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Virgin Atlantic delays Sao Paulo flights, launches a change waiver and announces cost cutting

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Virgin Atlantic made a number of coronavirus-related announcements yesterday:

Sao Paulo flight launch delayed until October

Virgin Atlantic was supposed to be launching its first route to South America later this month. We were scheduled to be on the inaugural flight on the 29th March with Sir Richard Branson.

Virgin Atlantic has decided to delay the route due to ongoing coronavirus concerns. The flight has been pulled entirely until 5th October, the amended launch date.

This is an interesting decision, not least because Brazil is not particularly affected by the outbreak so far. Whilst British Airways has been dumping capacity on flights to North America and Africa, Virgin Atlantic appears to be taking a different tack and is attempting to reduce its cost base in the short term.  Since most new routes are loss making in their first year, Virgin clearly decided it did not want to shoulder that burden during an already difficult time.

Passengers affected by the delayed introduction of the route can choose between being rebooked on another airline, a refund or a rebooking from October.

Virgin Atlantic Tel Aviv Richard Branson

Virgin Atlantic launches a change waiver for new bookings

Virgin Atlantic has, unsurprisingly, copied British Airways and introduced a change waiver.

Ticket booked from yesterday (4th March) until the end of March for travel until the end of September, on any Virgin Atlantic route, can have their date changed for free.

This is, unfortunately, as pointless as the British Airways waiver:

you are on the hook for any increase in fare, and

you cannot get a refund, which means that the waiver has no benefit if you are travelling for a specific purpose

There is also no support for anyone who made a booking prior to 4th March.

Further cost cutting measures

Virgin Atlantic is making additional cost-cutting measures in order to weather out the storm. Unlike British Airways / IAG, Virgin Atlantic has thinner margins and will be more severely affected by travel restrictions.

This is especially true given that, proportionally, the revenue from the now-cancelled Shanghai and part-cancelled Hong Kong routes is a much larger piece of the pie than it is for British Airways, which has a much larger network.

CEO Shai Weiss will be taking a symbolic 20% pay cut from April until July with the remaining executive leadership team agreeing to 15%.

In addition, there will be a company wide recruitment freeze and a restriction on all non-essential staff travel and training.

There is also a proposed deferral of annual pay increases for employees, from March until August, as well as the opportunity for ground-based staff to take one to two weeks of unpaid leave before 31st July.

Virgin Atlantic is well and truly battening down the hatches.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (80)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Dawn says:
    5 Mar5 March 05:31

    Slightly O/T
    I’ve just booked (today) to go LON-DALAMAN with BA. So if I see the flight cheaper before I fly in May, can I change the dates for free but get back the difference in price? I think I can’t because they said no refunds? Apologies if this is a silly question.

    • Shoestring says:
      5 Mar5 March 06:44

      it’s not a silly question as with date changes you do pay the difference in price as well as the change fee – but no, they don’t refund you the difference if the ticket price has gone down

  • TripRep says:
    5 Mar5 March 06:26

    I suspect given the FlyBE news there’s going to be further cost cutting measures, some pax will reluctantly be cancelling Virgin flights if FlyBE were the domestic connection. I’m considering doing exactly this and rebooking with BA.

  • JamesR says:
    5 Mar5 March 06:41

    This is very inconvenient as I was flying this route in August/september and the intinary was based on the flight times.

    When vigin say be rebooked on another airline is that based on what was paid for the original set? As I bought the tickets in the sale.

    • Shoestring says:
      5 Mar5 March 06:47

      you won’t get charged for a new ticket on a competitor airline provided it’s the same fare basis – this doesn’t mean sale price but Economy, Premium Economy, Business etc

      so if you research the alternatives and ask for that, you might even get a better seat

  • Paul says:
    5 Mar5 March 06:44

    Bookings are down 40%. Aircraft are flying with very few passengers on board and the response from BA/VS is simply shocking. They both need to offer unconditional guarantees of refunds.

    Separately, I went to the cinema last night and my wife and I were the only people there. I have never experienced that before in a cinema.

    • KBuffett says:
      5 Mar5 March 06:45

      Same at Vie Cinema, Westfield, London.

    • Dawn says:
      5 Mar5 March 07:12

      I’m in Australia at the moment where there is a very large Asian population. There are no toilet rolls, tissues or hand sanitiser in the shops. Why panic buy the toilet rolls?! I am off to give a presentation in the Queensland Uni and each day there are more diagnosed at the Uni with the Virus.

      • Genghis says:
        5 Mar5 March 07:45

        There was a “good” article in the FT on Tues, “Coronavirus forces Japan to rethink its view of toilet roll”.

    • Fenny says:
      5 Mar5 March 10:41

      I regularly go on a Saturday afternoon and am the only person in the cinema. But on a Weds, which is a Meerkat Movies night, it’s unusual.

  • Riccatti says:
    5 Mar5 March 07:18

    And we thought 1.4k return to Sao Paulo in UC was a bargain, turned out too much of bargain!

  • Genghis says:
    5 Mar5 March 07:24

    OT. Datapoint on Creation IHG free credit card 20k sign up bonus. Got card mid Feb, 10k posted on 24 Feb, remaining 10k posted today.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      5 Mar5 March 08:23

      I’ve just had my additional 10k even though my normal 10k is sitting in my creation account waiting to transfer over on (probably) the 22nd March

      • Secret Squirrel says:
        5 Mar5 March 08:32

        Opened 13th Feb, no additional 10k today. Thanks for the heads up.

  • MarianC says:
    5 Mar5 March 07:29

    Morning all.
    2 months ago I booked London – Miami, Sao Paolo-London on Virgin for this summer using companion voucher. First time it’s happening to me to have a cancellation on points redeem flights: If I call Virgin, would they rebook me on another company for that date? Or it’s easier for them to cancel my booking and return the points?

    • Shoestring says:
      5 Mar5 March 07:37

      I’m sure they’s prefer to just give you back your points 🙂

      but yes, you are entitled to 2 replacement flights, on the same fare basis, on competitor airline – which will cost Virgin a lot more – your choice

      • MarioC says:
        5 Mar5 March 08:46

        Should I wait for their call the next days? Flight is still shown on My bookings page.
        Could I suggest them to give a flight from a different city? Or it has to be Sao Paolo or refund?
        I previously dealt with cancellations from United and Air China, both were very flexibile with new flights, but that’s because it was on their metal. This is different…

  • Nick_C says:
    5 Mar5 March 07:52

    “Virgin Atlantic has, unsurprisingly, copied British Airways and introduced a change waiver.”

    I remember the days when Virgin built a successful brand by doing things differently, not copying others.

    • Oh! Matron! says:
      5 Mar5 March 08:12

      I pointed this out last night on Facebook to them, but yes, it’s weak

    • Rich says:
      5 Mar5 March 08:58

      What’s the “different” thing they can do? Not introduce a change waiver?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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