Virgin: Changing your dates after booking.

[Soprano]

My 2006 trip is 28th Feb - 16th March. This falls into Spring Break time period which I am now starting to dread. When I booked, I thought I had avoided the Spring Break.

2 adults, 2 children party and I was able to get a free child place during a promotional period.

I tried to find out if I could change the dates mid-Feb to early March, which would in theory avoid Spring Break. I was told by their call centre it would cost £500+! I emailed them another time and was told £300+.

The reason for this is I was now paying for the free child place. I am planning to hold out until they offer Free child places again (Christmas?) then try and move my dates.

Has anyone had any experience moving dates without a huge cost using Virgin?

 

[carolfoy]

I can only go by my clients experiences, usually the cost IS in the hundreds, waiting for a free child place may not be a good move as the price you pay to move will be admin cost PLUS any additional cost over and above what you have paid based on the new dates, so as a plane gets fuller and price goes up on the flight seats the holiday side of the company has to 'buy in' additional flight seats for the holidays, these may be priced somewhat higher than they would be if they 'belonged' to the holiday side of the company, does that make sense? hope so, HTH

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Also, with the fuel situation, the surcharges are going to continue to rise in my opinion.

 

[Soprano]

You have both made very valid points. Thank you.

I will just have to accept I did not do my research properly and get on with it.

 

[jen_uk]

You may find that spring break isnt really that bad, I wouldnt have thought WDW was a big party place for college kids to go! Miami is a more likely destination surely?

 

[Laurafoster]

Ive been over Easter several times which falls in with spring break, I have found that it usually only tends to be busy when it is our school holidays and not spring break!

 

[tink too]

Virgin told us it would be £25 per person (adult or child) to change our dates by two days, the day after it was booked!

 

[rosiejo]

I think it depends how long its been since you booked that you try and change - we just had to cancel two flights and were charged 120 for each one as a penalty. We swapped another flight into a different name and changed to an earlier flight that day and it cost £25.

I think if there's a chance that Virgin could have sold those flights to someone else you pay a penalty. (the day after you booked wouldn't have made a big difference to sales I spose)

 

[wendye]

I think it depends how long its been since you booked that you try and change - we just had to cancel two flights and were charged 120 for each one as a penalty. We swapped another flight into a different name and changed to an earlier flight that day and it cost £25.

I think if there's a chance that Virgin could have sold those flights to someone else you pay a penalty. (the day after you booked wouldn't have made a big difference to sales I spose)

It would cost you £120 to cancel at anytime prior to 56 days prior to departure as this is the deposit they charge and if you look in the terms and conditions it says that to cancel prior to 56 days costs you the deposit.

 

[athurstance]

I think your dates will be fine so I wouldn't worry too much. It is very early Spring Break time and really won't be that busy.
We've done Easter and Xmas when it really is very busy and still with good planning you can have a great time. End of Feb/beginning of March will be much quieter than the peak times and you shouldn't find the queues too bad at all.
Start early in the morning and you'll be fine.
You really won't gain a great deal crowd wise by moving your trip forward 2 weeks and it sounds like it will cost a lot of money.

 

[cstraub]

Not virgin related but.....

We have been twice over spring break and loved it each time. The crowds are high but the weather is lovely! Try to avoid the parks that have the EMH or early entry. Everyone else is going to the parks on the days they can stay the longest. We avoid those at all costs, especially durning peak periods.

I would go over spring break again in a heartbeat. There was absolutley no college/teen spring break feeling at all.

 

[happytraveller]

Spring break is a lovely time to go.I've been with my three children and it was not half as busy as people make out.As another poster said ,the weather is lovely and the parks are not swarming with an unusual amount of teens either.Don't lose your money-have a brilliant time planning,you'll be fine

 

[Soprano]

Thank you very much for those encouraging comments. It was really starting to bug me I may have booked a time when 1000's of American older teens would flock to the parks and act like British chavs.

I will keep my original booking and look to avoid EMH and early starts.

Thanks again