Virgin Australia Financially Secure? [Now in Voluntary Administration]

[AustraliaPoochie]

Not the Feds - me, a taxpayer like heaps of others...

Would they bring in another Airlines Users Levy?
Or a Covid19 recovery levy.

 

[melb78]

I am sure that VA will get a buyer as there is still a lot of money in VA not like Ansett. If it is true that Etihad is a potential buyer it will be different to what other airlines it had under it wings as there is no james hogan (mini JB) lol controlling the airline

 

[mooki24]

Agreed. If your flight hasn't been cancelled yet, chargeback seems reasonable. For those of us with credit card-booked flights, that were cancelled and converted to travel bank, I suspect the banks may say the transaction is complete, we're unsecured creditors and therefore we're stuffed

Hoping for some advice. I have a flight booked through Virgin mid-May, from Melb to Perth.

It was rescheduled twice but according to Virgin it's still going ahead (lol)

What should I be doing to organise a refund, should I go direct to AMEX?

 

[odysseus]

Wow, Virgin has $1.2 billion of customer ticket bookings which are now at risk. I assume much of that is held as travel credits.

Well, that's $1.2 billion of people's votes that will be remembering the government's inaction.

 

[mrmerc500]

What’s the chances of bookings being honoured if we use our travel credit now for new bookings on EY, DL, HA? See that SQ pulled all flights with couple of hours last night.

 

[cove]

Poor AFL footy players might have an issue getting to matches this year.
The Australian Government may have to pay the termination pays for the Virgin employees and that may be around $900 million. Lending $1.4 billion to a dead duck would not be sensible as the current shareholders were not prepared to put in any money. I doubt $1.4 billion would have been enough anyway..
A re-start without the huge loans and without all of the ugly rentals and ugly leases should be a help in getting a new player. Australia does need a second carrier.

 

[tomlee1986]

Poor AFL footy players might have an issue getting to matches this year.
The Australian Government may have to pay the termination pays for the Virgin employees and that may be around $900 million. Lending $1.4 billion to a dead duck would not be sensible as the current shareholders were not prepared to put in any money. I doubt $1.4 billion would have been enough anyway..
A re-start without the huge loans and without all of the ugly rentals and ugly leases should be a help in getting a new player. Australia does need a second carrier.

AFL chairman Richard Goyder I believe is also the Chairman of Qantas board

 

[RooFlyer]

Assuming it is not on priority of liquidators , it would be Interesting to see how credit card companies treat the charge backs resulting out of this sudden development.

Sorry to be pedantic - its voluntary administration, not liquidation. The first tries to find ways to keep the business trading. The second dismantles the business and sells off the assets to try to repay creditors.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was something in credit card T&Cs to the effect that if a merchant goes into administration or liquidation, then 'charge backs' are not possible (as the cc company is unlikely to be able to claw back the payment from the merchant).

 

[jakeseven7]

Gosh from a PR strategy point of view, RB just needs to sit down and shut up. He’s just making things worse for VA and VS by continually crying out for money.

The media and public have now rounded on him why he isn’t doing anything, and he’s saying he’s actually very cash poor (which may well be true!) but it’s terrible optics for both VA and VS and just keeps highlighting they are owned by rich foreign backers. Arggghh!

I actually really hope in the restructure, ditching Virgin and anything to do with RB is an option they seriously consider.

 

[hydrabyss]

From accc

Payments made on credit
Where you have paid for a product or service by way of a credit arrangement (credit card or loan) and the product or service does not arrive because the company has gone into external administration, you may be able to request a chargeback on the transaction from your financial institution or bank that issued the credit card. You should make this request as soon as possible as there may be time limits on chargeback claims.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Would they bring in another Airlines Users Levy?

Trying to remember whether that was $10 per itinerary or $10 per sector, I think the latter. I resented it then and I'd resent it now.

 

[travel_bug]

From accc

Payments made on credit
Where you have paid for a product or service by way of a credit arrangement (credit card or loan) and the product or service does not arrive because the company has gone into external administration, you may be able to request a chargeback on the transaction from your financial institution or bank that issued the credit card. You should make this request as soon as possible as there may be time limits on chargeback claims.

I posted this earlier in the thread that outlines visa global’s position which could be useful:

I found this from visa regarding Covid chargebacks, particularly question 8 in the FAQ. It makes me think to try my own chargeback (though I technically had to cancel the booking as VA moved my flights onto different dates, and I note that VA is different to bankruptcy) https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/support-legal/documents/managing-disputes-through-covid-19.pdf​

 

[jakeseven7]

From accc

Payments made on credit
Where you have paid for a product or service by way of a credit arrangement (credit card or loan) and the product or service does not arrive because the company has gone into external administration, you may be able to request a chargeback on the transaction from your financial institution or bank that issued the credit card. You should make this request as soon as possible as there may be time limits on chargeback claims.

Thank you for sharing this.

So does VA going into VA count as external administration and mean that is the trigger for people to quickly request chargebacks?

 

[hydrabyss]

Gosh from a PR strategy point of view, RB just needs to sit down and shut up. He’s just making things worse for VA and VS by continually crying out for money.

The media and public have now rounded on him why he isn’t doing anything, and he’s saying he’s actually very cash poor (which may well be true!) but it’s terrible optics for both VA and VS and just keeps highlighting they are owned by rich foreign backers. Arggghh!

I actually really hope in the restructure, ditching Virgin and anything to do with RB is an option they seriously consider.

I disagree and for me the Virgin brand is what attracted me to the airline in the beginning. Branding is everything these days if you want to get the most out of a business.

 

[jakeseven7]

I disagree and for me the Virgin brand is what attracted me to the airline in the beginning. Branding is everything these days if you want to get the most out of a business.

I agree with your comment on branding, working in the industry it makes me happy people think that

But I disagree the Virgin brand brings anything significantly positive anymore, it’s a brand from the 90’s really. I think a clean new brand where they aren’t stuck paying millions upon millions just to use it would be a good move.

In a small market where only a couple of brands exist anyway, a new brand can get recognition very very quickly and easily as well.

 

[hydrabyss]

Thank you for sharing this.

So does VA going into VA count as external administration and mean that is the trigger for people to quickly request chargebacks?

I don't know if it is better to wait or not. If it where me I would wait a week and see what happens with the business but as far as I know as long as you are in the chargeback deadline the bank will have to wear the cost if they can't get it from the merchant. Hence why they charge high interest rates and fees to cover losses they incur.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Official announcement out on the ASX

https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20200421/pdf/44h3kq7kcb12fl.pdf

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Interestingly, it states "Velocity Frequent Flyer, while owned by the Group, is a seperate company and not in administration"

 

[AIRwin]

Hoping for some advice. I have a flight booked through Virgin mid-May, from Melb to Perth.

It was rescheduled twice but according to Virgin it's still going ahead (lol)

What should I be doing to organise a refund, should I go direct to AMEX?

See my response on the other thread:

Virgin Flight Refund

In all honesty, it's looking pretty near impossible to get a refund for any base tier VA flights (whether cancelled by you or by them). I've taken a couple of looks at people's posts on VA's Facebook page and there are even Kiwis who are being denied refunds for their NZ to Aus flights for a...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Must...Fly!]

Fully expected and while sad, let's hope that the changes can be made (goodbye leased A330s, leased 777) and investors found for the long term good of the group.

They clearly aren't giving in and wishing Scurrah & management team all the best - no one signed up for this but they are doing an excellent job in significant headwinds.

Thoughts with all VA staff today. Hopefully they know that this is not the end of the line, and there is still a good chance this otherwise excellent airline will emerge stronger & fitter than before.