Were we mis sold our holiday?

LizziC84

We have just booked an all inclusive holiday through Virgin. The through flights were not available at the time of booking (flights whereby your bags automatically go onto the next flight) but we were assured that if we booked the standard flights now to secure the price we could add the through flights later when they became available. We also opted to pay extra for ‘economy delight’. After not hearing from Virgin the following week as promised about adding the through flights I contacted them only to be told they can’t add the through flights and it’s because we selected economy delight? We could either fly economy only or just have standard flights. Bearing in mind I have emails confirming I was only happy to book the holiday on the basis the through flights could be added later and I have emails from Virgin confirming this could definitely be done. Have I been mis sold? 

eskbanker

Not sure I'm following exactly what 'standard' flights signify here, but anyway, if Virgin have promised you something in writing and failed to honour it then certainly worth a strongly-worded complaint.  Worth considering what outcome you're looking for here, i.e. are you looking to be able to cancel with a refund or still hoping to get the deal you feel you were promised (and did the emails explicitly address the consequences of adding 'economy delight'?)?

Westin

It may be helpful to add the destination and your current routing as well as desired routing.

eDicky

LizziC84 said:

PThe through flights were not available at the time of booking (flights whereby your bags automatically go onto the next flight) but we were assured that if we booked the standard flights now to secure the price we could add the through flights later when they became available. We also opted to pay extra for ‘economy delight’.

This seems a strange situation, if you can mention more about the destination and flight details it should be more apparent whether the 'standard' and 'through' involve the same actual flights and whether the upgrade you bought would have the effect that Virgin say.

tightauldgit

LizziC84 said:

We have just booked an all inclusive holiday through Virgin. The through flights were not available at the time of booking (flights whereby your bags automatically go onto the next flight) but we were assured that if we booked the standard flights now to secure the price we could add the through flights later when they became available. We also opted to pay extra for ‘economy delight’. After not hearing from Virgin the following week as promised about adding the through flights I contacted them only to be told they can’t add the through flights and it’s because we selected economy delight? We could either fly economy only or just have standard flights. Bearing in mind I have emails confirming I was only happy to book the holiday on the basis the through flights could be added later and I have emails from Virgin confirming this could definitely be done. Have I been mis sold? 

If they've told you explicitly that 'you can do X' and then you can't do X then they're definitely in the wrong - the question is what do you want to do next? 

I would imagine that you should be entitled to a full refund if that's what you want, or you may get a goodwill gesture partial refund. If the system doesn't allow them to do what you want to do though I would imagine it will be difficult for them to give you what they promised.

It does seem a bit odd though - are they the same flights or different ones? Is it something silly like baggage allowances being different for the two flights? 

daveyjp

Far more details of the flights required.  I am assuming there is a connecting flight somewhere, either before or after the long haul Virgin sector, but with a different airline.

If the connecting flight only offers economy or economy and business that may be where the problem is, but without details of the flights its speculation.