Virgin Atlantic Refunds 29 March 2020 at 8:07AM in Coronavirus Travel Help & Info 11 replies 902 views

Basa47

Was due to fly out with Virgin Atlantic from Manchester to Orlando on the 17th March. but due to the USA extending their ban on inward bound flights from Europe to include the UK, I attempted to contact Virgin Atlantic to seek advice on what I could do. I did manage to finally get through the day before we were due to fly out and spoke to a customer services operator who offered me a refund telling me I would get a confirmation email within 72 hours. Never received any email confirmation, so used the Text Messaging service set up by Virgin Atlantic due to the number of calls coming in. Received a standard response, telling me that someone would text me back, when they finally did, I was informed it could take up to 90 days before any refund could be paid. Despite querying this information a number of times via the text messaging method, it seems this is a standard response on refunds. Yet the Hotels and Car Hire companies refunded us the full amounts within 5 working days. Why and How are Virgin Atlantic allowed to do this and is it legal??

 

payless

Did the flight go out - if so you are lucky they offered a refund. 

We need to be patient ., they will be dealing with misplaced people and with their staff also be under he same conditions we all are .
Most people with a cancelled holiday would have spent this money and more so likely refund is not time important. 
I was also flying on 17th to USA and the flight took place, but should be offered  vouchers at least... but not chasing. 

Basa47

I'm unsure if the flight did go out, it wouldn't have had UK citizens aboard as the USA had banned their entry.
Virgin did offer free rebooking, but we couldn't commit due to family circumstances and timescales, so they offered a refund.
 I fully understand the current situation has caused major problems for Virgin, but the refund timescales are excessive, and I'm acutely aware that they may be using the timescale to put pressure on the UK Government for bailout money.
I have travel insurance and of course Credit card payment protection, but because Virgin has said they will refund me, I cannot go to these resources until Virgin Atlantic default or even go bust. 

Streaky_Bacon

Basa47 said:

I have travel insurance and of course Credit card payment protection, but because Virgin has said they will refund me, I cannot go to these resources until Virgin Atlantic default or even go bust. 

If they have agreed a refund but are saying that it will take an unreasonably long time to process, then there is absolutely no reason why you cannot initiate a charge back on your credit card.

You and Virgin agree that the refund should be paid, so what objection could they have to a charge back?

payless

Was you flight   Vs75 If so it did fly On 17th. But not since. 

Basa47

Yes Payless it was VS75
Hi Streaky_Bacon, my understanding is that I have to wait until Virgin default on payment before I can initiate a charge via my Credit Card. All the Credit Card company will say is wait the 90 days
Thanks for responding

HainesJason73

I have a flight and holiday to Orlando Florida in August.  This was booked with a company called NetFlights.  Our flight is with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick, and our hotel is Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista.  Can I get a refund at this stage?  Even if the restrictions were suddenly lifted we as a family would be happy to travel.  The Virgin Atlantic and Net Flights websites are very vague on what to do.  I assume in the first instance I should be entitled to a refund for both.  I also booked travel insurance at the time, so this might be another avenue.  Finally everything was placed on a credit card.  How would you advise getting refunded?

Also I notice Virgin Atlantic isn't going to fly from Gatwick anymore so I am now paying for a service that does not exist.  Very confused on what to do next. 

bagand96

HainesJason73 said:

I have a flight and holiday to Orlando Florida in August.  This was booked with a company called NetFlights.  Our flight is with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick, and our hotel is Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista.  Can I get a refund at this stage?  Even if the restrictions were suddenly lifted we as a family would be happy to travel.  The Virgin Atlantic and Net Flights websites are very vague on what to do.  I assume in the first instance I should be entitled to a refund for both.  I also booked travel insurance at the time, so this might be another avenue.  Finally everything was placed on a credit card.  How would you advise getting refunded?

Also I notice Virgin Atlantic isn't going to fly from Gatwick anymore so I am now paying for a service that does not exist.  Very confused on what to do next. 

Your assumption that you are entitled to a refund, because you have changed your mind and don't want to travel, is not correct. If you want to cancel now then it is you withdrawing from the contract and you will have to pay any cancellation charges as per the T&Cs you booked under. 

If they cancel the flights, or make a major change to your holiday, then you will be entitled to a full refund.  You have rights for this under the Package and Linked Travel Regulations 2018.

You need to sit on your hands and wait for a bit.  There's a number of issues at play and much can change by August.Will the flights will take place?  Will the USA will be permitting Brits to enter?  As you say your flight might be cancelled by default anyway with Virgin's Gatwick announcement.  Or they might try and move it to Heathrow.  

Insurance won't cover you simply for a change of mind either, and neither will your credit card.

rsneyd

My VA  flights booked through Opodo to were cancelled by the airline. VA refuse to refund me demanding that (failing) Opodo make a refund request and that I have to arrange for Opodo to do this. Nonsense. Legal obligation for the airline to refund. IATA complaint and Section 75 claim lodged.

BS response from VA 
"Hi John, thank you for getting in touch. I am sorry for the delayed reply. With regards to any refund they will always need to come from the original source of the transaction, in this case Opodo. They do have many methods of contact listed on their website so you should have no problems getting in touch with them to initiate the refund for you. ^Nicola"

I responded "I have now initiate an IATA complaint against you and started a Section 75 claim. Please can you save everyone a lot of time and engage with me about my refund. It is pointless to keep passing me to OPODO who are unresponsive to me and hundreds (??thousands??) of others. Therefore stalling to me with repeated suggestions that I must go through them is not acceptable. I need direct engagement between myself and VA. Time to take a customer centred view. There is 0% doubt of my entitlement to a refund and the monies are within VA. Yes, OPODO are useless but that is no excuse for VA to dodge your responsibility to me. All you're are doing at present is increasing the amount of staff time spend on a claim that you are ultimately going to have to pay."

VA seem to be complicit in the negligence of OPODO.
I'd welcome any suggestions as to what to do next given that Opodo cannot be contacted by email or twitter message and lied when I phoned them (phone line now suspended).

TonyJF

Having had our flights cancelled, we put our tickets on hold so that we could rebook for next year as we were travelling for what is now a postponed wedding. Now I'm concerned about the possibility of VA going into administration and how safe those 'on hold' tickets really are. Even this close to rebooking (about a month away) I'm wondering if I should have gone for a refund.
As an aside, other than keeping prices static, keeping the tickets on hold isn't as great as it sounds - there's no preferential/advance access to flights or seats, so you get to book only at the same time as those who didn't put tickets on hold and on general sale, but with the distinct disadvantage of not being able to do so online.

Berta73

I have Virgin Atlantic flight Manchester - LA cancelled due to C-19. Virgin have advised as the flights were non refundable ones when originally bought I can't have a refund and if my new flight was cheaper they wouldn't credit the difference to a new flight. Is anyone else in a similar situation?  If so have you managed to resolve it with a full refund? Thanks