tip - refundable Q class booking - but be quick??

Hi

First time post.

I recently booked online on the virgin website a 2 passenger flight on VS250/251 LHR to Shanghai (PVG), booked online on a saturday early afternoon, got the booking reference, but not the e-ticket, and that was that. I understood it was a non refundable ticket, it was booked as economy - lowest Q.

Then the next day my flight companion, due to a mix up, was not able to travel, so I called on sunday morning and explained that although I understood that the ticket was non refundable, no ticket had yet been issued.. (as I had not yet recieved e-mail notification of an e-ticket)

In fact according to Virgin (on the website) the issue of an e-ticket can take up to 96 hours, the staff at virgin when I called were absolutely fine about it and cancelled the whole itinerary and I immediately rebooked (30 seconds later) online for a ticket for myself.

Thought others might like to know. Is this a glitch at the weekend only, or is it a feature of e-ticketing that is always available?

If you book directly with VAA, there is a 24 hr cooling off period for all published fares. MPM and reward seats do not have this facility, but the normal lowest fare, can be cancelled within 24hrs of the making of the original booking.

This does not happen if you book with a travel agency.

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks for that, Juliet. I didn't know that.

You learn something new every day. [8D]:D

Nick

Originally posted by Juliet
If you book directly with VAA, there is a 24 hr cooling off period for all published fares. MPM and reward seats do not have this facility, but the normal lowest fare, can be cancelled within 24hrs of the making of the original booking.

This does not happen if you book with a travel agency.

I made a similar change a copuple of years back through ebookers.com, I was flying on VS7/8 to LAX, but booked the wrong America West connecting flight by mistake (on the same ticket). A quick call to ebookers the next morning and it was changed without problem.

hmm I can understand the need for some flexibility as honest mistakes happen - I never knew there was an actual 24hr policy though..does anyone have any official T&C's for this as it might be useful in the future.

[preiffer]

It's actually quite good of VS to offer it, as travel purchases are not covered under the distance-selling regulations that apply to other products & services. [y]

UA offer a similar policy in the US, but I'm not sure of many other UK ones doing the same [:?]

from the VS website Customer Charter:
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We are committed to providing you with value for your money. We are sure that once you have experienced our renowned and award winning customer service you will come back for more. To make the booking process simpler for you, we will allow you (where applicable) to hold a telephone reservation made directly with us without payment for a minimum of 24 hours. In the instance where either we require you to pay immediately (for example Instant Purchase fares) or you want to pay immediately, we are happy to offer a full refund, without penalty if you choose to cancel within 24 hours.
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It's a shame the same wasn;t true of "The trainline" a couple of years back. I booked a "cheap" First Class rail ticket to Manchester on line, then had the horrible moment of realisation at the exact moment I pressed the submit button that the date was one day wrong.

I immmediately phoned the trainline, but was told that it was a restricted ticket and couldn't be changed so I would need to cancel it, with a hefty "Admin Fee". I did this and rebooked, but haven't used trainline since.

Originally posted by Juliet
from the VS website Customer Charter:
_________________
We are committed to providing you with value for your money. We are sure that once you have experienced our renowned and award winning customer service you will come back for more. To make the booking process simpler for you, we will allow you (where applicable) to hold a telephone reservation made directly with us without payment for a minimum of 24 hours. In the instance where either we require you to pay immediately (for example Instant Purchase fares) or you want to pay immediately, we are happy to offer a full refund, without penalty if you choose to cancel within 24 hours.
________________________

That was exactly what I was looking for thanks![oo]