Virgin Flight Refund

[SydneySwan]

I had two big amounts invested in Virgin Australia flights, which the airline cancelled. No alternative flights were offered in either of the cases even though it is in their T&Cs of carriage that in the event of disruptions they will offer a substitute flights (or flights), or any other suitable means of transport (which can also include another airline) to get passengers to the destination within a reasonable time of the originally booked flights. Getting VA to acknowledge wrongdoing was a pathetic display of arguments by someone in financial desperation and the only thing that could be concluded from dealing with them that by the time they entered administration, they resorted to stealing money from people in order secure own survival. Unethical corporate citizen conduct if I have ever seen one! The alternative would have been simple, which is to acknowledge they owe people money but couldn't afford to pay it back at that time, then enter into a repayment agreement or for those who were motivated by compensation, an agreement to keep the money (in the form of travel credits) but to give back something, eg frequent flyer points or nominal bonus value of say 10% to the travel credit. Airlines around the would were doing this exactly so it didn't have to be even invented but simply copied form other airlines. Getting VA to refund unfulfilled contracts was not yielding any results so I triggered two chargebacks with my credit card to recover two unfulfilled travel bookings. Each took about 6 months to complete because as part of the process VA had the right to respond to my claims, which they did with most pathetic arguments and desperate falsehoods in one last attempt to keep the stolen money from me. But the luck will have it that as part of this process, the culprit was not the arbitrator as well and the verdict went to the only right outcome, which is to return the money in full to the rightful owner for not having received the service purchased. This was a huge eye opener for me and a learning lesson where and how to spend my money in the future. Never will I pay for travel by any other means but a credit card, and never again will I spent money on VA, despite being a huge fan and the supporter of the airline formerly as is evident from my long term Platinum status. But like in all relationships, you only know the true state of relationship when something within it goes wrong. Rex and Qantas, here I come!

Paragraphs?

 

[Bagpuss]

Paragraphs?

At least nothing was in bold and larger text.

 

[bernardblack]

I had J seats SYD-LAX and SFO-LAX-SYD for March, on Delta, booked with Velocity the day before Virgin went into admin. I had hoped that before departure they would reopen international partner bookings and I could push it into the future by another year. But Delta moved my departure by a day and Velocity called to confirm (and couldn't give an ETA for partner bookings) so I just cancelled both tickets.

I got the points back immediately and was told it would take ten weeks for the taxes/fees to be refunded, which I didn't mind. (I guess they can do that since Velocity was never in admin?)

But I actually received an email from Amex mentioning a merchant refund, and it turned out to be the Velocity tax/fee refunds posted within 36 hours of the call. So that's actually quite impressive, it seems to me.

 

[RooFlyer]

I cancelled my Virgin business revenue ticket Melbourne to Darwin. I got the funds refunded into my credit card same day. Just wow!

Compare that to the other mob!

 

[RAM]

I cancelled my Virgin business revenue ticket Melbourne to Darwin. I got the funds refunded into my credit card same day. Just wow!

Compare that to the other mob!

Obviously a VA II 'systems error' - Q wouldn't delay refunding real money for weeks/months if it was such an easy task for their enhanced systems would they?

 

[rockplat]

I'm still waiting on a refund for a downgrade from business to economy from 16 May. They substituted the 737 to an Alliance Fokker.

 

[bernardblack]

I had to cancel a VA flight MEL-SYD in business, about a month ago. I booked through Amex Travel and they confirmed it was fully refundable but might take up to twelve weeks. I don't have the refund yet.

 

[Sale]

Dear Virgin,
After causing me great distress cancelling our flight from HBA - OOL and putting it back two days, you have redeemed yourself!
At the time of cancellation you refunded the Velocity points plus $ of the cancelled flight.
Today, you said you would also refund (within 21 business days) the difference in value between the Virgin flights and the excessive $ that I paid Qantas to fly the day the original flights were cancelled.
That is wonderful and I appreciate it very much, thank you

 

[SydneySwan]

Dear Virgin,
After causing me great distress cancelling our flight from HBA - OOL and putting it back two days, you have redeemed yourself!
At the time of cancellation you refunded the Velocity points plus $ of the cancelled flight.
Today, you said you would also refund (within 21 business days) the difference in value between the Virgin flights and the excessive $ that I paid Qantas to fly the day the original flights were cancelled.
That is wonderful and I appreciate it very much, thank you

Take note AJ.

 

[RAM]

Dear Virgin,
After causing me great distress cancelling our flight from HBA - OOL and putting it back two days, you have redeemed yourself!
At the time of cancellation you refunded the Velocity points plus $ of the cancelled flight.
Today, you said you would also refund (within 21 business days) the difference in value between the Virgin flights and the excessive $ that I paid Qantas to fly the day the original flights were cancelled.
That is wonderful and I appreciate it very much, thank you

How un-Australian! - Alan from Eastern suburbs in Sydney

 

[Sale]

How un-Australian! - Alan from Eastern suburbs in Sydney

Of me or Virgin?

It was a very hopeful request to Virgin, so quite a whoopee moment when the email arrived! The flights were July 5th - which was the really really bad day for cancelled flights. And the replacement Qantas flights were very very expensive.

Worthy of a nice "thank you"

 

[RAM]

Of me or Virgin?

It was a very hopeful request to Virgin, so quite a whoopee moment when the email arrived! The flights were July 5th - which was the really really bad day for cancelled flights. And the replacement Qantas flights were very very expensive.

Worthy of a nice "thank you"

Perhaps even a letter to the editors of SMH & The Australian (online for each) to stir the pot vs Q's behaviour?

 

[Sale]

Perhaps even a letter to the editors of SMH & The Australian (online for each) to stir the pot vs Q's behaviour?

Sounds good in theory - but I had no beef with Qantas here.

 

[rockplat]

180 days for a refund!!!!!

Email from Virgin in response to my request for a refund....

Dear xx,

Thank you for your email regarding your refund request. We apologise for the inconvenience that this schedule change has caused you and we sincerely apologise also that we did not reply to you in a timely manner.

Please be advised that I placed your refund request in our queue to be assessed by our Accounts Team. Kindly note that the expected turnaround time is 180 days for processing refunds to the original form of payment since all refund requests are being manually assessed.

Rest assured that we will contact you once there is an update. Please keep your booking reference as a record of your request.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us, xx_. Your utmost understanding is greatly appreciated.

 

[RAM]

Under-promise & over-deliver? Or was #1 son just too lucky?

No. 1 son's flight cancellation after an AFL weekend blitz (SYD MEL) on weekend that was start of Vic school holidays - follow-up.

VA II not only replied to request for compensation (payment of hotel, taxi etc) within 2 weeks.

They then 'compensated' for more than costs submitted stating that they realised the awful position he & his friend had been put in. They provided extra compensation, equal to the max amount per person per additional meal they needed for the overnight & delay to early afternoon replacement flight. Or roughly three times the receipts on the intial email sent to VA II. Plus the taxi/uber fares were rounded up to the next $10 amount (each). Money in bank account the day following the email from VA II.

Smug #1 son 'What were you going on about having to chase them up to get the money refunded?'.

 

[Sale]

Dear Virgin,
After causing me great distress cancelling our flight from HBA - OOL and putting it back two days, you have redeemed yourself!
At the time of cancellation you refunded the Velocity points plus $ of the cancelled flight.
Today, you said you would also refund (within 21 business days) the difference in value between the Virgin flights and the excessive $ that I paid Qantas to fly the day the original flights were cancelled.
That is wonderful and I appreciate it very much, thank you

And low and behold - the $1450 arrived in my bank account with the 21 days as promised.

I had also cancelled another leg of our holiday because I didn't want to face any more similar dramas. After I received this refund, I rang Virgin and asked that they reimburse the 9,000 points they had charged to cancel a flight - no worries, it was done and credited whilst I was on the phone.

Appreciated again!

 

[RAM]

And low and behold - the $1450 arrived in my bank account with the 21 days as promised.

I had also cancelled another leg of our holiday because I didn't want to face any more similar dramas. After I received this refund, I rang Virgin and asked that they reimburse the 9,000 points they had charged to cancel a flight - no worries, it was done and credited whilst I was on the phone.

Appreciated again!

"That's no way to run an airline" - Alan from Mosman.

 

[JohnK]

It's been a while since posting in this thread.

I noticed my account had a travel bank balance of $132.61 on 09/Oct/20 and that expired 12 months later. I'm not sure if this is for the April 2020 flights but I don't recall seeing any emails.

Shouldn't there have been longer expiry on the travel bank when an airline cancels flights? I have a Jetstar credit that was expiring this month and this has been extended until end of year.

 

[Bagpuss]

It's been a while since posting in this thread.

I noticed my account had a travel bank balance of $132.61 on 09/Oct/20 and that expired 12 months later. I'm not sure if this is for the April 2020 flights but I don't recall seeing any emails.

Shouldn't there have been longer expiry on the travel bank when an airline cancels flights? I have a Jetstar credit that was expiring this month and this has been extended until end of year.

They were all extended. I suggest you contact Velocity.

 

[AIRwin]

They were all extended. I suggest you contact Velocity.

VA to be exact instead of Velocity