Flight refund. VIRGIN ATLANTIC

cjbeeb

My son and his partner booked to fly one-way from LHR to Shanghai on November 10th 2020 with Virgin At
antic. 

On November 5th the Chinese authorities prohibited British citizens from entering China. 

My son was told that he could either claim a refund, transfer the ticket or use the value of the ticket to travel at another date or to another destination.

Recently he transferred the booking to me and my wife.

I’ve tried to change the booking to a return trip to the US, but have been told I cannot do this because the original ticket was one-way. We’ve been told we can only purchase one-way tickets to the US. 

So we asked for a refund for the flights to Shanghai on the basis that the Chinese authorities had banned UK citizens entering the country.
We’ve been told that because the flight did fly as scheduled despite the Chinese government ban on UK citizens, we cannot apply for the refund.

I thought the airlines had agreed that during the Covid-19 crisis, refunds were available if governments banned people from flying.  

Advice welcome.  

user1977

cjbeeb said:

I thought the airlines had agreed that during the Covid-19 crisis, refunds were available if governments banned people from flying.  

Yes, and a refund was available:

My son was told that he could either claim a refund, transfer the ticket or use the value of the ticket to travel at another date or to another destination.  

but your son turned that offer down. That doesn't mean he (or you) can later backtrack and claim a refund on the transferred booking he had opted for instead.

Westin

Have you looked at the applicable (at the time) terms and conditions of the credit?
https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/your-journey-with-us/no-change-fees-policy.html

I would agree with others that you can't retrospectively now change back to a refund. 

I can't however see any mention of not being able to use the o/w fare credit against a r/t ticket. 

cjbeeb

Thanks to both of you for your advice.

cjbeeb

Westin - your advice was correct. Virgin Atlantic has agreed to let me make a return journey.
I'm still confused though because my son insists he did not accept/reject any offer from Virgin Atlantic. He simply transferred the booking to me earlier this month, but perhaps that in itself changed the terms and conditions.  Again thanks to you both.

born_again

Maybe part of the issue is that it is no longer your son & his wife travelling (ticket purchasers) but now 3rd parties who did not purchase the tickets.
Even though you are related.

Manxman_in_exile

cjbeeb said:

...I'm still confused though because my son insists he did not accept/reject any offer from Virgin Atlantic. He simply transferred the booking to me earlier this month,...

But by transferring the booking wasn't he accepting an offer from VA?  You said in the opening post:

cjbeeb said:

... My son was told that he could either claim a refund, transfer the ticket or use the value of the ticket to travel at another date or to another destination.

Recently he transferred the booking to me and my wife...  

cjbeeb

I have been able to book return flights but I ‘lost’ around £600 pounds on the booking - £300 per ticket, on an original payment of £2330.  However, it’s a lesson learned.  My son is obviously happy because I paid him the full amount for the original tickets!