Virgin Atlantic flying club - Recently, I tried to log on to my flying club account but it was inactive. When I was finally able to speak to a representative, he told me that my account was inactive and that my miles expired about two months ago. When I asked why I was not notified, he told me that they typically notify people one year in advance of the miles expiring by email. I have gone through my email trash folder for the last three years and I cannot find any such email. I have asked them to reinstate miles but they have not been cooperative.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews

We bought tickets on Edreams.com to fly with Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick to La Havana, Cuba. Given that some of us live in Belgium and others in the Netherlands, we had to buy separate tickets from Amsterdam to London Gatwick.
When we bought our tickets, all was well and the connections gave us enough time to catch all of our flights. However, when Virgin Atlantic moved the time of our outbound flight from London Gatwick to Havana (Cuba) forward to two hours earlier than indicated when the tickets were sold, the whole planning was an upset. We were forced to buy new tickets to be in London the night before and also book hotel accommodation for one night.
We sent our complaint letter to Virgin Atlantic asking them to compensate us for said expenses. Virgin Atlantic has so far refused to grant us any compensation. According to them, they fulfilled their part of the deal. We strongly disagree. That is why we wrote to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority and are currently waiting for their reply.
We argue that passengers such as ourselves may in some circumstances be expected to make allowances for some unavoidable delays, but to sell us tickets expecting us, the consumers, to take into account the possibility of departures earlier than advertised upon purchase (in our case, of two hours) is not an acceptable demand for an airline to make from us.
It is only fair that we be compensated for these expenses occasioned by Virgin Atlantic's decision to reschedule their flight. This is the other end of the spectrum of the cases mentioned in this press release of the EU Commission.

I had heard nothing but good things of Virgin Atlantic, so when it came to me flying to London before my study abroad trip, I went with them. I had no problems flying to London, I enjoyed my time there, I went to Italy, and due to unfortunate circumstances I ended up needing to return home a whole three months early. I had no regular internet access or phone access so my mother tried to get things done for me, but she couldn't since it was booked under name. Okay I understand, but how I was treated when I finally had the opportunity to call, was unacceptable.
I had to call three different numbers before getting someone because I was calling internationally. I called and a young man answered, I told him my dilemma and how I needed to change my flight to the soonest as possible. Well, he hung up on me, I called back and got the same guy who upon hearing me say "I believe we got disconnected", hung up on me again. At this point, I'm an emotional mess because of the issues causing me to go home, dealing with another airline to get out of Italy, and now this.
I called back one more time and got this very very nice lady who listened to me cry and listened to my story, told me she would take care of me and wouldn't put me on hold if it made me feel better. She found me another flight, but it was almost a week away when my mother said she was told there were many seats open on flights sooner than that. I had to fly home Sept 11 which made me nervous, but was told there were no earlier seats available. I finally agreed and she said they would also change my connecting flight from LAX to LAS for me since I had bought it through them.
Guess what, they didn't. I found myself in LAX (when I finally got to the States) with no flight home. I had been traveling for over 32 hours and had to fight with US Airways over my flight (that I had a confirmation number for) that was supposed to be leaving in little over an hour. I had to pay a fee for my baggage, which I was never told about and was belittled because "it wasn't their problem, but mine" since Virgin "didn't do their job".

I recently had to cancel an upper class flight from the US to London due to illness. I sent a letter from my doctor but they refused to waive a $500 cancellation fee and a further $30 for 'unused' taxes - whatever they are. I should have disputed the charge with MasterCard. I have never considered Virgin to be as great as it makes itself out to be. Fortunately, I can use BA who did not have a problem with my husband's cancellation and he wasn't even sick. Virgin will be my airline of last resort in the future.

I am writing regarding the most ridiculous airline experience I have ever had in my life. I travel a lot, and this truly takes the cake. I booked a cruise for my wife out of Harwich, UK. I then booked airfare with Virgin Atlantic at a cost of $2,362 for the two of us. I booked well in advance of our May 2012 travel dates.
Recently, out of the blue, I received an email from Virgin informing me that Virgin's schedule had changed the flight time on my return trip from Heathrow to San Francisco. The new departure time was so early that it would be impossible to get from the port to Heathrow in time to make the flight (I confirmed this with the cruise line). I called Virgin's customer service department on 12/14/11 and the customer service rep told me that they could move my flight to the next morning at no additional fee. Stupidly, I lost where I'd written her name down. She told me shed make a note on the reservation while I confirmed with my wife. I called back the next day and got Jacob on the line. He then told me that he would be happy to make that change, but there would be a small change fee. I asked about the conversation I had the prior day, and they said that person gave me the wrong information.
I went back and forth with him, finally demanding to speak to his supervisor. He argued that he couldn't transfer me to a supervisor and even if he could, they wouldn't be able to help. I persisted and finally convinced him to put me through to a supervisor. I was twenty minutes on hold and then got me to the supervisor Melissa (might have been Vanessa).
I went round and round with her and got absolutely nowhere. It was the most maddening conversation of my life! She informed me that it would be a change fee of $601.80! Finally, I asked what the cancellation fee would be, thinking that I'd rather pay that and book somewhere else than fly with Virgin. She said that since I had a non-refundable fare, it would be the cost of the entire fare. I didn't know how to respond. Finally, given that I really had no choice, I told her to make the change and let her know that I would never fly Virgin again.
When factoring in the cost of now having to stay an additional night in London, this is costing us almost the amount of adding a third ticket! We felt trapped by this scam. We have no choice because we can't change our cruise plans. I just feel like we've been ripped off for the holidays. I only know that I won't ever spend another penny with any of Virgin or any of its affiliate companies.
There's no resolution yet. I emailed their customer service department and a travel consumer advocate to see if I can get any resolution.

I'm sorry I even have to give them one star. I wish there was an option for 0 stars. They lost my bag from Tel-Aviv to London. I didn't receive one phone call. It's been a month. I filed my forms for reimbursement. I still haven't heard from them. I am appalled at their lack of adequate customer service. I am still waiting to hear from them. I had souvenirs in my bag. I will never fly with them again and advise everyone against flying with them.

The next time you get the cheapest ticket to your destination from Virgin Atlantic, just cancel your journey. Richard ** needs to stand on trial and refund my money spent on Delhi-London-Delhi ticket to compensate for the trauma I and my two-year old toddler went through. I am still recovering from the insult and the trauma of being a Virgin Atlantic customer. I would send details shortly when I feel alright. Can you imagine? From January 2011 until now, I am still unable to believe and recall my experience!

Last night I was submitted to the worst customer service experience of my life. I say this with authority since I have lived in 7 cities in 4 continents and extensive travel has and continues to be part of my life. I have flown most major airlines in existence today, not to mention the ones which have gone by the wayside. I have actually recommended your airline to so many people and have dealt with airline personnel most of my life.
I was accompanying my daughter and my 22-month-old twin granddaughters back to London where they live. She, her husband and children had traveled to Canada, came to Miami and were now returning home. My son-in-law had to return to work last Sunday, February 23 and he also encountered problems at the mercy of VA. Since it is terribly hard to fly with two very young same aged children, I bought my own ticket in Miami to be able to assist her. I would be returning on February 8. They bought their tickets in London through Continental with this leg of the journey operated by Virgin.
When we arrived at the desk last night, the employee who was checking us in could not find my granddaughter Noemi's reservation. They said that they could see the reservation but not the confirmation that she was indeed supposed to be on that flight. My daughter reminded them that they had flown from London and that this was their return trip and last leg of their journey, that they had paid a fare for Noemi so that they could have a confirmed seat for one of the girls and that their father, Jason **, had flown last Sunday in this same flight had to deal with the same problem but that one of the employees had figured it out and had no further difficulties returning to London. That employee was not present last night.
When I asked to talk to a supervisor and they pointed to him, he was standing on our side of the counter. I had seen him before and thought he was a limousine driver waiting for a customer since he was not wearing a VA uniform, had no identification on his shirt, was disheveled, and when dealing with my daughter, he was unprofessional and incredibly rude and uncaring. He told us that we needed to go to the Continental desk to figure this out. That it was not a Virgin Atlantic problem. I protested that we had two babies, our hand luggage and that there had to be a better way for Virgin to figure this out than to send us packing to another airline which VA was supposed to be servicing. The supervisor's name is Manny ** and his attitude towards my daughter was highly unprofessional. She remained as calm as could be expected dealing with incompetent personnel and trying to calm her babies.
Under protest, we walked to the Continental desk with our exhausted little girls, because the supervisor would not assist us. I would have thought that a telephone call from one airline to the other would do the trick but they insisted we had to go to the Continental desk. When we got there, we did not find a soul in the over 20 stations of the Continental desk. It was deserted hence no one to ask any questions. We walked back to tell Manny that he had sent us on a wild goose chase but he looked at us with a blank stare and his employees continued their own blank placidity staring at the glare of their computers.
We decided to fly the next day because they wanted us to pay a child's fare for Noemi or otherwise we would have had to fly for 9 hours with a child on our lap after having paid to avoid that very situation. There were no apologies, no words of comfort for 4 exhausted people standing in front of the counter, no suggestion that we sit, while they sorted this out, no offer of refreshments for the girls perhaps or a kind word to an abused passenger and ultimately no solution to our predicament, which was really VA's predicament or Continental's predicament.
If this is the way that Virgin deals with its customers, and I know it is not my experience with you, I can assure you that I am not looking forward to flying with you tonight when all this is sorted out and we actually get on a plane. I am not surprised that people complain about air travel these days. Getting on a plane is a hassle with the TSA regulations and impediments and the long lines to actually get to a plane. We didn't even have the benefit of their attention because we never made it there.
It was the most exhausting evening of our lives. Do you think that Virgin offered a ride home perhaps and a return to the airport? Not on your life. While this was supposedly a clerical mishap, it involved a mother, her two young children and their exhausted grandmother. A bottle of water for the little girls would have been welcome attention. An apology would have been nice. We were treated like criminals trying to get on a flight. No, I take that back. Criminals would have certainly been treated better and probably upgraded to upper class. Shame on you Virgin Atlantic.

I was supposed to fly on June 19, 2010 to London for one month. I was no longer eligible to participate in the study abroad. On May 25, 2010, I canceled by phone. On June 2, 2010, I initiated a refund request with over 10 emails and no response until after my flight was scheduled to depart. After calling various call centers and emailing numerous times to different people and every relevant email on the website, I was finally able to get them to agree to allow me to use the $1,300 ticket towards future travel before May 16, 2011. No mention of fees, etc.
Then, I called to schedule my "future travel" for May 5, 2011 to May 13, 2011. Simon told me that although the new flight was only $645 (and I paid $1,300 for the old flight), that I would still be required to pay $449 in change fee and taxes! Apparently, I was deemed a No Show and they have no record of my cancellation, even though I specifically sent an email to cancel the same day that I called.
They have given me the run-around, denied emails that I have record of, indicating that I could use the value of the ticket towards another flight, and tried to weasel more money out of me. Out of $1,300, they would have only applied $200 to the new ticket. Profiting $1,100 with no service rendered seems clearly fraudulent!

To make a long story short, my wife was supposed to visit me for Christmas. I purchased the ticket for her on Oct 27th. She was supposed to fly out on Oct 19th but we received a very rude email from you, guys, saying that "Heathrow remains closed today. For safety reasons, please leave because the terminal must be cleared of passengers who are not traveling. Please leave the terminal immediately. We are sorry that our staff cannot offer hotels or rebooking options. Visit our website for further advise."
Now, it has been four weeks since the cancellation and I still haven't seen my refund, nor received an email confirming that I'll be receiving my refund. I had it with waiting. I spoke to four agents from Virgin Atlantic and I asked about an email confirmation about my refund. They stated that I will receive something. But all four of Virgin Atlantic reps clearly lied to me because I still have yet to receive anything. Today is January 24th and still no response. All they keep saying is for me to wait six to eight weeks for my refund. Virgin Atlantic can take money immediately, but the fact that it would take them two months to refund my money is ridiculous.

I recently flew Virgin Atlantic from New Delhi, India to Newark, NJ with a connection in London. My flight on November 27, 2010 from Delhi to London was delayed by 2 hours, causing me to miss my connection in London for my onward flight to EWR. The staff in Delhi was unable to do anything about this. They were unable to put me on another flight so that I would be able to catch my connection or rebook me for the next day. Moreover, they were unable to tell me what would happen once I reached London. They only booked my luggage to London and told me to figure things out once I reached London!
On reaching London, I knew that I had missed my flight. However, there was no ground staff waiting to help us. Instead, we were told to go to the transfer desk in the baggage reclaim area which we were unable to get to as we could not clear immigration without a confirmed onward flight. We had to go back clear security and then find the transfer desk inside. The agent there re-booked us on the next day's BA flight to EWR and assured us that our luggage would get delivered to BA enabling us to travel unencumbered. We got out and confirmed this with a Virgin Atlantic Agent outside and she confirmed this as well. However, the next day when we reached the airport, the BA agent informed us that they had no idea where the luggage was and we needed to travel from terminal 5 to terminal 3, pick up our luggage and come back.
We were extremely upset at hearing this but made our way to T3 where we asked to speak to the customer manager. Jeanine, the customer manager there was extremely unhelpful and took 20 minutes to locate our luggage. By the time she could tell us what to do and by the time we reached T5 again, we had missed our flight again! Coming back to T3, the staff there was remarkably unapologetic at their goof ups and just calmly told us that they would book us at the 4PM flight. We were offered no compensation, no vouchers, no upgrades and no courtesy! We did manage to reach EWR finally and got all our luggage. However, we had to pay extra for parking, meals and travel related expenses in London! I will not be traveling with this airline ever again and will advise all of my friends and family to boycott this airline as well. This was my worst traveling experience ever!

I am writing to make a complaint about a customer service representative named Ahmed ** who I spoke with on the phone on the 30th of September after calling the number given on the U.S site. This customer service representative was rude and unclear and when I asked to speak with someone else who may be better able to help me, he told me blatantly that he would not transfer my call to someone else because my reason for wanting to be transferred was deemed "not valid" by him.
Upon hanging up and calling back, I spoke with another colleague of his called Fabian, who actually hung up on me! Now I find this to be surprising and disappointing customer service from an airline such as Virgin. Almost every single person I know flies frequently with Virgin, as do my family and we all have done so for years. I don't know if this man has treated other Nigerian customers like this in the past and gotten away with it but I feel the need to have this issue addressed.
I have not had any problems with Virgin up till now and as a matter of fact have often enjoyed my experience and I'm not really willing to let one rude customer service operative drive me away. However, as a Nigerian customer, I am willing to begin petition, start a Facebook page, write to newspapers, put up the conversation on YouTube, whatever it's going to take to demand better customer assistance from Virgin Atlantic. Nigerians love Virgin. We need to know that Virgin values us back. To worsen matters, the email address given on the website is not a valid one and all you get when trying to make a complaint is an error message.

I was robbed of $600 by Virgin Atlantic. This the tale of how Virgin Atlantic decided to make an extra $600 off of us when its staff knew we had no other option. Don't risk your trip on this airline. This can easily happen to you.
We were returning to the U.S. after a four-day visit to London. We were delayed leaving because I had been feeling ill that day. We arrived rushing as best we could, and were even held up by Virgin staff trying to sell a seat upgrade. By the time we arrived at the baggage check-in, it was 3:05 PM and our flight was leaving at 4 PM. The agent took a few moments to review our documents, then asked someone else whether we could still put our bags on the flight and that person said no.
Given that there were other passengers who were already at the check-in desk when we arrived, who still were loading their bags, I know it was merely a Virgin policy to not allow us to load the bags and not any other restriction from the airport. What was the next and only option?
They charged us almost $600 more to take seats on a flight four hours later that was 70% empty. It sent an unmistakable signal: Virgin enjoys sticking it to customers who had some bad fortune. Again, don't risk a flight on this airline. It's like the worst of the credit card companies or other shysters in the market - the second they can find a reason and know you have no alternative, they'll unjustly suck as much money out of you as they can.

Last year April, we booked a flight from London to Jamaica and enrolled in the frequent flyer program, no mileage was added to my account on all occasions of travel. Spoke to Lolita, her supervisor and Leon, the head supervisor in the London headquarters.

Do not join Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. It is useless. Frustrated, I wrote a letter to them, till this day, no answer. While signing for your flying club, I had clarified with your customer service about using these miles for seats on continental flights. I was told that these miles are at par with Continental OnePass Miles.
This was all lie. This morning I was checking the availability of seats between Cleveland, OH to Delhi, India. Your representative could not offer me anything on Continental in the next 3 months, whereas with Continental OnePass Miles, I can get seat for the above sector even for next week and next month. Moreover, I was told that you will charge me miles for both US - US and US - India for the above sector, whereas Continental would only charge me miles for one sector i.e. US-India.
Their online calendar is a joke and the biggest joke is the online e-mail system, which crashes every time I want to send an e-mail to customer service. Do these people have any explanation for all the chaos?

This happened on the way out to India for my honeymoon in April 2009. I asked at check in where we had to collect our checked baggage as we were flying to Goa but had to change planes in Mumbai. The member of Virgin Atlantic ground staff told us Goa. When we arrived at Mumbai, we got straight onto the transportation to get to the correct terminal for our onward flight. Only once we were there, we were alerted of the problem that our bags were not being transferred so we had to return to the previous terminal and wander endless corridors until we were able to find somebody who could help us find our suitcases. We were eventually reunited with our belongings but this delay had caused us to miss our onward flight which resulted in us having to buy another ticket to get to Goa.
I have been explaining the situation to Virgin since that time but they refused to accept responsibility for this problem. They first advised me to pursue a refund from Jet Airways whose flight I missed and have more recently advised me to see if I can claim under my travel insurance. As far as I know, there isn't a clause where I can claim for the mistakes of airlines who do not have the decency to pay for their mistakes. This woman stuck labels coded for Mumbai onto our luggage and told us it was going to Goa! What can you do with that? We weren't able to see the labels until we collected our luggage so had no way of knowing or reason to believe that she had got it wrong.

I wish to complain about the level of customer service I have received in relation to my car-hire booking. I have attached a copy of the letter sent to your ticketing department detailing what has happened. My complaint relates to a number of things. How can a call center refund me 153 and there be no record that this has been done in your systems? Why did the call center tell me that they are unable to put me through to someone in the UK when requested? Why was their no-can-do attitude demonstrated by any of your staff that I have talked to? I have to say that I am seriously looking at returning my MBNA Virgin AMEX card and flying BA from now on as I believe the level of customer service has clearly deteriorated in Virgin Atlantic!
Having been a customer of Virgin for quite a number of years and recommending you to friends and work colleagues, I have to say I am very disappointed. Your comments would be most appreciated on this matter. No response, so on 23.12.09 (12.23.09 US) I e-mailed asking why I had not had a response. I then e-mailed some directors at Virgin and was fobbed off with 3000 Virgin points credited to my account. I phoned today (13.01.10) with a message advising that due to bad weather conditions many staff had not made it to work and there would be a delay. Some 10 minutes later I am answered by someone in India! I resisted the temptation to ask how he managed to get to work through the snow! A very dissatisfied customer.

Please note that I would like to raise a complaint with regards to charges that I have been forced to pay regarding a booking change made on booking reference **. I purchased tickets for my family for a holiday to the U.K. on 17 February 2009. On the 3rd of March 2009, Britain declared that all South Africans visiting the U.K. needed to apply for a U.K. Visa.
Due to a delay by the Dept. of Home Affairs in South Africa in issuing my infant daughter's passport, we had been delayed in applying for the required visas. We had not planned this purposely and was not intentional. Due to the delay in applying for these visas, we have now been forced to move our flight booking by a week. I have done this via phone this morning with the Johannesburg office.
My issue and complaint lies in the fact that I was charged almost 75% of the original purchase price of these tickets to do this. Please understand that these delays were caused by factors that I could not have influenced. If the change of dates were as a direct result of my own neglect, I could understand that I am liable. However, charging such an astronomical price to change a ticket is not fair. I have made the payment, but it was done under duress as I feel I was forced to do this or face the prospect of cancelling my family holiday and losing all monies already paid for booked events and accommodation.
Please note that my company makes use of other Virgin products such as Virgin Mobile and Virgin Money. This does not put the Virgin brand in good stead with me at all and should you not be able to assist in this regard, I will most certainly think twice about making use of your services and those of other Virgin products again in the future. Could you please look into this situation and give me feedback on how it can be remedied if at all?

with the night flight at 23.25pm only club and prem eco were given the chance to get the flight. i had to stand and wait for 2 hours to get a chance for this flight as had to be back in london and a car transfer of 600 was non refundable.
not to mention very bad service from the captain who didn`t update anyone. just 2 updates, and one was no flight today.
we were hungry in the aiport for 8 hours not to mention the 3 hour on the plane and 3 hours before to check in. the food vouchers were silly as many places did not accept and no change given so what a waste of them.
needed to phone home as my mobile battery had died. and they did not let us make the call even when we showed itis on your tickets were it said we can make 2 calls and an email if the flight is delayed by 4 hours. this was 10 hours on new flight or delayed by 17 hours!!!
this was very sad day in airline travel with virgin. i have been on ba 200 times if not more and never had this prob ever. i have been on virgin before and i paid more to fly with you then cathy and air new z to hong kong. i now fill so stupid as i have got another 5 tickets with family on the same filght to hong kong on the 21 may in 2 weeks approx which i dont want to travel and would like to know bout a refund so can change to another airline.
and to make matters worse, we landed at lhr at 5.30am in which was at the baguage reclaim by 5.50am. i had to wait till 8:05am to get my bags as some prob with unloading. i have got a note from virgin to state the time of the bags. after a simple 13hour flight turned into a nightmare of approx 28hours!!!
then had to go to work and do a 12 hour shift as was so late into london thanks to virgin. i have a new business in hong kong which i need to travel now every 2 weeks which how can i ever choose virgin again. not to mention delhi where
i jus booked jet air 5 tickets in aug 09 as so un happy with virgin.
now i would like to know what is gonna be done about this, and can i cancel my 5 tickets on 21 may 5 with virgin to hong kong.
and keeping us in hong kong for 12 hours in such bad conditions. and the transfer of 600 who will pay that.

Sir/Madam: I'm writing to complain regarding possibly the worst, least-helpful service I have ever received in the airline industry. It may be rather long, but should provide useful feedback and/or entertainment. I had originally booked a flight from New York JFK to London Heathrow for the 10th of April (last week). A couple days before the flight, a close family friend passed away. I had to postpone my departure to attend the funeral. So, on Thursday the 9th, I spoke with one of your service representatives (who did not provide me his name, but sounded to be in a South Asian call center).
I asked for the next available date of comparable fare. This was apparently too confusing for him, so I had to give him a specific date. He did some typing and responded with I'm sorry sir, but there are no available flights that day. Would you like me to search another date? I took a deep breath to calmly prepare for what I realized was going to be a very painful phone call. Several minutes later, we had found that the next available flight would be about two weeks later (approaching my return date). I realized that, considering the $200 change fee, I might be better off just booking a one-way flight with another airline. The representative said, Sir, I can make this an 'open ticket' and you can call back once you've decided on the date. Great! I thought. Thanks, I'll do that.
Today, the 13th of April at 3:40 PM EST, I called back in an attempt to finalize arrangements. I spoke with a woman named Donna, but from the quality of the connection and her accent, I figured that I was again connected with a call center and her name probably wasn't Donna anyway. I gave her my booking reference and quickly brought her up to speed. She informed me that there was no note or anything to indicate that I had an open ticket and, in fact, I had been listed as a no-show for my flight. Understanding that the first representative had apparently taken no action during our call, and was instead probably organizing his post-its or photos of his family, I sighed and figured we'd press on and see what could be done.
She said that I could re-book the outbound flight as part of the same trip but that in addition to the change fee, I would likely have to pay an additional no-show fee. I gave her some dates to search and she kindly put me on hold... for about 10 minutes. When she returned, she let me know that in addition to the $200 change fee, there would be a $350 no-show fee (note: my original round-trip fare was about $460). Additionally, the difference in fare would be about $980. SO, to re-book this flight, I would have to pay over $1500. The sheer stupidity hurt my brain.
I quickly did a web search and found one-way flights for $500-600. I politely explained to her that $1500 made absolutely no sense whatsoever and I would really have no rational choice but to fly one-way with another airline. Though, as I'm writing this, I am thinking that I better call back to make sure no one has canceled my return ticket and pocketed my money. I have no confidence in the Virgin customer service, so I'm going to have to get on that call now and suffer a bit more.
I'd like to inject an important side-note to this experience, while I'm on hold. The Virgin Atlantic website is all but useless. You can't actually manage your booking. Manage Your Flights really only means online check-in. When I first logged in her, there were a list of account actions, including change your dates, but the actions didn't link anywhere. There was a note next to it, as a question mark image, that also did not click, but I was able to decipher that holding my cursor over it would reveal other useless information. I tried clicking a customer service link, which ultimately timed out and loaded no page. I did some additional searching for fares and promotional fares which gave me some results but also the note Are your dates flexible? We found a cheaper fare for $xxx. When I clicked the related link, it just took me back to the original promotional fares / search page. Completely and utterly useless. Overall I'd say this website is so horribly behind all of the competition that there is no real use to even having attempting to use it.
So, I'm back on hold now after speaking to a competent representative named Pirshan (?). I have just learned that when a traveler is a no-show for their departure flight, the whole booking gets canceled. This means that I no longer have a return flight. So, had I booked another one-way flight, I would be in quite a bit of trouble! I explained the situation, and the primary problems are that the original agent did not make ANY note on the account, and I failed to get his name (which I really regret, but I had other things on my mind [ie:the upcoming funeral arrangements, schedules]) at the time. So, they could try to review calls from the date/time I provide them, but without a name, it's quite hard. I understand this.
Pirshan also understood that the fees and costs associated with making changes would be 3 times the cost of just booking a new trip through the Virgin-Atlantic website. Why didn't the last representative understand that basic reality of mathematics? So, the minutes are ticking by. We shall see the result. In the meantime, I'm searching flights with competitors. After all, if I have to re-book, I think Virgin has already gotten quite enough of my money, without having to render any service in return. So, I got off hold. There's nothing they can do for me. There are so many ways in which they could have been accommodating and made some more money off me, but alas, they're not equipped with the knowledge to actually generate revenue for their business. I've just booked a new flight with another airline. I don't think I'll be booking with Virgin again anytime soon. Now I'm exhausted and in need of a drink.
$456 USD down the drain, never to be seen again, and having gotten nothing for it but aggravation.

Virgin Atlantic flight departing Las Vegas to London 5th of March returning the 17th of March.
I had purchased tickets on this flight for myself and my wife. A couple of weeks before we flew we received an e-mail stating if we booked now the flight would be around $600 cheaper, so I complained. We got the standard run around about pricing, like we were idiots and it annoyed me because it simply was not right and you feel turned over. I think I must have been put on a short list as a difficult customer as the treatment I received from Karen,the stewardess from hell was unforgiving.
This stewardess from hell said that I was being too loud after being seated,when I was laughing and joking with my wife.(Damn, I was going back home after 14 months of being away and might of been a bit excited about it.) When I protested she said I was now being aggressive and would serve no more alcohol. Get this,I had had one beer (AS THAT WAS ALL THE BEER THEY HAD ON BOARD) and a gin and tonic. And here is a point. If I was behaving so loutish and out of control, why didn't I start drinking from the two bottles of duty free that I had purchased at the airport? A drunk person would have done that,wouldn't he?
The inflight entertainment was NOT WORKING so I seethed for the entire flight. This person ruined my flight, she was obnoxious and seemed to delight in the sound of her own voice as she reprimanded me, behaving in such a total condescending jobsworth manner it was infuriating. She did not whisper this in my ear, warning me of my supposed bad behaviour, like a proffesional should. She made sure the other travellers heard her, which embarrassed me and I am still angry about that.
In all honesty I will say the return flight was much nicer (even though there was the 2-3 HOUR DELAY, I forgot to mention a ONE HOUR DELAY GOING) the flight attendants were pleasant and the inflight entertainment worked. But I still got the feeling I was not really welcome on board.(Probably paranoia from the first experience, with her.)
I e-mailed Virgin about this but they wont get back to me. I had had the nerve to question their methods of selling tickets in the first place and how It leaves a customer feeling mugged by informing you that you over paid). In all my time,(I am 57 years old) I have never received treatment like this from not only any airline but from any employee in the service industry. And I would like to add these tickets(for two)cost $4,000.So in closing all I can say is, Don't dare question the policies of Virgin Atlantic,they used to be, but they ain't nice people any more.

I am sending this complaint with regard to the flight from Lagos to London on the 2nd of February My father, an aged man of eighty years had requested a wheel chair to be available for him upon his arrival to London, Heathrow. Not only was one not provided for him at the plane where he was required to disembark using the stairs but once the bus reached the terminal, there wasn't a wheelchair available as assured by the cabin crew when leaving the plane. As a Virgin loyalist, I was furious at this gross negligence by the airline, one that believes its set apart from the rest by its quality of service.
There have been numerous occasions in the past my family and I have overlooked such lacking in service. For instance, the time it takes a wheelchair to arrive at the Heathrow Virgin check-in counters are laughable. On two occasion, my aged parents had to stand and wait for over half an hour for a wheel chair to arrive. If there was ample seating for passengers at the check-in area, this would be tolerable but for two aged individuals to have to stand there with cane and crutches and wait for over thirty minutes is downright ludicrous.
In addition, the Virgin flight between Mumbai to London has to be one of the worst my family and I have experienced. Flying in premium economy, we were subjected to a primitive in flight entertainment system combined with a terrible menu and food. Virgin pales in comparison to Kingfisher and Jet on that sector specifically and Virgin really could take a page or ten out of their book. Needless to say, our business will be taken elsewhere henceforth. Regards

been going to las vegas on holidat for past 14yrs past 3yrs traveling with virgin my point being using points plus money we traveled from edi scotland to vegas via l gtw our cases went srait through edi to las now trying to book again they r saying we have to cllect baggage at gtw cant go through from edi as we r using points that we have been doing past 3yrs whats the point in gaining points if they have a clause with it & why now my husband is not fit to carry luggage in l gtw & did not have to do it before how bad is that & some of the staff on the phone r very rude
upset both of us as we love that trip

Hi, I was travelling with my younger sister to India, Newark_london-Mumbai and we had the worst possible experience , all becoz of Virgin's mistakes & inefficiency. here's what happened: We were delayed in departing from Newark by one hour purely because of the inefficient staff of Virgin Atlantic and not because of weather or any other reason. As a result of which we reached London at 9:45 PM instead of 8:45 PM and we missed our connecting flight to Mumbai departing at 9:45 PM the same day.
The Virgin Atlantic staff again showed their ineptitude in helping passengers when they could not even apologise to us for their blunder. We were then put on British Airways flight 199 departing the next day, December 22 and informed by the Virgin Atlantic agent that all my 4 bags would be transferred to this new flight. We were given temp accomodation in one of nearby hotels, but to get there we had to use public transportation, at 1 AM in the night !! as all airport shuttles & cabs are gone by midnight. So pls avoid Heathrow too, if you can !!
Upon reaching Bombay, we did not get any of my bags back, and I filed a claim with British Airways claims dept and they put a tracker for these bags. We did receive the 4 bags on 26 December 2008, but 2 Cordless phones, 3 MP3 players, one watch, one bottle of perfume and a packet of razors was stolen. We were terribly upset as a result of this and asked Virgin Atlantic to compensate us for this loss. But all they told me was to make a claim with British Airways as they checked in my bags from London !! So finally I have claims being processed by BA, but I am not too hopeful if I'll get anything from them. On my resturn flight, it was ok, no hassles, thankfully ! But do try & avoid VA if you can, its not worth it ! also, they have a limit on carry on luggage of 6 kgs !!
In all, I suffered monetory loss of $300 and all the mental harassment of living ithout your clothes the first day and losing all the valuables you had brought for your loved ones. especially if you are seeing them after 3 years !

Hello, I am writing to complain of multiple incidents and bad experience with Virgin Atlantic. First case: I purchased my ticket through Continental Airlines via its ticket agents. I was travelling with my family (4 people) to Nigeria, Africa. We departed on December 10, 2008 from Houston (IAH) to Orlando Florida (MCO), and connecting to London Gatwick. On getting to London our flight was diverted to Manchester. We had to claim our luggage (10 + carry on) from Manchester into a Coach bus for a 7 hour road trip to Gatwick. On reaching Gatwick, our connecting flight to Nigeria had left. We were then taken on a taxi (provided by Virgin Atlantic) to Heathrow Airport to board Virgin Nigeria to Lagos. Again when we got to the counter, we were processed and later told that they were no available seats for us to board. We were made to sleep at the airport with no accommodation and food.
The next day, again we were denied chance to board. And again no food, no accommodation and no place to secure our luggage. Mindful I was travelling with my family (wife and 2 kids). Finally, on the third day after been abused and maltreated by Virgin Atlantic personnel, we were allowed to board to Lagos Nigeria on December 13, 2008. The experience with Virgin Atlantic ground personnel were despicable, inhuman and unprofessional.
First, I paid full rate and was supposed to be taken to my destination. Second, I did not pay for a standby passenger which was the situation we found ourselves. Third, no provisions were made to accommodate our problem instead we were treated like animals. I will never fly Virgin Atlantic again and would discourage anyone within my power to never patronize VA. Second Case: We arrived Lagos on the December 13, 2008 and two of our luggage were damaged. We obtained property damaged report for our claim. The claim number is 193811.
In summary, I would like your airline to pay me a monetary compensation for the damages caused my family in the amount of $4000.00 because of the delay, abandonment and negligent of contract. I would request payment for the two damaged luggage valued at $150.00 The total amount due us is $40150.00 I would reserve my legal rights until this matter is resolved amicably. Thanks for your attention to this matter.

13 July 2008. i flew from Botswana to South Afrca, O.R. Tambo airport, i checked in my luggage all the way to Los Angeles (LAX) which was my final destination. i was scheduled to fly Virgin Atlantic flight VS 602 on the 13 July 2008 in the evening from Johannesburg to Heathrow (LHR) , and my flight was subsequently changed by Hildah (Virgin staff) in South Africa (OR Tambo) as they said their flight was delayed so they booked me on British Airways flight. While at OR Tambo i double checked with VA staff Hildah to make sure my luggage would taken care of as there had been flight changes.
On arriving at LAX on the 14th July 08, my luggage had not arrived, and when i went to VA desk they alredy had my name on their Property Irregularity Report no 168762. they told me the bag wouldbe delivered to me. the number which i was given to check my bag was for a customer care center in India, i spoke to Avine, shSneha, Conrad,and many others, when i called. The attendants did not seem to know much about the where abouts of my luggage. i stayed ten days in Los Angeles to no avail of my luggage.
i can back to Botswana and started calling the 1 800 number and as i was no longer in USA, it was no longer toll free, and i have been incurring telephone costs since then. i got in touch with VA baggage claim and processed and forward my claim of US$1356 to VA on the 15 September 2008, and it arrived at their offices in London on the 18th September 2008 and was singed for by a certain DAVIDSON. After this claim was made i made several email follow up which were only replied from an electronic standard reply,and telephone follow ups with the Indian based customer care center which had no idea what was going on.
On December 18th i received a letter dated 18th November 2008 acknowledging that VA will reimburse me for my Luggabe, but this will only be half (US$713) the cost of my items and the other half the letter exclaimed i could claim from the insurance. Today its 09th January 2009, and no payment has been made since. up to today the customer service agents in India refuse to give me a number which i can call in London to speak directly with the Claims department. Its interesting that entities such as VA thrive on the back of its customers buy robbing them after making promises they can not keep. they get richer and richer by robbing and stealing from their clients.
I stayed in Los angeles without clothes and had to use my money on things i had not planned to use it on, buying new clothes and accessories all over again. they promised that they would avail to me atleast between US$70-200 for luggage not forwarded in two days. Being lied to only adds sat to injury, they should be straight with us if the luggage is lost and stop making empty promises. Honest is all i ask for. The length of time in processing lost baggage claims has been so long that i think they are buying time that soon i will tire and give up. I have incurred telephone cost i had not budgeted for. as i had travelled on a business trip to Los Angeles, this affected my whole business mission to LA.

I flew from Calcutta to Mumbai to London in JetAirwyas and from London to Newark, NJ in Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic claims that the luggage was not handed over to them by Jet Airways. Its been over 48 hours and I have not yet received any information about the luggage. The luggage had brand new expensive items that I had shopped for in India. Every time I call Virgin Atlantic, all they tell me is that they could not locate my luggage and cannot give me a time frame as to when they will have information. Then they say that they are not getting any information from Kolkata, Mumbai or London airport officials.
I fail to understand how no information can be rececived for 2 entire days. Apart from brand new items that I had bought, I had my daughter's down quilt with me, as she is allergic to certain fabrics....right now she is without a blanket in the cold weather. Additionally I had to go shop for my son's sweat shirts and trousers as I had carried most of them with me, and they were in the lost baggage. I have written two separate emails to Jet Airways one and one at customer relations, with no response. I desperately need to locate my bags. Its a shame that the airlines charge us thousands of dollars and get away with such callous behavior.
Mental distress Loss of expensive garments (brand new) bought for special religious occassion and now don't have proper attire Extra money to buy winter clothes for son Daughter without her winter blanket

My wife black South Africa,was stop from boarding a flight to London from South Africa,on xmas day!!she book the flight on the 24 dec,with Virgin Atlantic in Pietermaritzburg at a travel agent,i spoke to the travel agent on the day she book her ticket,if sent a invitation letter which i did by emailing my wife,unfortunately she was stop from boarding!Nomfundo had evidence married certificate,and invitation letter,but still she was refuse to board.she was coming to see me for xmas,and because of medical problems,
this has cause stress for me and my wife,and family

I purchased two nos. of Air tickets of Virgin Atlantic on 27.08.08 for my wife & daughter flying from Delhi to London to New Jersey to Delhi on 26th Sept & returning on22 Nov & 11th Jan respectively & paid 1,19000.00 ($1400per ticket). On 10th Sept., I came to that the price of same ticket has been reduced to $ 1020 & on 13 th Sept 08 has been further reduced to $1012. Same travelling agent gave me a quotation of Rs. 45000 per ticket of same flight & of same dates mentioned in issued tickets. Since then I have been contacting the travelling agent & dealer Inter Globe in Jaipur for refund of excess money charged from me. I am a Sr. Citizen & totally dependent on the pension as such this is big loss to me on price as well as loss of interest.
In spite of my two letters to Travilng Agent & dealer, have not bothered to reply me. This all come under definition of victimisation of customer & giving me mental torture. This is not expected from the air line. I am requesting [they] consider my request & impart me justice & OBLIGE
I lost $400 per ticket i.e. $800 for same flight & same time inaddition to roughhly one month interest & this is punishment who doing advance booking

I have lost my bag when I flew from LON to EWR. The airline guys keep connecting me to a call center in India which does not help since they really don't know anything about what's happening. I have told the folks that there was one unclaimed bag at the airport which looked similar to my bag so I am presuming that the owner of that bag may have taken my bag by mistake. I asked them to find out about that bag and they have no clue. I am just too disappointed that the kind of service I am getting.
Lost all my clothes, personalize gifts. I am living with one pair of clothes.

I have just come back to Dubai on flight No. 400. I am really disappointed with [the] crew. I have a medical report stating that i have problems with my knees, and that's why i asked for a comfortable seat to be able to stretch my legs and that was around 4:30 PM. we got our seats cards according to our request. (i was travailing with my mother who is in her sixties). When we went for the boarding, the hostess crossed on the seat number and changed it without even lets us know not even apologize to us. I asked her why did she change it, and obviously she did not know what to say so she came up with something like because its a long trip and handed me the cards. I insisted that i can not take these seats as they are comfortable for me and my mom. And again i asked why the seats have been changed.
She asked her Manager and the later said that it has been given to a family with a disabled kid and the hostess near to her backed her and said that the poor boy has to take that seat for his serious disability. I tried with them to find us another seat and after a while they said they found only one similar seat. As i can not leave my mom alone, i could not take the seat. on the plane, i asked two of the flight attendants why the seats have been changed, and one of them told me that i should have come before the family currently occupying my original seats. I told him that i had done so, but yet it had be given to others. I asked him if they have any disabled child and her denied it!
i confronted them that their colleagues at the air port are the ones who told me about the child disability and that was the reason behind given my seat to the other family. His extremely rude air hostess colleague who was standing with him went angrily In fact yes he is disabled and we are not discussing this with you and she left! To my surprise, when we landed the two kids who were with their parents (the family who was given our seats) were running like horses at the airport! I have suffered a lot from the seat and till now i can not figure out why every one from [the] crew was lying to us! Both of the boys were completely healthy and in good shape! What's the point of coming earlier or the online reservation if your seats will be changed based on no reason at all.
I have sent them the complaint and till now have not received their reply

Flight Date : 19/8/2008 Feedback: tranparency honesty is everything. On 19 aug, my wife and 2 kids arrived in newark to find flight had been delayed to london from 9pm to 1030 pm. they would miss the connection flt to madrid and their train to murcia spain. PASQUAL the boss in newark VA said hed rebook the flights,as he did, but said he had spoken to a VA person in london who would rebook the train so as to make the travel fluid. NOBODY knew about this in either london or madrid.
PASQUAL was pushing the complainer and cmplaint out of his territory to another.He lied but got what he wanted..his line moved,the passengers went and he was happy...but not us about his lie. Can we bring a suit? we recorded the conversation on my ipod at the airport with pasqual. Can i upload it to the net?
nothing yet

I took Virgin Atlantic from London, Heathrow airport to Dulles Airport on July 17th. When I got to the airport, only one of my 2 luggages made it back. They promised me saying that my luggage will be here by the nect day (18th July) at the latest. Well today is the 26th July and they still have not located my luggage. The worst part of this experience is that they do not have a customer care where you can call and ask for help. They have the conatct number for lost baggages 1=800 number located in INdia..which is not that helpful!
Oh and to remind you they cannot help with anything regarding how to compensate and all. You email the public relations and they have not even responded back! Overall, this was my first time in this airline and for sure the very last time. Worst service when your luggage is lost...they are like..too bad!

I purchased a ticket on line on June 4,2007 to travel to London on Nov.14th, 2007. The celebration that i was going to attend was cancelled. I called Virgin Atlantic airways and was told that I had one year to use the ticket. I would be charged $250.00 plus the difference in fare. Today july 20th. I went to JFK to change the ticket and was informed by Josephine and Dana Lachmenar that my ticket is no longer valid.
I think this is a gross injustice because if I had been given the coorrect information in the first place I would have used the ticket in January when I had to rush to London, when mom ewas taken to the hospital. I was in such a panic I actually forgot I had the ticket at that time. I need for someone to respond to me as I would like to use this ticket to visit my mom in September.
I am not a wealthy person and to loose 557.72 dollars is a lot of money for me. I need this resolved

My Cousin travelled on the 24th June to New York and we were to follow on the 26th June to Washington, Dulles. Our ticket were booked from VIRGIN E-TICKET on the 9th May 2008.
I have completed all my on-line checking until issuing of an on-line boarding card, and presented my family and myself through all the UK Immigration, ready board our flight, when one of your staff at the 26th gate bridge, said that my visa is not valid because of some writings on the visa, and therefor I was directed to seek assistance from the Local USA Embassy. My bags were off-loaded from flight VS021, and we were told to come back for the later flight in the evening.
We, then travelled by taxi to the city of London, Embassy of the United States of America, at Visa Branch, at London. There i was told, that I have a valid visa until the 30th Dec 2008 for travel to the USA, and the writing on the visa is of my reference file transfer number endorsed in Atlanta by US IMMIGRATION, and since then I have travelled to the USA without any hindrance.Because of such short notice I was not able to book for another reservation on other Airline Carriers to Washington, Dulles. The only available flight was via Canada.
I have spoken to Mr Howard B,an employee with Virgin, who tried to reschedule us on another flight, but as all your seats were fully booked, he has agreed to make a full refund for the cost of all our tickets.As I have also incurred other expenses ie, Currency Exchange Conversation charges to US dollars and change back to Sterling Pounds. The room reservation paid for by visa card, at Hyatt Regency Reston, Virginia. for 5 nights and Car hire from BUDGET CAR HIRE at Washington Dulles from 26th until the 3rd July 2008.
I will be looking for a reasonable financial settlement from VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS to cover my cost and the emotional stress of not being able to attend this wedding in the USA , due to the incompetence of one of the attendance manning your Boarding Gate.If your company, VIRGIN -ATLANTIC, is not willing to settle with me on the small token cost stated above amicable, I shall then be forced to seek professional help from a Law firm.
I am willing to forward these documents if you should require for reference:
1/ Receipt/ Itinerary e-ticket,2/ Copy of wedding invitation,
3/ copy of my passport with a valid USA visa issued on 04 Jan 1999 and valid until 30th Dec 2008,
4/ Photo copy of all our (3) baggage tags,
5/ copy of, NON IMMIGRANT VISA INTERVIEW CONFIRMATION from, Embassy of the United States of America dated 26th June 2008.

5/31/08: Virgin Airline Flight VS018 scheduled for departure at 8:00AM from Newark NJ to Heathrow, London was cancelled today. We were notified at 6:30am when we arrived at the Newark Airport. According to the Virgin representatives in Newark it was due to mechanical problems that Virgin knew about at 11:00 PM England time (6:00PM East Coast USA) on 5/30/08. 200+ people show up for a flight that according to the Virgin web site at 5:00am 5/31/08 was on time. A group of 5 of in our party traveling on business in Virgin Upper Class were told we would have to travel on Delta or another Virgin flight departing from JFK on Saturday evening or book for Sunday and by the way no one has any seat.
As a result our group of 5 people traveling to London and then to Paris for a meeting on Monday and Tuesday as well as 6 others coming to Paris and two meeting us in London are not going to have the meetings that have been anticipated for several months. Further more since it is a weekend we can not contact those coming from Europe because we don't have their home phone numbers. So On Monday morning our clients will be at the meeting and the suppliers who insisted on the meeting will not. One of the other USA based Company representatives has already arrived in Paris for the Monday meeting and traveled from PHL on USAIR. Sadly, even USAIR is more reliable then VA.
This is the result of Virgin Atlantic not perform maintenance on their aircraft. Is this the true story or am I missing something? Virgin Airlines has cost 14 people 30 days of planning plus 4 days of travel and untold dollars in cost. I hope this complaint makes Virgin Air famous for their utter lack of managerial discipline and interest in their customers. Why didnt Virgin place another aircraft in service or go to their Continental Airline Partner and ask for an aircraft or at least call or email and notify the passengers that the flight was cancelled. They had 14 hours notice and no one was contacted. This is unbelievable and Virgin is clearly incompetent and as a consequence place their clients businesses at risk.

In may 2007 virgin had advertised for special fares to Jamaica and as I always travel with virgin to Jamaica every year, I decided to book a flight. I made a deposit at Sackville travel in about May and said that I will pay for my ticket which was advertised at 383.00 rtn nearer to the time of my journey. My travel dates were 27 Nov, 07 - Dec 26, 07. In October, when I decided to complete payment for my ticket I was told that virgin had canceled my seat without any warning or reminder of cut off date of payment. I lost my deposit and it cost me an extra 180 to get a ticket for 560 rtn on the same virgin airline. I am disappointed as this is my main airline which I believe has excellent service. In december the 14th, my partner and I will be getting married in jamaica. At present we are looking for group booking of over twenty people traveling to our wedding, we hope they can accommodate us without any difficulties.
It cost me more that I expected to pay and was very inconvienent.

On my return from London to Los Angeles, my Luggage was first for Some Odd and silly reason, not brought to Los Angeles. They first promised for it
Over $400 of shopping, that i needed to do to purchase new clothing, new wiring for my mobile phone and laptop.

My wife and I were booked to fly to South-Africa on 6 January 2008. We were excited and ready for our first experience with Virgin Atlantic. When we got to Heathrow Airport in London, we were told that our flight was delayed till the following day at 10am. This would have meant that we would arrive in Johannesburg at 11pm, which was totally unacceptable as we had a family event to attend 3 hours away from the airport. Another option was to cancel our flight and book another one for the same evening to Cape Town which is 1000 miles away from Johannesburg. Both these options provided were unacceptable. As this airline was originally created to avert situations like these we were thoroughly dissappointed. We proceeded to cancel our return flights with Virgin Atlantic and book with British Airways who offered us a flight to Johannesburg for January 6, arriving only 2 hours later than our original plans. No travel plans and travel dates are made on the whim of a moment and thorough planning is done in advance. Virgin Atlantic did not give any prior notice other than 15 minutes prior to our check-in time that our flight will be delayed. This shows total disrespect for their consumers and we will not support Virgin Atlantic again.
Anxiety and frustration while running around at Heathrow Airport through different terminals searching for an alternative flight. Paying another 1600 to British Airways for the above mentioned alternate flight.

My wife and I were not allowed to board our return flight to the US from Johannesburg on 12-31-08. The Virgin Atlantic manager was vehement about the fact that my wife did not have a valid passport to enter Europe (UK). We stated that we were going back to the US, not the UK. He said that it didn't matter. The UK would send her back to RSA and fine Virgin 2,3 or 5 thousand pounds. First fact is that we were allowed to board in San Francisco and subsequently cleared security in UK. They noted that we were merely moved within the confines of the airport to another terminal and said to my wife that she could not leave the airport. When we purchased the tickets, we understood this fact. (Incidentally, the RSA has taken a lifetime to return her new passport with her new name affixed.) We explained what occurred in the UK on the way down to RSA, but the Manager on duty for Virgin Atlantic said that it just doesn't matter; he cannot let her on the plane They should have never let her board in San Francisco, then! What is going on?
Bottom Line is: We were forced to stay over night in RSA and purchase exhorbitantly high-priced tickets on South African Air for over $5,000.00 + 4450.00 hotel stay! He literally canceled our e-tickets home. We missed work. Inconvenienced our transport home in San Francisco (friends we had no way of contacting). I need to have this straightened out. I've lost $8000.00 out of pocket.

I had bought 2 E-tickets from Virgin Atlantic Airlines The date of return was supposed to be March 22nd, but my mother, age 94, got sick and was unable to travel, and I had to rebook the return flight for her and me on April 03, 07. I called up the Virgin office in Delhi asked what the procedure was to waiver the cancellation fee for illness. The Virgin policy allows a change for upgrade for illness or death of a passenger. They asked me to send a doctors certificate to the Virgin Mumbai office so I sent an explanation letter and a doctors certificate to the Virgin Mumbai office on March 27, 07. I gave the office a day before I spoke to a lady at Customer Service at Virgin Mumbai. She assured me that the fax was received and she would forward it to her superiors for review and would call me if there were any further questions. I never received a call and called back. At times I was put on hold for about an hour and would have to call back to be told that I would get an answer the next day. I kept calling regularly but got little or no response as to the status of the fax.
It was an entirely frustrating experience trying to call Virgin Mumbai and always getting the same answer as no progress was made. I told Nikta that I did not want to wait for the last minute before check in should they need any more documentation to uphold my request. I got zero response till I checked in at Mumbai Virgin and I explained the whole process to them. The reason for the change was illness of my mother who is 94 and since I am accompanying her, I too had to change my date of travel. The experience with the Mumbai Virgin ground staff was even more frustrating as I had to stand there for hours till they could decide the proper course of action. They finally concluded that they would waiver the extra charge for my mother but would charge me the extra fee. I was so fatigued and frustrated by this time I agreed to charge MY PORTION of the extra charge. According to them the Supervisor in charge they would bill me GB50 for the Mumbai London leg and $200.00 for London San Francisco leg. Looking at the receipts, they charged me GB100 for the Mumbai London leg and $400.00 for London San Francisco leg.
I have always used Virgin in Europe and assumed their great customer service would extend to Asia. I was very disappointed and disgusted at the lack of training and response with the ground staff at Reservations and Mumbai airport. I requested wheel chair access and the ground staff at Virgin Mumbai did not do the appropriate paper works so I had to hunt down a Virgin staffer and request a wheel chair. They seemed distracted and confused and again non-responsive. Virgin seriously needs to examine the training their Indian staff receives and improve in the communication and response time and to explain clearly the airline policy. I for one will cease to use Virgin for future travel until I get some reassurance from the Virgin management of improving the Indian division.

I purchased an airline ticket with Virgin Atlantic through Cheap Tickets on November 12, 2006. Virgin Atlantic flight 26 was to depart from New York's JFK to London Heathrow, with a connecting flight from Heathrow to Manchester England on BMI flight 594 on December 13, 2006. The returning flight was on December 29, 2006 on BMI British flight 587 to Heathrow with a connecting flight on Virgin Atlantic 45 to New York's JFK. I did not use the tickets and cancelled the tickets through Cheap Tickets on December 10, 2006. I spoke with Ticket Agent Michelle, ID-MYD and Michelle told me that Cheap Tickets had already sent the funds to Virgin Atlantic so Michelle canceled my scheduled flight and credited me the amount with Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Michelle told me to call by November 12, 2007 to reschedule my flight. I called and spoke with Zachery at Cheap Tickets and Wison at Virgin Atlantic on November 12, 2007. Through our conference call on November 12, I was instructed to fax my preferred travel options along with copies of my tickets to Virgin Atlantic's Ticket Department at 866.417.9519 on the next morning so that my tickets could be changed. I was also told that our conversation would be recorded on my record and would be easy to follow up on. I faxed my travel requests and copies of my tickets to Virgin Atlantic the next day and followed up with a call to the Ticket Department to ensure they had recieved it. I was told they could not find it and so I faxed everything again from a different fax number. I called the Ticket Department again and spoke with an agent who finally found my fax. The agent then told me my ticket was no longer any good since they had no record of any conversations prior to this date and they just found my fax that day on the 14th. I said they should review my record, as per Zachery and Wilson who said my discussions with them on November 12 were duly noted, so that they could easily follow up. I was told they could do nothing and my tickets were no good. As you can see from my telephone records, I did speak with Cheap Tickets and Virgin Atlantic on November 12, 2007 for very long periods of time. Both Zachary and Wilson were very helpful and gave me clear and concise instructions, which I followed through. I feel Virgin Atlantic did not want to try and help me or honor their agreement. Virgin Atlantic has misled me and taken advantage of me at a time when I need to travel to the UK to see my daughter's physician who is treating her for a very serious illness.
The economic damage is $769.09 for the cost of the ticket. I cannot put a price on the strain and stress of being misled by Virgin Atlantic at a time when I am so concerned and distraught because I need to travel to the UK to see my daughter's physician who is treating her for a very serious illness.

I was booked on a flight from Heathrow to Johannesburg June 28 09. I arrived but my luggage did not. After filling out claim form as requested in Johannesburg, I waited 21 days without luggage and filed a claim. My main loss in luggage was a wallet containing a large number of CDs. It seems that they will not cover these items as they claim they are electronics which I cannot understand. Also, since I did not have all original sales receipts, they automatically cut the claim in half.
I have now been waiting 4 months for payment of this claim and despite mails stating it is to be transferred immediately to my bank. This has never happened. Virgin Atlantic is the only airline that I have ever heard of without a physical phone number to register a customer complaint. When you e mail, you get an automated reply that they will be back to you in 21 days, but it does not happen.

Well, my boyfriend flew with virgin atlantic on the 2nd of Sept from Nigeria to London.
Firstly, he is blind and he was told by the VA officials in Nig that he cldn't fly that day becos they have never dealt with such a customer before. he had to arrange for someone to meet him at heathrow airport before he was allowed to board the flight.
secondly, he kept calling for assistance by pressing the buttons but none of the flight attandants ever came.
Thirdly, he was seated God knows where and he had people passing right in front of him all the time. he didn't have a moments privacy.
Lastly and most horribly, he has been down wih diarhorrea since he arrived London. It started immediately he got off the plane and hasn't stopped since.
Virgin Atlantics service on flights to and fro Nigeria is totally disgusting. They treat Nigerian customers as if they are on the flight for free.
Have you ever had continuos diarrhorea for 4 days?
How do you measure the economic damage when you are discriminated against because you are blind?

I flew British air to Heathrow on 08-10-07 and Virgin Atlantic from London to LAX. My luggage were tagged to LAX and one of my bags did not make it and they had a list of bags that did not make the plane , and made me fill out a form and they said it will be on the next flight and will come in 24hrs to the door. I waited 4 days and nothing came. I have called 20 times for the last 2 weeks and the 800 number will not answer, they are closed or if you hold 1 hour India picks up and says our systems are down. This has happened to me 15 times after waiting 1 hour on hold each time.

I flew British air to london/Heathrow on 08-10-07 and Virgin atlantic from London to LAX My luggages were tagged to LAX and one of my bags did not make it and they had a list of bags that did not make the plane , and made me fill out aform and they said it will be on the next flight and will come in 24hrs to the door. I waited 4 days and nothing came so I decided to call them and noone comes to the phone with the 800 number I was given to call.finally after a week of calling everyday I got through after waiting on hold for 55minutes someone in India picks up the phone and they say our systems are down and someone will call you. I have called 20 times for the last 2 weeks and the 800 number will not answer , they are either closed or if you hold 1 hour India picks up and says our systems are done. this has happend to me 15times after waiting 1 hour on hold each time.

I flew British air to london/Heathrow on 08-10-07 and Virgin atlantic from London to LAX My luggages were tagged to LAX and one of my bags did not make it and they had a list of bags that did not make the plane , and made me fill out aform and they said it will be on the next flight and will come in 24hrs to the door. I waited 4 days and nothing came so I decided to call them and noone comes to the phone with the 800 number I was given to call.finally after a week of calling everyday I got through after waiting on hold for 55minutes someone in India picks up the phone and they say our systems are down and someone will call you.
I have called 20 times for the last 2 weeks and the 800 number will noy answer , they are either closed or if you hold 1 hour India picks up and says our systems are done. this has happend to me 15times after waiting 1 hour on hold each time. I have tried to contact a supervisor at the V.A ticket line they say I have to call the 800 number and thy hang up on me and will not help me or let me talk to a supervisor.
I had very important bank and attorney documents in my bag from the death of my father which are not replacable.no one is trying to help me or responds to me .My kids had their xbox and Ipod and gameboys in my luggage along with $2000.00 worth of my clothing. now all my kids electronic thing are lost and I am sure it has been opened and taken out by someone and now they can not locate the bag.
I am told to go online to mylostbag.com which is a useless site .

Flight details London LAX flight # VS023 August 8, 2007. Lost my luggage (2 of them), filed a PROPERTY IRREGULARITY REPORT (PIR). They gave me 800-880-6253 to call but I always get an answer that all lines are busy, call later. I went to the airport and talked to a Service Delivery Manager who promised to do something. It has been more than 2 weeks and I can not find any body to talk to and the airline never contacted me. Lost about $4890 of gifts, clothing, medications.

On feb 15th 2007, my wife and son and my parents were supposed to be travelling on Virgin Atlantic flight from Newark to Delhi with a stop in London. When we got there and went through the boarding process all was well. After about a 2 hr delay the flight took off and there was smoke coming out of one of the wings and the plane was redirected to JFK. When the passengers were asked to get off the plane at JFK they were all confused and no one was helpful to them and told them what to do next.
After a lot of confusion they were told to go back to Newark (at their own expense) and talk to the crew at that airport. When they got there no one seemed to know what to do. They were told that they will be put on another plane in the evening and given hotel rooms for that time. That evening when the passengers went back to the airport they were again sent back to the hotel. After all said and done most of the passengers got to travel almost 48 hrs after scheduled departure.
Meanwhile Virgin Atlantic personnel handed out letters to all the passengers which clearly states that Virgin will provide them with a roundtrip ticket equal to that day's trip or a full refund. I have been trying to get the refund from them for the last 5 months and I have been communicating with them thru email and fax. I have sent in all the information they need and they are not willing to honor the letter.
Last thing I got from them was a form to fill out for lost tickets, after trying to explain to them that that form does not and will not help me in this case they have stopped responding to any of my emails. I am entitled to full refund of 4 tickets and I expect to be compensated for all the trouble my family had to go through because of them and the domestic flights that we lost.

They have promised to credit our credit cards for airline tickets unused, since 1/9/97. On 2/23/07 they chared us part of the penalty fee, stating that they put in for the credit and we wil see it in four ( 4 ) to six ( 6 ) weeks. Here it is May 1, 2007, still now credit. Now, they say it is out of their hands once they request it. WHAT????
They have never put in for any credit. Now, we received an email from them ( after we sent an email stating how angry we are ) that they will begin the credit process now and we have to wait four ( 4 ) to six ( 6 ) weeks. We have heard this on Janury 9th, February 23rd, and now, April 12th.

The nightmare began on May 1 2006 when I made a booking to London from San Francisco. I told the customer service rep that I'd like to ticket it after I got my British visa - interview for which was on May 4. The customer service rep. said he will reserve the booking until 9pm on May 4. I told him I needed to produce itinerary for my visa interview. Customer service rep. gave me the booking reference # and said I could retrieve it online and print.
1st attempt at retrieving booking online - May 1 2006 - 2 hrs after booking. No luck. Called customer service who advised me that I should try some time later.
2nd attempt at retrieving - May 2 2006. No luck. Called customer service. Now I was told the booking cannot be retrieved online as it was not ticketed. Apologized for misinformation. Was asked to email customer service.
3rd attempt - Emailed customer service on May 2 2006. No luck again. Received mail on May 3 2006 morning saying they can only fax and asked for fax #. Replied immediately with fax #.
4th attempt - Called at 12 noon on May 3 2006. Customer rep. promised to fax immediately. No luck
5th attempt - Called at 4pm saying fax was not received after 4 hrs. Was told they will email rightaway. No luck.
6th attempt - Called at 5 pm. Was told cannot be emailed. Apologized for misinformation. Said I could retrieve it online. I said I was just told the previous day that it was not possible. Still upon inistence checked again. No luck.
7th attempt - Finally was transferred to Customer rep. in Florida. She said outright that since the booking was not tiketed I CANNOT get the itinerary inb ANY way. This was 30 minutes before my flight to LA and I had to appear for my visa interview next day. The customer rep. rudely hung up on me as I was speaking.
Felt very insulted and stupid. Wasted hours on the phone over 3 days. Caused extreme irritation, frustration and anger. I was put in a position where I could potentially not be able to get a visa and be in London for an important biz. meeting. Had to take a risk and book a ticket without a visa after that. No redressal of any kind was offerred by Virgin Atlantic despite asking for something.