EY Flight be honoured if VA goes under?

[Travis Gandy]

Hi All,

I booked an EY flight (MEL-AUH-ATH) in September using my Velocity points if VA goes under is it likely I would lose those tickets? I have a number of points which I was looking to use today to book some SQ flights via Velocity, but is this going to be a waste if things go belly up? I've also got ~$600 locked up in my Travel Bank which I was hoping to use in a similar fashion (MEL-SIN)

 

[JeeJee]

It shouldn’t affect the velocity bookings if VA goes belly up. Velocity’s email last Tues confirms that velocity is setup separately and has safeguards to protect member’s value. If you have used velocity points, chances are Velocity would have already paid EY and therefore your ticket is safe.
Unfortunately can’t say the same for TB, if VA goes belly up.

 

[Nathant123]

Hard to say for certain but as others have mentioned on here already, if the airline itself ceases to exist by then, there will be no one left to pay for that ticket. They may honour it out of good will but I highly doubt it. What’s more likely is that current international travel restrictions won’t be lifted by September.

 

[Mattg]

This is a very good question. While some AFF members have speculated on the possible outcome, I am yet to see any solid evidence that the booking would or would not be honoured. It would depend, I suspect, on whether Velocity had already paid Etihad (or whichever partner is operating the flight) for the ticket. Without knowing how Velocity's internal processes work, it's hard to know for sure whether this normally happens at the time of making the booking or when the passenger flies.

FWIW, I wouldn't read too much into the email Velocity sent on Tuesday. It was designed to be reassuring but contained a bunch of corporate fluff that nobody really understands and could mean anything.

If somebody knows an accurate answer to this, I'd be very interested to hear.

 

[Zanzara]

If the booking has been ticketed, then hasn’t it been paid for? Any taxes and charges would have already been paid too. I’m in a similar situation but with DL instead.

I know from previous experience, when AN went belly up, some time ago now of course, airlines such as SQ, honoured bookings that had been ticketed - but none that were not. Even if the points had left the account and a booking was made they would NOT honour an unticketed booking.

This all assumes of course that VA partners such as EY and DL survive this too!

 

[Nathant123]

From what I read here I was under the assumption that a reward seat isn’t paid for until shortly before or on the day of departure. What are the penalties of cancelling a reward seat? Say Virgin pull through and you decide you want the points back. Possible?

 

[Zanzara]

From what I read here I was under the assumption that a reward seat isn’t paid for until shortly before or on the day of departure. What are the penalties of cancelling a reward seat? Say Virgin pull through and you decide you want the points back. Possible?

This is pure conjecture. It was reassuring to hear (in podcast #34) that when Velocity was established, the practice was and presumed to be the same, that VA purchased the flight from the airline operating the flight at the time of the redemption booking.

 

[hossein_au]

This is pure conjecture. It was reassuring to hear (in podcast #34) that when Velocity was established, the practice was and presumed to be the same, that VA purchased the flight from the airline operating the flight.

That may be, but the key point here is the timing of the purchase: is the purchase done at the time of "booking" the reward flight, or in the immediate few days prior to the flight?

 

[jakeseven7]

Unfortunately no one can answer this definitely for you.

There is a reasonable chance you would lose your reservation.