Virgin Atlantic axes Hong Kong flights, permanently

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• Mike says:

  6 Oct6 October 05:19

  I was given the £200 on my Platinum Business card and my renewal date is late April next year. I spoke to Amex on Monday and they explained the £200 on Amex travel spend, so I think this was probably a mistake.

  • Joe says:

    6 Oct6 October 14:52

    Spoke with Amex earlier today, I see HfP have updated the article since this morning, but the automatic credit was an error issued to around 12,500 customers – long story short it will be removed and will apply as a credit towards Amex Travel bookings from 10th Oct onwards, as planned. Never mind!

    • Rob says:

      6 Oct6 October 14:55

      No, that’s not true. Amex hasn’t decided whether to take it away or let us keep it instead of giving the credit for the current year.

• IanT says:

  6 Oct6 October 06:22

  It’s a shame about Hong Kong. Pre-Covid it was one of the best ways to get back from SE Asia, with an Upper Class flight costing just 57,500 points and £70 in taxes and fees.

  • Sean C says:

    6 Oct6 October 10:59

    Definitely – Used VS to get out to HK and then intra-asia flights on Avios to do a multi-centre trip a few years ago and was considering it again next year to see family. Only use for these miles is to hope more cheap cruises come up next year now, going west is way out of budget for me right now.

• Louie says:

  6 Oct6 October 06:32

  Marvellous. The only Virgin Atlantic route I was likely to use my credit card vouchers on.

  • memesweeper says:

    6 Oct6 October 07:24

    +1

    If you’re not interested in the US, you’re not interested in Virgin Atlantic. Such a shame.

    When the fleet is back at full strength maybe we’ll see something else in SE Asia. Singapore could use some competition, although Virgin are a Singapore Airlines partner so perhaps that route is precluded. KL? Bangkok? Vietnam even? Trouble is, not only are these long routes, they are probably light on business travellers, so not going to be super profitable. I wonder if there’s a realignment ahead to better coordinate with a skyteam partner in the region?

    • manilabay says:

      6 Oct6 October 07:36

      I had mused this last week. I felt that HKG was prolly a good connecting hub to SkyTeam as any to go onwards to East Asia or SE Asia. Korean Air at Seoul is too far out the way and I doubt any of the ASEAN destinations (SkyTeam hubs or Bangkok) would be sustainable without a lot of business travel. Clearly a reason why BA is so limited on Asia travel now 🙁

• Jon says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:07

  I’ll be interested to see what Virgin offers in the way of “rebooking onto another service”. The email I received offers only refund or travel voucher for use on other Virgin flights, ie totally different routes. So once again they’re failing to comply with their EU/UK261 obligation to offer the full range of required options, including re-route, ie getting you to your destination on another carrier etc. Not a good look, Virgin. I hope someone from the CMA and CAA is taking note, given this is exactly what their recent letter to airlines was all about.

  @Louie Same here. I have several vouchers that will now be completely useless to me. Would be nice if Virgin came up with some sort of solution there (cash them in for equivalent miles or some such, maybe), but I’m not optimistic.

  • sayling says:

    6 Oct6 October 08:45

    If it’s more than 14 days notice, EU261 doesn’t kick in, though, does it?

    • Rob says:

      6 Oct6 October 08:54

      EC261 is only about cash compensation for cancellations. Your right to be rebooked is separate to this.

      • Nick says:

        6 Oct6 October 08:57

        It’s about so much more that Rob. It’s a set of surprisingly accessible rules, you should read the original text.

        • Rob says:

          6 Oct6 October 09:02

          Read it many times, just simplifying it in the context of this question!

      • Callum says:

        6 Oct6 October 09:22

        I’ve never understood your habit of writing completely incorrect information in the name of “simplifying” it.

        Especially in cases like this where it would be just as easy to give accurate information like “Cash compensation doesn’t apply with more than 14 days notice, but the rest of the regulations do”.

        • Sprout says:

          6 Oct6 October 10:51

          I’m a little confused now. I have reward flights in March from HKG to LHR that have been cancelled. I would like a re-routing which I think I’m entitled to from the above (and the comments in the “CEDR victory” thread). I had planned to ring them quoting EU/UK 261 as being the law under which they had to fulfill these obligations. However, reading the above I’m now not so sure as it’s more than 14 days out. Could someone please confirm if EU/UK 261 is the correct refernce point or if not, what I should be quoting for a rerouting on an alternative service.
          Many thanks

        • Rob says:

          6 Oct6 October 11:08

          It is part of 261, my comment was not correct.

        • Mark says:

          6 Oct6 October 13:35

          Looks like AF do fly to Hong Kong but cancelled until the start of next year’s Summer timetable. In the meantime the only Skyteam option seems to be Korean via Seoul, not that it makes a difference in terms of EC261 reroute rights.

        • Lady London says:

          6 Oct6 October 15:37

          +1
          I just don’t understand why these misstatements keep happening. I know it can’t be lack of knowledge as Rob you’re crystal on business stuff.

          Callum said it. EU/EC/UK261 regs, also known as “APR” in the UK, let an airline escape from compensation to you if a flight is cancelled more than 14 days ahead. However all other rights still stand under that legislation including “duty of care”.

          Duty of care means that if an airline cancels your flight at any time, even 355 days ahead, they still have to take care of you for the extra time it now takes for you to start flying (replacement flight or late flight) or longer journey or arriving later journey.

          Duty of care includes all meals at reasonable local rates caused by the flight change, any extra hotels needed, transport to and from the acvommodation (even home if you have to back home till flight) and internet/2 phone calls.

          Duty of care also includes advising you of your right to choose rerouting (even on another airline if yours hasn’t flights soon enough), or you can choose to move all the flights on your ticket to a later date, or you (not the airline) get to choose if you want a refund. All this even if the flight is cancelled, or rescheduled beyond certain limits, 355 days ahead.

        • Lady London says:

          6 Oct6 October 15:39

          sorry @shai

  • Sprout says:

    6 Oct6 October 15:25

    @Rob – Thanks for confirming.
    @Mark – Many thanks for taking the time to detail how to approach this. It’s a first for me so find it a little daunting. I won’t be in a position to pay cash for 4 flights and take them to some sort of arbitration so hopefully they can offer something otherwise I will have to take a refund and try to find some other way home (or cancel the whole trip)

    • Lady London says:

      6 Oct6 October 15:46

      You can produce say, 5 quotes indicating costs of reroutes across different airlines in the same class, as evidence of reasonable market rate in CEDR or MCOL submission. A risk it moves higher by the time you get abbitration/CEDR/ADR or MCOL judgment. But few of us can shell out for a flexible cancellable ticket on spec.

      @memesweeper has also suggested booking the much cheaper semi-flexible “Select” BA Business fares available from travel agents (eg Amex) could be an option for some to proffer as reasonable replacement examples if you wish to exercise your right to a reroute.

    • Mark says:

      6 Oct6 October 19:02

      You have a few months before you travel so I’d start now with the exec team and take it to ADR if you don’t get anywhere. Whilst they should honour replacement flights “at the earliest opportunity” if you’re willing/able to be flexible you might find it easier to get an agreed resolution. I think someone else said they were offered KLM flights and it looks like both AF and KLM are restarting flights from ~April. That said, you only mentioned HKG-LHR so if your outbound flights are with a different airline that may not be possible. Either way you’re within your rights to keep pushing for your original date. Out of interest did you pay the taxes and fees on a credit card and were they > £100 (possibly not if it was a one-way from HKG)?

  • Gary says:

    6 Oct6 October 22:23

    same for me, several useless vouchers not that have cost me money in CC fees

• The Streets says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:09

  I had three flights booked with Virgin for Hong Kong next year.. I need to remind them of EU/UK261 as a further option

  • Tom1 says:

    6 Oct6 October 07:33

    Unfortunately reminding them of their eu261 obligations doesn’t help much.
    They were willing to reroute me – but on KLM flights on a completely different date.
    When I requested like for like (Cathay or BA) they refused despite the reminder of the CMA/CAA letter. My plans have changed so haven’t followed up – but best way to resolve is to email the exec team via Shei Weiss email.

    • The Streets says:

      6 Oct6 October 08:39

      Cheers Tom will give it a go and escalate.. still chasing a cancelled Virgin upper class flight I had to reroute myself back from Hong Kong earlier this year but that one was with a few days notice!

• yorkieflyer says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:14

  Big shame about Hong Kong, of course it used to be a stop on the Boomerang route to Sydney which we used when we got a test match 100 seat offer in 2006 and celebrated our nuptials in Oz

  • Rob says:

    6 Oct6 October 07:44

    It was also possible to do VS to HK and then redeeem more Virgin Points on Air New Zealand or Virgin Australia to get to Oz/NZ.

• Gary says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:16

  Unfortunately more late night calls for BA LHR SIN to come.

• Nathan says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:30

  Also received the mystery £200 bung from AMEX 🤷‍♂️

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