Rerouting indirectly after a 3hr+ schedule change using credit card vouchers
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First up sorry for the not so snappy title.
Received a mail this morning from virgin letting us know our return flight from Las Vegas had been rescheduled, departing 3 hours 20 minutes later than originally planned. Not a disaster but a pain – we have a specific train booked that gave us plenty of time to catch but that’s now impossible, and if results in us getting home to the north fairly late, with work the next day.
There are various indirect options, one of which was via LAX getting us to LHR around the same time as the original schedule. After hanging on the phone for 2.5 hours thinking I’d be able to move to those flights I was told that as I’d upgraded to Upper using credit card vouchers they could only rebook me on a direct flight (or pay the extra). I’d have to downgrade to Premium Economy going any other way.
Does that sound right? I’ve checked the conditions of carriage and there is nothing in there about the way the tickets were purchased, but I guess there may be something in the CC voucher terms?
Is it a cancellation (different flight number) or change, as this will dictate what your rights are. If it’s just a change I think you’ll be struggling to get booked on other flights; Virgin’s Ts and Cs will apply and it’s doubtful that they would class 3 hours 20 as a significant change.
I always build in an extra day for getting home with long haul travel via London as getting home to the north is often fraught with problems!Is it a cancellation (different flight number) or change, as this will dictate what your rights are. If it’s just a change I think you’ll be struggling to get booked on other flights; Virgin’s Ts and Cs will apply and it’s doubtful that they would class 3 hours 20 as a significant change.
I always build in an extra day for getting home with long haul travel via London as getting home to the north is often fraught with problems!It’s a change. Their conditions of carriage mention 3 hours being the point you can get a refund or change flights and they would have moved me to the direct flight the next day no problem.
Guess I’m just unclear as to why the voucher upgrade matters given they would give us a direct change but not indirect.
LAX will be a high yield & high load factor route so I imagine they don’t want to give you something for free that they could sell for $$$.
Las Vegas will be lower yield as predominantly leisure therefore they’d rather keep your bum on one of those seats.
U.K.261 won’t help here so guess it depends how many hours you have spare to keep pushing the issue?
The voucher upgrade matters because you appear to be asking for a voluntary flight change outside of of the VS flight change policy when the schedule changes hence reward seats need to be available.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Thanks for the info all.
ChrisC – there’s no reward availability on the direct flight they offered me 24 hours later so not sure that’s it?
Thegasman – that did cross my mind. 6 seats left in Upper on the LAX flight.
Will probably see if they’ll cover the additional expense of a train in rush hour and start looking how to fill an extra afternoon in Vegas. I’m sure there’s one or two things on offer.
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