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Seems 3 days after reopening their route to Toronto Pearson, Virgin have cancelled their winter schedule (from 29 Oct).
My Christmas return flights were cancelled (YYZ-LHR-YYZ). Do they have to book me on another direct carrier? Likely they will try to route me via US with Delta.
@monsieurcurt – while VS isn’t under a strict obligation to reroute you on a direct flight, indirect routings are to be avoided if possible and here clearly there are other direct options available.
Also, it is entirely unreasonable to make you change aircraft/connect in a different country for which you don’t necessarily have the requisite travel documents. Just tell them you can’t transit via USA, unless you wish to of course.
Virgin has behaved very badly on its regular route cancellations including Hong Kong, Shanghai and São Paulo but fortunately you have plenty of time to press them into complying with their statutory obligations although it may, if past experience is anything to go by, require contacting the CEO’s office.
Usually in these circumstances, if the initial rerouting offer isn’t acceptable, an improved offer will emerge in the next ten days or so. If not, escalate!
As per @JDB’s advice, if you wait a few days, VS should release a re-booking policy and you may find that this includes direct re-routing so you don’t have to put up a fight.
If you want to avoid the US then AF and KL fly to Toronto so you’d do a change there rather than the US and will likely be quicker than via USA. You’re unlikely to have to enter Schengen unless you needed an overnight stay whereas you’d have to clear US immigration if you flew DL.
They are both Sky Team so VS shouldn’t have a major problem with rebooking onto whichever of those is your preference route.
And AC and BA fly direct of course.
As @JDB says I’d give it a couple of days to allow VS to put arrangements in place for rebooking. Unless they’ve already suggested something in the email / MMB? And if they have you’re under no obligation just to accept that.
Are they cancelled, or have they just changed days they fly versus days they do not? Tickets for VS147/148 are still for sale, but not for 7 days a week.
I booked my Virgin UC flights using points+voucher at start of February, originally for Dec 20-27 2025 over the Christmas period. Virgin changed them 4 times already, cancelling and rebooking to different days… including yesterday… I just checked my booking and my flights still seems to be flying, but now I am Dec 20 – 29th (previously was 19-28) . My booking appears to still be LHR-YYZ-LHR on Virgin metal, direct. So unsure if YYZ is fully cancelled or not?
Also, it seems they have changed the equipment for some flights – now on an A330neo for outbound, which I understand has better upper class compared to the coffin seats on the A330-300 (which my return flight is still using).Seems to be down to 4x per week (only had a quick glance)?
Quite a lot going on. Cuts to Jo’burg, JFK, Orlando, San Fran …. and where are the promised Accra flights?
Seems to be down to 4x per week (only had a quick glance)?
Quite a lot going on. Cuts to Jo’burg, JFK, Orlando, San Fran …. and where are the promised Accra flights?
And Seoul?
All as illusory as the £20m ‘profit’ (or ‘PBTEI’) announced to the press and stated on page 3 of the 2024 Annual Report which by the time you fly to page 138 is in reality a loss of £91.4m once you add some ‘exceptional’ losses and gains!
@JDB did you reach page 138?? impressive!
I’m sure the Boeing 787 Upper Class seats have a far bigger impact on VS profitability than they know (or let on).
The neo is a great aircraft upfront and the 350 isn’t bad either. The 787s have to go though, and anyone who has flown one once will go out of their way to avoid ever doing so again. Even when the new neos turn up there will still be a huge chunk of 787s left and no promise to refurbish them.
Given the propensity to aircraft swaps, it’s too risky booking any VS Upper Class flight these days before the risk of a 787 is not negligible, even on JFK.
We had a late swap to a brand new A330-900 last month as the original aircraft (with coffin seats) needed maintenance. It was the cherry on the icing of our bargain redemption! I was chatting to a man in the Loft (which seems to be the general area for waiting for the loo more than anything else), who said he’d booked PE rather than sit in the coffin seat, but was now obviously regretting it. He said being 6′ 4 his legs hang over the end of the coffin seat and into the aisle on night flights so anyone walking past bumps into him and wakes him up!
We had a late swap to a brand new A330-900 last month as the original aircraft (with coffin seats) needed maintenance. It was the cherry on the icing of our bargain redemption! I was chatting to a man in the Loft (which seems to be the general area for waiting for the loo more than anything else), who said he’d booked PE rather than sit in the coffin seat, but was now obviously regretting it. He said being 6′ 4 his legs hang over the end of the coffin seat and into the aisle on night flights so anyone walking past bumps into him and wakes him up!
And here’s yet another Virgin problem, the poor layout of the A330-900 cabin. The Loft is a space for business passengers, but more often used by PE passengers to hang around and also use the business toilets. All solveable had the galley and bulkheads been positioned differently.
As it is, the Loft and 2 toilets are for business; one toilet is for PE and ought be separated by a curtain. It is a total nonsense on night flights when you have pyjama-clad J passengers hanging round the Loft still waiting for a loo to change in as descent has long since commenced, whilst PE passengers are streaming in and out of the toilets that aren’t designated for them anyway.
Oh absolutely, it was a total free for all, including the snacks and drinks! But nobody was actually using it for its intended purpose; the seats were too high to sit on comfortably and there was too much light and activity going on to watch the TV. The UC cabin was so nice that people didn’t seem to want to leave it except to go to the loo. There were still even snacks left in the fridge by the end of the journey – unlike the ransacking of the Club Kitchen as soon as it opens on BA!
London-Male is going daily – I had a very quick look and March actually doesn’t look terrible value – some economy seats were only 7500 miles OW. But I agree with Rob, no way I’d be bothering with one of those awful seats!
Have been looking to book VS for YYZ late October (after the timetable change). When I started looking a few months ago the flight was on the day I wanted – a Tuesday – on an A330-300. Just when I was about to book it changed to a Wednesday on a 787. Now it is back to Tuesday but a later time and with an A330-900. Have booked with BA now as I’d have no faith VS would actually fly to YYZ come the winter. Kind of predictable as there is enough capacity for that route in the winter with the existing carriers.
Sometimes, a cloud has a silver lining.
I had a Virgin reward flight booked from Shanghai to London. Virgin cancelled, and I was transferred to the BA flight. I earned Avios on the BA flight – and enough travel points to tip me into Silver.
A veritable “Silver lining”I am absolutely certain that Virgin will change their schedule another 3 or 4 times before I fly this route in December. And yes, they will probably cancel, but then they will put us on either Air Canada or British Airways – either of which will be absolutely fine.
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