Virgin Atlantic pulling out of London Gatwick, looking to cut 3000 jobs

[atkinstogram]

I’m still waiting to hear from VA about flights. We booked bubble seats from LGW for September but haven’t heard anything from VA yet since the email saying that they were moving flights to LHR.
I thought they were supposed to be doing them in date order and yet people with November flights have been notified

We're in exactly the same situation - I whatsapped VA about it, and they said they're in the process of updating all the schedules, and that September flights should get updated in My Booking, and emails sent out, in mid June. Not sure what the logic is..

Interesting to see what they'll do. We specifically booked PE in the bubble instead of Upper because a) Upper is super tired on the 747 and b) we'd never flown in the bubble.

I'd love to think they'd move us to a 787-9 or an A350-x because the onboard product is quite nice on those, but I can just guarantee we'll end up on a BORING A330..

Not that we're guaranteed that we'd necessarily even be allowed to fly by then..

 

[Disney Frenhines]

I cancelled my VA tickets last night, expecting a refund before the end of next month, hopefully sooner. I've been looking at flying with BA and people are trying to guilt trip into not booking with them me because of the way they are treating their staff.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

I’m still waiting to hear from VA about flights. We booked bubble seats from LGW for September but haven’t heard anything from VA yet since the email saying that they were moving flights to LHR.
I thought they were supposed to be doing them in date order and yet people with November flights have been notified

I was booked for September and when they moved from Gatwick I was asked if I wanted to keep my ticket open, which I agreed to, but, I changed my mind and contacted them yesterday about cancelling and they agreed to a full refund, including the money paid for exit seats because they cancelled the flight. I would contact them directly to ask if they are going to be back at Gatwick by September. The fact that they readily agreed to refund me was a bit of a shock, they didn't say anything about flights returning to Gatwick. I hope they do return to Gatwick in September as I prefer to fly with them. I'm not booking any alternate flight just yet.

 

[alanandline]

I’m still waiting to hear from VA about flights. We booked bubble seats from LGW for September but haven’t heard anything from VA yet since the email saying that they were moving flights to LHR.
I thought they were supposed to be doing them in date order and yet people with November flights have been notified

I think the bubble has burst!
sorry could not resist when it came to me.

 

[WelshMorgan92]

I was booked for September and when they moved from Gatwick I was asked if I wanted to keep my ticket open, which I agreed to, but, I changed my mind and contacted them yesterday about cancelling and they agreed to a full refund, including the money paid for exit seats because they cancelled the flight. I would contact them directly to ask if they are going to be back at Gatwick by September. The fact that they readily agreed to refund me was a bit of a shock, they didn't say anything about flights returning to Gatwick. I hope they do return to Gatwick in September as I prefer to fly with them. I'm not booking any alternate flight just yet.

any luck with your refund? I'm still waiting on the money back for a cancelled flight in March to NYC

 

[Disney Frenhines]

As I paid with miles and money I expected to see my miles be refunded immediately as it has been done in the past, but, according to my account it hasn't, so I'm a bit concerned. I got the entire conversation as text messages on my phone as that is how I contacted them.
It may be that the flying club part has been down and it's still not been updated yet as I can find no record of the flight or the open ticket I replaced it with. I'm going to contact them, via text as that seems the easiest, to ask if I should be concerned that the miles, at least, haven't been refunded yet. It may be that they are snowed under with all the cancellations because if you agreed to an open ticket and your new flight is cheaper you don't get a refund of the difference and that is what made me decide to cancel rather than have the open ticket.
Anyway, I'll try and update as soon as I hear from them. I wasn't expecting it much before July anyway to be fair.

 

[WelshMorgan92]

As I paid with miles and money I expected to see my miles be refunded immediately as it has been done in the past, but, according to my account it hasn't, so I'm a bit concerned. I got the entire conversation as text messages on my phone as that is how I contacted them.
It may be that the flying club part has been down and it's still not been updated yet as I can find no record of the flight or the open ticket I replaced it with. I'm going to contact them, via text as that seems the easiest, to ask if I should be concerned that the miles, at least, haven't been refunded yet. It may be that they are snowed under with all the cancellations because if you agreed to an open ticket and your new flight is cheaper you don't get a refund of the difference and that is what made me decide to cancel rather than have the open ticket.
Anyway, I'll try and update as soon as I hear from them. I wasn't expecting it much before July anyway to be fair.

I did the same but I had the miles back within a couple of days but still no word on the refund, 84 days and counting! fingers crossed for you

 

[WelshMorgan92]

thank god for this thread! I had a flight booked from Gatwick for December so had my parking etc booked for Gatwick.. Just went on my virgin account to double check and the flight had been moved to LHR. I hadn't received any email from VA or Disney to let me know

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

VA have been sending out email today stating that they will start flying LHR to MCO from 20th July.

 

[Lucys dad]

VA have been sending out email today stating that they will start flying LHR to MCO from 20th July.

Further routes Re-opening to be announced over the next 2 weeks. I suspect they will include flights from Manchester and Glasgow. It will be interesting to see whether the quarantine period for arrivals in both the US and UK is about to be lifted and of course the current ‘non-essential travel’ I cant see why the flights would start unless they knew that was the case.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

VA have been sending out email today stating that they will start flying LHR to MCO from 20th July.
[/QUOTE
Apparently they are also restarting Gatwick

any luck with your refund? I'm still waiting on the money back for a cancelled flight in March to NYC

Took a couple of texts to get my miles refunded although I seem to have more than I thought I used up. Never mind. I'm okay to wait for my refund so long as I get it.
I can't find any info on Virgin restarting flights from Gatwick by the way.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Took a couple of texts to get my miles refunded although I seem to have more than I thought I used up. Never mind. I'm okay to wait for my refund so long as I get it.
I can't find any info on Virgin restarting flights from Gatwick by the way.

I looked yesterday and I could only find indirect flights with Virgin from Heathrow, partnered with Delta. Then checked with Delta and the dates were cheaper and had better terms and conditions. I ended up returning to BA as they have direct flights from Gatwick and the price was good for October.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

thank god for this thread! I had a flight booked from Gatwick for December so had my parking etc booked for Gatwick.. Just went on my virgin account to double check and the flight had been moved to LHR. I hadn't received any email from VA or Disney to let me know

I didn't get any info on that either. I can't remember how I found out. What I do know is that the flights to Orlando with a stop are cheaper than the one I had booked and one of the terms of the open ticket was you wouldn't pay more for you new flight, but, you wouldn't get a refund if it were cheaper, that made my mind up about getting a refund instead of the open ticket, although I expect an open ticket will mean you get priority if they do start LGW to MCO again.

 

[LunaMini]

My Virgin app still shows LGW-MCO (17th Sept) and MCO-LGW. I logged in online though and it says that there has been a scheduling change to my flights, although nothing appears to have changed other than we now don't have our allocated bubble seats. I popped onto a flight comparison site and it seems my LGW-MCO flights no longer exist but LHR-MCO does (which is what I was expecting to be changed to) The only seats available on said flight are Upper Class though (over £11,000!), everything else is sold out. Do people think Virgin currently have everything marked as sold out as they move people over from LGW flights? I'm seriously worried we won't get on that flight (smaller plane I believe?) and we have a cruise leaving the morning after we arrive, so we have to fly that day (or before, but not at our expense for an additional night in a hotel)

 

[atkinstogram]

My Virgin app still shows LGW-MCO (17th Sept) and MCO-LGW. I logged in online though and it says that there has been a scheduling change to my flights, although nothing appears to have changed other than we now don't have our allocated bubble seats. I popped onto a flight comparison site and it seems my LGW-MCO flights no longer exist but LHR-MCO does (which is what I was expecting to be changed to) The only seats available on said flight are Upper Class though (over £11,000!), everything else is sold out. Do people think Virgin currently have everything marked as sold out as they move people over from LGW flights? I'm seriously worried we won't get on that flight (smaller plane I believe?) and we have a cruise leaving the morning after we arrive, so we have to fly that day (or before, but not at our expense for an additional night in a hotel)

They're moving everyone over to LHR in date order at the moment. Looking at the V-Flyer website, they're currently up to flights leaving late July / early August. They're being moved onto A330-300s or 787-9s. Don't worry about them being smaller than the 747-400, there are a LOT of people who have moved their holidays to next year, or straight up cancelled. I don't think lack of capacity is going to be an issue.

Don't stress too much about it at the moment, there's just so little information to go on, you'd be basing it all on guesswork.

We are still planning on flying out on September 10th (originally on a 744 in PE in the bubble), so you'd assume that your flights will be updated a week after ours is. So I'll let you know when ours changes (my prediction is some time during w/c June 15th), and then you'll hopefully have a week or so to wait until yours is updated..

Edit to add:

So Virgin are clearly monitoring all my activities, took my carefully thought out maths and decided to make a liar out of me. My Sept 10th and 24th flights updated today to show LHR-MCO, on a 787-9, with the correct seat allocations and everything.. So maybe check in your booking to see if it's updated. If it's not, it should be within the week. So at least you'll know soon enough..

 

[LunaMini]

They're moving everyone over to LHR in date order at the moment. Looking at the V-Flyer website, they're currently up to flights leaving late July / early August. They're being moved onto A330-300s or 787-9s. Don't worry about them being smaller than the 747-400, there are a LOT of people who have moved their holidays to next year, or straight up cancelled. I don't think lack of capacity is going to be an issue.

Don't stress too much about it at the moment, there's just so little information to go on, you'd be basing it all on guesswork.

We are still planning on flying out on September 10th (originally on a 744 in PE in the bubble), so you'd assume that your flights will be updated a week after ours is. So I'll let you know when ours changes (my prediction is some time during w/c June 15th), and then you'll hopefully have a week or so to wait until yours is updated..

Edit to add:

So Virgin are clearly monitoring all my activities, took my carefully thought out maths and decided to make a liar out of me. My Sept 10th and 24th flights updated today to show LHR-MCO, on a 787-9, with the correct seat allocations and everything.. So maybe check in your booking to see if it's updated. If it's not, it should be within the week. So at least you'll know soon enough..

It has updated the the flight but is still showing my original seat allocation hopefully it’ll update soon. I can select exit row seats if I want them but I really don’t want to fork out for them if I can help it (I’ll consider it if they split us up as I know mum won’t be too happy sat by a complete stranger for 9 hours!)

 

[atkinstogram]

It has updated the the flight but is still showing my original seat allocation hopefully it’ll update soon. I can select exit row seats if I want them but I really don’t want to fork out for them if I can help it (I’ll consider it if they split us up as I know mum won’t be too happy sat by a complete stranger for 9 hours!)

One thing they will not be doing is splitting people up - that's one of the simplest ways of minimising risk..

That is, assuming they've had the same guidance/documentation/webinars/Powerpoints/etc from PHE that I have been enduring..

 

[Lucys dad]

I had a VA flight from Glasgow to Orlando for 2nd October, there is no sign of it being cancelled so I was surprised to get an email confirming I could move the flight without any amendment fee if I wanted and I would only have to pay any increase in the cost of the flight. Phoned up and got it moved to April 2021. Credit where its due, for me personally VA have been pretty good throughout this

 

[Minniesgal]

I had a VA flight from Glasgow to Orlando for 2nd October, there is no sign of it being cancelled so I was surprised to get an email confirming I could move the flight without any amendment fee if I wanted and I would only have to pay any increase in the cost of the flight. Phoned up and got it moved to April 2021. Credit where its due, for me personally VA have been pretty good throughout this

How did you phone them I can't get them to take a call as they are only speaking to people flying in 72 hours?