please do not take a virgin Blue vacation.
 

On Monday March 10th I was scheduled to take a Virgin Blue vacation to Daydream Island in Australia. I was scheduled to arrive in Australia the day before. There was a problem with snow in Cleveland on Friday the 7th so United scheduled me for a flight the next day.
My Australian wife who is currently in Melbourne, Australia called Virgin Blue and inquired what our options were. The person told her that for 700 dollars they could reschedule me for the next day. It would cost 1300 dollars to put the vacation in somebody else's name, or if we cancelled we would get a 900 dollar credit. They would need to receive notice by 5pm Saturday (approximately 1AM Eastern standard time in the United States).
The original cost of the ticket was 1000 bucks per person, so paying 1300 dollars to change vacationers seemed pretty ridiculous . It didn't stop snowing until Saturday at 5pm Eastern Standard time in the United States. If I had given Virgin another 700 bucks, it would have been wasted.
My understanding was that we would get the 900 dollars regardless if we told them if we were going to show up or not. Now they are refusing to give us anything.
Please save yourself the hassles and avoid ANY of the Virgin Airlines.

The good news is I received a full refund from United for the roundtrip flight to Australia even though they were non-refundable tickets. United might not be fantastic, but at least they honestly helped me with my problems.

I think 'cancelled' and 'no-showed' would be a different matter?

Did anyone telephone them to cancel the holiday before the time they set, or did you do a 'no-show'?

Does your travel insurance cover weather delays?

You didn't call DJ to cancel your reservation, and you have problem with DJ? :confused:
Did you check the fare rules before you purchased the ticket?

That is the risk when you have separate tickets. You don't have anybody else than yourself to blame or United who couldn't fly you to Australia as planned.

While not understanding all of the details of what went on, one thing is clear, one had better play close attention to the terms before making a substantial investment in a vacation package. I rarely purchase travel packages because they usually have rather draconian cancellation and change policies and I can usually find better deals on my own anyway.

Another tip is: When you have separate air travel reservations from a package, schedule some open time at your destination (e.g., a couple of nights in the starting city of your package deal with only changeable lodging reservations) before you begin your package deal. Personally, I would never take a chance on flying in just before starting a cruise or other expensive package tour that has very little time flexibility - although I know lots of people do this.

:confused: I don't see anything in your story to support this recommendation.

As this does not seem to be about a mileage or points related issue, I'll move it to a more general travel forum.

That'd be my first question. However it probably won't cover your wife's ticket as she technically could have still travelled.

Why didn’t you cancel your flight? I don’t blame DJ for this. If you don’t show and don’t cancel you pay.....Same with any airline.