virgin refunds

[Tonish]

I have booked flights for my elderly parents at Christmas. Their health is always a concern and insurance is almost impossible to obtain. I booked the flights with continental, which has the following policy:

Refund Request for Non-refundable Tickets — Unplanned Event
Continental will refund change fees and tickets in certain cases. All requests must be received before the expiration of your ticket and must be accompanied by proper documentation (see below). Once received, if applicable, a refund will be provided to the original form of payment minus a $50 USD processing fee*. This policy applies to the illness or death of the traveler, traveling companion, or immediate family members.


Mr Branson may well have a smiley face, but he runs one of the more unfriendly Airlines (in my humble opinion - sorry, don't want to offend Virgin fans, of whom there are many, I'm sure).

[bargainqueen]

When we were planning our March 2007 trip I booked our flights in Aug 2006 but I didn't book my sister's ticket until November 2006. Her husband had terminal cancer and when I spoke to the call centre I was told that a ticket was valied for 1 year from the date it was purchased for the outward flight and once at your destination, a further year for the inward flight.

The week prior to flying he was admitted to hospital so she was unable to go. He died a week after we returned.

I booked 2 tickets for November and changed her ticket date. I had to send in an item which confirmed that he was hospitalised on the date she was due to fly out.

She thought she had lost the money as it was an existing condition she wasn't insured. I believe when I first made enquiries she could have had a refund but I wanted the option to give her a holiday and put a smile back on her face. A charge was mentioned but that in exceptional cases it was waved.

I dealt with Virgin direct so maybe my case was different.

[dsv77]

thanks Folks you have certainly gave me a lot of info to pass on to my neighbours. at the moment she is waiting on some sort of reply from Charter travel , but she would be happy with a refund of the taxes, as its always something .

I agree that Virgin seems to be quite unfriendly compared to other airlines, but as someone else has said perhaps she should write to Virgin Direct,
I will keep the post open and let you know what the outcome of this is soon.

Incidentally I have booked to go in Nov, using Virgin for the first time normally we use continental.

[Andrena]

I hope that your friend does get a refund from Virgin. However we have friends who had booked a trip with one of the cheapie airlines to Europe and when one of the group had to drop out through illness they said that an alteration like that as it was a group booking made the whole booking invalid and told them that the rest of the party would all have to re-book with no refund of the original fares paid. It has made me wary of booking with those type of airlines.

Andrena