Virgin Atlantic E-Tickets - Help Required!

[AndRu]

All,

I need your help now more than ever as I'm on the verge of pulling my hair out!. We set to fly to Orlando with Virgin on Feb 8th. In December we received some cards that look like tickets. In the top left hand corner it says "ETKT Virgin Atlantic" and "Passenger Receipt".

Then, under our names it says:

** NOT VALID FOR ** ** THIS IS YOUR RECIEPT **
** TRANSPORTATION **

In the bottom right hand corner on a tear off bit it says:

NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL

When we travelled before we had tickets with different sheets of paper in them and the check in desks ripped out the relevant bits before giving us them back. I spoke to Virgn this morning who told me these E-Tickets have replaced the paper versions and that they are valid for travel, we just need to hand them in at check in. It's very confusing that they have all the "Not Valid For Travel" messages stamped all over them.

Please can someone confirm if they have used the E-Tickets before? Am I the only person to be confused by this? Am I worrying for nothing?

My sanity looks forward to your replies

Thanks

 

[Frances999]

Most Virgin Atlantic E-Tickets are e-mailed from Virgin.eTicket.LON@fly.virgin.com

If the e-mail you are referring to came from this address, then it is an E-Ticket. However, I have received my e-tickets and they do not say "not valid for travel"!

I would get in touch with VS right away.

 

[Frances999]

I've re-read your post and I'm confused.

E-Tickets are tickets which you have e-mailed to your e-mail address and then print out and take to the airport. If you received some sort of tickets through the post, then they are not e-tickets....

 

[UKDEB]

The past few times we have flown Virgin Atlantic we have received both the email and the "non-ticket ticket" (which is exactly what it says it is - a receipt. As long as you have your e-ticket (i.e. the email), you will be fine.

 

[AndRu]

I've rung VA again this morning. They said that although these 'E-Tickets' do say "Not valid for travel" etc, all we need do is present them at check-in, they'll get swiped through a machine (they have a magnetic strip on the back) and all our details will be retrieved and a boarding pass issued.

The lady was extremely helpful and agreed that the wording on them was confusing. Apparently, these are "just receipts" that they are now using instead of the old paper style tickets. Our booking information / travel details are all stored electronically and these E-Tickets allow the data to be retrieved by the check in staff at the airport. She assured me that although they did have "Not valid for travel" printed on them, they will be accepted at the check in desk.

So, I'm 95% happy. I just have that nagging 5% at the back of my mind that says I'll get told at check in that these tickets ... "Are not valid for travel, look, it says so right here in big print. Didn't you read them? Are you an idiot? Why didn't you question this you fool?! D'oh!

Ah well, I guess I'll find out in two weeks time when we check in. :fingerscrossed: :rabbitsfoot: :touchwood:

 

[jools]

Andru

The tickets will be OK.

We have had those in the past and also ones that were sent by e-mail. Generally I have found that we have received postal "e-tickets" when booking via a travel agent and e-mail tickets when booking direct with VA on line.

My assumption is the travel agent will have booked the flights on-line with VA and because of this a postal e-ticket (receipt to confirm booking) will be issued since they will not know if the recipient has the facility to received the ticket electronically.

Your booking and details will be recorded on the VA computer system, and basically that is all they need. I think they only use the ticket at check in to trace your computer records faster. If you have rung VA and they have a record of you and the flight you are travelling on everything will be OK.

We turned up one year with no tickets at all due to VA having problems sending us the e-tickets via e-mail. We had no problems we were found in the system and checked in.

 

[Madjock]

You will be fine. That's exactly what I had for my trip in October. I booked flights via deckchair.com and that was all they sent me but when I called Virgin to pre-book my seats they found my booking with no problem which was a relief. When we checked in everything was absolutely fine as well so no worries.

Annmarie