Booked with virgin and want to move dates? Forget it

[the_em0hawk]

A sensible company would perhaps have clear guidance for these situations on their website. The scenarios outlined by different people in this thread are fairly obvious ones.
In times when an organisation's customer service team are swamped it is a standard strategy to post information on the website to cut down on calls.

I'll be looking at paying our balance to VH in Sept for a Dec trip. Unless they get their ≈≈≈≈ together before then I'll simply forfeit the deposit rather than risk loosing the balance. Our insurer has already told me that they won't cover anything Covid-19 related, despite us having booked before the first case in China. I'm arguing with them about that.

I do hope VH get their act together, else when I come to rebooking the trip I won't even consider them.

[thatdavieguy]

We're due to go on 29th May, asked about cancelling because of the indefinite FCO advisory, we got told we'd have to pay a 30% charge to cancel if we didnt want to wait the unspecified period of time it'll take virgin to cancel.

They're not handling this very well at all.

[lizzie145]

You cant fully compare virgin with tui, Tui is relatively small and therefore less passengers yo deal with. They only started their season recently whereas virgin are all year round.

If virgin or other airlines refund money for later in the year they wont have any money to refund those that should going soon.

Just looked at VA website and it allows you to put in a request to hold your ticket open

[Donaldfan]

Originally Posted by the_em0hawk

A sensible company would perhaps have clear guidance for these situations on their website. The scenarios outlined by different people in this thread are fairly obvious ones.
In times when an organisation's customer service team are swamped it is a standard strategy to post information on the website to cut down on calls.

I'll be looking at paying our balance to VH in Sept for a Dec trip. Unless they get their ≈≈≈≈ together before then I'll simply forfeit the deposit rather than risk loosing the balance. Our insurer has already told me that they won't cover anything Covid-19 related, despite us having booked before the first case in China. I'm arguing with them about that.

I do hope VH get their act together, else when I come to rebooking the trip I won't even consider them.

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Is there anything in your insurance policy about covering pandemics? A lot of policies exclude them unless an optional add on is purchased. When I took out my annual policy with Staysure last September I purchased an optional Travel Disruption Extension which covers pandemics. This was before CV was a twinkle in the world's eye. Staysure emailed me to say that I'm covered. I didn't ask them, I assume they emailed all their customers.

[Rks10]

We are due to pay balance in less than two weeks and want to cancel, we have only paid deposit, however due to medical reasons we cannot risk going this year with corona and just want to cancel. However there seems to be no way to cancel currently..we are happy to lose the deposit as our health comes first. However just wanted to know what would happen if we didn't pay off the balance, would we just lose the deposit or would they attempt to take it off the card we paid with. After balance is due, cancellation goes to deposit+ 30% so would we then be forced to pay 30% as well? or would they just cancel with taking the deposit

[Siberiananya]

And this is the problem they cannot just prioritise people travelling with in the next 72 hrs. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to suck it and see with the deposit deadlines looming.
I no longer have insurance cover for respiratory illnesses if we choose to go on holiday during a respiratory illness outbreak. I can not take the risk of travelling without adequate insurance cover and therefore i wish to cancel my holiday, loose my deposit and be refunded all monies paid so far. It is stated in the terms and conditions of booking that this is and option and is not breaking contract as is so frequently thrown about. I have cancelled I want my money back, i am prepared to loose my £725 deposit. Having already paid 95% of the total holiday I am not prepared to loose any more than the £725 deposit because they are refusing to deal with us until the 72hrs mark. Neither are they prepared to provide any information on options for us other than your holiday is currently unaffected. It is not unaffected, my insurance company have said limitations apply as we are choosing to put ourselves in harms way by travelling. After over a week of sending whatsapp messages daily, text messages and over 30 hours on hold I have received an email stating my holiday is cancelled but no guidance on how or when my money will be returned. It is disgusting customer service. Those who are loosing their holidays imminently know they are due a refund/option to move their holiday. Us with holiday later in the year are expected to part with thousand of pounds on hope dreams and zero guidance.

[Rks10]

Exactly, just because its still maybe okay to go ahead doesnt mean that our personal circumstances haven't changed as i am sure alot of peoples have with job loses, insurance, and medical issues...we should still be within our right to cancel or even amend, but currently with no option to do so unless flying in 72 hours..in which by that time people would lose 100% of their cancellation fees! Can i ask what email address they sent you the cancellation from? Ive already sent a written cancellation notice from myself to their whatapp, but may have more luck over email. Its the only thing i can do at this time to prove i have requested to cancel before payment is due to avoid fees

[Princess Ariel]

Originally Posted by Rks10

Exactly, just because its still maybe okay to go ahead doesnt mean that our personal circumstances haven't changed as i am sure alot of peoples have with job loses, insurance, and medical issues...we should still be within our right to cancel or even amend, but currently with no option to do so unless flying in 72 hours..in which by that time people would lose 100% of their cancellation fees! Can i ask what email address they sent you the cancellation from? Ive already sent a written cancellation notice from myself to their whatapp, but may have more luck over email. Its the only thing i can do at this time to prove i have requested to cancel before payment is due to avoid fees

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You’ve done exactly the same thing as I have. I don’t think there is any other way at the moment. I too would appreciate an email address if possible?

[Siberiananya]

The email is the standard email on all of the correspondence i have received from Virgin Holidays - info@service.virginholidays.com

Good luck!

[Rks10]

Completely agree! The annoying thing is i held off contacting until sooner to keep the line free, but now im just over a week due to balance with ZERO way of contacting. All i want to do is let them know i want to cancel, could they not set up even a online form to do so