Virgin Future Flight credit....anyone having problems with this??

[Indiana]

So I received an email from Virgin quoting my Future Flight credit is now available for use via Travel Bank....this email was sent to me over 2 months ago.

I log into my travel bank (yesterday) to find zero funds there.

So I try calling Virgin only to spend hours upon hours trying to get through to them.

The only time I have actually spoken to someone is when I clicked on...."do you want to buy a new ticket" then they transfer me over to another line to wait on hold.

Has anyone else experienced this?? And has anyone actually get through to Virgin??

 

[Warks]

I found a credit (added in October) in my Travel Bank for a cancelled flight from the end of Feb but seven days after that it had been taken back. Any ideas? I've never received any emails from Virgin about this.

 

[serfty]

I found a credit (added in October) in my Travel Bank for a cancelled flight from the end of Feb but seven days after that it had been taken back. Any ideas? I've never received any emails from Virgin about this.

I received an email on Thu 22nd October with information about this additional travel bank account. Unlike the other it is not tied to your velocity number.

It was sent by guest@e.virginaustralia.com

The subject was simply "Your Future Flight credit".

 

[shuuy]

Had ~$1000 in an old travel bank. Called VA, they gave me my new future flight credit # and all credits are there. Took 10 mins in total including the password reset.

 

[Uzerid]

Any one find a new ‘clause’ re future flight credit in their Travel Bank which states that credit may only be used for flights to or from Brisbane. We planned to go to Adelaide and cannot use it. Should we choose to go to Adelaide via Brisbane we have to buy two separate tickets. This clause was never in the document received about the credit. Haste I misinterpreted this clause or anyone come across it?

 

[trisreed]

Any one find a new ‘clause’ re future flight credit in their Travel Bank which states that credit may only be used for flights to or from Brisbane. We planned to go to Adelaide and cannot use it. Should we choose to go to Adelaide via Brisbane we have to buy two separate tickets. This clause was never in the document received about the credit. Haste I misinterpreted this clause or anyone come across it?

The only references I can find to 'Brisbane' in the Terms and Conditions listed here is to including "selected flights operated by Alliance Airlines on behalf of Virgin Australia to and from Brisbane". From Alliance's website, I would take this to mean flights between Brisbane and Gladstone and possibly other locations (Alliance flying to Emerald rings a bell) - i.e. flights operated by Alliance for Virgin - are in fact also included, rather than excluded.

I don't have any Future Flight Credits but I would assume that this would be the type of clause you would see within your Travel Bank?

 

[Lord_Lenny]

I had Future Flight credits for a SYD - HVB for a Great Barrier Reef trip (5 days on Lady Elliot Island with Lady Lenny before Baby Lenny arrived/my birthday) back in April, was able to use them for SYD - LST and HBA - SYD flights for May (Baby Lenny's first flights) with no issues, had to dig through my inbox for the email because as quoted earlier, it's not linked to your Velocity account so wasn't in the usual travel bank.

But once I found the number it was all pretty straightforward booking through the VA website as normal.

 

[Jackal44]

So I received an email from Virgin quoting my Future Flight credit is now available for use via Travel Bank....this email was sent to me over 2 months ago.

I log into my travel bank (yesterday) to find zero funds there.

So I try calling Virgin only to spend hours upon hours trying to get through to them.

The only time I have actually spoken to someone is when I clicked on...."do you want to buy a new ticket" then they transfer me over to another line to wait on hold.

Has anyone else experienced this?? And has anyone actually get through to Virgin??

That is exactly what happened to me. The phone number is not getting answered at all even if you wait for 3 hours. I even tried to write an email to query that, but, no one bothered to reply. I think they are trying to steal the money. We were all affected by Corona and its not fair that they should try not to owner their promise.

 

[jakeseven7]

Lots of people still having issues:

-----

Virgin Australia flight credits: Some passengers still face restrictions on spending credits​

Virgin Australia customers holding COVID-19-related cancellation credits beware: you're not all created equal.

Virgin Australia has created two kinds of flight credits for passengers who experienced cancellations due to COVID-19, and those that received a "Future Flight Credit" before the airline's financial collapse last year may find they're not able to use the credit on their chosen flight.

Virgin Australia has put strict quotas in place restricting the number of Future Flight Credit fares PER flight.

Mr Wallis, of Malvern in Melbourne, said: "Naive me, I just thought if I had a credit, that could surely have been used on any class of ticket, at any time. It was just my money.

Virgin Australia flight credits: Some passengers face restrictions on spending credits

Virgin Australia customers holding COVID-cancellation credits beware: you're not all created equal.

www.traveller.com.au

 

[MARTINE]

Hi
I have post-Covid Bain type travel credit issues. Cancelled a flight 10 days ago (not to Perth) with the ‘guessed centre’ and they advised I would get travel credit. I have a reference number for this. Got an email saying this would be sent over to Travel Bank and I would get email about how to access. Still waiting. Ringing all the numbers they advise unless urgent ring back later (due to Perth situation). Contact via email gave me a response -to ring the ‘guessed centre’. Once I get the credit think I’ll use it pretty soon to ensure it does not disappear!! Anyone else have this issue ?

 

[MooTime]

It is an odd scenario with 2 types of credit vouchers, but as article says the company went bust so could've lost out completely on those pre vol admin cancellations.
Ppl have to realise lucky to be able to use them still, until 2023.

Emails, long code numbers to use, little confusing it is absolutely.

Travel bank here to stay thou, even my credit card voucher sent into travel bank (not future).

 

[odysseus]

It is an odd scenario with 2 types of credit vouchers, but as article says the company went bust so could've lost out completely on those pre vol admin cancellations.
Ppl have to realise lucky to be able to use them still, until 2023.

The contra is the airline would have lost out on the money as people would have claimed refunds from their credit cards for services not provided, which then would have been clawed back from their accounts. However, because the airline gave credits instead and due to covid credit card companies gave them a waiver that that was sufficient.

Had they truly gone insolvent they would have lost that money. So it's a bit rich for them to hide behind that excuse now - they wanted to be viewed as a going concern, but are now trying to play the well, what if we were completely insolvent card.

 

[MooTime]

@odysseus
not sure what your trying to say, but all credit be in Future or standard are very usable & offered on each & every flight.

Now like always there's limited seats on each & every flight, just like Reward Seats, there're freely available for anyone with FFPoints.
Not unlimited. An excuse I heard was, well there's seats on the flight so I should be able to use my credit. I'd reply with if there's seats why can't I book a reward seat??? Why? Cos there's T&C's on each type of flight ticket.

Now as you know If you try to book popular destinations within weeks of departure, you not likely to get the reward or future credit seats.
The Future Credit T&C's are very straightforward & clearly stated when each received these credits. Mainly limited in terms of seat availability.

If some are unaware of the conditions of the Future Flight credits & just expect to get a flight at drop of a hat to their desired location they really should check the conditions.

Can be little confusing if one has both types of credits (as I had) but not really an issue, I mean flyers are smart cookies!!

 

[odysseus]

@odysseus
not sure what your trying to say, but all credit be in Future or standard are very usable & offered on each & every flight.

Now like always there's limited seats on each & every flight, just like Reward Seats, there're freely available for anyone with FFPoints.
Not unlimited. An excuse I heard was, well there's seats on the flight so I should be able to use my credit. I'd reply with if there's seats why can't I book a reward seat??? Why? Cos there's T&C's on each type of flight ticket.

Now as you know If you try to book popular destinations within weeks of departure, you not likely to get the reward or future credit seats.
The Future Credit T&C's are very straightforward & clearly stated when each received these credits. Mainly limited in terms of seat availability.

If some are unaware of the conditions of the Future Flight credits & just expect to get a flight at drop of a hat to their desired location they really should check the conditions.

Can be little confusing if one has both types of credits (as I had) but not really an issue, I mean flyers are smart cookies!!

Just referring to your comment if they had gone bust people would have lost out completely, and then saying people are lucky to use them.

Because that wouldn't have been the case. There are only a large number of flight credits because they _didn't_ go bust. If they had gone bust, then people would have gotten a refund via their credit card. But it's only because they didn't go bust that they managed to hold on to all these passenger's funds, even though they didn't deliver the service - which is quite exceptional.

As for the terms, these aren't the same as points. They were never given away 'freely' as points are. This is people's actual cash that was spent on tickets. For a service that was not delivered, and would typically have been refunded. In cash. So it is a very different bucket and shouldn't be limited. And that limit has not been made clear, hence why people are surprised by it.

 

[jakeseven7]

Another massive article in the Australian about the Virgin travel credit issue.

I was thinking it’s terrible PR for VA2, why don’t they just remove all the terms and conditions and be done with it?

For Bain/VA2 to be strictly throttling the use of these credits there must be hundreds of millions in them lying around or something? It must be a massive issue for them??

 

[MARTINE]

I still have not managed to get through on the phones to get my magic email link for travel bank. I’ll try again today..

 

[MooTime]

Well on other hand Qantas taking 12 weeks to refund some passengers & then only 1 passenger one the booking, not all on combined ticket, or not refunding taxes part on reward bookings as recently reported which was also happening 12 months ago. Pretty ordinary, No better imo.

Not an issue, as usual it's the minority making all the noise.
Future credits so easy to book, just not within couple weeks to popular destinations, rather simple & expected scenario. But why not have a whinge!
More popular to whinge.

Life is good & slowly getting better.

 

[Indiana]

That is exactly what happened to me. The phone number is not getting answered at all even if you wait for 3 hours. I even tried to write an email to query that, but, no one bothered to reply. I think they are trying to steal the money. We were all affected by Corona and its not fair that they should try not to owner their promise.

I "finally" received my travel flight credit after 4 months of continuously hassling them. Still don't think I received the full amount but happy I even received anything. Keep trying and best of luck!

Post automatically merged: May 13, 2021

I still have not managed to get through on the phones to get my magic email link for travel bank. I’ll try again today..

Keep hassling and trying. I finally received my flight credit from Virgin after 4 months.

 

[Indiana]

Hi
I have post-Covid Bain type travel credit issues. Cancelled a flight 10 days ago (not to Perth) with the ‘guessed centre’ and they advised I would get travel credit. I have a reference number for this. Got an email saying this would be sent over to Travel Bank and I would get email about how to access. Still waiting. Ringing all the numbers they advise unless urgent ring back later (due to Perth situation). Contact via email gave me a response -to ring the ‘guessed centre’. Once I get the credit think I’ll use it pretty soon to ensure it does not disappear!! Anyone else have this issue ?

Yes I had the exact same issue. I have been calling and hassling for months....4 to be exact! Finally, I received the credit after telling them for months on end that whenever I logged in to my account there was no credit there....despite them sending me emails telling me there was. Just got to keep on them about it and they will. It should be valid until 2022. Going to use the credit whenever I can and like you, as soon as I can!

I found a credit (added in October) in my Travel Bank for a cancelled flight from the end of Feb but seven days after that it had been taken back. Any ideas? I've never received any emails from Virgin about this.

Hassle them until you receive it back. They wont contact you unless you contact them.

 

[MARTINE]

So-I am happy to report a success to my post to get my travel bank from a flight cancelled in April 2021.
The only way I can stomach dealing with extended phone calls to ‘guessed’ centres is to diarise an hour and have patience+time (usually I have one or other but rarely both).
I rang the virgin 136789 number (lunchtime) and conducted the mirroring exercise ie ‘thank you so much’ every time they did something nice like remember my name or put me on hold.
I had never got my travel bank email (that confirmed what I was told in a phone call when I cancelled) at all - so that was the first issue.
The credit was there according to the chap on the phone.
….. so I stayed on the line till every step of the problem was resolved.…. From getting my user id (that should have come w email), setting a password , going into travel bank and checking all the credits were there (they were) and then logging out and doing it all again to be sure it would work .
All perfect .
I spent 31 minutes w Darius from the ‘guessed’ centre online and told him upfront he was not to cut me off until it worked. As I was super polite and effusive w praise this seemed to work. I’m not sure whether I was just lucky w this particular person or he— also - had time and patience!!
The next day I immediately booked a flight with the credits - super easy as it prompts on website do you want to use credit from travel bank?
All worked well.
So Darius if you are listening - gold star to you.
Good luck everyone

 

[JJ 1953]

So I received an email from Virgin quoting my Future Flight credit is now available for use via Travel Bank....this email was sent to me over 2 months ago.

I log into my travel bank (yesterday) to find zero funds there.

So I try calling Virgin only to spend hours upon hours trying to get through to them.

The only time I have actually spoken to someone is when I clicked on...."do you want to buy a new ticket" then they transfer me over to another line to wait on hold.

Has anyone else experienced this?? And has anyone actually get through to Virgin??

I have the same issue. My travel Agent gave VA authority to take over all bookings. All 12 tickets were sent on the one email. VA picked up 8, but did not pick up the other 4! My bank for those 4 shows zero. The call centre just say to get my travel agent to give them authority?? There is no VA email address.