The Mock Turtle

Not rude at all!

They haven't paid yet, no. They said 7-10 days but we'll see. The woman on the 'phone was really lovely and apologetic. Unlike the woman at Delta (who I'm still trying to resolve an issue with).

I hope Virgin come through for you. I thought perhaps they might reconsider their position if BA had but what do I know?

Thank you. I thought that was quick! Virgin said it would be 10 days or so before we even get anything in writing, then up to 90 days (I think) after that. At least we are in the system now, because even if we do have to go via travel insurance or Section 75 in the end, we’d still have had to jump through all the hoops with Virgin first anyway.

When I was going down the Section 75 route, all the HSBC wanted was confirmation of the booked flights. I did at first think I'd need something in writing from the airline but they said it wasn't necessary. It might be the same for you if you do have to do S75? Ignore me if you've already been told differently by Virgin, of course!

The thing with Section 75 is that they can dispute it or make things difficult for claimants, so I figure that as long as we can show that we played the game all along, if we do get to the point of making a claim and they dispute it, at least we’ll be able to point to dates and times of conversations we’ve had with them, etc.

Yes, that's a good point. I had been making a note of those things actually so I guess on some level I was thinking the same.

We will (politely) TAKE THEM DOWN (kindly but firmly) with good record-keeping.

From the Guardian, this is helpful on cash refund Vs credit note:

'legally, under the current Package Travel Regulations, customers are entitled to a cash refund. However, Intrepid, like many other tour operators is offering a credit note as an alternative in the hope that customers will want to join a tour when normal travel resumes. Intrepid’s credit notes are valid until end of April 2022, but Helen is worried that future departures may be fully booked due to pent up demand. She is also worried that the 110% does not cover the cost of the original trip which she bought at a 25% discount. Guardian Travel put those two points to Intrepid but had not received an answer at the time of publication.

Helen’s other concern was that the credit note might be worthless if the company goes out of business. This week the Association of Travel Agents (Abta) has confirmed that credit notes will have the same protection as holidays. It says: “If you are not able to postpone, your travel provider may offer you a Refund Credit Note instead of an immediate cash refund. This Refund Credit Note can be used to book another holiday at a later date and, in the meantime, it is protected by Abta/Atol if your original booking had that protection, so you would be reimbursed if the travel company failed financially.”

Does anyone know anything about Virgin Atlantic flights which are meant to happen in August? I can't see any specific reference to them on their website or in articles about flights in the current situation. Are we meant to just presume it's happening until a bit later on? Also, are Virgin giving refunds? I wouldn't mind delaying the flights (presuming we can't or don't wish to travel in August, which I'm very much envisaging will be the case) but all reschedules so far seem to need to be used by April 2021 and that wouldn't be any good for us because of school holiday limitations, and also because I'm not wildly confident VA will still exist next year.

IF VA to go under, would I get a refund (we have insurance which we booked a few hours, or maybe a day or two after the flights) and booked via credit card?

My worst case scenario is Trump opens up the US to international flights so the flight does run, but because we don't feel safe (our first stop is NYC!) and/or the activities we want to do are curtailed we don't want to go, in which case, does anyone have any ideas what our situation would be?

Many questions! I'm aware it might just be too early to know.

I think I’ve written about my experience with Virgin on this thread already, but at the time we had to wait until exactly three days before the flight was due to leave, then phone them. We were lucky that around that time they officially cancelled the flights anyway. We spent a couple of hours on hold to them in a queue, and got confirmation that we would be entitled to a full refund. It was then about 15 working days before we got anything at all in writing to confirm that. We were told it would be at least another 90 days before any refund would actually reach us (i.e. we *might* see something in July?)

However, things have probably changed since then, so don’t count on a refund being available. I also wouldn’t count on insurance definitely covering you in this case, because you didn’t have it before/on the same day you booked the flights. (They might cover you anyway, but when I made a claim a couple of years ago, that was the first thing they established.)

A Section 75 claim on your credit card may be your best course of action if needed. If our refund attempt falls through, we will try that next, before trying a travel insurance claim.

Keep records of all attempts to contact Virgin, including if you get through (think: screenshots from your phone showing the phone number, call duration, etc.) because you may need to demonstrate that you’ve exhausted all options. Also try contacting Virgin on Twitter, they are quite helpful there (if slow to respond).

THREE days before? Fucks sake.

I get the feeling its all going to be quite fraught. The will the flight run/won't it, trying to speak to someone etc. I'll be gutted if the insurance doesn't cover us, up until the hour we booked the flights it was all still quite up in the air in terms of days of departure etc, even when we rang back to book the flights we didn't know if they'd stillbe available/the best option, so of course we didn't book insurance pre-emptively, it seems so unfair that booking it in the immediate aftermath might not suffice.

Although in any case, the closer we get the more I suspect the scnario of 'flight runs but theres no point/don't want to go' might be the one at play, in which case we're fucked aren't we?

Yes, I found/am finding it very stressful myself.

I really hope you get it, and before July.

Same to you. I’m so torn about the whole possible Virgin bailout thing. I don’t think companies who dodge tax *should* be bailed out by the taxpayer (us), but on the other hand, I don’t want the company to cease trading, with everything that involves.

Yeah, same. As per, one way or another the 'ordinary' person will lose out, while the billionaire doesn't.

We've paid a £250 deposit for a £4k holiday in August and the next installment if £750 is (over)due. I cant decide whether to stop paying (and most likely forfeit the £250) or keep paying in the hope we can claim it back later. Presumably, if we fall behind on payments we won't be entitled to a refund, but my fear is that foreign travel will be approved by August and we'll have to decide whether to go or lose all the money.

I think I've heard that is the case Lora, you have to keep up the payments in order to be entitled to a refund. I kind of wish they'd make an official decision fairly soon so that people can make arrangements accordingly and know where they stand. If it were deemed to be safe how do you feel about going? Or is it too early to have clear feelings on that?
We obviously stand to lose a fair bit from the flights but at least we don't have to pay anything further. It's a real PITA having to decide whether to do that or not.

We were due to go to Ibiza on the 18th of May which has obviously been cancelled. We have had one email saying that they would be back in touch to discuss our options, either a refund or rebooking. We will be taking the refund. We had planned to do a city break later in the year but I'm not keen at all to get on a plane, and also a bit concerned about being somewhere and a lock down kicks in. I'm thinking we will probably just hire a cottage somewhere in the UK which is not very exciting but will at least be a break. We are lucky that we're not limited to school holidays but I don't particularly want to go away in November either!

I've just had a refund for my March holiday. They wouldn't discuss options with me until three days before I was due to fly out.

My May caravan break has been cancelled and I've asked for a refund a couple of weeks ago but not got it yet.

We've got flights to Edinburgh, they were for May, which we shunted to September, will it be/feel safe to fly by then? Who knows. The whole reason we were going in the first place is irrelevant now anyway.

We're supposed to be flying to San Francisco for a wedding in 4 weeks. Wedding has now been postponed to early October, but I'm loathe to move my flights to that weekend yet. I think I'm going to see if I can get a refund as I'll probably have to pay any uplift in prices anyway, and there is no guarantee Virgin will still be in business by then, and our annual travel insurance will run out before then as well and I have no idea whether moved trips will be covered if they are outside the initial policy term. Plus we are relying on my parents for childcare, so there is no guarantee that they'll be able to do that and we may not be able to go anyway.