Virgin Changed Flight Time to Later and Cheaper Flight, Will Not Refund Difference

[Toffee Lady]

about 5 years ago I was on the afternoon flight with virgin and the family next to me had been bumped from the early morning flight and received £500 each for the inconvenience.! they said virgin told them they realised the inconvenience to them getting in late etc... (this was in Aug so it was very busy)

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by unidentified

It would make more sense for us, but not them. What they are doing makes perfect sense for them.

Let's say another 50 passengers are in your same position but just grumbled and didn't bother to complain or didn't even bother to check the price difference.

Virgin have then just pocketed 50x extra £200's.

A nice tidy profit for them and that's just for one flight.

Imagine they keep repeating this how much profit they make.

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I'm not sure what costs they still have to pay out while the cancelled plane sitting there with no passengers on it, but I do see that you've assumed the later flight operates at a profit, and the earlier one more profit. All airlines will make good money on some flights, and lose money on others, for all we know the later flights may be underpriced to try and grow the business. The flights they end up cancelling may be subsidised by the ones they charge more for. I guess as a summer passenger I subsidise passengers that get cheaper fares in winter. All airlines want their fares to be competitive in a marketplace where someone else will come along and swallow their passengers if they don't offer value. I don't think there is much room for them actively seeking to rip passengers off.

Thomas Cook a couple of years back were selling flights for the same price whether you were in one of their own planes or the crappy one they had on loan. They knew that they couldn't put all passengers on their own planes, but people were still getting charged the same price.

Thompson have been charging a fortune for people to travel on their dreamliners... a plane noted for it's efficiency and cheapness to run.

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

I have flown long haul to the States with Virgin Hols, Virgin Atlantic, TCD, Tui, Delta, Delta codeshare on Virgin flights and BA.

Fortunately, I have had no major snags or delays longer than a few hours. All were handled ok.

I am an avid reader of this and other forums. I read all issues with airline and package operators with interest.

I accept that complaint volume will increase roughly pro rata with pax carried and therefore Virgin, TC, TUI will generate more of them than the smaller operators.

It would seem that all operators have a certain dismissive, take it or leave it arrogance when dealing with 'issues'. On many occasions, the operators do things 'because they can', rather than doing what is right and fair.


On this occasion, fairness would seem to suggest that there should be a refund to reflect the difference in the value of seats on the 2x originally scheduled flights.

Good customer service would seem a thing of the past with most large companies, Virgin or otherwise. I would also agree with a previous poster that a great deal of financial damage can be done to a company by a very large and well supported forum such as this. Many regard Virgin as a 'premium' name in holidays, further threads such as this one can only progressively undermine their position as time passes. I have never understood why Virgin flights seem to command a premium over those of others . I much prefer dealing with Delta for flights in any case.

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That'll be Delta, an airline making money hand over fist at the moment.

See my previous post about Thomson and passengers paying over the odds to travel on a more efficient airplane !

[BrightlyBob]

Yes, thorpy, like you I've found it amusing that Thomson has been charging extra to fly its Dreamliner indicating the plane is a premium product while Norwegian has been using the planes economic advantages to cut prices to the bone and offer £99 transatlantic flights, suggesting the 787 is going to become the 737 (so beloved of Ryanair short-haul) of the long distances...