Velocity have messed up my Award Booking - HELP

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beast_man

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Tonight I made a redemption with Velocity for my partner from (City A) to (City B) on Etihad in First Class.

After the reservation was made, and call had ended, the itinerary was sent to my partner and we immediately noticed that the ticket was issued in my name (although my name was spelt incorrectly) and we contacted Velocity to have this rectified. Less than 30 minutes had passed from the time the reservation was made and the time I called them back.

I ended up speaking with the same agent who made the booking, who immediately apologised for his mistake (not a problem - these things happen). However, what he told me next is what has got me upset.

He would have to cancel the existing award ticket and reissue it. He believed that it was unlikely that the seat would be returned to their available inventory and so we would have to settle for the ticket being issued in Business Class. I said that I wasn't prepared to accept that as an outcome, directed him not to touch the booking and asked him to escalate to his superior. He checked with his superior, who it seems didn't want to talk to me, as he came back to me and said there was nothing that could be done.

I insisted on speaking to his superior, so he again asked to connect me and the supervisor relented and took the call. She wasn't prepared to accept that there was any alternative and insisted that I had no other option but to cancel this ticket and accept a ticket in Business Class as there was no inventory left in First Class all that day.

I asked her to connect me with her manager and she told me that there was no point, as there was nothing more that could be done. I asked to be connected to Premium Services (I am a WP) and she refused this as well. Again I insisted and she relented and connected me to her manager. Her words were "I'll connect you to my manager, but I need to set your expectations low as there is not another outcome available to you" (way to get my blood boiling!)

The manager was much more polite (thankfully) and she did check travel on alternative dates (none where available) and other routings (which I have rejected). To conclude she said she would investigate other options and come back to us tomorrow.

But I'm going out on a limb here and hoping that someone reading this will be able to point me in the right direction so that common sense can prevail.

A few caveats - I'm well aware that this is a FWP and some people will comment that I should just take the Business Class seat. But I haven't done anything wrong here and I don't see why I should be penalised for a mistake that I didn't make. If I didn't pick up the error straight away, again I would have to accept some responsibility for not checking the ticket was correct but that just isn't the case.

I also want to be clear that I understand completely that this poor guy made a mistake and I have reiterated to his superiors that I don't want any action or repurcussions for him as a result, but I simply want what I paid for!

FWIW - even if the ticket was for my travel, the agent spelt my name incorrectly so there is every likelihood that when I went to travel that I wouldn't be permitted travel as the name was not a match for my passport.

So ... I seek your advice, fellow AFFer's!
 
sorry cant help, but understand exactly where you are coming from, once they cancel the ticket doesnt it go straight back to be available again? thats what i was told last time. they stuffed up my award as well completely forgot to add a leg onto my travel after booking a reward that had a stop over. instead of charging me supervisor in charge actually just booked me the flight home at no cost and was very very reasonable as i was fully expecting to be charged for it (as to do the stop over was a higher fare) hope you get it sorted, your wife is very lucky!
 
Simple name change isn’t an option?

Or available as an Any Seat redemption? If so, I would be requesting Velocity to cover the excessive points difference.
 
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According to the following document, they had the option of contacting the carrier to request a change: Virgin Australia Name Correction Policy

Virgin Australia Name Correction Policy said:
If there are Other Airlines in the PNR on a ticket stock other than Virgin Australia (VA-795), it is the agent’s
responsibility to advise Virgin Australia of this. The agent needs to get approval from the Other Airline to
amend the name in the same PNR. If approval is not obtained from the Other Airline then the following will
apply:
1. The agent may have to cancel the original PNR and use the value of the unused ticket towards a new PNR
reflecting the correct name, subject to current fare availability in the GDS. Any reissue fee, fare increase, or
tax difference will apply and needs to be paid at the time of reissuance of the new PNR.
In this case, "Velocity" is the Agent.
 
How much of an error is it? Ie - how wrong is the spelling? One or two letters is generally possible to change, larger errors often not.

But if you spelt your name correctly to the person making the booking, and they didn't book it correctly, then it is VAs problem to fix regardless of whether there are seats left.

It is quite possible if VA cancelled your seat that it would reappear as a redemption seat. And then they'd be able to grab it again. Never a guarantee, but relatively likely this close to the original booking date.
 
How much of an error is it? Ie - how wrong is the spelling? One or two letters is generally possible to change, larger errors often not.

But if you spelt your name correctly to the person making the booking, and they didn't book it correctly, then it is VAs problem to fix regardless of whether there are seats left.

It is quite possible if VA cancelled your seat that it would reappear as a redemption seat. And then they'd be able to grab it again. Never a guarantee, but relatively likely this close to the original booking date.
It sounds like the ticket was booked for the OP rather than their partner.
 
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It sounds like the ticket was booked for the OP rather than their partner.

Ah yes. So it is. In that case, it's a matter of whether the name of the booking was clearly stated/confirmed, and if it was, then VA has to sort it out and honor it. Good luck. Hopefully they have kept the call recording. I often find airlines seem to lose them, or there was a fault in their system and it didn't get recorded - very convenient for them in scenarios like this.
 
Don't Velocity outsource the booking of 'telephoned in and requested' reward flights for overseas, non VA flights to somewhere in the Phillipines? Service can be pretty naff as they are a third party and probably have little control of things and aren't empowered or don't want to do anything or go the extra mile (excuse the ff pun here). Nevertheless, I am not trying to make light of this as if what has transpired is true it's dreadful customer service IMHO.
 
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Sorry I haven’t updated - so far, not much to update.

Velocity have referred this to Etihad who declined to make any changes to the booking. I refused this so now it has been escalated again back to Etihad (presumably to someone more senior).

If anyone here has contacts in either Virgin or Etihad that you would be happy to share with me (or I can PM you my details to pass on) as this doesn’t look like it will end well if things continue on the current trajectory.

Thanks AFF’er’s!
 
This is a dreadful scenario and I feel awful for you. I just checked the Etihad website and it would appear that they are completely non-negotiable on the subject of name changes, although they do offer a courtesy "name correction" policy. Which is ridiculous, when you consider a 3rd party (Velocity) is responsible for the PNR oversight.

I am in agreement with @serfty - in that you have no recourse except through Velocity. And unless you can prove beyond doubt that the PNR error was their fault - I would prepare for the worst case outcome. Which would be a sad lesson for everyone here, to be 100% satisfied that the information being confirmed over the phone is 100% correct.

Best of luck, and do let us know if things work out.
 
Velocity have referred this to Etihad who declined to make any changes to the booking. I refused this so now it has been escalated again back to Etihad (presumably to someone more senior).
How soon is the travel?

If you cannot get any success, maybe look here:
 
So, I received a follow up call from Velocity tonight and I was indeed prepared for the worst (especially when in a previous call they advised that they would put a J class seat on hold).

Anyhow, my jaw fell to the floor when she advised that they would indeed be able to ensure a seat in F to LHR.

Ultimately, they still did not change the name. They cancelled my existing booking, refunded the taxes and rebooked. As a bonus, the taxes were $3 cheaper!

Before cancelling, I confirmed that there would be no issue in booking the new seat, and she confirmed that Etihad had released an additional seat to the inventory for this purpose.

So a very round-about way of getting there, but we got there in the end! Travel is in 5 weeks and the better half's first time in the Apartment. Bring it on!

Thanks for all the messages of support - really felt the AFF love!
 
WOW - that is fantastic to hear! What a great story - and such a relief for you and Ms beast_man.

Pleeeease write us a trip report with lots of photos, as the EY Apartments are a Holy Grail for many people - it would be a fun read I'm sure.

Happy travels :D
 
This is exactly why I always ask them to spell names in military style before paying when dealing with an overseas call centre.
 
Terrible experience, if Velocity can treat its WP customer like this, no wonder VA could not generate any profit in last couple of years, and the gap between VA and QF is getting bigger and bigger.
 
Terrible experience, if Velocity can treat its WP customer like this, no wonder VA could not generate any profit in last couple of years, and the gap between VA and QF is getting bigger and bigger.

Are we sure this scenario couldn't happen at QF? Say for example if they were booking a seat for someone on QR, and the person making the booking at the call centre made a similar error?
 
Are we sure this scenario couldn't happen at QF? Say for example if they were booking a seat for someone on QR, and the person making the booking at the call centre made a similar error?

Happened to me once, but in the second phone call, the issue got solved perfectly. I have no status with QF, calling its customer service line could be painful, so I always use the call back service, the longest waiting time so far is 1 hour and 40 mins.
 
Happened to me once, but in the second phone call, the issue got solved perfectly. I have no status with QF, calling its customer service line could be painful, so I always use the call back service, the longest waiting time so far is 1 hour and 40 mins.

Actually I think I'll retract my original comment. No way it could happen at Qantas. They have long lead times for ticketing some types of award tickets, so could easily correct before ticketing. ( the potential flipside problem is that the partner cancels the ticket before it is ticketed!).
 
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