Anyone any ideas?!?!

Hi guys, wandered if you could give me any advice on this one? I'm booked to go to Antigua on 23rd November, am taking various family members and paid for 5 z class tickets and one d fare out and z back for the 6th person coming, cut a long story short the person on the mixed fare ticket can no longer make the trip..... The question is what can i do about this?? I phoned the premier team tonight and was told there was nothing i could do and that the £2300 i'd spent would be lost... I asked if i could upgrade the ticket to allow a name change and was told no... The thing is in the last 3 years I have personally purchased 28 upper class return tickets for myself and my family, i am not a gold card holder because i travel only for holidays and always pay for my family in upper. I also know that there is a waiting list in upper for both the outward and return flights because it is antiguas sailing week and all flights in upper are chocker block around this time... Any ideas would be great.. many thanks in advance, matt

[preiffer]

Travel insurance?


(Obviously subject to his non-attendance being due to one of the criteria in the policy...)

[Nottingham Nick]

Matt,

You have my deepest sympathy, but I think you will find any airline will be pretty inflexible when it come to changes on the cheaper tickets.

I remember a similar situation over on FT, the concensus then was that, if airlines were seen to allow flexibility on the cheaper tickets, no one would buy the more expensive ones.

I hope I am wrong on this, and there is a way round it. If there is, I am sure someone here, will know what it is.

Claiming on travel insurance is an option, have you explored that?

Nick

can you put your name on the
z and cancel the j?

Hello Matt,

I hope you get a satisfactory solution to your issue.

I think you may have gotten Sailing Week confused with Agents week. Sailing week is when we have the rum soaked beach parties, the yacht races and the Dickenson bay beach bash. Thats in April.

Agents week is where the exibit their boats in order to generate bookings....oh yeah and there are some rum soaked beach parties as well. Im not certain of the dates for Agents week but it is early in the season so Nov may well be it.

I may be wrong but there isnt going to be that much in the way of racing in November....just in case thats what you were looking forward to.

[HighFlyer]

Matt,

I had a similar situation with a Z fare recently. It's not fun to lose the money, but thats why the Z's are a hell of a lot cheaper than the D/J's

If you call Premier, the ticketholder should be able to pay to upgrade it to a J fare, and then change the dates and/or destination. It wont be cheap but would still allow some flexibility and eventual usage of the ticket.

As a plus point, by upgrading to a J you get the Limo's and you can also utilise the companion fare, so essentially they can take a friend with them using FC miles (they could take you if you gave them some cash towards it, in some way reimbursing some of what was spent).

ts not ideal, but its an option.

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Matt,
I had a similar situation with a Z fare recently. It's not fun to lose the money, but thats why the Z's are a hell of a lot cheaper than the D/J's
If you call Premier, the ticketholder should be able to pay to upgrade it to a J fare, and then change the dates and/or destination. It wont be cheap but would still allow some flexibility and eventual usage of the ticket.
As a plus point, by upgrading to a J you get the Limo's and you can also utilise the companion fare, so essentially they can take a friend with them using FC miles (they could take you if you gave them some cash towards it, in some way reimbursing some of what was spent).
ts not ideal, but its an option.

I'd be interested to know if this can be done, as I've tried upgrading one sector of split Z/D to a D/J and been turned down. Was surprised Virgin didn't want the extra money for the same seat ( wasnt cancelling, wanted the car transfer)
David.

Thanks so much for all your imput guys... As ever you all know so much and dont mind sharing your info... reckon i'm just gonna have to lose the money cos even if they let me up it to a full J it's gonna be about 2 more grand, hey ho worse things happen at sea, like you said highflyer thats why the z's are so much cheaper

Just an example of one of the catches of the lower class tickets. As a DL gate agent, you'd be amazed at how many people I see come up to check-in after missing a flight because they overslept or something, or come up the next day thinking "oh I didn't want to go yesterday, so I'll just go today". They just don't understand that lower class tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable (no name changes, no schedule changes).

The biggest problem is people that book these on Expedia or equivelant online bulk ticketing agencies. There are so many restrictions on these tickets, and people DO NOT READ the fine print. Then say it's our problem, often accompanied with "but I have a ticket, why can't you put me on that plane?"

At Delta, we've been trained in the Customer Service aspect of the issue. People tend to like it if you explain them the issue, that technically the ticket can't be used today, but then somehow get them on a flight (although it always results in a fee of somesort).

My advise from the other side of the counter is always, "If you think there is even a remote chance of a cancellation or schedule change, pay the extra and go with a fare class that allows you changes. It'll save you in the longrun."

In your case, I think you're probably out the money, as it's going to cost you just as much to upgrade it.

as has been said, you buy a cheap "no changes" ticket, and you can't change it.

You should be able to reclaim the taxes and security charges - I had to cancel some cheap Flybe tickets recently, and asked for the charges refund. They were happy to do it, but there was a £25 admin fee for each ticket. Guess how much the refund would have been...

I did ask who got that money, as it is supposed to go to the't government, but if you don't fly they don't get it....

No way - If I'd bought 6 tickets, I'd call Premier Service Team, speak with a Supervisor and say, 'to hell with the terms', I've just droppped XXXXXXX pounds and I want a refund on this ticket! Be demanding, yet polite. That's what I'd do at least...

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by bostonbrit
No way - If I'd bought 6 tickets, I'd call Premier Service Team, speak with a Supervisor and say, 'to hell with the terms', I've just droppped XXXXXXX pounds and I want a refund on this ticket! Be demanding, yet polite. That's what I'd do at least...

And, I bet it would get you absolutely nowhere.

Nick

[/quote]

And, I bet it would get you absolutely nowhere.

Nick
[/quote]

I'm not inclined to agree. I have obtained refunds on non-refundable tickets before. Even from BA! At the very least, on a non-refundable ticket, you are entitled to a reimbursement of the taxes/charges - these are only payable if you actually fly; getting even this amount back is better than nothing!

Originally posted by bostonbrit
No way - If I'd bought 6 tickets, I'd call Premier Service Team, speak with a Supervisor and say, 'to hell with the terms', I've just droppped XXXXXXX pounds and I want a refund on this ticket! Be demanding, yet polite. That's what I'd do at least...

I mean no offense by this, but that is the kind of attitude that just says, "I'm more important than anyone else and the rules don't apply to me."

I see it on a daily basis. A woman today, showed up to check-in 10 minutes before a flight I was working today was scheduled to push... With the whole, but I'm here, and the plane is here attitude. Nevermind that it takes 15 minutes to get through security and to the gate (on a good day)... and there was no way the captain would hold the aircraft for just one person. Bottom line is I don't care that you chose to sleep an extra 20 minutes. The other 68 people on the aircraft didn't have a problem getting here on time, why should we delay them so you could sleep longer.

Did you buy a discounted fare? Yes. Did you know about the terms of the fare basis when you purchased it? Yes (weather you read them or not they were presented to you). Thats the end of the story.

I was not asking for any special treatment nor did I raise at any time to the premier team that I expected any favours.... I was simply asking if anyone knew a solution to my problem, there is not one and that is fine.

[preiffer]

Hi Matt,

If it's any help, I don't think anyone was pointing criticism at you .

It's definitely worth asking FC the question - see what they can come up with...

I personally never meant anything negative against you. It's people that basically say, ring them up and give them hell that drives me nuts. You knew the terms, its not VS' fault.

In the US, the majority of airlines allow you to credit unused etkts to future travel within 1 year of the issue date. It may be worth phoning and asking if you can at least apply the tkt as credit to future travel, but I don't think VS operates under that policy... it never hurts to ask though...

Perhaps, as a last resort you could take note if those flights are full. Then at least you would be able to argue that VS is not out of pocket on your seats and there is a logical reason for you to be refunded.

well well well!!!!! About 3 weeks ago i got a call from someone in the premier team with reference to this issue, she asked the reason why one of my party could not make the trip? I informed her of the reason ( her daughter very sadly was due to undergo open heart surgery and she was required to care for her post op) and they told me if i could provide a letter from the consultant stating this then indeed a full refund would be given!! Just had the refund and my friends daughter is doing really well!!! Have mailed vs' customer relations to say that is why I choose them time and time again!!!

[Nottingham Nick]

Nice one Matt [y][y]

Well done VS [8D]

Nick

Fantastic News Mattlovesvs,

Glad that it was all resolved to your satisfaction and just goes to show that sometimes a lost cause is worth a punt. [y]

Phil