunate predictament 

So what was the explanation when you asked them about the difference between the quote (£7225) and what they wanted to charge (£8400)?

I found this same issue.

Looking to rebook my trip from May to August, and noticed that the cost online has gone up £700 per person in 24 hours.

They are obviously desperate to recoup some of the margin they've lost through the Covid crisis and are charging people over the moon for holidays, knowing that even if they have to give a refund, it'll take 10 weeks to be received back by the customer, by which time the prices will either be even higher or availability will have vanished

That's a different issue though - they were being charged more because they're using vouchers, whereas you waited 24 hours and it seems someone else snapped up the 'cheap seats' thus bumping the cost up. 

Try clearing your cookies or looking at it from a different device - some websites sneakily use cookies to see if you're returning and bump up the cost. If not, it's just an unfortunate case of 'the early bird gets the worm' - I held off booking a Ryanair flight last year, and when I went back to book it (on a different PC) it'd jumped from £55 per person to over £120. 

Westin

@neilanthonyfitness: Have you tried searching and pricing up a day or two either side. That might make a difference.

ess0two

neilanthonyfitness said:

Westin said:

tc76 said:

Due to the cov-19 , I was looking to move my holiday with virgin to next year, they told it's free transfers and admin I just have to reprice the holiday. I got a quote of 7225 00 for the same holiday for next year.. but when I went to book it as I already had a booking and was moving they are now charging me 8400, basically they have my money already so no discount or loyalty please beware of virgin I have travelled with them for years but never again once I get this sorted out . Just making everyone aware they are profiting from the customers unfortunate predictament 

So what was the explanation when you asked them about the difference between the quote (£7225) and what they wanted to charge (£8400)?

I found this same issue.

Looking to rebook my trip from May to August, and noticed that the cost online has gone up £700 per person in 24 hours.

They are obviously desperate to recoup some of the margin they've lost through the Covid crisis and are charging people over the moon for holidays, knowing that even if they have to give a refund, it'll take 10 weeks to be received back by the customer, by which time the prices will either be even higher or availability will have vanished

Surely, August will be more expensive than May ?

jga1912

Virgin cancelled our holiday to Barbados on the 17th March and as yet we still havent received our refund. 
So a couple of questions. Are they legally obliged to refund me within 14 days & if so is it worth my while using the courts to get my money back.
I cant contact them as they ignore emails\Whatsapp message & you cant get through on the phone