Virgin Using Open Ticket

**Firekat** · 6 Oct 20, 02:18 PM

Hello Dibbers

So like many my planned Florida trip this year had to be rescheduled. We should have been going August 2020 for 2 weeks and have now rescheduled for next August - keeping everything crossed.

So as we had already booked and paid in full for our flights direct from MAN to MCO I took the option of transferring to open tickets.

Now that flights for my dates have been released I'm looking at using my open tickets to book.

We had 1 Reward Flight and 3 miles plus money flights booked MAN to MCO direct Econ out PE back.

Just wondering the best way to go about this, should I be checking and waiting for a good price before I request to use my open tickets?

I understand that I will need to pay any difference in price and think I need to use same cabin classes as I booked originally.

Has anyone had experience of doing this?

I think given that I have opted for open ticket rather than demanding a refund it would be nice of them to simply book me on with same cabin classes for no extra fee, but don't imagine that will be the case.

eaglesrest · 6 Oct 20, 03:51 PM

We just went through this process.

The reward tix are straight forward as nothing will change around the taxes and miles, so you need to get the rewards as soon as they are available ideally. Only risk is that you can't get decent cash ticket prices for your booked reward flight dates.

In our case we booked rewards on day of outbound release, asked for a long hold, then booked inbound on release 3 weeks later. When we booked the inbound reward we also booked the cash flights. Surprisingly they were much cheaper than August 2020, albeit a different destination (SFO instead of MCO).

Extra surprising as the lower fare classes are not usually released on 331 days, but maybe they changed that for the OT scenarios...

Either way if you don't like the cash tix price you could ask them to refund your reward, or you could keep the reward and hope that the cash prices come down later. If not, then pay the �30pp admin fee if need be to change the reward..

**Firekat** · 6 Oct 20, 04:02 PM

Thanks for replying.

So did you check prices before filling out the form to rebook or did you just complete the form and saw what they replied with?

If reward flights aren't available for me dates I don't mind having the miles credited and using them along with what we have amassed in the mean time for miles plus money.

I just want to know whether to wait out a good price or just fill in the form and see what they come back with.

Really don't want to pay much extra as I have allowed them to keep my money all this time earning interest for them and aiding their cashflow rather than demanding a refund.

eaglesrest · 6 Oct 20, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Firekat

Thanks for replying.

So did you check prices before filling out the form to rebook or did you just complete the form and saw what they replied with?

If reward flights aren't available for me dates I don't mind having the miles credited and using them along with what we have amassed in the mean time for miles plus money.

I just want to know whether to wait out a good price or just fill in the form and see what they come back with.

Really don't want to pay much extra as I have allowed them to keep my money all this time earning interest for them and aiding their cashflow rather than demanding a refund.

We didn't use the form, there's too much delay to try and get a reward flight, or even a low fare cash tix.

We called FC at 7am on the dot the day that the inbound flight was released. We would have called earlier as they tend to be available at 5am, but the lines don't open until 7am currently

I don't know if the form guarantees that they have someone ready to tie up the OT upon flight release, or if they simply do a manual check when they get around to it, and either book or not. I suspect the latter.

**Firekat** · 6 Oct 20, 04:11 PM

Thanks,

I'll give them a call and see what they say.

eaglesrest · 6 Oct 20, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by Firekat

Thanks,

I'll give them a call and see what they say.

What I will say is that they were more flexible with the reward side than they normally are.

Really short on staff now though, so even calling at bang on 7am will probably lead to 15 minute wait or so. Prior to the redundancies we could get through immediately.

**Firekat** · 7 Oct 20, 08:36 AM

So I called Virgin Atlantic Flying Club last night. Took about 20 minutes to get through, but the chap I spoke to was really helpful.

For this year I had 1 Reward flight and 3 miles plus money, MAN to MCO direct Tuesday 18 August 2020 flying back 1 September 2020 PE out and Economy Classic back.

He couldn't get me a reward flight both ways, even changing the dates by a couple of days, but managed to change my reward seat to cash seat and will refund my points.

He said there was only one flight coming back MCO to MAN on 31 August and it was already filling up even though it had only just been released. I know he could have just been saying this to get me to book, but less capacity on the new planes, people like me trying to reschedule, new bookers, imagine it could get booked up fairly quickly.

So now we are going MAN to MCO direct 18 August 2021 flying back 31 August 2021. Economy Delight going, Economy Classic coming back (PE either way would have cost more)

I had to pay an extra �500 for my seat going from reward to cash, but will be refunded �667 for the 3 miles plus money as they came out cheaper than I'd paid for this year, so I'll be over �100 up once the refund comes through.

He suggested I could try upgrading using points nearer to the time, which I might but I'm not overly bothered. May see if I can use my points for hotel.

He put hubby's flying club on so he will earn points for the flights and suggested I get the kids registerred as flying club members too as the points don't expire anymore.

I asked about pooling family points together and he said they have a few families trialing a shared points scheme at the moment and it could be something that gets rolled out next year.

He said there will be a lot moreofferings to use and claim points coming next year so watch this space.

Was 100% expecting to have to pay more towards my rescheduled flights so I'm really happy with the outcome.

6 Oct 20, 03:51 PM	#2
	6 Oct 20, 03:51 PM eaglesrest Apprentice Imagineer
eaglesrest Apprentice Imagineer Join Date: Apr 08	We just went through this process. The reward tix are straight forward as nothing will change around the taxes and miles, so you need to get the rewards as soon as they are available ideally. Only risk is that you can't get decent cash ticket prices for your booked reward flight dates. In our case we booked rewards on day of outbound release, asked for a long hold, then booked inbound on release 3 weeks later. When we booked the inbound reward we also booked the cash flights. Surprisingly they were much cheaper than August 2020, albeit a different destination (SFO instead of MCO). Extra surprising as the lower fare classes are not usually released on 331 days, but maybe they changed that for the OT scenarios... Either way if you don't like the cash tix price you could ask them to refund your reward, or you could keep the reward and hope that the cash prices come down later. If not, then pay the �30pp admin fee if need be to change the reward..