“Booked with Virgin for our honeymoon, have flown with them many times and they always seemed really good. As it was our honeymoon we wanted the best experience and figured Virgin was the best to go with and paid extra to go with them, how wrong were we! The flight out was awful, obviously not something they could fix, however when it came to landing there employees shouted across us discussing the benefits of what they get with virgin etc etc so loud I could hear them and not the film I was watching. My husband asked for a sick bag as the flight was the bad and he was asked 'are you serious' and given a funny look. My husband also has a peanut allergy he explained on the phone that he couldn't eat peanuts but he could eat around them etc, we were never told he would get special meals, given none of there meals had peanuts in them assuming they couldn't supply peanut meals anyway, it was a shock to be given really bad alternatives. A chillie or a cheese wrap was replaced by an orange, an apple and a fruit bag as if he was a child. He complained and asked for his meal to be changed which they apparently did, however on the flight home we had the same issue, of course we did not accept the special meal and the stewardesses reaction was well it wasn't updated. On the way home the guy next to me spilt his cup of hot tea and the women with the food refused to move out the way as his legs etc were burning. The fleeces that were covered in tea were taken and shoved in the overhead compartment with peoples bags even after being told twice the fleeces were soaking wet with tea, to which the stewardess just shrugged it off. Virgin were the only company that didn't congratulate us, or offer anything. Yet on the trip home the couple next to us on there honeymoon got free champagne, which they shared with us, which was nice and thoughtful! When my husband complained about the many issues he was pretty much called a liar and that what they offer is only valid if you get married abroad, free vip area etc. Just goes to show pay the least amount you can and you wont be disappointed or feel you have over paid! clearly Virgin has lapsed and doesn't care how they treat their customers or provide that amazing once in a lifetime trip! if you complain you get nowhere, so much for the customer is always right, virgin will just say your lying their records do not show this! wont pay their prices ever again!”
“I love Virgin holidays, but hate the booking system. As a long standing Frequent Virgin holidays member I am told I have the benefit of a 10% discount, and a free car upgrade. I can't obtain this on line, only by phone. I tried that and landed in a queue that long I gave up after 5 mins of holding. Tried again, the same. Third time I got through, got the quote. Discussed with husband and decided to look at flying from Manchester rather than Gatwick. 3 attempts to get through on phone gave up. result, I have booked my holiday on line, without the benefits of being a member as I needed to confirm the dates but feel it may well be the last time.”
“Having travelled with VH several times before we were expecting a similar standard of service this year. Bowing to the bombardment of email advising their 'sale' was ending that day we gave in and booked a trip. Within an hour of doing so the price had dropped by over £100 so we contacted them to ask if an adjustment was possible and to express our dismay that the end of the sale simply meant prices would drop further. Within a few days the price had dropped by another £100 so we were feeling somewhat cheated and told them so. The customer services staff were totally unsympathetic, almost challenging me to try and get my money back. We had never experienced such sharp practice before but made it clear we would make sure everyone we knew would hear what a bunch of tricksters they are and that we wouldn't be using them again in the future.
During our trip to the USA we never saw or heard from a single rep from the company and received just a single automatic email to 'welcome' us. The lack of service is probably the worst we have ever experienced. Now of course we have seen so many similar reviews and it is apparent the company is struggling to stay afloat.”
“do not book a virgin holiday if you expect any compasion they just said we can cancel your holiday with 100% retention my partners farther died this afternoon so we are very sad made worse by virgin”
“We were interested in a tour to India, which also had an offer on it. However on requesting a quote, it bore no relation to the 'guide' price. They also said the offer had run out and despite now actually being able to quote a confirmed price due to flights not being available they would not extend the offer. So they expect people to book at least 4 months before they can give you a true price - not many would commit to an unknown like this??
When I requested to talk to a manager the same assistant rang me back and said that ' manager' would only give me the same answer. They should perhaps try working in public service if we do act appropriately and do not give the client the courtesy of their request, it could have serious repercussions. Nil for customer service and they appear to make up the prices as they go along. Very disappointing experience - shame as I was really keen on the tour”
“I had the misfortune to book a holiday to Cuba with Virgin holidays. My luggage was stolen from the secure storage area at the Royal Hicacos in Varadero, where I stored it based on the advise of Virgin holidays representative. Virgin Holidays were very unhelpful & refused to give any compensation or accept responsibility. If you want your luggage stolen use this company!”
“Dreadful advise, we asked for snorkelling they suggested Hau Hin where water is murky. Wouldn't rearrange any details for us once booked told us to sort it ourselves. Emailed a complaint 10days ago with an auto response that promises 72hour response-nothing. Called, cut off twice, command of English awful when I did try again refused to transfer me. Called and pressed for new holiday perfect English rep answered and said they would sort it and call me back yesterday -no call. I actually now want to cancel my holiday they are just a shambles. I am due to fly Wednesday!”
“Had a shocker when trying to use Airmiles. Being pretty bought in to the Virgin brand for a while Virgin Holidays for the first time has made me think it has to be BA from now on. Have 100k+ Virgin Atlantic miles to use, built up through flying and through Amex spending. When booking a week away to Antigua we let holidays know the intention was to upgrade our outbound flights using airmiles (we paid for return upgrade as it was 'such a good deal') however.... they sold us a ticket that was not eligible for reward upgrades and, we found out at the airport, was also not eligible for a change in class of ticket even if we wanted to pay for it. Response has so far been that Virgin Holidays is a separate company from Virgin Atlantic and virgin Holidays buy tickets from VA on their flights. VA saying that as I booked the holiday with VH then they can't do anything...”
“Booked a holiday 4 times using the on-line tool. Cash was taken out of our account 3 times, with no holiday to show for it due to a 'booking error'. The pain involved in trying to get the cash refunded to our account was huge and extremely time consuming. Customer services claimed this was a rare occurrence (which is why we tried again), however this happened to us 3 times in a row, resulting in us having to use a credit card as we had no cash left in our account and were waiting for Virgin Holidays to return the money they had taken out. Customer services were unable to provide us with the same price we had booked online, even though it was still showing as available on the internet as they cannot provide a similar discount...even though this was through a fault on their own website. First two phases of customer complaint was a joke, just providing standardised responses along with a lie that they had tried and were unable to find the same price (even though I could see it on the web). Final stage of complaint service was slightly better, but then very hard to get in touch with once problem arose for the 2nd time. At this moment in time, we have 1 holiday, which we have paid for 3 times..and are now waiting for the rest of the money to be returned to our accounts, which we will have to spend an age getting through to the correct people plus the bank to facilitate the return of our cash. And we also have had to pay the extra credit card fee as there was no money in our account after the previous failed attempts to book. Extremely disappointing for such a supposedly reputable and well known company.”
“I recently booked a holiday and flights to Barbados through Virgin Holidays on line. When my e ticket arrived the booking reference was 7 letters/numbers long, in order to book seats you need a 6 figures. So I called a number i found on your website, I was on hold for around 25 minutes. To my surprise I was told that I would never have got the number I needed and would always have had to call? This is due to virgin holidays and Virgin Atlantic using different booking numbers? Makes little sense to me when I booked on line? If i wanted to spend significant amounts of time on the telephone I would have booked through this method.
Whilst on the call I booked extra legroom seats, costing £120. I received an email and the seats have been booked on the wrong flight. Again I will have to call up and go through the hassle of being on hold and re-booking the seats.
Why I have booked on line I do not know it certainly has n't been without problems. In addition we have spent a lot of money on this holiday and had a choice of airlines, foolishly we thought Virgin would be a good idea as previous flights have been fine, however these were n't booked via virgin holidays.
For your information I spoke to Kay from South Africa when booking my seats.
I would like you try and offer some explanation to the issues I have raised as I feel annoyed about this when a holiday is supposed to be stress free.”
“My husband and I have often booked with Virgin Holidays but were shocked and disgusted that after booking our holiday you added on extra costs for wanting to change flight times and also for transfers from the airport to the hotel. Previously when we booked these incurred no extra charge and were included as part of the package.
We ended up spending an extra £400 that we did not want to spend! Absolutely appalled by this!”
