Can't use Virgin Flyer Visa to pay for flight changes at GCC.

[samas]

I just called up the Virgin Contact Centre to change a work booked Saver flight to a Flexi (so that I can then do a points upgrade to business)

They wouldn't allow me to pay the fare difference using my personal Virgin Flyer Visa Card, they said they can only use that payment type when booking TWO41 deals.
I queried but didn't understand why it wouldn't work. It's still a VISA card that's accepted at billions of places worldwide..

I ended up paying for the change fee on my Velocity Amex instead.
On the plus side they only charged me the fare difference and not the change fee so I can't complain.

Wonder if that's another sabre bug.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

They wouldn't allow me to pay the fare difference using my personal Virgin Flyer Visa Card, they said they can only use that payment type when booking TWO41 deals.

Sounds bizarre! Was the AMEX a company card? The same company that purchased the original fare?

 

[samas]

The Amex is my personal card too. Original payment was on a corporate Visa card.
After providing about the first 12 digits of the Virgin Flyer VISA was when she piped up saying "oh is this a virgin flyer"

 

[serfty]

Reads like an agent retraining opportunity.

Where on earth do people get such ideas? I can only conject this agent had some issues with the same card type of another customer, put two and two together and came up with 4000.

I would have asked to speak to a supervisor, if nothing else because of lost velocity points.

Did the agent even try to put it through?

 

[pshepvic]

What a load of nonsense! I've used my Virgin Visa to pay for flights plenty of times before, including over the phone.

 

[JetSetting88]

Yep i've also been able to purchase flights and pay for changes/upgrades over the phone with Virgin Flyer VISA.

 

[samas]

I would have asked to speak to a supervisor, if nothing else because of lost velocity points.

Did the agent even try to put it through?

I was actually over the $1,500 per month so my points were down to 0.5pts/$ on the Flyer and using the Velocity Amex I actually got 1.5pts/$. [I'm a new Virgin Flyer Visa Card holder so just need to make sure I spend $6,000 in the first three months so I was putting all my spending on it till I get to the $6k to then get my 20,000points bonus.]

I didn't worry about escalating it as the price was much less than expected. I didn't know how to figure out what price work had paid for my Saver, but going on the fares available on the website yesterday it looked like around $100 fair difference, $80 saver change fee, $35 GCC fee = $215. To upgrade me to a flexi on the phone yesterday only cost $60 fare difference and no change fee or GCC fee. I'm not sure if these were waived because the operator told me I could do it online and I said I couldn't because of this error message: "Your booking contains a fare that does not permit online modification. Please contact us for more information. #00747"

At that point I was happy to just take the path of least resistance. If it happens again in the future I will escalate. The agent didn't even try to process payment. I tried giving the card number a second time and she still was able to determine it was a Virgin Flyer before she had all 16 digits.