Virgin dirty tricks?

[gary kinghorn]

At least this is how it felt to me today...

Booked and paid for our Aug 20 holiday in full last October. Then the virus happened. Nobody could have foreseen that, so I can understand the turmoil everyone has been in. It's happened every where, so understandable.

We waited a while before running to them to change / cancel, thinking things might ease prior to August. Then the parks suggested re-opening, but with too many restrictions in our minds. An awful lot of money to spend on something far from perfect. So around the same time I filled in the Virgin form, suggesting we would be happy to move our booking. That was at the end of May / beginning of June. Radio silence...

Reel forward a good few weeks and we are getting a little anxious as to what's happening and what's going to happen. Nothing from Virgin.

Read on here about people managing to change their holidays via whatsapp. Thought i'd give it a go. Having said that I was concerned that whether on the phone, or via whats app, if and when a Virgin representative got in touch I'd be under pressure to make a there and then decision, as once off the phone I might not hear from them again. Issues with school holidays etc mean we have to be careful with dates.

So I look on the Virgin web site and picked a couple of suitable holidays next Easter, both of which showed availabilities and favourable prices (less than we paid for this Aug).

What's app message sent and this afternoon while out at a country park we got our reply. We jumped on it, with me sending screen shots of the 2 holidays we had seen over the phone. "Sorry sir, we can't see images, please give me all the details and I will look for you". I did as requested.

Nothing for half hour - during which time I said to my wife I reckon they will try their luck here. And they didn't disappoint

"Hi, It seems like economy cabin has sold out so only premium cabin coming back as available"

Hmmmmm, I had checked an hour or so before.

Then exactly one minute later.

"Sorry economy seats are available but as the last few seats premium is actually working out to the same price"

Hmmmmmm, really?

and a minute later again.

"As a result of few seats being available the current total price is over £xxxx"

The figure being more than £2k above our initial holiday rate, rather than the £1k under their website was quoting. A swing of £3k.

I replied that it made no sense, suggesting I had seen the price on the website and that was what I wanted to pay.

Five mins later they come back asking about car insurance requirements and quoting me a price which was just over the one I had seen on-line. So I jumped on it.

Now while I'm happy to have moved my holiday, I have still paid more than I was seeing on-line. I felt good about it at the time as they were asking for £3k more and I ended up paying £200 more.

And on returning home I notice the flights we are on are NOT the ones we requested. Luckily they still work for us and may even be a little better, but that's not the point. At no point was this change discussed, or suggested.


So we are booked again for next April, which is great. We can start looking forward to it again and I can put this episode out of my mind.

And for those of you waiting for your call, use the whatsapp number. Be aware of what's out there and the price on the website in advance of the call from them, as you may feel under pressure and end up paying £3k more than you need to.

[uktigg]

I get the impression that they are only allocating a certain amount of seats for rebookings.

After i was notified that my april holiday was cancelled, I put a deposit on a new holiday myself (which VH originally said was unavailable to rebook but was available on the website) and then when i sopke to them regarding refund and got all of my payments from the original holiday transfered onto the new one.
Now just got to hope that USA is open by April !

[Warkman58]

So, where’d was the “dirty tricks” ?

[Leia77]

Their behaviour is shocking at the moment. Glad you managed to get it sorted.

[Mazascouser]

Not too impressed with Virgin, they are falling down on their customer service on every level. Brother was told that his Disney holiday was cancelled and that all they could offer were vouchers for next year plus he would have to pay an additional £1200 to obtain a like for like holiday. He wasn’t having any of that and demanded his money back £8k, he was then told that it would take up to 4 months to go back into his account. Not good customer service. They are quick to take it but not to give it back.

[Moorlandman]

Virgin are using customer refund money as part of their attempted rescue deal. No wonder people are not getting refunds

‘ Tens of millions of pounds of customer payments are understood to be at the centre of the talks.’

google/amp/s/news... escue-12026543

[Redsnapper]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

Virgin are using customer refund money as part of their attempted rescue deal. No wonder people are not getting refunds

‘ Tens of millions of pounds of customer payments are understood to be at the centre of the talks.’

google/amp/s/news... escue-12026543

See more...

You may be right - BUT - that is not what that article says - it clearly refers to money from "future bookings" and doesnt mention refunds of cancelled flights...

[Tvr400]

Originally Posted by Warkman58

So, where’d was the “dirty tricks” ?

See more...

Personally I think it was poor form trying to get me to pay an extra £3k for premium seats, when economy ones were still available and bookable on their web site.

Had they offered me an upgrade, which I'm sure is what they should be doing, in order to upsell, would have be absolutely fine. However they didn't, they tried to get me to pay an extra £3k.

[JohnD]

Originally Posted by Tvr400

Personally I think it was poor form trying to get me to pay an extra £3k for premium seats, when economy ones were still available and bookable on their web site.

Had they offered me an upgrade, which I'm sure is what they should be doing, in order to upsell, would have be absolutely fine. However they didn't, they tried to get me to pay an extra £3k.

See more...

I may be missing something but I don't see why they should offer you an upgrade.

[Jack Reacher]

Which number is the correct one for WhatsApp?