Kiwi.com and Virgin Atlantic Flight to America - Flight Not Cancelled - Can't Currently Enter USA

loislooby

Hi,

I have booked a Virgin Atlantic return flight for August this year to America (JFK) via a third party website (kiwi dot com). (It won't let me enter links).

Booked on February 23rd 2020 (before pandemic status was announced) so according to the Virgin Atlantic website we would be able to move the booking if we had booked directly.

However, we booked via kiwi dot com as the flights were around £100 return cheaper than booking directly. We did pay on a credit card. 1 out of 3 travellers had travel insurance at the time of booking which is still active.
Kiwi aren't letting us move the booking as it was 'non-flexible', and are offering us an instant refund of around 10 euros (voucher credit) even though the booking was around £1000. 
The flight departure times and airports have moved since we placed the booking, and our departure flight isn't even visible on the Virgin Atlantic website, so we aren't even sure that the flight exists anymore. On the Virgin Atlantic website it looks as though flights are departing from London to JFK for tomorrow's date, so it looks as though the flight will only be cancelled at the very last moment. 

What is best to do? We can't see ourselves going on the trip due to restrictions into America from the UK (assuming that this doesn't change within the next 5 weeks). Should we pursue a refund via the credit card company? If so, do we do this before or after the flight is due to go ahead?

Thanks,

loislooby

bagand96

You say the departure airport has moved (I'm guessing you booked out of LGW but its now LHR?)  Has the flight number changed?  i.e. When you booked it was VS123, but now it's VS456?

If that's the case then your original flight has been cancelled and you are entitled to a full refund if the replacement flight isn't acceptable to you.

Caz3121

Credit card company won't help if the flight is still operating
can you view your booking on the Virgin website manage my booking? If the flight number is not operating on your date then it has been cancelled and you should be due a refund (less whatever service fees kiwi charge)
Unfortunately you picked one of the worst third parties to deal with (have a look at the kiwi threads on the tripadvisor air travel board, there are 100's if not 1,000s of complaints)
If the flight is still operating and you are getting no satisfaction re voucher/flight change from kiwi, then probably worth getting your travel insurance involved...have the other 2 passengers got travel insurance now? (you mention one had at time of booking but that will only cover their flight costs)