Cancelling [VA fare rules & COVID-19 uncertainty]

[serfty]

@Jurahn , "Freedom" fares generally only provide for a full refund to your travel bank - if you want the actual $$$ there is a fee. ($90?).

If you are on a full business fare using the J fare bucket then you should be able to obtain a refund to your original method of payment.

 

[SydneySwan]

Just checked my SYD - BNE - HND - BNE - SYD flights for May to see what options might be offered and the trip now shows as SYD - BNE return. The to / from Japan legs have evaporated.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Just checked my SYD - BNE - HND - BNE - SYD flights for May to see what options might be offered and the trip now shows as SYD - BNE return. The to / from Japan legs have evaporated.

Same for my MEL-BNE-HND

I'm sure they'll get to sorting it out in time, little point in calling at the moment anyway.

 

[SydneySwan]

Same for my MEL-BNE-HND

I'm sure they'll get to sorting it out in time, little point in calling at the moment anyway.

Agree - I wasn't planning on contacting them for another month or so as hopefully the options will be clearer by then.

 

[Harthagan]

If your fare permits a refund, you will get a refund.

That would normally be the case. But that means nothing right now. At the moment good luck even getting through to speak with an agent. And in the meantime the airline itself may or may not even be around much longer.

 

[Jurahn]

@Jurahn , "Freedom" fares generally only provide for a full refund to your travel bank - if you want the actual $$$ there is a fee. ($90?).

If you are on a full business fare using the J fare bucket then you should be able to obtain a refund to your original method of payment.

Yes, the return leg is on a full business fare, so "should" be able to get a refund - it just concerned me that all the information on the VA website and various comments I've read on other sites for people with fares that should be refundable, only indicates that Travel Bank credit is being offered. It may well be that my flights will be cancelled by VA anyway, as they will be winding back flights to/from Tassie from 23 March which appears to be in addition to the list of routes they've announced they're suspending from 1 April.

 

[serfty]

Just checked my SYD - BNE - HND - BNE - SYD flights for May to see what options might be offered and the trip now shows as SYD - BNE return. The to / from Japan legs have evaporated.

I had HND-//-MEL award flights booked for early June.

This morning I received an email regarding it:

---

An important message from Velocity Frequent Flyer regarding your Booking Reference:<PNR>

Dear <serfty>,

Virgin Australia announced the temporary suspension of international services from 30 March to 14 June 2020 and changes to domestic capacity in response to expanded government travel restrictions and increased impacts on travel demand from COVID-19.

We know times are tough right now, and we’re sorry that your travel plans have been impacted.

Given the service has been cancelled, we’ll be returning your Points to you. If your booking was a “Points plus Pay” booking, the “Pay” portion of your booking will be refunded to original form of payment and processed within 21 business days.
Our teams are very busy at the moment so please be patient and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

---

Note that "21 Business Days" is effectively one month.

 

[mickismick]

Got the same email as @serfty

VA has been doing the right thing at every step so far. It just takes time to effect these changes to policy in this very rapidly changing environment. If they make it out of this in one piece, they've really won my loyalty!

 

[aspro2]

It looks like today is "processing cancelled awards" day. This afternoon I got a similar email about a partner award which SQ cancelled some flights for a week ago.

 

[Pushka]

We tried cancelling a fully refundable Business class fare this week. We wanted a cash refund which is applicable with the fare we purchased. Could not speak to a human and the phone call hung up. Numerous times. Messaged full details in Messenger. No response. Sent an email to the Urgent@ email address detailing we wanted a full cash refund and not Travel Bank. Messenger finally replied yesterday. Providing a link to apply to get the refund. Except that link went to a general feedback forum. Not helpful. But just now, four days later, received an email from Urgent@ which stated they'd just processed the refund to Travel Bank. And on that email trail was my specific instructions that as per the purchased fare, we wanted a cash refund to the credit card used for purchase.

Have lodged the dispute with American Express the day prior and have just added this latest email to the dispute.

Just let us cancel for full refund online as per the applicable fare rules would solve a lot of time.

 

[Jurahn]

We tried cancelling a fully refundable Business class fare this week. We wanted a cash refund which is applicable with the fare we purchased. Could not speak to a human and the phone call hung up. Numerous times. Messaged full details in Messenger. No response. Sent an email to the Urgent@ email address detailing we wanted a full cash refund and not Travel Bank. Messenger finally replied yesterday. Providing a link to apply to get the refund. Except that link went to a general feedback forum. Not helpful. But just now, four days later, received an email from Urgent@ which stated they'd just processed the refund to Travel Bank. And on that email trail was my specific instructions that as per the purchased fare, we wanted a cash refund to the credit card used for purchase.

Have lodged the dispute with American Express the day prior and have just added this latest email to the dispute.

Just let us cancel for full refund online as per the applicable fare rules would solve a lot of time.

This is exactly the sort of thing I’m concerned about with the refundable Business fare I have, everything coming from VA seems to indicate all funds are being sent to Travel Bank regardless. Hopefully by the time I need to cancel mine, they’ll have sorted out this type of issue.

 

[Pushka]

This is exactly the sort of thing I’m concerned about with the refundable Business fare I have, everything coming from VA seems to indicate all funds are being sent to Travel Bank regardless. Hopefully by the time I need to cancel mine, they’ll have sorted out this type of issue.

They can't do this as we cancelled before any of the airlines announced the new cancellation issues. I will ensure they don't get away with it. I have plenty of time on my hands now and everything has been documented in emails to and fro as well as on messenger.

 

[Jurahn]

They can't do this as we cancelled before any of the airlines announced the new cancellation issues. I will ensure they don't get away with it. I have plenty of time on my hands now and everything has been documented in emails to and fro as well as on messenger.

Good on you - will be interested to hear how long it takes to get this resolved and how much you’ll need to push to get it done.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I understand they have your money Pushka and it's not good enough, but they are under so much pressure at the moment - 100+ staff are answering queries who aren't used to doing it. While non-satisfactory responses are not acceptable at any time, I think eventually you will get your refund. The new staff probably are so used to travel bank credits they just made an honest mistake.

 

[Pushka]

I understand they have your money Pushka and it's not good enough, but they are under so much pressure at the moment - 100+ staff are answering queries who aren't used to doing it. While non-satisfactory responses are not acceptable at any time, I think eventually you will get your refund. The new staff probably are so used to travel bank credits they just made an honest mistake.

Sure. I understand. I’ll take that into account.

 

[Harthagan]

No it's not good enough but it's what is happening. They realise full well that it is not practical to get a travel bank, what everyone wants is a refund for their cancelled flights. Who knows when it is going to make sense to start flying again. In the mean time everyone is building up huge travel banks which will sadly not be worth the paper they are written on in a couple of months.

It wouldn't surprise me if they actually jack up prices if they make it through this mess because eventually all their regular customers will have massive travel banks they need to use up regardless of how high the fares are!

I'm not saying they are in an enviable position but as long as they are staying in business they should be processing proper refunds to ALL customers whose flights are cancelled and ALL customers who purchased refundable fares (regardless if cancelled or not.) If they claim they can't do that then they are trading insolvent.

 

[Pushka]

Our business went pffft last week. We aren’t messing with our clients who cancelled virtually the night before an 8.30 start next day. We didn’t charge penalties for work we couldn’t do the next day even though we were in transit to get there. Virgin and Qantas get their headlines. Small business may just go broke.

 

[Rubix]

Tough times ahead. I have lost so many flights since Feb. I had tournaments on China Tour starting in February with Hainan Airlines and still never saw a cent from them to this date. VA have cancelled a handful of my flights, nothing yet.

In all of this SQ I had one return flight BNE>SIN>MNL. Money came back to my account in about 3 business days.

I love VA, I want to see them pull through this but I think they are done.

 

[Matt_01]

Has anyone canceled SQ flights that were made with VA points. There seems to be no mention of this on the VA site and I would expected the points to come back and the fees taxes to be credited back to the original payment method and not the travel bank.

 

[Harthagan]

It seems passengers with award bookings have received refund emails about cancelled flights as late as June. I have flights that have been cancelled for April and May (all revenue fares) and still have not received a single email.

I'd be curious if anyone has received an email regarding a cancelled revenue fare for flights affected in April or beyond.