VA Rapid Rebook

[flydoc]

VA Rapid Rebook- haven’t seen it advertised other than in the latest VFF email newsletter, but appears to be available to any pax affected by flight disruption, VFF or not.

Rapid Rebook: a self-service tool that let’s you view your revised flight details, choose an alternative flight within three days of your original flight, and if disrupted overnight, organise a hotel stay and meal voucher at the tap of a button.

Disruption information

Find essential information on managing booking disruptions with Virgin Australia. Access details on handling flight changes, cancellations, and other travel interruptions.

www.virginaustralia.com

Anyone used this service? What was your experience?

Mods: VA-specific but not VFF-specific; ?best forum, esp if experiences posted ongoing.

 

[RooFlyer]

Will be interesting to see how it works in the 'heat of the moment'.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I happened to speak to someone yesterday who used it. Said it was easy though they were bitter about losing their direct flight. I'm curious to see how it works, particularly the integration of accommodation and meals etc that was mentioned in the email.

And funnily enough my flight this morning was cancelled but as curious as I am, didn't want to wait for the rebook link to appear as I'm on a bit of a deadline...

 

[NM]

Mods: VA-specific but not VFF-specific; ?best forum, esp if experiences posted ongoing.

The Virgin Australia | Velocity forum is in the Airlines & their Loyalty programs forum, meaning it is the best place for airline-specific threads and is not only for loyalty programs. I have relocated this thread to the Virgin Australia | Velocity forum for best visibility for the content.

 

[trisreed]

Anyone used this service? What was your experience?

Looks like what I used in May (but may well not have been). Was automatically changed from an indirect to direct flight when one of the legs was cancelled. This was from SYD to PER and meant I got to leave an hour later but arrive home an hour sooner. A good 15 or so options and most were the same day. Didn't need to actually do anything on it (as they had already rebooked me on the 'best' option) but was very impressed with the ability to automatically change it (well, change it myself) if needs be (especially as I had to talk to someone at the gate last time this happened) and many options to do so.

 

[Harrison_133]

A good 15 or so options and most were the same day. Didn't need to actually do anything on it (as they had already rebooked me on the 'best' option) but was very impressed with the ability to automatically change it.

I used it last week to change to a later flight than the one I was automatically rebooked on. Worked a treat and the flight was changed in just a click of a button. Much easier than trying to fluff around with the call centre.

And for those wanting some extra status credits and are willing to accept an indirect routing, there are connecting options available through Rapid Rebook. If you “view other options” for a SYD-MEL cancellation, you can select SYD-CBR-MEL or SYD-LST-MEL routings for example.

 

[flydoc]

And on cue, a colleague got to experience this service today…

On the 20 min-delayed VA309 MEL-BNE this morning, with absolute MCT to VA1023. Latter was not held despite multiple connecting pax to ASP. Rapid re-book kicked in and offered…1 option: overnight accom in BNE; with sparrows departure BNE-ADL tomorrow morning to connect with VA1739.

 

[samas]

I used this back on March 30th - as soon as I saw this recent announcement I knew I had already used it.

This is what the email looks like below
I got the email and a simple text message at 0139 local time on the day of travel.
Text message at "Virgin Australia apologies for changes to your flight VA0717 to PER on 30 Mar. Click here for revised details: https://url"

I woke up about 0510 that morning and saw the messages.

I already had my HLO sorted and packed so I immediately got up/dressed and booked a ride to the airport and whilst heading down for my ride choose the 0620 ADL-MEL VA204 with connection 0915 MEL-PER VA679. I ended up arriving at my destination before my original booked flight would have even taken off from the orign.

Only possible how close/quick it is ADL CBD to airport.

In the Rush I wish I had taken some screenshots or screen recording.
There were excellent recovery options presented.
To me it seemed like just about any connection you could imagine was on there (as well as direct flights later days) - way more options presented than what you see on the booking site.

I had non-critical plans 7pm that night in Perth and critical plans the following night in Perth, otherwise I would have taken a longer detour and considered dropping in to Tasmania "on the way." Some of the connection options presented had overnight stays in other ports. I do not recall any mention of hotels at the time on the rebook site.