Virgin Atlantic to ask for state aid to avoid bankruptcy

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• Qwertyknowsbest says:

  27 Mar27 March 21:42

  Am I missing something or is this a new development that no ‘Spend’ partners showing in the VA website/app?

  • Heathrow Flyer says:

    27 Mar27 March 23:18

    Your missing something.

    It’s still there.

    • Heathrow Flyer says:

      27 Mar27 March 23:19

      *You’re

• tom1 says:

  27 Mar27 March 21:43

  Another question…

  I have a VS redemption to LAS/SFO in May. At this time looks very much in doubt.

  Should I cancel now, get the £400+ fees refunded, and the points sent back (presumably) to my Virgin Loyalty Group account in the hope that should VS go bust, VLG stay alive?

  If VS do go bust, and I haven’t cancelled the flight, it will be an insurance claim? (would I get the fees back, but nothing for the lost points and voucher?)

  • TGLoyalty says:

    27 Mar27 March 22:17

    I’d leave them as a ticket paid for with a credit card means s.75 cover?

    • Genghis says:

      27 Mar27 March 22:23

      With consequential loss protection.

  • Genghis says:

    27 Mar27 March 22:28

    VLG is a separate legal entity owned by Virgin Group and Delta. However, given its likely to not have much cash in itself and probably relies on the throughout activity of VS to generate cash to pay for redemptions, I decided this wasn’t a factor. Thoughts?

    • Tom1 says:

      28 Mar28 March 00:00

      Just replied but can’t see it.. so a brief version.

      If VS goes bust, what redemptions are there to pay for? I thought partner redemptions weren’t honoured if the original airline went bust.

    • Rob says:

      28 Mar28 March 10:19

      Agreed. It is likely they end up with 10 billion (guess) miles held by members and £50 in the bank to pay for the redemptions.

• chef says:

  27 Mar27 March 21:45

  Thanks Harry, text to Virgin sent and acknowledged.
  Ive just bailed 120K out Tom1 that i’d earmarked for ANA but the recent credit card restrictions have slowed my rate of accumulation and i have plenty of Avios.

  • Sandgrounder says:

    27 Mar27 March 22:11

    How long did you wait for acknowledgement?

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      27 Mar27 March 22:39

      I used the text service this evening. Text sent, 6pm. Live agent responded 10pm. Matter dealt with in minutes thereafter and confirmation received immediately. I was told that the transfer to Hilton itself can take up to 30 days.

    • Chef says:

      27 Mar27 March 23:08

      Automated reply almost immediately

• Lisa says:

  27 Mar27 March 21:59

  Hi
  someone mentioned the Virgin loyalty group is this separate to flying club?

  • Rob says:

    27 Mar27 March 22:07

    Yes, but it doesn’t make much difference. You will have some Virgin miles but nothing to spend them on, and unless VGLC has a huge amount of cash in the bank it has no money to fulfil rewards with other partners.

    • Micky says:

      28 Mar28 March 05:22

      I thought virgin experiences is run by another company…

• KINGB says:

  27 Mar27 March 22:00

  Let it go bust, the billionaire can keep it alive if he wants, i do not want my taxes to feed any airlines.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    27 Mar27 March 22:19

    What about all the people VA employee direct and the jobs created indirectly?

    These won’t be easily replaced.

    It’s not just about some guy with a beard that slaps his brand name on anything that will have it.

    • Jack says:

      27 Mar27 March 22:51

      It seems these hard-working employees are just collateral damage for some people…

      • Bilbo Baggins says:

        27 Mar27 March 22:53

        Mainly Branson….

      • KINGB says:

        27 Mar27 March 23:59

        yeah for branson, no damage to the UK Tax Payers

    • KINGB says:

      27 Mar27 March 23:58

      They will be replaced. Its not fair on the tax payer to bail out private businesses, the same could have been said about flybe, monarch thomascook etc and the list goes on. Reality is harsh and if branson wants to save his billions and sink the airline by no means go ahead but not a single tax payers penny should be spent

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Mar28 March 06:28

        they were unprofitable businesses that couldn’t Navigate their way through normal economic ups and downs

        Right now Virgin is being sunk by a global travel shutdown and governments have effectively banned it from flying because their key markets have closed borders to travel. It’s not the same

        • Mac D says:

          28 Mar28 March 07:25

          If it was structured correctly and had money in the bank instead of owners taking profits all the time it would be able to weather storms like this or at least reduce their impact.

          Using the ‘saving jobs’ line doesn’t help if the business is not profitable long term, it would make more sense to just pay the staff to be educated in a difference job.

        • Doug M says:

          28 Mar28 March 09:46

          Is it not fair to say that if two weeks of not flying as sent it to the gov for a bailout it wasn’t a very well structured business anyway. Clearly funding the here and now by future ticket purchases, hardly a great business model.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          28 Mar28 March 10:46

          What profits were being taken out of VA?

          These comments are ridiculous the airline has made a loss for years.

          Virgin Atlantic Ltd has released its annual financial results for the year ended 31st December 2018. The company, comprising Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays and cargo, reported a pre-tax loss of £26.1 million before tax and exceptional items – significantly improved from the £49.0m loss in 2017.

  • jack says:

    27 Mar27 March 22:24

    What about maintaining competition?

    • Thomas Atkins says:

      27 Mar27 March 22:55

      What about the children? Won’t somebody think about the children!

      • Catalan says:

        28 Mar28 March 00:48

        … I believe the children are our future
        Teach them well and let them lead the way
        Show them all the beauty they possess inside
        Give them a sense of pride to make it easier….
        😂

    • KINGB says:

      28 Mar28 March 00:00

      What about we have companies that care about employee welfare and support them through this than having to tell your staff to take 8 weeks UNPAID LEAVE who might not be able to cover their households and families whilst billions are sitting on an private island.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Mar28 March 06:32

        there were literally hundreds of thousands of businesses that asked staff to take unpaid leave because of this

        If you are against VA because of this then before the government furlough deal you probably wouldn’t have stepped into a hotel or restaurant again.

    • The013 says:

      28 Mar28 March 09:44

      It’s not really competition when you can have your losses covered by the taxpayer.

  • Novice says:

    27 Mar27 March 23:05

    😂

    • Novice says:

      27 Mar27 March 23:07

      This was a reply to the taxpayers money

      • KINGB says:

        28 Mar28 March 00:01

        you must’ve been jumping for joy when RBS was bailed out too

        • Novice says:

          28 Mar28 March 00:43

          I was agreeing with you… it’s called being sarcastic

        • Novice says:

          28 Mar28 March 01:01

          I belong to the economics school of thought which believes in no bailouts and survival through innovation etc.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Mar28 March 06:34

        What’s the school of economics say about overnight closure of your whole business model due to government intervention?

        • The Chief says:

          28 Mar28 March 09:26

          If you’ve done everything you can to avoid paying your fair share of tax in the past, expect no favours when the boot’s on the other foot?

        • mvcvz says:

          28 Mar28 March 10:26

          I just struggle with the concept of private profits underpinned by public purse losses. That’s all.

        • Novice says:

          28 Mar28 March 11:27

          @TGLoyalty I’m of the economics school of thought where you prepare your business incase it is shut overnight. It’s called making sure you can survive the hard times.

          And actually the government has already pledged a lot of help to businesses.

        • Bilbo Baggins says:

          28 Mar28 March 11:33

          Home Bargain’s owners set aside £30 million to help its staff members through the coronavirus outbreak, that’s how you do it, and they don’t have a Twitter page describing themselves as ‘philanthropists’, unlike Branson.

        • Craig says:

          28 Mar28 March 12:43

          From an economic school of thought – I would assume preparing your business to immediately be grounded for an unknown number of months and holding enough cash to cover this would actually be considered sensationally wasteful, no? From an economic school of thought remember of course…

  • Chris says:

    28 Mar28 March 15:30

    Yes because in that situation he would obviously suffer badly whilst everyone else would be just fine.

    …… oh hang on

• AndyF says:

  27 Mar27 March 23:16

  What information is required as part of the text message to virgin for the transfer?

  • Berneslai says:

    27 Mar27 March 23:52

    Flying Club number, name, DOB, address (and membership number of whatever you are transferring into).

    SMS response times weren’t great. WhatsApp support worked much better for me.

• EvilGazebo says:

  28 Mar28 March 00:00

  I’ve got 300K in VS miles and have decided to risk it.

  My gut feeling is that no support will be forthcoming and they will fold (or be acquired in a way that leaves me without my miles anyway)

  But if there is a *chance* of the UC Wing check in and Clubhouse experience again and I’d given it up for 4 or 5 nights in a Hilton (that probably wouldn’t be my first choice hotel in whichever city it is) then I’d be v.annoyed.

  C’mon Rishi, make a bad decision and prop this s*** up!

  • Branson's Beard says:

    28 Mar28 March 00:21

    Not going to happen. Asking the taxpayer to bailout a company half owned by a US airline, and half owned by a billionaire isn’t going to happen, when the money could be better spent in a million different places, it just isn’t going to wash. Branson’s reputation in the press and over Twitter has been absolutely mauled. I’ve only got 240K in VS miles, but I’m getting rid with no hesitation. It’s easy enough to buy miles in future in the unlikely situation that Virgin survives.

    • Novice says:

      28 Mar28 March 00:56

      Rishi seems to have some sense… can’t see it happening. And it should not happen anyway.

      • Mike says:

        28 Mar28 March 07:15

        There is a potential bailout where the existing shareholders get wiped out – which is not the govt backed loans Virgin are proposing.

        Beardy needs to end up with none or a trivial stake for this to be seen to be fair given everything else going on.

• Gavin says:

  28 Mar28 March 01:35

  I don’t have any virgin miles, never collected them. Never flown the routes I wanted to take since I’ve been collecting miles although post corona (and divorce) they’re an airline I would consider to visit US again

  The majority view on the thread seems to be this is a fire sale – so when will transfers to Hilton be stopped?

  • philco says:

    28 Mar28 March 02:12

    Honestly I am not convinced the Hilton transfers submitted now will even go through. I mean it doesn’t hurt to try if that is what you want to do but it has often taken at least two weeks and at least one person was advised 30-days up thread here. I am on the fence whether to clear out some to Hilton or not but will probably ride this out. I have a ton of points spread out over a variety of airlines and four transferable currencies (I live in the US) so while the loss of my VS miles would sting I would still have years worth of travel on points still. I’ll sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning.

    • Mac says:

      28 Mar28 March 05:36

      Last time I asked for a Virgin gift card it took over a month of messing around, Kaligo was next day, so who knows with Hilton…

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