Virgin Atlantic mis-sold flight upgrade

robson0

Hi I booked flights with virgin Atlantic .  I purchased extra points and used the points I had to upgrade seats to premium economy.

I have been contacted a month later to pay taxes on this upgrade that amount to £200. Been told that if I don’t pay this amount the booking will revert back to economy and I won’t get a refund for the points I purchased. There was no apology.  I have complained by email waiting to hear back from them.

Can anyone give me any advice please

DullGreyGuy

Advice on what? When you use airmiles/points to book flights or upgrade you pay the taxes/differences in taxes

If you aren't departing from the UK or another high tax country then they can be exceptional value (had a $5 first class long haul flight once) but from the UK the taxes are still material 

See https://www.virginatlantic.com/eu/en/flying-club/points/spend-points/upgrade-with-points.html

Please note: Taxes, fees and carrier imposed surcharges apply to all Reward Flights.

Westin

I am surprised that it was not made clear when you upgraded from Economy to Premium that additional taxes would be payable. I would have expected that in the booking flow.

robson0

Hi thanks for your messages . I am looking for advice on the fact that the taxes were not mentioned to me at the time of upgrading . Therefor making me feel that this was mis-sold to me.

DullGreyGuy

robson0 said:

Hi thanks for your messages . I am looking for advice on the fact that the taxes were not mentioned to me at the time of upgrading . Therefor making me feel that this was mis-sold to me.

You'd need to really explain how the whole thing happened... vast majority obviously book and upgrade online and so there is little "selling".

Having had my own complaint against VS it does appear they record most calls so its not hard to put a complaint in though you could do a DSAR request in first to get a recording/transcript of the call to be clear on exactly what was said... unfortunately our memories aren't great and often if you ask two people to recall what was said and then listen to the call both the people are wrong/miss details. 

Westin

robson0 said:

Hi thanks for your messages . I am looking for advice on the fact that the taxes were not mentioned to me at the time of upgrading . Therefor making me feel that this was mis-sold to me.

What outcome are you looking for?

IMHO they won’t allow the PE upgrade to stand if you don’t pay the extra taxes.