Hi VFF (hope you had a good Christmas!)
We're flying PER-LAX return in Feb/March, and (thanks to this forum) were already aware of the new departure time for VA1. On Christmas Eve, I received a notification email of the time change, so went through the "Accept changes" process - after clicking through several pages, the acknowledgement was displayed that my acceptance of the time change had been successful, "if you want a copy of your updated itinerary, click here" sort of thing, so I thought that was that. This morning I received the following email from VA:
"We are sorry to have to advise of a change to your booked flight.
Dear Ms Jurahn,
Please contact us urgently so that we can discuss available options and book an alternative flight to your destination."
No other information in the email, just another line stating: "Please call us as soon as possible so that we can help find a suitable alternative for you." and some contact numbers.
So I'm thinking "what the ...??" and going into panic mode as this is our "dream trip", upgraded to J all the way, selected Row 5 on the international legs, accommodation, connecting flights etc in the US all booked and paid for based on our flight dates, so I'm thinking "oh cr*p, what changes have they made to our itinerary????". Jumped straight on the phone to the 1800 number provided, which seemed to take me through to the main (OS) GCC. The agent I spoke to looked at our booking and asked whether I had a problem with the time change. I said no, that I had already accepted it, and that I had received another email saying that I had to contact VA urgently to book an alternative flight. She said she would put me through to the flight change team, and I was on hold for some time (understandable on Boxing Day), then the premium desk picked up. After putting me back on hold whilst checking out what was happening, the (ever pleasant, as always) person on the premium desk said that the only change she could see was the time change for VA1 - she ran through the itinerary and all other flight details and times were the same as originally booked. She said the only thing she could think had happened was that my acceptance of the time change somehow wasn't registered and that triggered the system to send another email - but why would I receive one asking me to contact them about booking an alternative flight??
So was this somehow a glitch in the system that resulted in the second email being sent? I don't know if this was a one-off, but if it's happened to other people, then maybe it's something that needs to be looked into. It certainly caused quite some concern at our end (as it probably would for any pax receiving that email), as well as creating unnecessary call traffic for the GCC and premium desk. Although the updated itinerary appears to show all the flights as originally booked (except for the VA1 time change, of course), I'm now worried (probably unnecessarily, I know, but I'm a stress-head LOL) that there's some other change that's been made that's for some reason isn't showing up on the system, especially as the staff member on the premium desk advised me to check the booking again in a couple of weeks to make sure all was OK.
We're flying PER-LAX return in Feb/March, and (thanks to this forum) were already aware of the new departure time for VA1. On Christmas Eve, I received a notification email of the time change, so went through the "Accept changes" process - after clicking through several pages, the acknowledgement was displayed that my acceptance of the time change had been successful, "if you want a copy of your updated itinerary, click here" sort of thing, so I thought that was that. This morning I received the following email from VA:
"We are sorry to have to advise of a change to your booked flight.
Dear Ms Jurahn,
Please contact us urgently so that we can discuss available options and book an alternative flight to your destination."
No other information in the email, just another line stating: "Please call us as soon as possible so that we can help find a suitable alternative for you." and some contact numbers.
So I'm thinking "what the ...??" and going into panic mode as this is our "dream trip", upgraded to J all the way, selected Row 5 on the international legs, accommodation, connecting flights etc in the US all booked and paid for based on our flight dates, so I'm thinking "oh cr*p, what changes have they made to our itinerary????". Jumped straight on the phone to the 1800 number provided, which seemed to take me through to the main (OS) GCC. The agent I spoke to looked at our booking and asked whether I had a problem with the time change. I said no, that I had already accepted it, and that I had received another email saying that I had to contact VA urgently to book an alternative flight. She said she would put me through to the flight change team, and I was on hold for some time (understandable on Boxing Day), then the premium desk picked up. After putting me back on hold whilst checking out what was happening, the (ever pleasant, as always) person on the premium desk said that the only change she could see was the time change for VA1 - she ran through the itinerary and all other flight details and times were the same as originally booked. She said the only thing she could think had happened was that my acceptance of the time change somehow wasn't registered and that triggered the system to send another email - but why would I receive one asking me to contact them about booking an alternative flight??
So was this somehow a glitch in the system that resulted in the second email being sent? I don't know if this was a one-off, but if it's happened to other people, then maybe it's something that needs to be looked into. It certainly caused quite some concern at our end (as it probably would for any pax receiving that email), as well as creating unnecessary call traffic for the GCC and premium desk. Although the updated itinerary appears to show all the flights as originally booked (except for the VA1 time change, of course), I'm now worried (probably unnecessarily, I know, but I'm a stress-head LOL) that there's some other change that's been made that's for some reason isn't showing up on the system, especially as the staff member on the premium desk advised me to check the booking again in a couple of weeks to make sure all was OK.
