Virgin Atlantic cancels all Cape Town flights in April 2025

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• Jonathan says:

  14 Nov14 November 13:40

  This’ll also anger some of their cabin crew, as many have said that Cape Town is their favourite place to be sent to…

  • Danny says:

    14 Nov14 November 14:57

    Some used to love Shanghai too until that got the axe.

    I bet Seoul will never get the green light.

    • Richard says:

      14 Nov14 November 15:27

      Is Seoul on the agenda for Virgin anyway?

      • Rob says:

        14 Nov14 November 15:37

        Has to be. The Korean / Asiana merger can’t happen until Virgin – or BA – starts flying on the route to, ahem, provide competition (to its SkyTeam partner Korean, who will also codeshare on the flights). Korean is providing the Heathrow and Seoul slots which Virgin would get to keep after a couple of years and could switch to another route.

        • G says:

          14 Nov14 November 16:33

          That’s a pretty awful redmedial measure.

          Giving slots away to a codeshare partner, of the same alliance, for only 2 years?

          Makes sense to give those slots away to a Star Alliance carrier who could actually compete once Asiana leaves (like LH) or Oneworld (BA) on similar grounds.

        • Rob says:

          14 Nov14 November 17:16

          Indeed …. not the smartest peas in the pod over at the competition authority.

        • Mark says:

          14 Nov14 November 16:55

          Fingers crossed that’s sometime soon and they’ll release some saver seats on it…. I suspect otherwise we end up using the rest of our points for partner airlines.

        • Jonathan says:

          14 Nov14 November 18:40

          Hopefully it’ll be bookable before my voucher expires, just under two years away

          I’m not holding out too much hope though…

• Ranmoor Bear says:

  14 Nov14 November 14:01

  My Feb VS flights to DXB has moved to a NEO c3 weeks ago, as soon as I got the EMail I was online grabbed the retreat suite straight away

  • Rob says:

    14 Nov14 November 14:42

    No email for me!

  • Matt says:

    14 Nov14 November 14:58

    Same for us. Is the retreat suite worth the extra £300 each?

    • Rob says:

      14 Nov14 November 15:14

      We have a review if you search.

      You don’t anything extra in terms of food, drink, service etc so it’s really down to how you value the extra space. Works best for those who hate foot cubby holes!

    • Ranmoor Bear says:

      14 Nov14 November 21:31

      £341 per seat for my flights to DXB (and same on return) – wanted the extra space and , quite frankly, just to try it !

  • babyg_wc says:

    14 Nov14 November 15:13

    anybody know if the retreat suite triggers the AMEX virgin £100?? Id like to try the suite.. dont want to pay the full price thou.

    • Rob says:

      14 Nov14 November 15:17

      Almost certainly if you do the upgrade online and not via the call centre.

• CJD says:

  14 Nov14 November 14:14

  When was the last time there was good news about Virgin?

  • Panda Mick says:

    14 Nov14 November 14:32

    To be fair, when was the last time there was good news about BA?

    • executiveclubber says:

      14 Nov14 November 14:50

      What, didn’t those new Club Europe cabins cause a jolt of excitement? 😉

      • Danny says:

        14 Nov14 November 14:58

        I’d be mildly excited if they decided to retrofit the XL cabin luggage bins…but no. Profits first lol

    • Numpty says:

      14 Nov14 November 14:58

      when they cancelled KL and moved me to QR.

    • Lee says:

      14 Nov14 November 17:06

      You are right about the ba decline. At least Virgin has good crew. Ba is laughable and means poor service onboard

• Stuart says:

  14 Nov14 November 14:52

  Would Virgin Atlantic favour putting affected folks on to KLM via Amsterdam or Air France via Paris being SkyTeam partners (or Delta via Atlanta LOL)?

  • Nick says:

    14 Nov14 November 15:47

    They’ll favour whoever gives them the best deal – we’ll know in a few days once guidelines have been released. I expect they’ll need a couple of different airlines, depending how many seats they had booked. Inevitably some people will end up on BA. ET would be an interesting routing if that becomes available.

    • Rob says:

      14 Nov14 November 16:11

      Yes, there’s no way they can move everyone onto the same carrier. Not sure my wife and kids fancy a detour to Addis though!

  • Nick says:

    14 Nov14 November 18:23

    I’ve just been offered LHR to Johannesburg then onto cape town with airlink. I would much prefer KLM to Cape Town!!

    • Rob says:

      14 Nov14 November 19:31

      Wait.

• Professor Yaffle says:

  14 Nov14 November 14:53

  Fingers crossed they change LAS to an Airbus too! Death to the coffin seats!!

• Alex G says:

  14 Nov14 November 15:41

  To be fair, its a RR Trent 1000 curse rather than a Dreamliner curse, affecting about 1/3 of the worldwide 787 fleet.

  In theory, the RR engines on the 787 could be replaced with reliable GE engines. I don’t know if any airline has actually done this though?

  • Nick says:

    14 Nov14 November 15:49

    You can’t just unscrew a RR engine and replace directly with a GE one, there are other modifications that would need to be made as well. It’s unlikely this would be economic even if it were possible.

• HampshireHog says:

  14 Nov14 November 15:44

  What a shambles they are, launching routes, adding flights then cancelling and postponing. Right hand clearly doesn’t know what the left hands doing. Today I wasted ages both online, failing at payment stage” no longer available” on the phone trying to book KLM flights with points which the call centre couldn’t confirm either. Availability should be there as shown I guess as it’s a low points price on Flying Blue for the dates VS show supposed availability.
  I sort of knew the coffin and Tesco value meal Upper Class product was crap but their whole operation is obviously falling apart. I was told my the CS rep that the booking system was only back up today after three days being off. Think I’m done with them for sure, may as well exit to Hilton while we can

  • ankomonkey says:

    14 Nov14 November 19:01

    Totally agree. I’m not affected by this, but the airline is just a total joke. So many announcements that they renege on. How does the CEO survive and have any credibility?

    • JDB says:

      14 Nov14 November 20:47

      It’s utterly incredible that the CEO and other exec committee members haven’t been fired, although the overall ownership and management structure don’t help. What’s remarkable is that Shaister and his colleagues are so publicly critical of other airlines and airports when in my experience good top management are rather careful to avoid being drawn into such criticism. When their own operation is so shambolic and seemingly devoid of strategy or vision, it becomes apparent they make these criticisms to cover their own deficiencies. The journalists they brief lap up anti BA / Heathrow stories.

      With IAG, the strategy for the group airlines is very clear even if the execution is often not quite as passenger friendly as they suggest.

• Stuart Armitage says:

  14 Nov14 November 16:52

  I too got the email from Virgin but they are only offering a refund or a flight to an alternative destination rather than a different airline. Does anyone know if legally they have to put us on a different flight at no expense to us?

  • Rob says:

    14 Nov14 November 17:15

    No they’re not!

    It literally says “You can move your booking to a new date when our services commence or you may prefer us to rebook your travel with an alternative carrier.”

    • Stuart Armitage says:

      14 Nov14 November 17:31

      I completely missed that text in the email! I can see it now. So I suppose the call centres will be busy on Saturday!

  • JDB says:

    14 Nov14 November 17:32

    VS is required to reroute you on another airline if that’s your preferred option. The issue is likely to be finding direct seats as it’s such a busy route for BA, the only other direct operator. In theory, VS should book you on any airline subject only to the availability of seats but VS maybe not have access to all inventory on other airlines, particularly for reward seats.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Nov14 November 18:44

      Reward seats are not required to be present when someone whose flight is being rerouted. The EC UK legislations both have state specifically that any seat available in same cabin class, the person being rerouted has a right to regardless of if.their original booking was a reward booking, or not.

      • JDB says:

        14 Nov14 November 20:27

        @Lady London – you have misunderstood both what I said and the technical and legal situation. The rerouting requirements of Article 8.1(c) are subject to availability and it has become increasingly common for the ‘receiving’ airline not to make space available to limitless ‘refugees’ from other airlines (even if they have plenty of seats theoretically available) and they can and do distinguish between revenue passengers and reward passengers. This is an important and growing contextual reality you needed to factor into your hawkishness.

        • Jake says:

          14 Nov14 November 21:06

          @JDB – If in this example Virgin are not able to offer the preferred flight (e.g. Direct BA) but only able to offer a flight lets say one day later, I presume you are well within your rights to buy the tickets outright and claim and Virgin would have no right to refuse the repayment?

        • Rob says:

          14 Nov14 November 21:37

          You have to ask what would a fair minded person in arbitration or a small claims court think. Off to a wedding the next day? Ok. Off for a months holiday? No chance. My trip is 10 days. Would losing 1 day out of 10 be so bad? No idea.

          KLM is a day flight down which I quite fancy.

        • JDB says:

          14 Nov14 November 21:33

          @Jake – no, that’s not a correct interpretation. The rules are very passenger friendly but they don’t offer you carte blanche to be rerouted on any flight you want. Each case has to be considered on its own merits, and we will see what Virgin offers, but Virgin isn’t obliged to offer you BA direct and availability may be an issue.

          While an airline is supposed to avoid indirect routings where possible, that’s not an absolute. Ultimately, it comes down to the reasonableness of what Virgin offers you and the reasonableness of you rejecting any such offers and going off to buy tickets independently in the expectation of being reimbursed. You would at least be guaranteed a full refund.

          Personally, although I feel comfortable navigating any eventual litigation and can fund the cost of replacement tickets for as long as necessary, with expensive long haul tickets, I probably wouldn’t take the risk unless Virgin really offered nothing. These things are really much better resolved by agreement, even if you have to appeal to the Virgin Executive Office to override the call centre.

        • Littlefish says:

          14 Nov14 November 23:08

          @JDB. Thank you for your insights. I am curious how/why the potential receiving airline would know (or even care) that the passenger from the cancelled flight is revenue (cash), revenue (credit card), reward (points) or a mix of cash and points. Is the compensation the receiving airline secures from Virgin in this case somehow different depending on the fare bucket or method of payment Virgin used?
          Eg. Could business passenger A cost Virgin £3,000, but business passenger B costs £2,500 for the same alternative flight.

        • Matt says:

          14 Nov14 November 23:32

          Virgin might distinguish, but shouldn’t legally. The receiving airline couldn’t distinguish unless Virgin made them.

          Lady London is correct legally, even if that may not actually be followed in practice.

        • Nick says:

          14 Nov14 November 23:35

          Compensation arrangements between airlines vary, which is why they can include or exclude certain passenger types. It can get quite complicated. Either way though, there will be a solution for everyone – there has to be.

          As others have said, there is a requirement for both the airline and the customer to be ‘reasonable’. It’s in neither party’s interest for that to need testing in court.

        • JDB says:

          15 Nov15 November 05:39

          @Littlefish – a receiving airline always knows from the e-ticket created by the issuer. The fare line and the endorsements have to make clear the fare paid and any relevant restrictions both for the receiving airline to ‘cash in’ the coupon and to know how to handle any refunds/reroutes/reissues on the operating flights.

        • Lady London says:

          15 Nov15 November 15:48

          I’m with @pigeon (subsequent posts) on this @JDB.

          The obligation to reroute you accordung to the rules rests with the airline whose flight you booked. If you say you need to be rerouted in accordance with original flight timing then as thw legislation states in specific wording the cancelling airline has to consifer every available sea4 in same cabin to orovide your reroite into and not just award seats. The CAA haa reminded airlines to also be prepared to book rerouted passengers on other airlines. The passenger has the right to choose to be reroited as near as reasonably possible to his original flight time. Lack of award seats is not s block to the cancelling airline’s responsibility for this.

          Cost is also not a reasonable barrier either taking into account that airlines kniw the legislation anx, particularly in Virgin’s case here, have made *commercial* decisiona to cancel flights.

          If people lose cases then there can be all sorts of reasons but I am sure basing a clsim carefully on the choice to be rerouted as soon as reasonably possible based on the originsl flight timings, should win

          This doesn’t mean the passenger gets to choose which airline he is reroutef omto if there us more than one that can meet his right to be rerouted as soon as reasonably possible. The cancelling airline still gets to choose Bur if there are seats available for purchase, that don’t give the airline thar made a commercial decision to cancel the passenger’s original flight, a nice price then toigh they knew that waw a risk when they made the decision.

          No sympathy whatsoever and I would argue it carefully to win.

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