charges for changing virign flights after booking!!

[uktigger]

at first i didn't think i was going to get anywhere with her as she said quite a few times that this was their policy to charge a fee but i then went on to tell here how i changed a booking with them back in 2001 and was not charged,she then offered me the refund os 2 charges
the only thing i though weird was that i have to go to my travel agent to get the refund becuase they have not recived the final payment from them yet,i asked how this was seeing as i paid up on 16th july and she told me they have an account with the agent and they send payments off to virgin after a period of time(something new i learnt today)the virgin rep told me this would be on travel agents screen that i am getting a refund

eve

 

[Cassius69]

I've just got off the phone with virgin (deep breath - count to 10). They've slashed the cost of my holiday by over 25% (even the insurance!), I knew they'd be reluctant to allow me to re-book at the cheaper price, so I thought I'd merely upgrade our hotel to a better one that's on Megadeal offer - but they won't give it to me at the Megadeal price.

Virgin said that

i) Megadeal Offers are only available on the net, and you can't change your booking on the net (not true, Virgin will accept Megdeal prices over the phone)

ii) Since I booked in January they can only offer me the prices available in January

Aaaaaargh!!

This is blatantly unfair! So, again, tomorrow I will ring Virgin back asking to change my hotel - and again I'll be met with their Indian Callcentre Operative who is not allowed to budge on the matter!

Time for a stiff letter of complaint.

I used to recommend Virgin Holidays to all, but now I'm going to have to bite my tongue!!

 

[uktigger]

just an update on my post yesterday
i went to my travel agent today to get a refund on my 2 amendment fees(she had to ring virgin to confirm)and low and behold virgin new nothing of my call and it was not entered on screen and the virgin rep told TA that all amendment fees still stand and you always get these charges when you change bookings i came home and got on the phone again to virgin and spoke to another man who told me if your holiday increases in price you will not be charged(now bear in mind 2 reps told me they do and 2 have told me they don't charge)so he has promised to give me the refund and he was going to put it on screen straight away he also asked me how many admin fees i had to which i replied 4 and he has said i will be getting a refund of £100 and go to my TA and get them to ring virgin so fingers crossed all will go well tomorrow and i'll get the refund
i'll post tomorrow and let you know how i got on

isn't it frustrating when you get told different stories by reps who work for the same company
thanks for listerning eve

 

[kazzie]

OMG Eve you must be sick of all this BUT you get £100 pounds back! How does it make you feel when other Virgin people are insisting something is correct when you know it isn't

Cassius69,

the travel industry is desperatley trying to get the public to book their holidays early and not leave it late deals.In this case they need to always reward early bookers with the cheapest possible deal.I believe if the price drops at a later date if someone is savvy enough to have found that out then they should be gievn some sort of a price match,.

 

[DisneyBB]

Does anyone else remember that years and years ago Virgin used to offer a price promis. That if your holiday worked out cheaper in later additions of the broucher you would get a refund of the difference?

We had trouble with our feb05 flydrives. We booked because it offered an early booking discount if you booked before the 30th April. When the new broucher came out at the beginning of May my flydrives were cheaper even with the discount. I argued with Virgin Travel Store that a discount was advertised as early booking should be cheaper than booking later. They did give me the cheaper price, but only as a good will gesture and would not admit VH were in the wrong.

 

[uktigger]

hi kazzie
well i have just had a call from my TA telling me that now i have to wait untill thomas cook gets a amendment invoice from virgin telling them how much refund i am getting so i guess i have a bit of a waiting game here i'll report back when i hear anything

eve

 

[Cassius69]

Yes, Virgin do have a price promise - but it only lasts up to 7 days of you receiving your invoice.

Not much chance of that then.

 

[kazzie]

Good!

Let us know when the invoice comes through.
If it takes a while don't forget to check where it is

 

[uktigger]

i'm going to give it 2 weeks max and then i'll contact the travel agent

eve

 

[uktigger]

just an update

i got a call yesterday from my travel agent to go in to see her, vigin had sent the invoice through and i got a refund on all four admin charges

eve

 

[tracyjane]

hi
me and another family changed our bookings with virgin in march this year, we went for 3 weeks instead of the 2 we was going to do, but did not get charged nothing, u should b ok
tracy

 

[uktigger]

tracy

i got all 4 of my amedment fees back

eve