Virgin partner award points refund time

[Oubline]

Does anyone know how long Virgin takes to refund a partner award booking made with Velocity points? Do the points come back instantly or is there a delay?

I have an award from Australia to Europe on Etihad but need to change the destination, airline and routing. So I am looking to cancel and quickly rebook a new itinerary with the points.

Thank you for any experience.

 

[Nexus007]

I recently cancelled a few flights including Etihad and I got the points back within 24 hours. And refunds within 72 hours.

 

[AIRwin]

Points refund was instant when I cancelled a Reward booking on UA over the phone

 

[jag88]

Booked SQ and when cancelled, points refund instant and taxes back within 48 hours

 

[somebol]

I recently cancelled an EY award online and the points refund took a week

 

[BriarFlyer]

I recently cancelled an EY award online and the points refund took a week

I didn't know you could cancel partner awards online. I've always had to call and the points are redeposited, basically, while on the call.

Have just checked my current EY booking and see that you can "complete application" to cancel online. I guess that's the method that took a week? Good to know for future reference.

 

[Oubline]

Thank you everyone for your responses, it sounds like cancelling and rebooking by phone is the way to go!

 

[Auski]

Thank you everyone for your responses, it sounds like cancelling and rebooking by phone is the way to go!

Doesn't cancelling by phone cost extra points/$

 

[Oubline]

Doesn't cancelling by phone cost extra points/$

Yes, maybe but the idea is it might be quicker return of points over the phone.

If getting the points back quickly to book another award isn't an issue, cancelling online would probably be OK. I don't know from firsthand experience how long it would take to get the points back online.

 

[MELso]

Yes, maybe but the idea is it might be quicker return of points over the phone.

If getting the points back quickly to book another award isn't an issue, cancelling online would probably be OK. I don't know from firsthand experience how long it would take to get the points back online.

It can take a couple of days to get the points back online in my experience (until it's processed) while cancelling over the phone, you do get the points back instantly (and the taxes two or three days later).

It's worth noting that a change costs the same as a cancellation too. So if you have another booking in mind, you can get the operator to put it through for the same $60/7500 point fee

One final thing to note: if you cancel within 24 hours of booking, there's no fee charged IME. Just this very morning, I cancelled a CPH-DOH-ADL-MEL booking on QR J I made yesterday and rebooked the next day as CPH-DOH-MEL after I noticed the individual sectors were showing up but not a combined ticket as the CPH-DOH and DOH-MEL flights were on different days.

 

[ben95]

I used the web form to cancel a SQ rewards booking but don't recall putting in a selection on whether I want to pay the cancellation with points or money. Does anyone know what happens in that case and also whether its a better idea to pay the cancellation fee with points or money?

 

[gsta12]

I have a Qatar Award reservation coming up, which we might need to cancel last minute. I understand to get the points and taxes refunded (minus cancellation fee) we need to cancel at least 24 hours prior to departure.

My question is, if I do the cancellation online will it be time stamped that I have cancelled it for example 40 hours prior and does it automatically cancel instantly online? Or is it better to call up? I just think the day that I will have to will be a weekend, so I believe the VFF team is closed....

 

[im.daniel]

I have a Qatar Award reservation coming up, which we might need to cancel last minute. I understand to get the points and taxes refunded (minus cancellation fee) we need to cancel at least 24 hours prior to departure.

My question is, if I do the cancellation online will it be time stamped that I have cancelled it for example 40 hours prior and does it automatically cancel instantly online? Or is it better to call up? I just think the day that I will have to will be a weekend, so I believe the VFF team is closed....

I would personally call them up at least 24 hours before hand. Be mindful of the opening hours of the call centre.

I have booked and cancelled plenty of speculative partner redemptions on VA recently over the call centre. Points are re-deposited very quickly, and taxes shortly after. Complete antithesis to QF.

 

[ols]

Just cancelled PER-DOH Economy Reward for end of month over the phone.
Agent suggested up to 24 hours for the return of points but was immediate and have now booked First class redemption for five days earlier and now great excuse to go to Mykonos for five days before we head to France.
Brilliant

 

[ben95]

if I do the cancellation online will it be time stamped that I have cancelled it for example 40 hours prior and does it automatically cancel instantly online?

FWIW I tried the online form, the cancellation was instantaneous, the reservation was gone from my VA account and the SG PNR became invalid in the matters of minutes. The refund of points took 2 business days (separate redemption triggered for the 7500 points cancellation fee) and the surcharge/tax refund took another 2 business days to hit my credit card.

 

[ols]

Just cancelled PER-DOH Economy Reward for end of month over the phone.
Agent suggested up to 24 hours for the return of points but was immediate and have now booked First class redemption for five days earlier and now great excuse to go to Mykonos for five days before we head to France.
Brilliant

Forget to mention there was no $60 /7500 points cancellation fee. She did mention several times that it would be waived (Platinum maybe?) so ringing up is definitely the best way to do it.
Wasn't on the phone long.

 

[sevenfourtyseven]

I recently cancelled an award booking online, with the cancellation fee points only being deducted around 3 weeks later.

Following receipt of an email confirming the deduction, I contacted the call centre to ask if they could reverse the 7,500 point cancellation fee and reprocess it as the $60.

They agreed as a once off and took my card details and once the payment went through, the points were reversed immediately.

 

[beast_man]

My experience was rather different!

SQ flight from SIN to SYD.

I completed an online form (how efficient, I thought, how wrong, I was) and even checked the box to pay the taxes rather than deduct the points.

Three weeks pass ... I've received no email notification that my form was received, no notification that my flights were cancelled. No refund of points or taxes. But the booking was removed from "My trips" and the PNR no longer worked in "Manage my booking" so at least I knew it was cancelled.

So I called the Virgin Customer Service team (what an oxymoron). Was advised they don't send cancellation confirmation, but that he could cancel my booking there on the phone. I asked him if it was actually cancelled at that point and he said no??!!

The actual process was swift and points refunded instantly.

He then asked for my credit card to charge the cancellation fee ($60 per person). I asked him to deduct from the taxes that he was about to refund. Nope, can't do that.

So he charged my card $120 and then refunded the $600 ish. Oh, and they don't refund the credit card fee that you paid when you made the payment.

Then I asked for a receipt for the $120. He had to put me on hold for that one as it was - and I quote - "an unusual request".

Several minutes passed and he came back on the line ... they couldn't issue a receipt for the cancellation fee but they could send through a trip cancellation notification and that would show the cancellation fee ... would that be ok?

So they can't send through a notification of trip cancellation when they actually cancel the trip, and they can't send through a receipt / invoice for the cancellation fee, but they can send a trip cancellation notification instead of a receipt.

I swear the back end of Virgin makes Qantas look effective.