90 days wait for refund - Virgin Atlantic

[LawrenceFamily]

Hi all,

After 90 minutes I finally got through to Virgin to cancel our flights for mid-August. We had an airmiles booking with some cash to make up the taxes.

They advised refunds can take up to 90 days because of the sheer volume of requests they are receiving. Air miles will be refunded immediately. I did push this and they quoted some guidance from the European Commission as Covid-19 is an unprecedented situation - completely understand this as a business owner myself - but a little shocked.

Just with the current climate, this makes me a little anxious given waiting 3 months for refund means anything could happen for VA! Say the worst was to happen and they went bust, is our money gone? We booked by credit card.

Thoughts? Anyone else in a similar situation?

Thanks.



Thanks,
Sam

[mick]

If VS go bust you should be covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act and be refunded by your CC provider.

Sadly just like hundreds of Dibbers were when Thomas Cook failed last September. We were reasonably lucky with the TC failure as Tesco CC refunded us within 3 weeks. The next thing we did on the day that TC went bust was to book Virgin for 21 April.

I'd also love to know how to enforce a quicker refund from VS but sadly live in the real and current world.

Mick

[tspill]

Originally Posted by LawrenceFamily

Hi all,

After 90 minutes I finally got through to Virgin to cancel our flights for mid-August. We had an airmiles booking with some cash to make up the taxes.

They advised refunds can take up to 90 days because of the sheer volume of requests they are receiving. Air miles will be refunded immediately. I did push this and they quoted some guidance from the European Commission as Covid-19 is an unprecedented situation - completely understand this as a business owner myself - but a little shocked.

Just with the current climate, this makes me a little anxious given waiting 3 months for refund means anything could happen for VA! Say the worst was to happen and they went bust, is our money gone? We booked by credit card.

Thoughts? Anyone else in a similar situation?

Thanks.



Thanks,
Sam

See more...

Thanks for the update.

Were your flights cancelled by VS or by you?
Interested as ours are in July and was going to wait.
Were he any issues with you asking for a refund?

[mick]

Originally Posted by tspill

Thanks for the update.

Were your flights cancelled by VS or by you?
Interested as ours are in July and was going to wait.
Were he any issues with you asking for a refund?

See more...

Tspill

As you know I'm currently in the "asking for a refund" text exchange with VS but I'm starting to consider two options.

Following yesterday's post by Tom we've now seen that VS flights can now be "rescheduled" beyond 31 April 2021 - subject to fare difference obviously. We haven't fixed our April/May 2021 trip yet and obviously I can't see prices until 330 days out which may be late May/early June. However that's less than the current 100 day projection from VS for CC refunds.

Maybe April/May 2021 prices may be at a level similar to what I paid for this April/May. Who knows and maybe I should stop being a cynic as far as VS goes Obviously this relies on VS surviving but I did pay by CC.

Mick

[mick]

Our VS flight of 21 April was cancelled by email last Monday. I dug deeply into their web site to find out how to claim a refund - not an easy task obviously They asked me to communicate by text which I did and immediately had a standard acknowledgement. A couple of days later I had another text from "David" asking me to confirm names and airport details. Presumably to verify that they matched our booking reference.

I've never pretended to know all the answers (or even 10% of them ) but all I ever say on here is don't cancel voluntarily but wait for the airline to cancel.

Mick

PS What happened to the post I was quoting

[tspill]

Originally Posted by mick

Tspill

As you know I'm currently in the "asking for a refund" text exchange with VS but I'm starting to consider two options.

Following yesterday's post by Tom we've now seen that VS flights can now be "rescheduled" beyond 31 April 2021 - subject to fare difference obviously. We haven't fixed our April/May 2021 trip yet and obviously I can't see prices until 330 days out which may be late May/early June. However that's less than the current 100 day projection from VS for CC refunds.

Maybe April/May 2021 prices may be at a level similar to what I paid for this April/May. Who knows and maybe I should stop being a cynic as far as VS goes Obviously this relies on VS surviving but I did pay by CC.

Mick

See more...

The OP was saying he has secured a refund for August flights - hence my question.
Personally, I am not keen at all to move flights or to take a voucher and TBH, currently aren't options I would consider. Couple of reasons - Who knows the state of VS after this and I dont want in effect to be a "bond" holder in their company. But also, I am not sure what our holiday plans will be next year as my OH retires and VS may not even fly to where we want to go. And even if they do, I want to be able to compare prices and schedules with other airlines. And we would need to move to the summer which I dont think is currently an option.
I am not sure if moved flights need to be the same route - if so, our flights are from Belfast and only run for a few months of the year.

So I will be holding for a full refund.

My strong preference though is that this clears enough to allow us to actually go on holiday

[Helenr]

Not Florida but I should have flown to NY with virgin on Thursday.

I booked through Travel Counsellors who are telling me virgin will not refund, its rebook or credit note. Whilst I’m ok with a rebook, I’m still uncomfortable that I have no idea whether we will afford to be able to go next year. I think it’s really unfair of them not to refund

[mick]

Originally Posted by Helenr

Not Florida but I should have flown to NY with virgin on Thursday.

I booked through Travel Counsellors who are telling me virgin will not refund, its rebook or credit note. Whilst I’m ok with a rebook, I’m still uncomfortable that I have no idea whether we will afford to be able to go next year. I think it’s really unfair of them not to refund

See more...

I don't know the legal implications of booking through an agent but the law is quite clear that under EU regs the airline has to offer a full refund if you book direct as we did. Even in this transitional post-Brexit year the UK still enjoys that legislation.

Mick

[dx4100]

Originally Posted by mick

If VS go bust you should be covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act and be refunded by your CC provider.

See more...

Given the sheer volume of companies on the brink of going bust I am wondering if the credit card companies are realistically going to be able to pay out.

Time will tell. I have £9k tied up in flights and I am not so certain of seeing it again. Challenging times.

[LawrenceFamily]

Originally Posted by tspill

Thanks for the update.

Were your flights cancelled by VS or by you?
Interested as ours are in July and was going to wait.
Were he any issues with you asking for a refund?

See more...

We asked to cancel as we don't think there's a realistic chance that Disney will the same as what it usually is and there's a big chance that we wont be able to go at all.

Are we booked using miles, we had to incur a £30 pp charge to cancel, but our thoughts are it's worth doing that with the piece of mind to get it back. No issue with them giving us a refund though - just the 90 day wait for it to hit the card

At least we can focus on planning for our summer 2021 trip and not have the stress and worry about what our holiday could look like this year