We lost our seats on VS076!

[2Tiggies]

maybe I should stop posting now.

Not before you share some of that blueberry vodka

 

[Sarah Millar01]

Oh wow, thats great.....glad everything worked out well for you. Enjoy your trip!!

 

[Daisychick]

I am so glad you got this sorted out in advance.

We also booked in January and were told in March that our flight was cancelled and had been rebooked onto the earlier flight to MAN. That was fine as it was only 3 hours earlier.

We flew home on Friday night and when I tried to check in online last Thurs it would not let me. So we turned up at the airport 3 hours early - to chaos!

There were staff going round telling all the MAN passengers that the flight had been overbooked by 107 people and did anyone want to go Gatwick an hour later and be sent by bus back to MAN. The compensation was a free return flight to anywhere in the world except Australia for use anytime in the next 18 months. It was tempting except for the fact that we were travelling in a party with a child and thought it would be unfair. Also the staff at MCO were telling people the bus trip from LGW to MAN would be 4 hours (seemed VERY optimistic to us!)

It took an hour and a half for us to get checked in and there were still people behind us waiting. I don't know whether they got enough volunteers in the end or whether they had to take some people off the flight that were unwilling.

The whole thing was complete chaos at the airport. Unfortunately Virgin are the only airline to fly direct from MAN to MCO so there isn't much of a choice!

 

[Tink2312]

I am so glad you got this sorted out in advance.

We also booked in January and were told in March that our flight was cancelled and had been rebooked onto the earlier flight to MAN. That was fine as it was only 3 hours earlier.

We flew home on Friday night and when I tried to check in online last Thurs it would not let me. So we turned up at the airport 3 hours early - to chaos!

There were staff going round telling all the MAN passengers that the flight had been overbooked by 107 people and did anyone want to go Gatwick an hour later and be sent by bus back to MAN. The compensation was a free return flight to anywhere in the world except Australia for use anytime in the next 18 months. It was tempting except for the fact that we were travelling in a party with a child and thought it would be unfair. Also the staff at MCO were telling people the bus trip from LGW to MAN would be 4 hours (seemed VERY optimistic to us!)

It took an hour and a half for us to get checked in and there were still people behind us waiting. I don't know whether they got enough volunteers in the end or whether they had to take some people off the flight that were unwilling.

The whole thing was complete chaos at the airport. Unfortunately Virgin are the only airline to fly direct from MAN to MCO so there isn't much of a choice!

We checked in for that flight at DTD and we opted to take the free flights. The bus took about 3 3/4 hours with a 20 minute stop at the services on the way. It wasn't that bad and the flight to Gatwick took 7 hours 40 mins. We live close to MAN so would have been home by about 9.30am but as it was got in at 3.30pm - great for a free flight!

We also got a free extra checked in bag and got £10 pp to spend in Marks and Spencer at the airport. It was a bit of a mess at Gatwick as communication wasn't the best but now have free flights for next year!

From the people we spoke to it seemed everyone had "jumped" rather than been pushed and we didn't hear of anyone that was forced to take the Gatwick flight. We did speak to a family who had volunteered about a month before when they were contacted by Virgin and were supposed to be flying Gatwick to Manchester with BA, but they missed their flight and had to get on the coach too. They didn't get any extra compensation which I thought was perhaps a bit off.

 

[crabbie1]

Well done and look forward to treating yourselves with that extra $100 dollars each.As they say "If you dont ask,you dont get"

 

[skelfbsfb]

Thats great news, happy holidays.

 

[RDP]

Good results, but overbooking fills me with dread! Our holidays are planned with military precision, shame Virgin cant do that with there booking!

 

[dixonsontour]

Great deal - we'd have jumped at that. Enjoy your flights next year.