Virgin have essentially stolen from me

humanpizza

I had bought a premium return to the US.

i needed to change my flight time therefore i paid to downgrade my seat from premium to economy light. 

Last week they cancelled this flight and put be back in the exact same flight I was originally, but now I’m £45 down and on economy light.

i spoke to a customer service agent and they said they’d refund me and schedule to get me out back in premium. 

I noticed I hadn’t received a refund or anything about my seat. I called up again and got a completely different response, but essentially I can have £30 back, £15 is taxes and that I won’t be put back in premium. In my opinion, this is in such bad good faith and amounts to stealing In my eyes.

He refused to let me speak to anyone else, and said his team leader would not take my call and I can only have an email to make a formal complaint. 

What are your thoughts ? Is this fair ? Is this right ?

Hoenir

There's no justification in reinstating you given you made the decision to change flight originally. 

Westin

Virgin Atlantic have NOT stolen from you.

You made a flight change.  It is unfortunate that the subsequent flight was cancelled and you have now been placed back on to your original flight however your cabin/fare change stands. They don't have to put you back into Premium.

heatherw_01

As others have said, Virgin have not stolen from you.
You changed your flight and your flight changed back to the original flight. That is not stealing.

humanpizza

It may not be against the law, but to me this is extremely abhorrent customer service and had it been explained I could be booted back to my original flight out of pocket , I would not have done it. 

jimi_man

Could you provide some more detail? Why did you have to pay to downgrade?

Hoenir

humanpizza said:

It may not be against the law, but to me this is extremely abhorrent customer service and had it been explained I could be booted back to my original flight out of pocket , I would not have done it. 

You said that you needed to change your flight though. All the customer service operative did was action your request. 

humanpizza

@jimi_man the cost was for making a change.

imo, I entered into an additional contract, by cancelling the flight they themselves cancelled that contract. Therefore by putting me on the original flight they should be honouring the original contract. It was never explained that there would be a possibly that they would cancel the flight 5 weeks later and I would be booted back to my original flight, in the lower class and seems like an unfair contract term, or at the least awful customer care.

Westin

humanpizza said:

@jimi_man the cost was for making a change.

imo, I entered into an additional contract, by cancelling the flight they themselves cancelled that contract. Therefore by putting me on the original flight they should be honouring the original contract. It was never explained that there would be a possibly that they would cancel the flight 5 weeks later and I would be booted back to my original flight, in the lower class and seems like an unfair contract term, or at the least awful customer care.

Of course not. You are being unreasonable and expecting too much. The agent isn’t going to run through a list of possible ‘what-ifs’ that may possible impact your travel.  You were not told of possible flight cancellations 5 weeks prior, just as I am sure you were not told that they might possibly run out of chicken before the meal service reaches you.  Equally possible but not mentioned on the call.

You paid for a flight change. Your new fare reflected this.  It was very unfortunate that this flight was subsequently cancelled.  

I guess you could ask for a refund and fly with another airline if you still remain unhappy.  Virgin have not stolen from you.

Barkin

humanpizza said:

@jimi_man the cost was for making a change.

imo, I entered into an additional contract, by cancelling the flight they themselves cancelled that contract. Therefore blah blah... 

I don't understand. 

You asked for people's thoughts. You've had them, and now you're arguing the toss because you don't like 'em. 

Seems rather pointless... 

Voyager2002

humanpizza said:

@jimi_man the cost was for making a change.

imo, I entered into an additional contract, by cancelling the flight they themselves cancelled that contract. Therefore by putting me on the original flight they should be honouring the original contract. It was never explained that there would be a possibly that they would cancel the flight 5 weeks later and I would be booted back to my original flight, in the lower class and seems like an unfair contract term, or at the least awful customer care.

Yes, you are right to feel annoyed.

You are welcome to take them to court and see if a judge agrees with you.

For the reasons others have posted, I doubt if you would win in court but the only way to find out for sure is to try it.