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My partner was due to fly to LAX with Virgin Atlantic around 12pm today. Last night he got a text saying the flight was cancelled. He quickly went online and booked himself on the next flight about 4pm which is a Delta flight.
He has just been told he’s not on that flight and has been rebooked to fly tomorrow.
He’s on hold phoning Virgin Atlantic. Can he demand they put him on another airline’s flight such as BA, today? And how successful is he likely to be?
He’s just been told by whom? Had he paid for a new flight with Delta? Is this being refunded/cancelled?
He is entitled to re-routing on the same day (within reason), however his first port of call should have been contacting (or trying) VS before rebooking himself on Delta.
Given the current time, if he can’t get hold of anyone from Virgin soon, he needs to document his efforts then look at alternative arrangements.
To be able to successfully claim his costs back, he’ll probably need to show that Virgin were being unreasonable by re-routing him the next day.
Also consider that if it’s not vital that he flies today, he should be eligible for delay/cancellation compo unless the reason was unavoidable (such as bad weather, but that should also have affected other departures).
Has a reason been given for the change? There is some reporting about “Christmas travel chaos” on the news but I’m not sure if this is above and beyond the usual seasonal chaos!Sorry for confusion, he got a text from Virgin last night cancelling the flight. Rebooking on Virgin website showed availability on a Delta flight so he switched for free.
He has now spoken to Virgin customer services who said that all Virgin and Delta flights are cancelled. Assuming it’s a staffing hours thing and not a faulty plane.
They won’t put him on a BA flight!!
He stayed in the Leonardo hotel at LHR last night and out of his bedroom window he can see lots of Virgin and Delta planes just sitting there on the ground!!
It would be really useful if he could get a reason. Hopefully someone on here can check this if they’re around.
Is it imperative that he gets to LAX today, and are there other flights definitely running? I know there was a storm yesterday which certainly made our landing last night into MAN feel like a rollercoaster!
If so, and VS has refused to rebook him onto an alternate flight, he would technically be within his rights to rebook himself on BA (or another carrier if available and cheaper) but he may have to go to CEDR or MCOL to get the money back.
Everything that has been said/done should be documented in as much detail as possible and make sure to keep any emails, texts, etc.If an avios booking is a possibility, SeatSpy is showing CW and F availability to LAX in the next couple of days.
The 4pm is a Virgin flight so if he had seen a Delta code it’s possible there wasn’t actually availability. Systems sometimes lag. There are a Delta and a Virgin cancellation to LAX today so things must be hectic
If he’s at the airport he’s better to just go over to T3 and speak to staff, they’ll likely have more ability to assist with a reroute today. What cabin is he booked in?
It’s not essential he flies today but it’s only a short trip to see family and fly back to London on 28th.
BA are flying at 15:05 but they only have 1 premium economy seat left at £2960!! Too risky to spend that much money if he can’t get it back.
He’s going to pop into the airport and if not a huge queue beg Virgin (politely) to put him on the BA flight, if not then get the Elizabeth line home.
He was in economy.
When he managed to (in theory) get on the Delta flight today the Virgin website forwarded him to Delta to choose a seat, so it’s odd it’s showing as a Virgin flight.
In the photo he sent me I can see 3 Virgin planes just sitting there on the ground.
Sitting where? At gates then there are other VS flights operating today!
The only VS cancellations I can see so far are the LAX so it’s not an arline wide issue.
And it mot be possible to rebook him onto another airline with limited availability other airlines will try and keep it for their own passengers that need rebooking.
A HfP friend is meant to be flying to Las Vegas this afternoon and I can’t see her flight listed so looks like that is cancelled too.
Good call on going to the terminal. If other flights aren’t affected, they could route him via JFK/ATL etc.
I couldn’t see any VS/DL/AF/KL options at all – JFK has seats there but nothing onwards today, other transatlantic flights are full
United airlines seems to have some options, pretty sure you’d need to speak to airport staff for those though I’m not familiar with Virgin call centre policies
Las Vegas is running but it’s full
SeatSpy was showing 2 x PE and 2 x CW for today on BA but of course you’d need to verify via BA.com and have the avios.
He’s been in a queue at the airport to talk to Virgin for 90 minutes!!
They offered him a flight to Vegas this afternoon which he declined. So they’re putting him up in the Radisson Blu tonight and flying him out to LAX tomorrow afternoon.
Apparently the cabin crew had flown their allowed hours for the year… is that right or did he hear that wrong, and was it just allocated hours for whatever period it’s measured in?
Cabin and flight crew are only permitted to work a certain amount of in-flight hours per week, month and year and it’s all cumuluative and it’s all carefully monitored – well supposed to be.
It’s all fine when everything runs smoothly but if a flight gets delayed then the delay eats into their total working hours which can throw the plans out of whack.
What I would say is that if that is the reason for the cancellation then he has a good claim for the £ 520 compensation as managing flight hours (as well as having on call staff) is fully under the control of the airline.
900 hours in a rolling 12 months unless they have a union agreement for it to be monitored differently. Definitely not an unforeseen circumstance, they clearly don’t have enough crew to cover the roster. Often this is rectified by offering overtime as long as it doesn’t affect the above, the number of people willing to do that at this time of year plummets.
Yes a 2 night LAX today wouldn’t get you back in until at least lunchtime on Xmas day so they aren’t going to find many volunteers for that one !
Make sure he makes a note of who said that and when in case VS try to deny it later! I’m guessing this could be quite expensive for them …
Thanks for the advice. Where do you get the £520 compensation figure from? Is there something he should quote?
It’s the standard UK261 compo for a cancellation of a flight this long
Thanks for the info.
Well I came to his aid with swimming shorts and we’re just back from the spa in the Radisson Blu.
They gave him £50 of food vouchers and a hotel room for the night. Would that reduce the compensation?
Ok dinner time now.
No. Any compensation is entirely separate from any “duty of care” elements such as hotel and meals.
Great! Thanks so much for your advice.
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