Update - Open Ticket - VA, any disadvantages?

[123]

Originally Posted by diby5

I'm booked direct with Virgin, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the refund. I WhatsApp'd at 09:27 this morning, nothing back yet and I'm not holding my breath on getting any sort of response too quickly

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They only seem to reply to whatsapp at 4am or someother unearthly hour

[kraftikris]

Originally Posted by diby5

Thanks for this, I have sent a WhatsApp this morning. So the wait begins

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Good Luck, I did wait about 3 days.

[kraftikris]

Hi, so as I said, I whatsappe'd VA to say I would take a few days to think about whether or not to accept the open ticket, woke this morning to a refund confirmation from the refund department!

ok, so that escalated pretty quick! mind you it's the same refund confirmation I got 2 weeks ago to say my refund for my bubble seats would be refunded in 14 days, and I haven't seen that yet, so it will be watch this space. Edited to say - It appeared this morning!

As for going from Heathrow and not Gatwick in November 2021, I have 14 months to work that out!

[kraftikris]

So the update is: Although I did actually ask for a few days to decide, and came to the conclusion that I would have the open ticket, Thursday I had the email to confirm refund, and this morning the whole lot has been put back in my account? So 1 week from start to finish, I originally hoped to get so kind of idea where I stood with the whole cancellation/refund situation, I never thought it would be so swift and a painless communication with Virgin, and yet again they have come through for me. (they were pretty fantastic 4 years ago when I lost my father)

I know so many of you are having a bad time with them, please hang in there, maybe now they are starting to get on top of refunds, good luck everyone, xx

[eaglesrest]

Originally Posted by 123

They only seem to reply to whatsapp at 4am or someother unearthly hour

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More likely to be later in the evening as the phone staff then support the media staff to attempt to clear the backlog of messages.

Can't imagine it's going to improve with the redundancies looming.

[Ritz]

Originally Posted by 123

They only seem to reply to whatsapp at 4am or someother unearthly hour

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I made an enquiry a few days ago, finally got my reply at 4.22am this morning, replied at 7.30am only to go back into the loop again with automated questions.

[diby5]

So I got a response today at mid-day, just over 4 days after my initial enquiry.
Offers were an open ticket with no amendment fees or fare differences payable as long as travel is completed by the end of November this year, a massive 21 days after my return flight!
An open ticket with travel to be completed by 30th September 2022 with only fare differences payable, as long as it is booked by 31st December 2020, some of that is not very useful since you can only book flights 11 months in advance!
A two word sentence that simply says "Complementary freebies"
Or I can "apply" for a full refund.

I don't see the first offer as being based in reality, DW probably won't have enough confidence to be able to fly before 2022so the only practical option is the full refund, I replied asking for that at 12:23 today, so we'll see how long things take from here.

[diby5]

A quick response. Within 20 minutes I had a WhatsApp confirmation of my refund request, immediately followed by an email stating that a refund would be actioned and should be completed within 60 days.

Apart from the initial delay of 4 days, somewhat understandable given there was a weekend in there, this has been an easy process thus far.

[kraftikris]

I got my confirmation on Thursday full refund on Saturday! and today they wrote to say someone will call me regarding my open ticket request! Er... Plus my booking is still live.

[diby5]

Only just checked "My Booking" on the VA website, it didn't automatically go to my flights when I clicked on it and upon entering the details I receive a "Sorry, we're unable to complete your request. Please check and try again."

So I guess that means the cancellation has gone through and we await the refund