Virgin Atlantic promo offer if you don't cancel & instead accept a voucher?

[oceanscape]

Hi everyone, so looks like our September trip won't be going ahead due to the Travel Ban even though Virgin haven't cancelled our flights yet (LAX, not MCO).

We have Upper Class Reward Flights booked and I used the WhatsApp service to text Virgin to cancel them (I know I will have to pay the £35/each cancellation fee given the flights are not cancelled). The taxes were about £600pp each so not an insubstantial refund due.

Virgin replied telling me that if I opt for "travel voucher" to use by 30 April 2023 (instead of a refund of the miles + taxes) then they will give me one of the following:

• Upgrade Reward
• Companion Reward
• Clubhouse invite

I then replied to the WhatsApp asking what the upgrade and companion rewards are, what are the Ts&Cs etc. but whilst I was typing the message I got the infuriating auto-response telling me "as we haven't heard from you we are saying goodbye" (they gave me less than 2 hours to respond, even though they took 3 days to reply to me!).

So I thought I'd save some time and ask you guys if this is too good to be true or if it is worth us accepting the vouchers and getting the reward benefits. Does the companion reward mean that in the future I can buy one flight and then get another flight for free (only paying taxes)? But do you have to buy a "full price" fare or something or can you genuinely just buy any ticket?

Any thoughts/advice appreciated!

[loldis]

Personally I would take the refund. I don't think I ever used my rewards when I was a FC member, they never seemed to be valid for what I wanted to do. Others may have better experiences with them.

But particularly now, I'm not loyal to any particular airline. I like having the flexibility to choose between them depending on routing/pricing for that particuar trip. And I'd rather the money sitting in my bank than Virgin's at the moment.

[Jakey Neverland]

I cannot help but I get your frustration, they replied to me just before 4am and closes the chat an hour later. To say I was cross is an understatement, I now start my messages with please do not close chat until I have responded which seemed to work.

[toots82]

Not a reward flight but we did get the same offer when previous flights were cancelled. We went for the upgrade vouchers. We got 1 each valid for a return flight (could be split into one way if you wanted so because 4 of us, could be 8 x 1 way) it upgrades you 1 class from your cash fare we were told so not sure how it works on reward flights. We booked PE cash fares and upgraded to UC, can only be used if theres reward seats available in your chosen cabin on your flight if that makes sense.

[cornishfrogboy]

I would take the money in order to have a full selection of competitors for my money when it comes to rebooking.

A quick look at comparison prices for Orlando in Easter Holidays next year shows how Virgin and others are trying to devalue the Credit notes taken by genuine individuals who wanted to help them by taking the notes, when many were in fact entitled to a full refund.
It was strange how, whilst they had nobody trained or available to do refunds in less than 120 days, they had people available within minutes to process a credit note instead… remarkable, in fact.

Of course a ‘travel voucher’ redemption is dependent on the continued existence of the airline and these are very uncertain times, particularly for an airline dependent on transatlantic travel.