Virgin Cancels flight

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aupirate

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My wife and I are traveling to CNS in November on a Thursday returning the following Monday night on the 9.30 pm flight. This was great as I have work to do and will be returning from Cooktown on the Monday. That is until Virgin cancelled the flight and rebooked us on the 4.30 pm departure. This won`t leave me time to get my work completed, therefore I suggested to the call centre that we travel a day earlier on the Wednesday and return on the 4.30 pm flight on the Monday. Yip no problem, but you will have to pay the fare difference, is the answer, I objected and was put on hold. Supervisor says have to pay, they will change my Monday flight to a Tuesday no charge but not at the other end. Anyway result is now I`m returning on the Tuesday, cop a nights accommodation and lose most of Tuesday to the flight as we have a commitment in the early evening in BNE. Needless to say I`m not happy, I know they are within their rights to cancel a flight but this lack of flexibility makes me question my loyalty. Does anyone think I should call them back and have a whinge or just cop it?
 
I'm surprised they wouldn't do it (although I'm not a VA flyer) as I've asked to move flights by one day sometimes on the cheap fare and had no difficulty or cost, but wasn't Virgin.

I'd put it in writing, but you don't have much time.
 
If you take this further you will need to say exactly what alternatives were offered to you and why they weren't acceptable, it sounds like you eventually accepted further alternatives offered to you but these result in an extra nights acomodation, but no extra fare difference payable to VA. Is this correct? I assume your original booking was in a cabin and class that was not refundable or had change fees?

I know its easy to get caught out by airlines cancelling flights but from what I have learnt from reading these threads is don't accept the alternatives offered until you know exactly what alternative flights you want to be on and what is reasonable/acceptable to you, you can't do this until you are in front of a computer and able to make some informed choices, and then run through the alternatives that suit you and reject all pressure for any fare differences of extra fees.

After all - its VA that cancelled the original flight so its their decision and their problem to offer you a reasonable alternative. If they can't find you a reasonable alternative 2-4 weeks in advance then I would have questions about what their motives are for the original cancellation.

I would never accept cancellations if the airline is still trying to sell the flight online.

Sounds like you accepted the changes that incurred no further cost to you from VA but did result in an extra nights accomodation.
 
If you take this further you will need to say exactly what alternatives were offered to you and why they weren't acceptable, it sounds like you eventually accepted further alternatives offered to you but these result in an extra nights acomodation, but no extra fare difference payable to VA. Is this correct? I assume your original booking was in a cabin and class that was not refundable or had change fees?

I know its easy to get caught out by airlines cancelling flights but from what I have learnt from reading these threads is don't accept the alternatives offered until you know exactly what alternative flights you want to be on and what is reasonable/acceptable to you, you can't do this until you are in front of a computer and able to make some informed choices, and then run through the alternatives that suit you and reject all pressure for any fare differences of extra fees.

After all - its VA that cancelled the original flight so its their decision and their problem to offer you a reasonable alternative. If they can't find you a reasonable alternative 2-4 weeks in advance then I would have questions about what their motives are for the original cancellation.

I would never accept cancellations if the airline is still trying to sell the flight online.

Sounds like you accepted the changes that incurred no further cost to you from VA but did result in an extra nights accomodation.

Yes eastwest, you have summed it up in your last line. The alternative offered cut 5 hrs off my day on Monday and I have chosen to stay a day longer to complete what I need to do. At the end of the day I would have had to pay for another night at the start of the trip anyway if I flew a day earlier. I usually find VA very accommodating especially with fly forward checkins etc. On this occasion at no cost or very little cost to VA I would have been on this forum spruiking what a wonderful experience I just had with VA and how they went the extra mile to accommodate my wishes when they made an operational change.
 
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I do not think this is an acceptable compromise from Virgin. And you are also a Platinum?

Qantas have changed flights on me by an hour and i have been able to cancel/re-book to flights that suit me without charge.

What scares me is I have a booking with Virgin starting next week covering 7 flights up until December. I did not want it booked this way but the person on the phone said no problem we will take care of you (only Virgin Gold) if something goes wrong and you need to change any of your flights.

So your experience worries me slightly.
 
I do not think this is an acceptable compromise from Virgin. And you are also a Platinum?

Qantas have changed flights on me by an hour and i have been able to cancel/re-book to flights that suit me without charge.

What scares me is I have a booking with Virgin starting next week covering 7 flights up until December. I did not want it booked this way but the person on the phone said no problem we will take care of you (only Virgin Gold) if something goes wrong and you need to change any of your flights.

So your experience worries me slightly.
Yes a WP, they rebooked a flight 5 hrs earlier which didn`t suit me so I took flights the next day after being refused my other option of a flight change at the beginning of the trip. TBH this is the first time I`ve been messed around by VA and on the whole they are pretty good. I guess I could have made more fuss and insisted on what I wanted which may or may not have worked out. Whilst VA gold I can`t complain of the service received so I don`t think you will have too many problems. I take around 100 flights on VA domestic a year and this is the first cancelled flight. I did have an interesting experience landing in Mildura in fog one morning however I`m not sure this was VA`s fault, more a weather aberration.
 
So your experience worries me slightly.

Don't lose sleep JonhK. I've taken hundreds of VA flights over the last few years and only two have been changed by VA. One didn't have much of an effect (actually meant a sleep in for me) and the other was successfully renegotiated as a nice SC win for me (PER-OOLxMEL in lieu of PER-OOL).

Out of all VAs problems, cancelled flights are pretty low on the list ;).
 
aupirate,


My suggestion is that you send a PM to the VA rep on the forum. He is normally very good at sorting these things out.
 
aupirate,


My suggestion is that you send a PM to the VA rep on the forum. He is normally very good at sorting these things out.

Thanks straitman TBH I`ve rearranged our schedule to suit. However a lost opportunity for VA to give great customer service to a loyal customer. This week I will probably have at least 3 flights, the week after 2 and so on. I really must start to fly QF and earn some status!
 
Don't lose sleep JonhK. I've taken hundreds of VA flights over the last few years and only two have been changed by VA. One didn't have much of an effect ....
Out of all VAs problems, cancelled flights are pretty low on the list ;).

I can agree with those sentiments - I reckon I fly about 40-50 VA flights a year and over the last few years I have only had 1 major re-routing after an aircraft went tech and ended up being being only an hour or two late to my destination, and apart from that all the minor delays have been weather or BNE & SYD congestion. So - as much as I moan about their web sites their OTP has been good (for me). YMMV :cool:

Take straitmans advice and PM the official rep Velocity Frequent Flyer - they may be able to pass feed on to improve their performance in the future.
 
Don't lose sleep JonhK. I've taken hundreds of VA flights over the last few years and only two have been changed by VA. One didn't have much of an effect (actually meant a sleep in for me) and the other was successfully renegotiated as a nice SC win for me (PER-OOLxMEL in lieu of PER-OOL).

Out of all VAs problems, cancelled flights are pretty low on the list ;).
I was more concerned with the treatment aupirate received by customer care.

My experiences vary greatly from a lot of frequent flyers on this forum. Delays. Cancellations. Seat changes without explanation. Off-loads. Etc.
 
My experiences vary greatly from a lot of frequent flyers on this forum.

So go by your experiences! My experiences vary greatly from a lot of frequent flyers on this forum also, and although I enjoy a good whinge, mostly with VA I whinge about minor issues (frequent, minor, IRRITATING issues).

Delays, cancellations, seat changes without explanation and off loads......well let's analize.....delays, yes usually due to BNE and SYD or weather factors. As much as I'd love to blame VA, I honestly can't. Cancellations...twice in hundreds of flights. Seat changes.....never yet. Off loads....never yet (except on AA).

VFF you owe me on this one, but for all these issues, I haven't experienced the problems spoken of (but I'm not saying they don't exist and haven't caused other AFFers grief, just that they aren't common IMHO).
 
VFF you owe me on this one, but for all these issues, I haven't experienced the problems spoken of (but I'm not saying they don't exist and haven't caused other AFFers grief, just that they aren't common IMHO).

This - I am also yet to have these bad experiences.

The things that annoy me the most are - as Swanning_it says - the little things like incorrect departure boards, no explanation for plane delays, bad CSM for business on A 737... etc
 
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