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It might be a bit permeative given we don’t have all the details, but is anyone considering a complaint to FOS?
My card renewed a couple weeks ago and I’ve been told I’m not guaranteed a fee refund if I cancel. I honestly don’t know my rights on this topic
I feel like this needs a separate chat…
From https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint
“You should give the financial business you’re unhappy with a chance to sort things out before bringing your complaint to us.”
@SSS this is a copy and paste I wrote in one of the Virgin articles today. The more I read, the harder it seems to make the argument. It is quite possible that Virgin will just take the path of least resistance and offer you a refund, although that is slightly tricky for them as they need to treat everyone the same. As @Richie says above, you must give Virgin the opportunity to respond to your complaint and provide a final response within eight weeks before you can go to the FOS. Tesco always had an official no refund policy on its cards but still did offer refunds automatically on closure.
While some have drawn the comparison with Creation, this is quite different. In the case of Creation, the issue was the failure to award a voucher cardholders claimed had been earned in accordance with the T&Cs. Here you are talking about a theoretical valuation, and I don’t think the introduction of a cap really changes that. The first hurdle to overcome is that the VAA branded cards are actually issued by Clydesdale Bank PLC (trading as Virgin Money). They cannot be held legally responsible for the execution of the voucher spend; it’s simply not in their control. If IHG had imposed some sort of cap on their vouchers, Creation couldn’t be held responsible for that, likewise Amex and BA.
The other fundamental issue is trying to claim a theoretical loss – the FOS/courts aren’t going to say you have been unfairly treated so here’s £250 or whatever for you then to go and make a VS booking effectively on the same terms as before so you are £250 up for nothing. The ‘system’ doesn’t work like that nor like the concept. If you could show you had suffered an actual loss then maybe.
There are quite a lot of decided cases at the FOS where people have tried to attribute certain values to benefit vouchers of various types (including the famous one claiming the BAPP CV was worth £15k) but they get nowhere.
I’m normally quite militant about this kind of thing (believe it or not 😜), and I do think it’s very unfair to have, effectively, a “two tier” voucher. However, I’m also not one to make unnecessary work for myself so I feel like I need to do some more number crunching before I decide whether I can live with this change.
My last VS redemption using the voucher was to upgrade 2 of us from PE to UC, flying MAN-ATL. This gave better value than using the voucher as a 241, due to the 50% points penalty for red members. So the voucher in this instance was “worth” 50k points (the difference between 32,500 and 47,500 points x 2), well short of the 75k cap.
This is more than likely how I would use future vouchers, given our travel habits, and the limited routes VS offers from MAN.
This depends on the voucher still being usable for upgrades without any additional points requirement; it’s not clear whether Virgin have even thought about this at this time!
Interesting to read, thanks all. It certainly feels very unfair to change the terms of the voucher I’m working towards whilst already financially committed to the card. Also seems far from simple!
Does anyone know if the ability to use the voucher to upgrade a cash booking is staying? Or is that being removed after Oct 30?
Whilst I was extremely militant over the Creation breach of their own T&Cs, I’m taking a more relaxed view as a premium Virgin Atlantic card holder. My advice: See how it pans out for you, and if it looks poor, ask customer service if you can bail out early in the year, and what, if any, recompense they will offer. They may offer a goodwill gesture that will cover any theoretical losses. Even if they don’t, it would not in all likelihood be a “slam dunk” at FOS/MCOL.
Move on
Those who lost a half voucher might have a claim
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