Honeymoon with Virgin Holidays in June

Bonzam7

Hi,

sorry if this has been asked and I know not as desperate a situation as others. My partner and are have postponed our wedding in June and we have our honeymoon booked with virgin holidays for the end of June. Ideally we would have liked to rearrange but it’s impossible to speak to anyone at virgin or get any replies to emails etc. Our balance on the holiday is due on Monday (6th), but we really don’t want to pay it as we would rather lose the deposit than have hassle around rebooking claiming if it’s cancelled. Also worried about just getting a voucher and future holidays being way more expensive in the short term because many people all have vouchers to use.

it doesn’t say in the T&Cs that they will automatically take payment for the balance, but can they take this from the card we paid the deposit on? (We have no direct debits set up) 

if we don’t pay will they automatically cancel and we just lose the deposit?

it does say if we wish to cancel we need to get it in writing / email to them but provides no official address to do this and none of our emails have been responded to on the ones we have tried.

If they take the money then see we have have cancelled after this what are our rights to get this money back?

we are just really concerned as it’s a large amount of money that we don’t want to risk at would rather just lose the deposit and not have the stress of future cancellations / rebooking etc.

thank you 

Aylesbury_Duck

Dig out your paperwork, it may tell you if you authorised them to take the balance on Monday.  If you did, you need to speak to them or your bank to cancel that transaction if you want to cancel.  If you do that, you are voluntarily cancelling the holiday and I'm pretty certain you will lose your deposit.

If the balance is paid and you then cancel, you'd have to check your terms but it's possible the whole sum would be lost.  Check that out.

If the balance is paid and the trip is cancelled by them at a later date (very likely), then you'll probably be offered vouchers for a future trip.

Iwanttobefree

We cancelled our Virgin holiday by contacting them on whatsapp.  Much much quicker than using the phone. Did it two weeks ago even though our Holiday isn't until September. It was mid morning Sunday and they got back within about an hour,

Their whatsapp number is +44 20 3322 3289

Very straight forward, they just wanted our booking ref

They gave us the option of moving it forward a year but the price was  much higher, double what we would lose on the deposit, with things the way they are, we decided to lose the deposit and see what state the worlds in next year.

We had paid most of it, but balance wasn't due, hence under their terms, we got everything back but the deposit, takes 28 days for money to be refunded (well normally takes 28 days, probably longer at the moment)

Notify them more than 84 days before departure, you lose your deposit.
57 - 84 days you lose 30% of total cost
37 - 56 days you lose 50%
22 - 36 days you lose 70%
7 - 21 days you lose 90%
Less than 7 days you get no refund.

Mrsn

There is a chance you will have authorised them at the time of booking for them to collect the balance via the card you paid on, that was the case with our booking to Las Vegas with them. You need to see the terms and conditions on your booking paperwork. 

At the moment if you cancel after the balance was due they are entitled to pursue you for a percentage of the balance. The way things are at the moment I could see companies actively doing this in order to recoup some much needed funds but that is my personal opinion.