I thought I’d tell you that Virgin Atlantic has honoured a free ticket letter that was 17 years old!
We had a problem on a Virgin flight to the US in 1996 – the plane had a fault – and, as a result, Virgin- gave us £200-worth of vouchers and a letter offering a free ticket “at any time”. Over the years, with children arriving, we didn’t take any long-haul flights.
Last year I wanted to accompany my parents to India and saw that Virgin flew to Mumbai. I found the letter and rang Virgin on the off-chance they would still honour it.
Astonishingly they said that, as it was such a long time ago, the best they could do was offer £400 towards a flight. I managed to get a return economy flight for £468 – making the total cost just £68. My parents were on a separate booking and arranged for us to sit together. Pretty brilliant all round. BP, Newbury
That is excellent service indeed. Virgin Experiences, which recently refused to honour a voucher that was more than six months old, should look to its sister airline for guidance on how to treat customers.
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