The Official Virgin Holidays UK FAQ Thread

[Jon84]

Ok, so over the last few weeks, I've seen threads, and personally had dealings with Virgin Holidays where they give out mis-information regarding holidays.

The idea of this thread to create and FAQ that helps fellow bookers out when they can't get a straight answer out of VH.

I'll start... and add any that anyone else adds (or corrects mine!) to the first post.

FAQs

Q. What reference number do I use to link my Virgin Holiday to My Disney Experience
A. You will use your VH Reference - eg '1234567' - in the MDE App or Website to link your reservations.

Q. When will I be able to link my WDW stay to My Disney Experience Account?
A. At 490 Days before your return home date you will be able to link your resort reservation to your MDE Account.

Q. When will my Park Tickets or Memory Maker show on MDE?
A. Official word from Virgin is that your 'Magic Your Way / Ultimate' Park Tickets and Memory Maker should automatically show up at 60 Days before your departure date. Edit 25/8/15: Bookers have reported that their Tickets and MM are showing up as early as 444 Days out

Q. When can I choose my seats with Virgin Atlantic?
A. You can select your seats at 11 months (336 days) from departure, and then again at 11 months (336 days) from your return flight. -----
Upper Class and Premium Economy will be able to choose free of charge at this point. Economy price to choose will vary depending on if you are part of the flying club or not (and what level).
Economy can choose for free at 24 Hours before your flight.
Economy with Flying Club can choose for free at 14 Days for Silver Members, and 72 Hours for Red Members, Gold Members can chooses at 336 Days


Tips and Tricks

Flying Club Discounts and Miles
Tip: Signup to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club for Discounts and to earn miles on your booking and flights.

If you are a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Member, you can get a discount on a Virgin Holiday booking and earn miles per £ spent on the holiday. They are not available with Online Bookings

Current Benefits as of 19/08/15 are:

• Red Flying Club: Save up to 7% with Virgin Holidays plus 1 miles for every £1 spent on the total value of your booking
• Silver Flying Club: Save up to 7% with Virgin Holidays plus 2 miles for every £1 spent on the total value of your booking
• Gold Flying Club: Enjoy 10% off plus 2 miles for every £1 spent

Note: The % Discounts are not on the total purchase price, Airport Tax and VAT etc are not deductible. A rough guide for Red and Silver is that your 7% discount is actually closer to 5% of the purchase price

You will also earn miles on your flight with VA as per a normal flight booking, but remember to add your FC Number to the VA website via 'Manage Booking'

Changes to Bookings
Tip: Always get the VH agent to take the booking right through to the confirmation stage in your booking, rather than just selecting the hotel and giving you the price difference.

Bookers have had experience of quotes for changes to bookings being incorrect (both too high, and too low). An example is a change of WDW hotel from Wilderness Lodge to Beach Club (not date change just hotel). VH in two stores and on the phone quoted a c.£700 increase on multiple occasions and on the day the change was made. When the change was made, the system actually only changed the booking to increase by £10. The reason this happens is because they quite often just look at the price difference without actually applying it to your booking.

 

[Tash87]

Great thread!

This could of been extremely helpful for me with my poor, experience with Virgin holidays over the last few months.

 

[pickers1982]

My experience of them was horrendous. Really utterly clueless about anything! Lies, mid truths etc you name it we had it!

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

I agree nothing more frustrating than not getting the right information from a "so called" holiday expert who you are spending a small fortune with.However,to say that VH don't know anything is misleading.We had to get back to the Uk from WDW very quick one year as my father was seriously ill,VH went above and beyond the call of duty in many ways to fly me back to Manchester within 24hours for which will be eternally grateful.I have also booked direct with Disney and have been given wrong information from people who you would think would know the most.
I just wanted people to know that VH aren't as bad as the thread title makes out.

 

[Jon84]

I agree nothing more frustrating than not getting the right information from a "so called" holiday expert who you are spending a small fortune with.However,to say that VH don't know anything is misleading.We had to get back to the Uk from WDW very quick one year as my father was seriously ill,VH went above and beyond the call of duty in many ways to fly me back to Manchester within 24hours for which will be eternally grateful.I have also booked direct with Disney and have been given wrong information from people who you would think would know the most.
I just wanted people to know that VH aren't as bad as the thread title makes out.

The thread title is more for attention grabbing, and the purpose is less discussion (although it's always useful to vent!) and more about putting the correct info all in one place. EDIT: I've changed it now

I'm glad they were able to assist you when you really needed it. I can imagine that in a critical situation they would just get things done.

I guess it's less the big things they have info about, its the smaller and Disney related things. In my experience the call centre put me through to the 'Disney Team' who after taking down my question and referring for 24 hours with the 'Disney Relationship Manager', still managed to get the wrong answer (Q was: when will booking link on MDE)

Agreed Disney don't always help too, with the same question as above, they don't have the info to hand and obviously have an SLA on resolving at first point of contact so they just tell you to speak to your TA, or guess.

 

[Jon84]

Great thread!

This could of been extremely helpful for me with my poor, experience with Virgin holidays over the last few months.

I've only been having the same experience around the same time as you! It's a learning curve

 

[pickers1982]

Examples of what VH mucked up or got wrong

1) guaranteed in writing we d get air miles on all flights then refused. Eventually after mud throwing agreed they said it and paid miles. During this process they repeatedly lied about things
2) told us we couldn't link to mde until just before and didn't need to anyway
3)randomly kept increasing our invoice amounts and telling us it was our error not there's. After hours and hours finally admitted they were wrong
4) we landed the day before my folks and they rep made a point to check that my parents on the next flight still wanted a private car transfer. There ended up being no car!
5) repeatedly got prices for changes wrong!

The list goes on however the real pain of the above was the attitude of staff in the call centers and the huge amount of time wasted.

 

[Jon84]

1) guaranteed in writing we d get air miles on all flights then refused. Eventually after mud throwing agreed they said it and paid miles. During this process they repeatedly lied about things

I thought as long as you quoted your Flying Club Number when booking you'd get a discount (varies depending on Club Level), and as long as it was added on the Virgin Atlantic Website via 'Manage Booking' you got miles too, I certainly did.

2) told us we couldn't link to mde until just before and didn't need to anyway

I've covered this in first post, I expected it to be a bit broken last year with the roll out to non-Disney TAs, but this year the lack of knowledge is annoying!

3)randomly kept increasing our invoice amounts and telling us it was our error not there's. After hours and hours finally admitted they were wrong

That is really annoying, it is worth keeping at them till they admit they were wrong

4) we landed the day before my folks and they rep made a point to check that my parents on the next flight still wanted a private car transfer. There ended up being no car!

What happened in the end?

5) repeatedly got prices for changes wrong!

They do this, we were quoted £700 to change from Wilderness Lodge to Beach Club. When they actually did it, it cost £10. Thats right, Ten English Pounds!



I think I'll add a Tips section too.

 

[BagOLaughs]

Do virgin club members flying in economy get to choose their seats for free 72 hours before departure? This is what I was told.

In front of those who don't have the club and have to choose 24 hours before?

 

[Jon84]

Do virgin club members flying in economy get to choose their seats for free 72 hours before departure? This is what I was told.

In front of those who don't have the club and have to choose 24 hours before?

Yes you do! ....

Flying Club benefits
In addition to the exemption for Flying Club Gold members above:

• If you’re a Silver member, you’ll be able to choose your seat for free, from 14 days before departure
• If you’re a Red member, you’ll be able to choose your seat for free, from 72 hours before departure

Gold Members can choose for free at 336 Days.

I'll add that to first post. Thanks Rachel

 

[pickers1982]

Hi jon84 in reply to your questions

1) they told me they could get me miles on everyone's flights (parents were in upper so big incentive) I tried to persuade them they were wrong but 3 people told me that was the case(I thought they were wrong!). To be honest it was a bit part why we ended up booking virgin! They eventually gave me the miles.

3) yes they eventually admitted they were wrong but spent weeks on the phone. No apology for mistake or wasted time. Literally tried to add thousands to our bill! Again it was the attitude that I had to do all the work to prove they were wrong!

4) they got them a car eventually (that took them to the wrong place). Parents were only there for 5 days so that delay meant they missed dinner with us

 

[Jon84]

1) they told me they could get me miles on everyone's flights (parents were in upper so big incentive) I tried to persuade them they were wrong but 3 people told me that was the case(I thought they were wrong!). To be honest it was a bit part why we ended up booking virgin! They eventually gave me the miles.

I am guessing that although they told you that, you don't get miles on other peoples flights.

My wife and I have separate Flying Club Accounts to ensure we capture the miles.

4) they got them a car eventually (that took them to the wrong place). Parents were only there for 5 days so that delay meant they missed dinner with us

Thats just shocking!

 

[tinkerpea]

Hi jon84 in reply to your questions

1) they told me they could get me miles on everyone's flights (parents were in upper so big incentive) I tried to persuade them they were wrong but 3 people told me that was the case(I thought they were wrong!). To be honest it was a bit part why we ended up booking virgin! They eventually gave me the miles.

3) yes they eventually admitted they were wrong but spent weeks on the phone. No apology for mistake or wasted time. Literally tried to add thousands to our bill! Again it was the attitude that I had to do all the work to prove they were wrong!

4) they got them a car eventually (that took them to the wrong place). Parents were only there for 5 days so that delay meant they missed dinner with us

We pay for my mum's flights, so it's always annoying that we don't get the points!
What we did do and do now, is we took her a club member out, and then she gets the points on the flights we pay for, however she can then give them to us just with a phone call to authorise it,
We did this in may and used her points towards our free flights.

The one thing that Majorly gets me! Is that even though I pay nearly through the the roof for kids flights. We don't get miles for them! What's that all about, I seriously think we should be entitled to the miles when paying for your own child's flight.
( I know most airlines are the same) but it seriously irks me when I have 3 kids aged 10,10,13 and pay pretty much a adult fare for them.

 

[Tash87]

My park tickets with memory maker is now showing on MDE and I'm 444 days from travel ( I'm not counting )

 

[Jon84]

My park tickets with memory maker is now showing on MDE and I'm 444 days from travel ( I'm not counting )

That's interesting, I'll keep an eye out on mine too!

My Annual Passes still show on my account, and they are valid till this December so will be interesting to see what happens there!

 

[Tash87]

Hi Jon,

With regards to your reply I.e logging onto VA website, do I have to wait for the 336 days to be able to get my airline ref number?

I know that I can't pre-book seats yet, I'm just curious if I should get onto Virgin again yet.

 

[Jon84]

Hi Jon,

With regards to your reply I.e logging onto VA website, do I have to wait for the 336 days to be able to get my airline ref number?

I know that I can't pre-book seats yet, I'm just curious if I should get onto Virgin again yet.

Hi Tash,

Yeah, the seats are in 'Pre-Allocation', so once Virgin Atlantic Publish all their flights at 11 Months, they'll give Virgin Holidays the reference number. You might need to call one or the other to get the reference.

 

[BagOLaughs]

I got a phone call from my concierge yesterday. I was dead confused when a number flashed up on my phone that was from Orlando, FL. I was driving at the time so i couldn't answer.

She left me a message saying "we've got lots of exciting things happening during your vacation."

In my head I was thinking, yes i know I've already got tickets mwhahahaha

 

[Jon84]

The VH Concierge are annoying for people who have been before or read boards like this.

Last few times I've had to say yes I have APs for WDW and UOR, no I don't need any help. They can become quite forceful, after all their job is firstly to sell stuff to customers, then secondly be helpful and answer questions.

 

[BagOLaughs]

Last few times I've had to say yes I have APs for WDW and UOR, no I don't need any help. They can become quite forceful, after all their job is firstly to sell stuff to customers, then secondly be helpful and answer questions.

Haha so true! I find it strange because I'm just so used to being left to my own devices and I don't really want someone bugging me about buying stuff for my holiday.