Rolls-Royce and Airbus support £500m Virgin Atlantic coronavirus bail-out (FT)

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• EwanG says:

  2 Apr2 April 10:55

  @Rob, Rhys – I see from the Virginatlantic.com homepage they are now promoting taking PayPal as a payment method. Is it worthwhile highlighting this in a bit of an article? You’d give up the Section 75 protection from paying on a credit card or chargeback ability on a debit card and rely on the PayPal Buyer Protection instead. I would prefer to rely on the statutory rights from paying directly as it looks to me that Buyer Protection is weaker and in the event of a large scale failure PayPal would want to get out from paying.

  • Rob says:

    2 Apr2 April 11:04

    Interesting, will take a look.

• BrianN says:

  2 Apr2 April 13:26

  Hi, someone mentioned further up in the replies that Virgin only transfer points to Hilton once a month. Do we know if that information is accurate?

  If it is, that must mean then that if a transfer takes up to 30 days, the actual transfer must be instant but they only do it once a month?

  • Stephen says:

    2 Apr2 April 14:15

    The next transfer to Hilton is tomorrow. They happen once a month.

    They send across a spreadsheet with the requests on. No idea whether they make payment at the same time or how long Hilton takes to process from their side.

    • BrianN says:

      2 Apr2 April 14:33

      How do you know that though? is it just common knowledge that it’s once per month?

      Logically though if you think about it – if it only happens once per month – and the transfer takes a ‘up to’ (so a maximum of) 30 days (a month) – then the transfer must be instant.

      • Stephen says:

        2 Apr2 April 14:43

        Just from speaking to Virgin Flying Club CS – they said if the additional security has not been passed, the miles won’t be transferred.

        I responded to the email request for information 2 days ago, but when I went to make a new booking today, I asked if they had received it, and they said it was not updated on the spreadsheet as of yet (so they took the details again)

• Andrew says:

  2 Apr2 April 13:43

  I’m quite OK for Rolls-Royce and Airbus to support Virgin Atlantic… with £250m of their own cash each.

  • BrianN says:

    2 Apr2 April 14:34

    What’s the issue with the government giving them an interest bearing loan? It will save jobs and the taxpayer will make a profit on it when repaid.

• BrianN says:

  2 Apr2 April 13:56

  OT – the Virgin 241 voucher. What are the rules regarding when you can use the voucher e.g. do both legs have to be flown before the expiry date or just the outbound leg?

  I believe it is just the outbound leg. Can anyone confirm? Is there a link to this in the T&C? I tried to find it but no luck.

  Thanks

• Opuada says:

  5 Apr5 April 23:15

  How sure are we that Virgin won’t receive a rescue package?

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:10

    Cash burn rate should be fairly low (in airline terms). BA is meant to be down to losing £100m per week so let’s assume Virgin is £20m per week. That’s manageable. A bigger issue is the cash they’ve had to pay back for cancelled bookings.

    A bigger risk is how the US market re-opens. Irrespective of what the rest of the world does, if the US insisted on 14 days quarantine for new arrivals for, say, 2 years then Virgin Atlantic simply has no business any longer. BA would also end up on the edge but it isn’t as reliant on North America.

• Andi Hawes says:

  8 Apr8 April 22:31

  OT: and apologies if I already posted as i thought i did but didnt see it appear:

  Is there logic in booking a Miles VA trip to Orlando for Easter 2021 in the current climate? Ive been planning on booking 4x UC for Orlando/Miami for a while and wondered if it sensible in this period of uncertainty for the airline?

  In the event that the airline went under, would i be able to get my taxes back? I assume the Miles, used and not consumed, or unused, would be lost iun this event.

  • Rob says:

    8 Apr8 April 22:38

    Taxes would be covered, almost certainly. Your miles are at risk either way!

    • Andi Hawes says:

      9 Apr9 April 09:00

      Thanks Rob

      How do i book a return 2 weeks later if only the outbound opens up for 26th March 2021..? Do i wait a day, then book a rtn home day after, then amend when available?

      • Rob says:

        9 Apr9 April 09:33

        Not sure with Virgin. Most people don’t rush to book because Virgin doesn’t guarantee to open seats for miles when booking opens.

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