Virgin America Elevate - Flight cancelled with <20 hour notice on VA!

My mom was booked on a flight from LAX-SFO leaving tomorrow at noon. When I tried to check her in online today, I was not able to, and it wasnt until I called into the help line that the agent told me the flight was cancelled. In getting more details on this from the agent, the notification was sent out to me at 4:06PM (flight is next day at 12:00 PM) so this is ~18 hours in advance notice. My options from the agent were to take a 8AM or 6PM or take my credit back. ALL of which were unacceptable to me. I asked to speak to a supervisor and one is supposed to call me back in 2 hours (seems like VA cancelled 3 other flights last minute so all the supervisors are busy). I just needed to vent so posting on this site as a warning to those considering to fly VA.

Do let us know how your problem gets resolved. This isn't the first time someone has reported a VX flight cancellation to the forum in the last few weeks. Maybe their fleet is running so close to capacity one plane going down for unscheduled maintenance messes a lot of things up?

Do let us know how your problem gets resolved. This isn't the first time someone has reported a VX flight cancellation to the forum in the last few weeks. Maybe their fleet is running so close to capacity one plane going down for unscheduled maintenance messes a lot of things up?

So I did get a call from a supervisor. He had the nerve of offering to refund my money for flight credit with a last option of refunding to my credit card. He was claiming VX could not book on any other carriers since it was new in the marketplace.

I ended up getting the next flight (which was listed as full on the website) and got Main Cabin Select.

Overall though, I am very disappointed in the service and flexibility of VA, and I dont plan on flying them again. Sounded like 3 flights were cancelled last minute all for maintenance issues. Additionally there were 2 flights cancelled from today so the past 48 hours has probably been pretty hectic for the service team.

I am wondering if these are emergency Airbus upgrades since this is taking quite a few planes out of service all at once.

I also sent a note to VA corporate for further remedy.

First off, I'm sorry for your frustration.

Think about this - take 1 plane making six daily flights - SFO-LAX-SFO out of service (3 round trips) and you get a series of cxls. It's RARE for this to happen at VX (VA is Virgin Australia). When it does, they are going to get you on another plane of theirs or refund your money. What alternate remedy are you looking for? Also, you had time to consider options - rather than showing up @ the airport and finding out at the last minute which is often the case with most (not all) carriers.

I think VX handled this well, albeit a very frustrating part of the realities of flying.

First off, I'm sorry for your frustration.

Think about this - take 1 plane making six daily flights - SFO-LAX-SFO out of service (3 round trips) and you get a series of cxls. It's RARE for this to happen at VX (VA is Virgin Australia). When it does, they are going to get you on another plane of theirs or refund your money. What alternate remedy are you looking for? Also, you had time to consider options - rather than showing up @ the airport and finding out at the last minute which is often the case with most (not all) carriers.

I think VX handled this well, albeit a very frustrating part of the realities of flying.

First of all, I fly quite often, so I do understand what the realities and expectations are for flying and am generally flexible when I need to do be. That does not mean I am going to put up with poor customer service when an airline is just trying to help their bottom line by cancelling a flight that is 1/4 full.

To be clear, from the agent/supervisor I spoke to, 3 planes were taken out of service, specifically 1 for fuelling issue, 1 for landing gear hydraulic issue, and 1 for unspecified maintenance issue. I am not sure which flights got cancelled because of this, but from the frustration on the other side of the phone is sounded like they had been dealing with this for the past 48 hours non-stop already since they had other cancellations from the day before already.

But my general complaint basically boils down to 2 things:
1) There is a lack of reciprocity here. Given a passenger wants to cancel a flight already purchased, the passenger's options are usually very limited. On the otherhand, VX can cancel their flight with < 24 hours notice, and offer a very limited remedy. My expectation is getting me onto an equivalent flight within a reasonable time frame of original departure time which was not what was originally offered to me.
2) If I hadnt proactively called VX because of online check in issues, I would not have known the flight was cancelled, and my mom would have been at the airport in a high stress situation (for her) since she does not fly that often. Now I dont mind the hassle of dealing with 3rd tier, 2nd tier customer reps, but when it comes to my mom...

My escalation to corporate is not just on my own behalf for the time that I had to spend to resolve this but also for the agents and supervisors who were put into a situation out of their control with very limited options for remedy.

What alternate remedy are you looking for? Also, you had time to consider options - rather than showing up @ the airport and finding out at the last minute which is often the case with most (not all) carriers.


The appropriate remedy in this situation is clear: put pax on an alternate carrier, of which there are at least four: WN, UA, AA and AS. I know it's expensive, but VX created this mess and it's the only thing that will make the OP whole. Other airlines do this even without any agreements in place (AS will occasionally walk over to the WN counter with a check) and VX has done it before for some of the displaced BOS pax.

The appropriate remedy in this situation is clear: put pax on an alternate carrier, of which there are at least four: WN, UA, AA and AS. I know it's expensive, but VX created this mess and it's the only thing that will make the OP whole. Other airlines do this even without any agreements in place (AS will occasionally walk over to the WN counter with a check) and VX has done it before for some of the displaced BOS pax.

Agree completely. It's a bunch of BS about not having an agreement. They can buy a ticket on another carrier just like anyone else can and that's what they should have done, IMO.

Interesting feedback. Apparently everyone is comparing VX to the majors instead of another Low Fare carrier like Southwest who won't buy you a seat on any other carrier either.

Canceling half the flights and there was apparently a 25% load factor...how truly "mechanical" was it? We hear less and less about VX everyday, because they are becoming redundant in the marketplace. Thus, they should have properly looked after their pax in order to at least have a hope to get them back...or say good-bye forever to those that were delayed. They know that they have you over a barrel giving a refund that will take 10 weeks to appear on a c/c while you have to fork out for a fare 10X what you might have paid to fly on a competitor. But try to do the same and cancel your plans...and get hit with a change fee or a fare differential.

Canceling half the flights and there was apparently a 25% load factor...how truly "mechanical" was it?

Nice trolling. Where do you get your "25%" number from? I can guarantee that it's not true.


We hear less and less about VX everyday, because they are becoming redundant in the marketplace.


You seem pretty interested in the topic, don't you?


Thus, they should have properly looked after their pax in order to at least have a hope to get them back...or say good-bye forever to those that were delayed. They know that they have you over a barrel giving a refund that will take 10 weeks to appear on a c/c


Refunds are very quick.


while you have to fork out for a fare 10X what you might have paid to fly on a competitor.


Preposterous.


But try to do the same and cancel your plans...and get hit with a change fee or a fare differential.

You mean like every other airline?

OP when you said you the supervisor put you on the next flight, do you mean the 6pm that was originally offered, or the 1:55pm that was originally showing sold out?

FYI, it is BS that they can't put you on another carrier. The fact is, they WON'T do it because it generally costs an arm and a leg. I will avoid airlines like VX like the plague for this very reason. WN is different in the sense that they can reaccomodate you on one of their many many other flights 99% of the time.

FYI, it is BS that they can't put you on another carrier. The fact is, they WON'T do it because it generally costs an arm and a leg. I will avoid airlines like VX like the plague for this very reason. WN is different in the sense that they can reaccomodate you on one of their many many other flights 99% of the time.

In its first 2 years, WN could *not* accomodate on other airlines. And based on my experience last May, B6 still won't.

Interesting feedback. Apparently everyone is comparing VX to the majors instead of another Low Fare carrier like Southwest who won't buy you a seat on any other carrier either.

The difference is that VX has limited flights between SFO and LAX. WN has about a hundred departures between the Bay Area and Southern California every day each way. WN doesn't need to buy tickets on other carriers because it is far more likely that the next most convenient flight is another WN flight.

In its first 2 years, WN could *not* accomodate on other airlines. And based on my experience last May, B6 still won't.

I'm not sure what this means. WN is a pretty old airline - wasn't it regulated in its first two years? Any airline can now easily accomodate on another airline by just walking up and cutting a check (assuming availability).

OP when you said you the supervisor put you on the next flight, do you mean the 6pm that was originally offered, or the 1:55pm that was originally showing sold out?

I actually got my mom on the 1:55PM sold out flight and even got into the main cabin select. So, this did address my basic needs. I also sent a note to VX to commend 'Edgar' my supervisor who helped me get this.