As a 60th birthday present I was given vouchers for a Virgin balloon flight, ironically called 7 Day Anytime, for myself and two adult sons. That was in 2014. They both work full time in different cities and I also work, making booking a flight at weekends the only viable option. This is virtually impossible as the flight times and dates are only released a month in advance and seem to be fully booked within minutes of reaching the website. We managed to book on four occasions but each time it was cancelled, apparently due to bad weather. Each time Virgin extended the voucher for a further six months.
However, in 2016 I was unable to rebook because one of my sons was travelling before starting a new job, with no confirmed start date. Virgin said it would extend the vouchers into the new year. However, it can’t find a record of this conversation, even though I used the same mobile as I have now.
When I tried to rebook in January it said the vouchers had expired, and it wanted £40 or £50 per person for “administration charges”. When I refused, its complaints department initially agreed to reinstate the vouchers after demanding proof that my son had actually been away.
I contacted Virgin with some possible dates when all three of us were available in late April and May. I was offered two dates in April on a take-it-or-leave -it basis, then it demanded an extra £10 to extend them for a month claiming I had been too slow in taking up the reinstatement offer. Again, I refused.
The whole experience has been a nightmare. The booking process is so restrictive that it is virtually impossible to get three places on a weekend anywhere in the country.
Virgin has been remarkably inflexible and shows no understanding of the difficulties of booking a flight.
IW, Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent
Virgin Experience – and Virgin Balloon Flights – feature with some regularity in this column. Commonly, vouchers for these trips are bought as gifts, which rather takes the joy out of it when recipients have problems arranging dates or – typically – getting refunds. Virgin points out hot air ballooning is weather-dependent and it will never take any risk with passengers’ safety.
It adds that its weekend flights are “for obvious reasons our most popular and do get booked up very quickly. However, our customer service team is on hand seven days a week, all year round, to help any passenger struggling to find a date that works for them.
“We also extend all of our vouchers following any cancellation by us to ensure passengers always have at least six months to book again, as often as required, until they do get into the air. We do not charge for rebooking by any passenger with a valid flight voucher. The expiry date of a voucher is a date by which passengers need to have booked, rather than a date by which they need to have flown. So even though we only fly March to October, passengers can still book on to flights during the winter for the start of the following season.”
All this is explained in its terms and conditions – and, crucially, that if your flight is cancelled you must book a new date before a voucher expires. Virgin says it records all calls and takes issue with some aspects of your version of events. However, as a goodwill gesture it is offering a further extension of a month and says it will be happy to assist you with booking an available flight.
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• The photograph and caption on this article were changed on 11 April 2017.
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