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-   Virgin America | Elevate pre 2018 (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgin-america-elevate-pre-2018-642/)
-   -   Change Fees post Jan 1 for Tickets Bought with Premium Card (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgin-america-elevate-pre-2018/1883939-change-fees-post-jan-1-tickets-bought-premium-card.html)

thaitraveller Dec 21, 2017 9:00 am

Change Fees post Jan 1 for Tickets Bought with Premium Card
 
Like many here, I have the Premium Visa Signature Card which includes waived change fees.
Sadly, this card goes away on Jan 1. But, I have bought many tickets already for 2018.
Trying to figure out how change fees for those tickets will be handled post Jan 1?
Will tickets bought with the Premium Card now for travel in 2018 still receive the benefit of waived change fees?
If so, does that mean you could still change them multiple times post Jan 1?
I have called the airline many many times and each time a different answer. Half the time the agent is not even familiar with the benefit and claims all tickets no matter what have change fees.
Does anyone have any insights?
Wish so much that this benefit continued.
Thanks!
  • Fee Waivers: Both cards waive the fee on the first checked bag for you and a companion; at $25 apiece, that can save you up to $100 for every round-trip flight you take on Virgin America. More importantly, the Premium Visa Signature waives the change/cancellation fees on non-refundable tickets, which can be up to $150 per ticket. However, to take advantage of this fee waiver, you have to purchase the ticket directly with Virgin America using your Premium card (so corporate travelers like me are out of luck), and it does not apply to reward ticket cancellations, which are still subject to the $100 Elevate redeposit fee.

Eastbay1K Dec 21, 2017 9:14 am

This sounds like an excellent question to write AS Customer Care about so there will be an answer, in writing, necessary for presentation on an as need basis.

thaitraveller Dec 21, 2017 11:12 am

Agreed! Is there an email or way to do it easily? My experience so far on the Virgin side is that things have unfortunately collapsed in the transition.


Originally Posted by Eastbay1K (Post 29201337)
This sounds like an excellent question to write AS Customer Care about so there will be an answer, in writing, necessary for presentation on an as need basis.


mikeysf Dec 25, 2017 5:37 pm

Longtime lurker, first time poster. VX gold many many years and very sad at Virgin going away. On to your question..

I loved this benefit and fly enough that I planned to book up a bunch of 2018 flights before the card goes away Jan 1, canceling or moving the ones I didn't end up flying. Unfortunately, after doing some research, my conclusion is Virgin/Alaska will not honor the free change benefit after Jan 1. This is from their annotated card terms regarding the card shutdown:


You will receive the flight change/cancel fee waiver for flights changed or cancelled on or before December 31, 2017. Any flight reservation change or cancellation made on or after January 1, 2018 will no longer be eligible.
(Irritatingly, as a new account here I'm not allowed to post links; you can find that page at cms/elevate-frequent-flyer/partners/credit-card/terms on virgin's site.)

My guess is that the entire virginamerica.com booking site is going to be redirected to Alaska come Jan 1, and with it, any Virgin-specific logic like this benefit will simply no longer exist. That's just a guess about the IT transition. Regardless, unfortunately it seems the answer is a pretty clear "no".

dayone Dec 25, 2017 6:30 pm


Originally Posted by mikeysf (Post 29214595)
Longtime lurker, first time poster.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

missydarlin Dec 27, 2017 4:34 pm


Originally Posted by mikeysf (Post 29214595)

(Irritatingly, as a new account here I'm not allowed to post links; you can find that page at cms/elevate-frequent-flyer/partners/credit-card/terms on virgin's site.)

https://www.virginamerica.com/cms/el...dit-card/terms It's #4

GrayAnderson Dec 31, 2017 1:43 pm

I think the ultimate logic is that since you'll no longer have the card (it is going away), you won't get the benefit.

On the one hand, it is "only" $75-150 IIRC; on the other hand, depending on when this was announced, if someone is caught off guard there's probably room to dispute the change fee if they made the reservation with the card before this was announced (presuming that VX/AS didn't take any steps to notify folks of this other than amending the T&C...and even then, it's arguably unclear since the original transaction will have been prior to December 31, 2017 almost by definition [1]).

[1] The operational question is this: If I had the credit card on Jan. 1, 2017 and made a reservation for July 1, 2017 and in the interim I cancelled the card, would I have gotten the fee waiver since I paid for the reservation with the card? I actually don't know...I could make a case for it running either way, but from what I recall this particular benefit attached to the use of the card, not the holding of the card.


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