I have two seats in Upper booked as a reward flight but the departure time has shifted by 3 hours, which isn’t ideal, there is an alternative flight earlier in the day, which would be better to take.



After reviewing the terms for what can be done in the case of a flight time change, it is my understanding, and hope, I could be moved to the earlier flight time.



I used the customer service chat system, and was fobbed off with misinformation I think.



I was first told that this would not be possible due to the earlier flight not having any reward seat availability. I understand this would be important for a new booking, but I can't comprehend why those who book reward seats would be penalised when it comes to flight time changes by the same rule and I could not see this mentioned in the terms either.



When I challenged this on the chat system, I was then told that the seats on the earlier flight are reserved for connections to other airlines. This new stance made even less sense to me, as the flight is direct flight, operated by Virgin Atlantic, and I could book all those seats online as a new booking if I wished (without connections).



I just then assumed this was too complex for the chat customer service so I’ve since emailed Virgin and received the following response: “At the Customer Care team we are a post travel department, and wouldn't be able to make any changes to a booking before it has travelled. I apologise for any further inconvenience.”



So I feel I’m at a dead end. Would be good to know if anyone’s been in similar situation or know of the right route to contact Virgin to get help with this?