Virgin holidays - seeking balanced views

[tttessa]

Hiya,

we would use VH anytime - our flight was cancelled due to snow at Gatwick last year and they really sorted things out. Luxury hotel this side, expedited check in next day, new flight with existing seat bookings honoured, accommodation informed etc... plus a load of meal vouchers and Virgin Miles as compensation. On return they also refunded - IN CASH!!! (not miles/ not vouchers) our express passes for Universal for the day after we should have arrived. Good service.

But - I agree with folks here - it is best if you don't need to change things if you are dealing with them direct. We always go through a travel agent - Thomas Cook does our Virgin Holidays bookings - we got them to give us the same price as we would pay on line. And THEY deal with all the hassle of changing anything, chasing up the tickets at 10 days out etc.. Finding a good travel agent is worth it if you are going for a package trip.

Tessa

 

[wicket2005]

I have had no problems with Virgin at all, both the Holidays and Atlantic side of the company. Economy pitch sizes are bigger than a lot of chartered flights, food is just airline food, like the free drinks.

What I would say is they were extremely good when our flight home in December was delayed by 24 hours. The plane that was supposed to be flying us home had been crashed into by one of the luggage trolley buses in Barbedos or somewhere like that. We were informed at Downtown Disney that there was a delay and to ring up at teatime, this gave us more time to enjoy the parks on our last day. At teatime we were told that the plane had been cancelled and to go to the airport. We did and were soon sorted with two hotel rooms in the Hyatt in the hotel and meal vouchers to cover us for the extra day. We were very impressed with them. As we knew about the delay we arranged for an extra day's car hire and didn't take the car back just parked it in the car park overnight, then the next day had a fantastic bonus day in HS, we were well chuffed. The insurance paid for our extra day's expenses so we got an extra day for free. It would have been a nightmare if we were just in the airport all that time.

 

[BoingBoingBaggie]

We have booked with Virgin Holidays via Co-Op travel and I am glad so far that I have not had to deal with their call-centre. The poor travel staff experience nothing but problems with the call centre from the sound of the tales that I have heard (I work in the same shop but they are a different department.)

We wanted to regrade our Disney Dining Plan a few months after booking and when the call centre was rung by the travel agents, the answer was that we didn't even have a booking with them (even though we had an invoice) then we had a booking and no DDP on file - and then the price was wrong.

Finally, the travel agent managed to get through to someone who understood the same language and managed to sort eveything out.

So really the only advice I can pass on is if you are going to deal with Virgin Holidays make sure you book and sort everything out at the start and if you do need to change anything try to speak to someone in the UK call centre. (Pretty much the same advice as other people on here).

 

[Lisash]

We have used them a fair bit in the past and would definitely recommend them if you prefer a package. As the others have said the Indian call centre are fairly useless if you want to add/change anything but we always get around that by calling the frequent Virgin club number instead which generally always gets you to the UK operators

 

[Twilight Terror]

We have used VH for all our Florida trips up until this year, so that's 5 trips spread out over the last 10 years.

Service on all parts has gone downhill, but then show me somewhere where it hasn't. How hard is it to find someone on the shop floor these days? Very. Every business has suffered with customer service in the last decade, and VH and VA have been no exception.

As with everyone else here, the only gripe I have is with the call centre. If they reverted back to UK call centres, VH would have a whole heap of rave reviews about them!

Last year we had a bit of a time of it. Our holiday started out as a four-person trip, got reduced to a three-person trip, then three-weeks before our holiday we had to get Special Assistance and drag a wheelchair and a near-full hand luggage bag of medications with us.

Since we were reducing from 4 to 3 people, and could take advantage of 1 room instead of 3, I had to email them and see if that was possible. I also wanted confirmation that we would not loose our DDP. It took a week for someone to reply, but they did apologise, and our booking was amended the very next day when I replied with the information for the removed passenger as they required. So they were very efficient with that too.

VH also dealt with us first about Special Assistance, giving us the phone number to call VA direct to arrange. Now, somewhere along the lines, someone at VH had done their job well, as when we arrived at POR, we had inter-connecting rooms, with low level bath/shower entry on the ground floor ready and waiting for us - something we never requested. We had just informed them we were now having to take mum in a wheelchair, and what did we need to do to inform the airline. That really made our day, and made our first trip with the wheelchair a little less stressful.

The only real hassle I had was adding the V-Room to the booking, since the call went through to India. It took well over 30mins to add just a simple thing. Then, when they added it in, the FVC discount got lost, so they had to re-add that, and then the extra 10% FVC introductory offer disappeared from the V-Room! In the end, I ended the call and just phoned the FVC number the following day and got everything straightened out in a matter of minutes, and a fifth and final itinerary requested and sent to us.

I do remember one time trying to call FVC and getting patched through to India, and it has been the case ever since. However, that may have changed back to getting through to the UK now. Anyway, any time I have to make changes these days, I just call the UK Switchboard number and ask to speak to someone about my current booking, and get put through to UK person who knows what they are talking about!

Any other trips we have had issue with and had to change things took place before the move to the Indian Call Centres, so things were sorted out without hassle.

We would happily use VH again, at any time. However, since we are now DVC members, I have no idea if and when we may use them again. I will be sad to see my 10% FVC discount disappear...

 

[Chris and Pooh]

We would happily use VH again, at any time. However, since we are now DVC members, I have no idea if and when we may use them again. I will be sad to see my 10% FVC discount disappear...

Hi, we are also DVC members but when I booked for this October I booked a flydrive with VH (for 9 passengers) as it was actually cheaper than booking flights direct with VA

 

[Type A Tim]

Super info folks - much appreciated.

Very interesting - never thought of that option - so you can book a VH Flydrive without booking any VH accommodation? Did I not read somewhere that they charge a fee for each week or something that you don't use their accommodation choices?

Tim

 

[Chris and Pooh]

Super info folks - much appreciated.

Very interesting - never thought of that option - so you can book a VH Flydrive without booking any VH accommodation? Did I not read somewhere that they charge a fee for each week or something that you don't use their accommodation choices?

Tim

I think that is if you book accommodation with them and dont use it, but then its only if they find out

 

[wayneg]

Super info folks - much appreciated.

Very interesting - never thought of that option - so you can book a VH Flydrive without booking any VH accommodation? Did I not read somewhere that they charge a fee for each week or something that you don't use their accommodation choices?

Tim

http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/

On their homepage you have choice of complete holiday at the top, next one down is Flydrive. If you book flydrive its flight and car but many of us just use the flight and don't collect the car, if you tell Virgin you are doing this then they charge you an unpackaging fee, don't tell them and there is no charge. Unless you want the car but usually cheaper elsewhere.

 

[Twilight Terror]

Hi, we are also DVC members but when I booked for this October I booked a flydrive with VH (for 9 passengers) as it was actually cheaper than booking flights direct with VA

Unfortunately, that was not the case for us. It was going to cost another £1000+ to do FlyDrive with VH, compared to VA. Plus, we only fly PE (despite the drop in luggage allowance next year!) and the upgrade fees are astronomical with VH compared to VA.

We travel the same time of year every year, so I have a feeling this will be the same forever, although I do continually check both VA and VH, because I certainly wouldn't object to using VH if it worked out cheaper