ernad

Hi all! I have a Virgin Atlantic award booking with partner Air France in Business (SFO-CDG-LHR-CDG-SFO) that was scheduled for Tue Jan 25 to Thu Feb 3. Today, I got an email from Air France that they cancelled AF86 (SFO to CDG) on Tue Jan 25 and rescheduled me to a day later on Jan 26. I tried calling Virgin to see if they could reaccommodate me on a flight to LHR on Tue Jan 25 and they basically told me to kick rocks. They said that I had to find award availability on my day of travel on Virgin Atlantic (it’s two weeks away..) and that they had no ability to reschedule me on any of the routes that they or their partners are flying on Tue Jan 25 unless the specific award availability was available. Do I have any recourse or options here? Does EU261 apply? I was shocked that they basically refused to help in any way considering that they have 10+ options via Virgin / Delta / KLM for sale on their website for my outbound date. Thanks all!

jsn55

In normal times, Virgin could probably do something for you, but the airlines are busy trying to stay solvent these days. It's worth a call to Air France to inquire about a Delta flight, though. Reference the AF confirmation number on the email.

ernad

Thank you - good point, and understandable. I called Air France twice today and they refuse to touch it because it is Virgin Atlantic ticketed and they insist that if the situation was flipped, that Air France would happily reaccommodate us on a different AF marketed flight. I call Virgin Atlantic back after each chat with AF and after 2-3 hours on hold get told the same thing, it is AF’s problem and AF should push through a new rebooked flight.

It’s no fun to have spent 330k flying club miles + $1k in taxes and fees several months ago and now have to shell out several thousand in cash to keep our dates or totally reschedule our hotel booking, transport, and plans in London, but alas - first world problems I suppose. Virgin Atlantic was no help and I won’t be rushing to book with them again in the future.

RAPC

I would expect better support from VS on this. I’m pretty certain that the team who deal with partners will still be at VS in some form or another. Basically it needs passing on to them to find alternative options, potentially contacting AF to arrange.

AF quite rightly won’t touch it as it is ticketed through VS. They will however deal with VS to look at alternatives. It doesn’t sound like VS have done this part, so I would go through the call centre one more time and push for VS to pick this up with AF. An agent on the phone most likely will not have access to alternatives, which is why they need to send it to the team who deal with partners and issues like this.

There may be a pandemic, but this is mainly an issue of customer service, not cost. Virgin need to contact Air France and request options that AF will cover. That might not still give you exactly what you want, as it will be down to what AF will offer, but it is more than they have tried so far.

UKtravelbear

As the SFO-CDG has been cancelled by AF you are entitled to rerouting under EU261.even if you used miles for the flight.

craigthemif

This is one of those unstoppable force meets immovable object situations...

AF are responsible for getting you to LHR. However, AF are also right to not touch a VS ticket.

I don't think that EU case law is clear about whether AF rescheduling you for a day later meets their obligations.

Anyhow, your choices are:

1. To continue bothering Flying Club, so that they put you on a direct flight to LHR, opening up a revenue seat if necessary. But to be clear this would be VS doing a favour to one of its loyalty programme members.
2. Talk repeatedly to AF so that they reroute you somehow to arrive on the 26th.

If 1 and 2 don't work, you can make your own arrangements and sue AF for reimbursement. This is risky of course...

TravelerMSY

Call again and escalate to a supervisor. VS can open award seats on their own flights at will. Whether they will do so or not is a matter of how much they like you. This is the classic trap with partner awards.

The easiest thing to do is just go on the 26th.

ernad

Thanks for the suggestions all. Started chatting with Virgin on Twitter close to midnight Pacific last night and phoned them again this afternoon. They agreed to put me on the SFO-LHR 787 flights (VS20/VS19) at no charge, but were clear that this was a goodwill gesture because an agent had promised me the change at no cost via Twitter. Finally a solution, but not without hours and hours of work. Thankful that Virgin was flexible here, but definitely a word of caution for those looking at partner award bookings in these troublesome times. Thanks all for the help!

UKtravelbear

absolute nonsense to say this is a 'goodwill gesture'

They are providing you with your legal entitlements under the EU/UK261 regulation to be re-routed at no additional cost to yourself.

RAPC

Don't agree with your interpretation at all. VS are the ticketing agent here, AF are the operating airline. EU261 under section 5. Cancellation says:

Very clear that the obligation is with Air France. The role of the ticketing agent, is to liaise with the operating carrier. VS are indeed offering a goodwill gesture as they have taken on the responsibility here themselves to look after a customer.

As for the OP, pleased to hear you have been sorted out and that VS have stepped up for you. Just a shame it took the time and effort to do it, but a good result in the end.

craigthemif

Wrong. It is AF who is required to meet the legal entitlements under EC261.

umgowah

Not quite the same, but the attitude is. I had an award flight due to fly last November on Virgin metal in upper, LHR -> JNB. Virgin cancelled the flight (timetabling change from 2x daily to 1 every second day) then refused to reroute via either BA (the only direct option) or even AF/KLM with a change. The comment was that they would have put me on a Delta flight if Delta flew that route, but as Delta did not, all they would offer was a change to a different flight, but the new flight had to be Virgin and had to be within 24 hours of the original. Of course that is not the requirement under the regs, but was clearly the script given to the agent.

My point is that Virgins uber-helpful reputation belongs to the old days, and the current reality is hard-nosed and a clear failure to even match the regulatory requirements. I'm not saying that others are different, and the point made that the airlines are just trying to keep afloat is valid, but we should all deal with them in the knowledge that customer service has been a victim of the pandemic.

RAPC

I know the 'within 24 hours' bit tends to bring up a bit of discussion. My understanding is that this is correct, although many counter with 're-routing or alternatives at the earliest convenience'. The problem is what 'earliest convenience' means in reality.

What I haven't seen is evidence of a case where an airline has been judged to be in breach of EU261 by sticking to the next day interpretation. It's a genuine question for my own education, as I'd be happy to stand corrected if anyone has proof of this being the case.