No Virgin Atlantic passenger flights – zilch – for at least a week in late April

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• Blindman says:

  8 Apr8 April 17:58

  Hi

  I’m from UK and bought a ANZ flight from Sydney to RAR.

  AirNz have cancelled the flight and are automatically crediting the amount, so no cash refund.

  This is of no use to me as I’ll not be using AirNZ any time in the next 12 months and the voucher amount will not cover any future flight from SYD to RAR anyway.

  So how do I approach getting a refund in cash?
  New zealand do not seem to have a consumer law that gives me the right to a refund in cash

  First option would S75??

  Thanks

  • Heathrow Flyer says:

    8 Apr8 April 18:33

    I have RAR – AKL booked for August so I am interested to hear how you get on.

    At present I’m hoping it happens, as it’s still 4 months away, but we shall see.

    New Zealand seems to have been very gung-ho about shutting up shop.

  • Lady London says:

    8 Apr8 April 22:57

    Nasty one.
    Is this about you still needing to travel the route? Or are you not in need of any actual travel just the refund.

    NZ seems to have really poor consumer law to allow their airline to dump someone in the Pacific and just say ” too bad here’s a voucher we’re keeping your money even though you wi have no occasion ever to fly us again”.

    I am really quite shocked as New Zealanders are usually very fair-minded people that don’t put up with bullsh1t.

    Practically as NZ is not governed by EC261 you have either claim on your insurance or s.75 or chargeback. For the sake of good order I would politely advise NZ in writing that you are unable to accept their voucher as you live in the UK and this was a once in a lifetime trip and so you would have no opportunity to use it. You therefore seek the value of your flight back. NZer’s understand the lifetime trip thing since many of them do it in the other direction. There’s just a chance a nice note might prompt something better. Can their vouchers be used with any hotel booking I wonder.

    Once you’ve sent something along those lines go for s.75 or insurance refund without hanging around.

• Anon says:

  8 Apr8 April 18:06

  Have a Virgin flight on May 1st and having difficulty with HSBC as it’s not officially cancelled yet but TravelUp aren’t responding to rebook etc. as per Virgin’s policy.

  Another week and HSBC discussions would have been made so much easier 🙁

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Apr8 April 21:02

    Are you against travelling now or just trying to preempt a cancellation as if it’s the latter wait until it’s actually cancelled then contact the agent followed by HSBC if they don’t co-operate.

    Unfortunately inclination not to travel isn’t a reason for a chargeback if the flight isn’t cancelled then it’s at Virgin/travelups discretion to refund/rebook you or it’s probably a refund of the taxes back.

    Think this is relevant for you.

    “If you booked on or before 19th March there is no change fee AND no difference in fare as long as your travel prior to 30th June 2020. A fare difference may apply for rebookings between 1st July 2020 to 30th April 2021.”

• J says:

  8 Apr8 April 19:32

  BA declined to reroute me with another airline because of a cancelled connection, they did stump up for a hotel at Heathrow and get me there a day later so I’m happy enough. Anyway the justification for denying to reroute was the Corona virus and “extraordinary circumstances”. Every airline is using this. My understanding is that the EU rules (apart from compensation) still apply. But given Lufthansa, Air France, KLM etc are taking state aid – rerouting, compensation costs etc are essentially now taxpayers money, so government pressure on the EU to relax these consumer regulations will continue. The Dutch and German govts have already been lobbying for the airlines to be able to offer vouchers instead of cash refunds. I’d take a refund in case it’s not an option in the future as I wouldn’t want to end up with a voucher.

• Ian says:

  8 Apr8 April 20:10

  I was chatting to a friend yesterday who is VS crew…she did a 2 round trips last week, one to LA with 10 passengers on the return, and one to NY with 4 passengers.

  • @mkcol says:

    9 Apr9 April 11:41

    My husband works for Avanti West Coast. It is highly unusual for him to have more than half a dozen pax on any service nowadays.
    It appears that the company are trying to reduce services further & are just awaiting DfT approval.

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