Virgin Atlantic revised terms for postponing flights

[MichelinMan]

Looks like Virgin just amended their policy for re-booking flights now. This will make it much easier for people to postpone until 2021 now, which I'm thinking of doing. From the Virgin website:

When you’re ready to rebook, we’re here for you
We understand that the ever-changing travel restrictions may make you unsure about what date to change your ticket to, so we’ve got this covered. You may even decide to change your destination, and that’s ok too.
If you're unsure of your new travel dates, we’ll keep your ticket open until you’re ready to rebook.
You'll just need to make sure you rebook and travel by the 31st May 2022. There's no charge to do this but your new flights will be subject to availability and any fare difference.
This process is for only for bookings made directly with Virgin Atlantic. If you’ve booked through Virgin Holidays, or through another website or travel agent, please contact them for your options.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Better but still not as good as a refund. If schedules are not reinstated, presumably prices will increase so credit notes will not reflect a true value. I wonder if BA will follow suit.

 

[schumigirl]

Looks like Virgin just amended their policy for re-booking flights now. This will make it much easier for people to postpone until 2021 now, which I'm thinking of doing. From the Virgin website:

When you’re ready to rebook, we’re here for you
We understand that the ever-changing travel restrictions may make you unsure about what date to change your ticket to, so we’ve got this covered. You may even decide to change your destination, and that’s ok too.
If you're unsure of your new travel dates, we’ll keep your ticket open until you’re ready to rebook.
You'll just need to make sure you rebook and travel by the 31st May 2022. There's no charge to do this but your new flights will be subject to availability and any fare difference.
This process is for only for bookings made directly with Virgin Atlantic. If you’ve booked through Virgin Holidays, or through another website or travel agent, please contact them for your options.

They sent that out in an email a few days ago to us. It suits us down to the ground to rebook for next May when the flights are released. And today we got an email saying our flight has indeed been cancelled which we knew of course. We were due to fly May 4th.

We weren’t looking for a refund, but a friend of ours got fully refunded by Virgin as she can’t go in the next two years due to kids in University and work commitments from her and her husband. They didn’t immediately offer a refund.

Her flight had been cancelled by them too.

 

[MichelinMan]

Better but still not as good as a refund. If schedules are not reinstated, presumably prices will increase so credit notes will not reflect a true value. I wonder if BA will follow suit.

It does give me more peace of mind though. I had visions of flights re-starting, but the parks not being fully open, and that would have been very tricky to work around. We can only really go in the summer, so being able to re-book in a year gives so much more flexibility. Think I will leave it until near when I have to pay my full balance in May before deciding whether to postpone - we might have some firmer news by then. But I'm now 90% decided that we will re-book for next year now.

 

[Spanish Buzz]

Our concern is: at what cost? The key line in the email is “subject to any fare difference.”
we got the same email. I would love to postpone till next year but worry that the fare increase could double the original cost. A refund would be preferable for us.

 

[LawrenceFamily]

Yes, that's all well and good until they put prices up by £500 per flight - much prefer a refund.

We cancelled our reward flight and have been promised that we should get a refund within 90 days! We had to pay £30 each to cancel but I thought it worth it and get the money back rather than be tied to Virgin for our next flight

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Yes, that's all well and good until they put prices up by £500 per flight - much prefer a refund.

This is my fear.

 

[MichelinMan]

Our concern is: at what cost? The key line in the email is “subject to any fare difference.”
we got the same email. I would love to postpone till next year but worry that the fare increase could double the original cost. A refund would be preferable for us.

I'm not sure that prices next year will be any dearer. With the massive drop in the oil price, fuel - which is the airlines biggest variable cost - is going to be a lot cheaper for the forseeable future. Plus I can easily see APD being either reduced or abolished completely to help out the airlines. We might even find that flights next year are cheaper. But who knows. All I know is that now I can postpone my holiday until next year safe in the knowledge I won't be at risk of losing £2,000 of flights.

Only problem now is that my resort - Coronado Springs - isn't available for the dates I want next year at the moment. So currently trying to make a decision between POFQ, the Dolphin, POP or AoA. Think I might just go for the Dolphin, then if free dining comes out, re-examine my options (and who knows, CS might just beome available again). Luckily I booked through Attraction Tickets Direct, and they allow you up to 2 changes without getting charged an admin fee to change hotel bookings.